http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040524-090649-6510r<snip>In the United States, Aznar complained frequently that Spaniards had been frightened into voting for the Socialists by the Islamic terrorist bomb attacks of March 11, three days before the elections. Voters feared that his government's hard line against terrorism would provoke more attacks, he argued. So they had chosen the softer option.
In reality, as leading pollsters such as Julian Santamaria have pointed out, the private polls of both parties had shown the PP rapidly losing ground before the terrorist attack because of growing opposition to Aznar's support for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. In his campaign Zapatero had promised to bring home the Spanish troops in southern Iraq.
Zapatero's first action was to make good on his promise, enraging the Bush administration who saw it as a betrayal. The unilateral pullout began while Aznar was in Washington, and the VIP treatment that he received was seen in Madrid as a public sign of the administration's deep displeasure -- a snub to Zapatero.
The prime minister's spokesman shrugged off the visit. As a private citizen Aznar was within his rights in travelling to the United States, he said. But Spaniards were angry. One scathing cartoon in a Madrid paper showed Aznar on all fours with a dog collar round his neck, offering the lead to Bush.
The image reflected rising anti-American feeling in Spain, and at the same time pinpointed the perception that Aznar had been too compliant to the Bush administration. If British Prime Minister Tony Blair's critics called him Bush's poodle, by the same token Aznar was Bush's mongrel of indefinable breed.
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