Spanish election shockwaves hit the "coalition of the willing"

Bush is rushing to shore up the "coalition of the willing" in the wake of Spanish President-elect Rodríguez Zapatero's promise to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by the June 30 deadline for the formal handover of power to a sovereign Iraqi government. (Bush Pleads to Keep U.S.-Led Coalition Together in Iraq Los Angeles Times 03/16/04)

As the White House downplayed suggestions that its coalition was beginning to fray, Bush lobbied the Dutch prime minister on the issue, but won no commitment that 1,300 troops from the Netherlands would remain in Iraq beyond June. At the same time, Honduran officials said Tuesday they would pull their 370 troops out of Iraq during the summer, and diplomats speculated El Salvador and Guatemala could follow suit.

Rummy's Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, apparently continuing his boss' charming method of dealing with our allies in "old Europe" (which Spain has now rejoined) is saying that for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq would send "a terrible message to the terrorists." (EEUU dice que la retirada española de Irak 'enviaría un mensaje terrible a los terroristas' El Mundo 03/17/04; I can only find this quotation in Spanish, even though it is cited to a CNN interview which was presumably in English.)

Rummy himself, ever the delicate diplomat, says he thinks the Spaniards are a bunch of wusses:

You know, when you grow up in a neighborhood, if there’s a bully, people do one of two things:  Some people turn their head, when the bully is beating up on somebody and pretend it isn’t happening and say, “Gee, if I don’t notice it, if I don’t get involved, I’ll be safe.”  And of course, you aren’t safe because, ultimately, the bully finishes with that person and comes after you.  And it seems to me that that history is replete with instances where believing that you can feed the alligator, hoping it eats you last, doesn’t work.