Melancholy duty II
A couple of days ago Atrios asked why Spain was at the Azores summit.
Opposition Leader Simon Crean answered in his speech to the house of representatives on Tuesday:

Three countries met to commit the coalition of the willing, and that committed Australia inextricably to the war the Prime Minister announced today. Let us just contemplate for a moment that meeting in the Azores. The circumstances were that three countries met: the United States, the UK and Spain. The meeting was chaired by Portugal, but those countries were the three sponsors of a resolution that has subsequently been withdrawn from the United Nations. One of those countries, Spain, was prepared to commit our troops to war but not commit its own. They are the circumstances, the tragic circumstances, in which we as a nation find ourselves and in which this government has placed us.

In other news the TV channels again have inaccurate news grabs crawling across the screen again and the morning news is all about the need to support our troops. I am still working out what I think about that phrase. My first impulse is to see it as propagandistic and nothing more.