The news that Spain's 1,400 troops will soon be withdrawn from Iraq comes as no surprise. 

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero made the announcement on Sunday, the day after he was sworn into office.

According to Spanish Defence Minister Jose Bono, the withdrawal will be completed in less than six weeks, about a month earlier than the scheduled June 30 deadline for the US-led coalition to hand over political power to the Iraqis.

Zapatero is making good on a longstanding campaign promise to bring home the troops unless the United Nations took charge of military and political operations in Iraq by June 30.

When consultations with UN and world leaders made it clear the deadline would not be met, the prime minister decided on the pull-out.

Zapatero ousted a strongly pro-US administration in the general elections held three days after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that claimed 191 lives and injured more than 2,000. It was Spain's worst terrorist attack in 30 years and one of the bloodiest ever in post-war Western Europe.

A video purportedly from the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaida said the attacks were a response to Spanish actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Zapatero's decision to bring home the troops has been viewed as being influenced by the attack.

Though Spaniards represent less than 1 percent of the coalition's ground forces, Zapatero's decision has raised fears in the United States that other coalition members might follow suit.

US President George W. Bush lamented the decision on Monday and warned Madrid against taking further actions that could give "false comfort to terrorists."

It seems that those who sided with Bush and denounced the withdrawal as a surrender to terrorists made a big mistake by casting the invasion of Iraq as part of a worldwide struggle against terrorism.

History cannot be undone, but this does not mean events of the past become naturally justified with the passage of time.

The US still owes the world an explanation for its failure to find the weapons of mass destruction used to justify its invasion of a sovereign state.

The war on terror, which continues to be supported by the global community, has been conveniently hijacked by the Bush administration to bring about a regime change in Iraq.

More than a year has passed since the invasion of Iraq, but instead of eradicating terrorism, Bush has taken to branding Iraq the focal point of the terrorist threat.

Iraq is in the deadliest chaos since Baghdad fell last spring and the future of the war-shattered country remains uncertain.

It is impossible to say if the coalition's superior firepower can bring an end to the escalating resistance. The bloody insurgency may well linger on for years because, as US media quoted those captured by the US forces as saying, the insurgents are now fighting for an end to the occupation.

The increasingly deteriorating situation reinforces the perception that the coalition forces are leading the post-war occupation into a new quagmire.

The escalating violence and increasing casualties have further strained the dwindling credibility of the transition plan for Iraq.

The deeper the US and its allies penetrate Iraq, especially with tanks and bombs, the more legitimacy is required for their actions.

It is impossible to build a better Iraq unless the United Nations has the loudest say in the postwar reconstruction to give the effort international legitimacy.

From the very beginning of its unauthorized war against Iraq, the United States insisted it was sending an army of "liberation" and not an occupying force.

It's now time for the Americans to show their sincerity by making a better effort to end the occupation and recall all the coalition troops.

(China Daily April 21, 2004)