Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Quotes
Maybe John Kerry does not know - but I am happy to explain it to him - that my commitment to withdraw the troops goes back before the tragic, dramatic terrorist attack.
"Spain's Zapatero offers to explain Iraq pullout to Kerry." Agence France-Presse, 20 Apr. 2004.
3 years later he led America on a huge invasion and nation building project in Iraq. It turned out that had he listened to his own advice and not flip-flopped, the huge cost of the Iraq War might have been avoided.
During the Iraq War, the Congressman partially changed his mind the following year and called for a plan to move American troops to the periphery of the fighting. A highly decorated war hero with two Purple Hearts, he was then called a coward, by some Republican members of Congress and the Bush Administration—almost always by people who had never served in the military and often sought and obtained deferments.
The General’s warning was not taken seriously at the time and the George W. Bush administration made him a persona non grata. But his warning turned out to be very prescient and the United States got so badly bogged down in the Iraq War.
They referred to the George W. Bush Administration. The Powell Doctrine, created by then Secretary of State when he was Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff stated that if American Troops were ever to be used in combat, they should be deployed in massive overwhelming force and have a clear exit strategy. Powell lost the internal argument and was marginalized, but he turned out to be absolutely right.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he would not stand for re-election in the 2011 general election and left office on 21 December 2011.
