Colin Powell, on morning TV (USA) a few days ago, when asked about his views on what effect the bombings would have on the future of Spain's involvement, said that he would hope that Spain would continue their involvement in Iraq. The '... as part of a UN mandated force' at the end was stated so matter of factly, that one would have assumed this to have been the case all along.

It seems that the Bush administration saw the writing on the wall before the polls even opened in Spain.

I think the hasty jump to the ETA conclusion, showed the Spanish people that Aznar was willing to blame those which would have been more politically expedient to have been declared guilty; even to go so far as to suggest that Al Queada and ETA were somehow in cahoots, as the new evidence started turning up.

I made the observation in another thread that it seemed like a golden opportunity to slam ETA on the eve of the vote, and that if such were the case, then, one could have quite rightly accused the Spanish Government of blatant opportunism.

Good on them, I say.