http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer16mar16,1,3590981.column
Before reflexive Europe-bashers rush to toss Spain into their bulging "coward" bin, they should remember that the Spanish, like our German and French critics, did not come to this position because they lacked a will to fight terrorism. In fact, they speak from much raw and painful experience as colonial powers. As Rodriguez Zapatero put it, "Wars such as those which have occurred in Iraq only allow hatred, violence and terror to proliferate."
That is the most serious charge that can be leveled at the Bush foreign policy, which has weakened our security as well as that of the rest of the world. Instead of facing up to the threat posed by Islamic extremists and their sponsors and apologists in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. sent 200,000 young Americans to overthrow an already defanged dictator in Iraq -- a secular nationalist who was himself high on Osama bin Laden's hit list -- leaving the United States bogged down in a state of near-total disarray and chaos.
What Bush has never grasped is that when it comes to fighting terrorists, the United States' democratic allies are in an excellent position to be mentors. They have a much better understanding of the Muslim world, for example, and have better intelligence assets there. Yet the hawks in the administration continue to belittle democracies when they dare to disagree with us while embracing military dictators who pretend to do our bidding.
To give just one egregious example of the lack of logic, clarity of goals or consistent methodology in Bush's version of the war on terror: Before 9/11, the United States had wisely imposed sanctions on Pakistan for being an active proliferator of nuclear weapons technology. Yet, after the attacks, Bush lifted those sanctions to buy Pakistan's nominal support for coming wars. In recent weeks, however, we have learned that Pakistan's role in nuclear proliferation was our nation's worst nightmare: It was selling kits for making uranium-based bombs to such rogue nations as North Korea, Iran and Libya.