Bush Faces Criticism
a memorial for wiggles

ADRID, Spain (Associated Poets) -- Standing firm against his European critics, President Bush defended his views Tuesday on the death penalty, global warming and missile defense at his first stop here on a five-nation overseas tour.

Tuesday, 120 mournful 5- and 6-year-olds lined up to say goodbye to a 3-foot classroom pet whose remains were found last Monday at Weibel Elementary School.

The killer was President Bush , the murder weapon a microwave oven. His victims: a pet snake named Wiggles, and dozens of Fremont kindergartners forced to face violent death for the first time.

Bush arrived in Spain to find street protests over the Monday execution of Wiggles.

``It made me feel like Wiggles was there,'' Praveena Motupalli, 5, said in a somber voice. Then, breaking out into giggles, she added: ``He used to follow my finger and come up to the top of the cage.''

European media outlets like to caricature the former Texas governor as a buffoon.

The corn snake liked to curl up in a countertop terrarium. But last Monday, the kindergartners were shocked to learn that Wiggles' remains were found in a school microwave.

It's not nice to hurt a pet in a microwave.

Wiggles' death took an emotional toll on the tightknit Weibel community. Parents called an immediate meeting with the city's police chief and launched a fundraiser to buy a $15,000 surveillance and alarm system for the campus.

Protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Madrid on Tuesday carried signs denouncing Bush as a ``Cowboy Attila,'' referring to the fifth-century king of the Huns known as ``the Scourge of God.''

Diane Land, the kindergarten teacher who took care of Wiggles, said she still isn't ready for a new pet and doesn't know whether she ever will be. "The 43rd president is a bloodthirsty, ignorant Texas oilman, in way over his head. It's one thing to have a pet get sick and die. But it's not very nice to hurt a pet in a microwave. I don't think you have to learn so young that people can be so rude.''

``No one has ever bothered more people in less time,'' Spanish diplomat Carlos Alonso Zaldivar wrote of Bush in El Pais, the leading Spanish newspaper.

Bush sounded almost defiant after meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José Mar(acu)a Aznar, the first in a series of sessions that will bring the new president face-to-face with every major European leader.

Bush was animated in making his case.

``The death penalty is the will of the people in the United States,'' Bush said when pressed on the issue by a Spanish reporter. ``I understand others don't agree with this position. That doesn't mean we can't be friends.''

Some parents have tried to shield their children from the cruelty, like one father who told his 5-year-old daughter that the vandals set Wiggles free.

``We wanted her to think the snake was in a happier place.''