Biden says Spain relationship goes beyond Kosovo

Reuters ^ | March 28, 2009

[Tailgunner Joe]

VINA DEL MAR, Chile (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday his country's relationship with Spain went beyond disagreement over a Spanish decision to pull troops out of Kosovo.

Biden and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero held bilateral talks during a pre-G20 warm-up meeting of center-left leaders in the Chilean coastal resort of Vina del Mar on Saturday.

"The relationship we have with Spain exceeds whatever disagreement we may have over Kosovo," Biden said at the end of the summit. "We talked about the need for expanding communications." ....

Spain confirmed on Sunday it would withdraw most of its 600 troops from Kosovo by the end of the summer. The United States had said it was surprised and "deeply disappointed" by the move.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia last year. Spain is among five of the 27 European Union member countries that have not recognized Kosovo as independent.

Spain's ties with the United States have been strained since 2004, when Zapatero withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq. Zapatero's Socialist government had hoped relations would improve with President Barack Obama's Democratic administration.

[Redbob]

WE should have pulled out of Kosovo long ago; we had no damn business being there in the first place.

[MGMSwordsman]

So now I get it. Apparently, Biden’s job in this administration is to go out and administer BJ’s and reach-arounds to both friend and foe alike so that the rest of the world will “like” us.

Even if it means destroying our country's defenses and flooding our country with illegal alien trash.

[FormerLib]

Careful there, Tailgunner Joe is a HUGE supporter of the Jihadists in Kosovo.

[TigersEye]

Captain Oblivious strikes again. Did Slow Joe cite olive and sardine imports as our binding ties to Spain?

[Kolokotronis]

“Did Slow Joe cite olive and sardine imports as our binding ties to Spain?”

In all candor, TE, olive and sardine imports lead me to much warmer feelings for Spain than that they got dragged into the Kosovo situation to provide cover for us and the Germans revisiting their grandfathers’ failed Balkan dreams.

And enjoying Calamares y Chanquetas with a nice bottle of vino tinto on the beach at, say, Almunecar, there Spain provides some of the great joys of life, well worth being tied to!

[nhwingut]

What’s the website number of cokeheads.com?

[eleni121]

Kosovo represents the EU’s tendency to behave like the former Soviet Union-—creating and recreating phony states out of whole cloth in order to justify terror and the kleptocracy of corruption.

Vaclav Klaus has got it exactly right. We can only hope that his and others’ rising euroskeptism takes hold and removes the blight of kosovo from the map of Europe.

[TigersEye]

I was afraid that someone might take umbrage at my rhetoric on behalf of Spain. My apologies. I even considered a disclaimer for my post.

It wasn't even necessary to paint such an alluring picture to extract that apology either. Although I have never been there I have my own reasons to feel affection for Spain.

Again, my sincere apologies to Spain and all her friends. I was merely trying to level as much grape shot as possible at Slow Joe. We will all be lucky if this stinking administration doesn't do as much or more harm to all the wrong people as Slick Willie's did.

[Kolokotronis]

NO offense taken, TE. Your post merely brought some wonderful memories to the fore! :)

[TigersEye]

I understand completely. I knew I was taking a risk with that broadside. I had to do some searching to find out what "chanquetas" are. Apparently it isn't a widely known term even in Europe as the first lead I found was a language forum where that very question was asked. Not one person, all Spanish speaking Europeans, got it right. But I found a webpage for a small Mediterranean Spanish town called Peniscola which cleared it up.

Their 'food glossary' translated it as 'whitebait' (a rather unappetizing term) and a search on "whitebait" returned everything one would ever want to know about 'chanquetas.' The town of Peniscola (pr: pay-nee-sco-la), as described there, brings to mind just what you remember fondly. A most romantic and relaxing atmosphere to be sure.

[Kolokotronis]

Here’s a link to my old stomping grounds; first place I ever ate chanquetas or cherimoyas. It has become quite “sophisticated” over the years.

http://www.almunecar.com/

[TigersEye]

That's beautiful! Too bad it has become more "sophisticated" but that cuts both ways and seems an inevitable evolution for every nice place.

You tempted me into expanding my vocabulary once again. Not hard to do if it's food related. Now I know what cherimoyas are and where you can get them for $42 per 4 lb. box. I don't know if CA grown are the equal of Spanish cherimoyas but I would never know.