[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]Crumbling axis

Concerning Josef Joffe’s column of March 25: In Spain, the United States has lost another election. Just before those 200 Spaniards were murdered on their trains, the ruling friends of Washington and the opposition Socialists were neck-and-neck. Three days later, the Socialists had won by a landslide amid a campaign to say that the horrible bloodletting was payback for Spain’s help in the U.S. war in Iraq.
This election delivered yet another setback to the world’s only superpower. In previous elections in Germany and in South Korea, the populace rallied to the side of the anti-Bush forces. The message will not go unnoticed worldwide and in the United States. In Spain, the dangerous, unilateral policy of the U.S. administration knocked another important pillar out of the American “axis.” It was a psychological triumph for those who oppose the Bush team, including the democratic opposition in America itself.
But count on more selfish, arrogant and chaos-causing military strikes throughout the world, more hard-line diplomatic moves by Washington and more lie-ridden propaganda. Still, what worked in Madrid ― and that was democracy ― will eventually work even in Washington.

by Evgeny Shtefan