How Petty is George Bush?
Spain was not included in U.S. President George W. Bush’s invitation to the governments of the world’s leading economies and the larger emerging countries from the developing South -- a decision seen by Spain as a veto against the socialist government of José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero.
Although no one in the White House admits or has even implied it, the Zapatero administration as well as the rightwing opposition and the vast majority of Spain’s citizens are convinced that this is Bush’s way of retaliating against Zapatero’s decision to withdraw the country’s troops from the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, as soon as the socialist prime minister took office in 2004.
They reject the official argument that Spain was not invited because of its economic and industrial problems, as today Spain is the world’s eighth largest economy, the third leading exporter -- after the U.S. and France -- and home to two of the world’s top 16 banks.
Banco Santander now owns Sovereign Bank, the 19th largest bank in the US. Banco Santander has operations in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. Telefonica has the third largest customer base in fixed lines and mobile telephones in the world. Repsol is an oil and gas company with operations in 29 countries. In exports, Spain is third in the world after the US and France.
Those are facts. While it is my opinion that George Bush is a petty, vindictive man and arguably the worst president in our nation's history, he does precious little to give us any reason to believe otherwise. Thank God he also has precious little time in office.
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