When President Obama meets today with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, it will be the first White House visit by a leader of Spain in more than five years.

That's one war and two elections ago.

The war is Iraq. Zapatero's predecessor, the more conservative Jose Maria Aznar, publicly backed President George W. Bush in the run-up to the initial Iraq invasion in 2003.

The Iraq war proved unpopular with the Spanish public. Zapatero pledged to pull the country's troops out of Iraq when he challenged Aznar in the Spanish elections of 2004.

Zapatero won. Spain pulled out. A big chill developed between the government in Madrid and the Bush government.


Then came a significant second election, that of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency. Zapatero's first invitation to the White House arrived earlier this year. (That's the Spanish PM with the Obama at last month's G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.)

A little side note: Zapatero and Obama were both born on Aug. 4, the Spaniard in 1960 and the American in 1961.



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