A large majority of Iraqis say their lives are much better now that Saddam is gone, and they expect things to continue to improve: Poll: Year Later, Most Iraqis Happier Without Saddam.

Asked how things were going in their lives these days, seven in 10 said the situation was very good or quite good, and only 15 percent said things were very bad. Looking ahead, 71 percent said they expected conditions in their lives to be much better or somewhat better a year from now.

But none of this matters to Spain’s Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose unseemly rush to appease Islamic terrorists and please far-left “progressives” is absolutely nauseating: Spain’s Zapatero Rejects Bush Appeal on Iraq.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s incoming prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero Wednesday rebuffed an appeal from President Bush to stand by the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, which he described as a “fiasco.”

“I will listen to Mr Bush but my position is very clear and very firm,” Zapatero told Onda Cero radio. “The occupation is a fiasco. There have been almost more deaths after the war than during the war.”

Zapatero, who is due to take office next month after an unexpected election win Sunday, has pledged to withdraw some 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq by July 1 if the United Nations does not take charge there.

Tuesday, Bush called on Spain and other allies in Iraq not to yield to pressure from al Qaeda by pulling their troops from the coalition occupying the turbulent country.

“My position is the same. I have explained it throughout the election campaign,” he said. “The occupying forces have not allowed the United Nations to take control of the situation.”