Troops From Spain? "no Mas!"

Despite its history of terrorist attacks, the Spanish Government has once again said it has no plans to increase its troop commitment to NATO in Afghanistan, ignoring an informal request from General Petraeus, presumably acting on behalf of the Obama Administration:

“We don't plan for the moment to increase our military presence in Afghanistan,” [Foreign Minister Miguel Angel] Moratinos told journalists at a breakfast meeting.

The top Spanish diplomat said his country had not yet received a formal request for more troops from Washington, and left open the possibility that it would study such a request when it came.

But he left little doubt that his country is hesitant about an increased military commitment.

“For the time being, our position is to say what our own analysis is,” Moratinos said. “And that is that the answer is not to increase our military presence. The military presence has been increasing every year, and the situation has only gotten worse.”

Few countries have suffered more from terrorism in recent decades than Spain. Quite apart from the “3/11” tragedy” in 2004, when nearly 200 people died and nearly 2,000 were injured in attacks in Madrid just before the country’s elections, Spain has long faced domestic terrorism from the ETA group.

Someone should remind Moratinos that the philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, for one, who supported the Republican cause in the 1930s, would have pegged that as a logical fallacy.

When President Zapatero’s government was elected in 2004, he famously said that he would have “correct” relations with the United States but “magnificent” relations with France and Germany. (In Spain and Italy, the prime minister is formally the “President of the Government.” It can be translated either way, which is why the cheap shots at President Bush for referring to former Spanish President Aznar as “President” were unfair and uninformed. A country may have both a President and a King, as Spain does, or a President of the Government and a President of the Republic, as Italy does.) We may be about to find out that he meant what he said: correct relations with “the United States,” and not merely with President Bush.

Spain contributes only about 1.5% of the total NATO presence in Afghanistan. And Moratinos’ statement isn’t exactly new news; the government said something similar in November.

On the other hand, there’s some wiggle room in Moratinos’ words, and a call from President Obama – who has apparently not spoken with Zapatero since the Inauguration – might not hurt.