9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
On March 11, 2004, over two hundred people were killed and more than a thousand wounded in terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain. For the Spaniards and much of the European community, March 11 will be known as Europe's September 11. As a reaction to the bombings, which are blamed on Spain's support for an unpopular war in Iraq, Spain's opposition socialist party won the parliamentary elections. Prime Minister-designate Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has already declared that Spain will pull all its troops from Iraq. The United States may have lost an important ally in the war on terror, and the balance of power in Europe is shifting. Is this the end of the New Europe and its cooperation with the United States? Does the popular European reaction to these terrorist attacks indicate a further rift in transatlantic perceptions of the war on terror?
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
It has been one year since the beginning of the Iraq war. Since the opening bombs fell, Saddam Hussein's regime has collapsed, the Iraqi people are free of oppression for the first time in nearly three decades, and an interim law has been signed by the temporary government that will enable a transition to Iraqi sovereignty.
But the war to guarantee the Iraqi people the bright future they deserve is far from over. Security, terrorism, and economic development remain central concerns. What surprises are in store before the June transfer? Which indicators will really gauge progress inside Iraq? Is democracy really ahead? And how will events inside Iraq affect the U.S. elections? What do the American people really think?
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