Why don't we hear more about Jose Maria Anzar of Spain? He and the Prime Minister of Portugal, who hosted yesterday's summit, are real heroes here. They're not taking as much political flack at home as Blair is, but then again, we don't have any traditional alliance with Spain. From about 1798 to 1898, our main relationship with Spain was taking over bits of their crumbling empire. After WWI, Spain first swung communist, then fascist, and they only came to liberal democracy in the late 70s.

Maybe that's it. Maybe they understand Iraq so well because, like New Europe, they haven't gotten used to a US-defended democracy.