|
Spanish troops return home with regrets
by Charles SennettBoston Globe (link is to IHT publication). Hat tip: Brothers Judd. EFL. Last week, Spanish soldiers hastily withdrawn from service in Iraq by the newly elected government of Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez ("El Conejo") Zapatero returned to the sprawling military base here and a welcome home ceremony. A sign at the base entrance read, "Todo por la patria," or "All for the Country." It should have read: ¡Osama, hicimos lo que usted nos preguntó! But many of the soldiers said they were having a hard time mustering much pride about their homecoming, and they were anything but triumphant in their return to a country where the vast majority opposed the Iraq war. They certainly donât see themselves as conquerors, and they arenât returning with riches. "It didnât really feel like that much of a homecoming for us. It felt more like a political celebration for Zapatero and those who never wanted us there in the first place," said Manuel Garcia, 31, a sergeant in a brigade that was among the entire Spanish contingent of 1,300 troops ordered home. "We felt like a used car being passed from one owner to the next," said Felipe Collado, 30, also a sergeant in the Plus Ultra II brigade, which arrived home Wednesday to a ceremony attended by Zapatero, his defense minister, and the top brass. The soldiers returned to a nation still traumatized, and in many ways transformed, by the horrific March 11 train bombings by Islamic terrorists and the bitterly divisive national election held just three days after the attack. . . "We should have stayed and finished our mission," said José Francisco Casteneda, 29, who was among four sergeants who had gathered at a local restaurant Thursday - sharing newly developed snapshots of their time in Iraq. The soldiers grumbled about what they viewed as the staged homecoming. They said that on the day they arrived, they were not given a rest but put through a training exercise for the ceremony the following morning. They said that many fellow soldiers, who had come back in the earlier wave of troop charters back home, were on vacations with their families when they were ordered back to base for the ceremony. The television footage of the ceremony shows Zapatero resplendent in a white chicken-feather coat with a yellow streak down the back flashing a broad smile that political cartoonists love to lampoon. The soldiers said they couldnât hide their disappointment that the prime minister did not directly address them and left it to the defense minister, José Bono. "A lot of us were wondering, âWho is this parade for anyway?â" Collado asked. Cesar Royo, 29, a communications specialist for the brigade who had just returned to his bride, said he was among more than 90 percent of Spaniards who surveys suggest were against the invasion and Aznarâs decision to send troops to support the effort. But Royo also said he came away from his experience with a sense that the Spanish troops had something important to contribute, and he felt their mission was cut short in a way that smells of retreat and feels less than noble. Thatâs because it was less than noble. Spain, at least under the present government, does not deserve her soldiers. As Admiral Cervera said as the first shots were fired at Santiago in 1898, ¡España Pobre! ("Poor Spain!"). Posted by: Mike 2004-05-10 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=32647 |