by TChris

President Bush was spectacularly unsuccessful in his efforts to recruit foreign governments to join the United States in its plan to invade and occupy Iraq. Now one of the few governments that supported Bush has paid the price, as voters in Spain handed an election victory to the country's Socialist party on Sunday.

Spain's incoming leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday he would probably pull Madrid's troops out of the "disastrous" occupation of Iraq, in a major swing from his predecessor's pro-American foreign policy.

Zapatero said his Socialists' surprise win in Sunday's general election -- overshadowed by the Madrid train bombings that killed 200 people -- was the first consequence of the unpopularity among Spaniards of the Iraq war. "The second will be that the Spanish troops will come back," he told a Spanish radio station. "Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism... you can't organize a war with lies."