The ouster of Spain's ruling central-right Popular Party in the general elections has dealt a blow to the United States as President George W. Bush loses one of his most steadfast allies in the Iraq war.  

In a major swing from the pro-American foreign policy of the out-going Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has criticized the US-led Iraq war and the "disastrous" occupation of the oil-rich country and pledged to bring home the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq when their duty ends in July, unless a United Nations-led multinational force takes over.

Zapatero has also accused President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of "organizing a war with lies" and urged them "to do some reflection and self-criticism."

The pullout of Spanish troops will leave a significant hole in the US-led coalition in Iraq as Spain currently provides the sixth largest foreign contingent in the strife-stricken country.

The 1,300-strong Spanish troops, as part of a Polish-led international division in southern and central Iraq, have been stationed in the southern provinces of Najaf and Qadissiyah.

The prospect of Spanish pullout from Iraq will surely galvanize anti-war movements in other countries, especially in the European countries which have dispatched troops to Iraq, as a majority of Europeans have been against the Iraq war.

In Spain, for example, polls have shown that as many as 90 percent of the people are against the Iraq war and the Aznar government's vehement support for the United States.

As a result, the coalition built up by the United States for the Iraq war is set to be weakened, though not unraveled, by Spain's shift of position.

Moreover, if the countries that have dispatched troops to Iraq suffer major casualties in the country, or are confronted with terrorist bombing attacks similar with those in Spain, anti-war movements will surely turn up the heat on their governments and force them to change course.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged Tuesday that the decision by Spain's new leader to withdraw troops from Iraq was a setback for the United States.

"Obviously one would prefer that more countries would come in rather than a country leave," he said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

President Bush has also tried to put on a brave face by calling on allies to stick with the United States and do not pull out troops from Iraq.

"It is essential that we remain side-by-side with the Iraqi people as they begin the process of self-government," Bush told a press conference Tuesday after his meeting with visiting Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

In another development, White House spokesman Scott McClellan Tuesday urged Spain not to send a "wrong" message even if it lets terrorists influence its elections or foreign policy.

"We must send a message of unity, of strength and of resolve in the war on terrorism," McClellan said.

Although the Spanish announcement has triggered no rush for other countries to follow suit, as the first anniversary of the Iraq war approaches, the Bush Administration is still and will always be under increasing domestic and international pressure for failing to find Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the main justification for Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2004)