SPAIN'S SHAME:

Spanish troops return home with regrets (Charles M. Sennott, May 10, 2004, Boston Globe)

"It didn't 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. [...]

While all of the soldiers interviewed said they were relieved to be home and out of the harrowing dangers of serving in Iraq, most of them - even some originally opposed to the war - also expressed regret over Zapatero's decision. They said they were forced to abandon what they felt was a useful humanitarian mission. During their time on the ground, they said, they saw a profound need for international troops to stabilize the chaos and violence of postwar Iraq.

"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 flashing a broad smile that political cartoonists love to lampoon. The soldiers said they couldn't 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, 'Who is this parade for anyway?'" 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 Aznar's 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.

"America's reason for going to war was cynical," he said. "But when you are there on the ground, you see the poverty and people living in mud houses next to Saddam's palaces," he said, and "the work we were doing seems justified. It had valor." Most Spaniards disagree that the war has "valor." Jesus Nuñez, director of the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action, which is in Madrid, said: "This was a military mission camouflaged as a humanitarian mission. Sure, they were working in the schools, and in infrastructure projects, but let us understand that was just a tag-on." He added: "The former government had an interest in making it look like the troops were there to give humanitarian aid, because they knew nobody welcomed the idea of Spain being in a war."

If you're in need of aid do you care why it's being given?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2004 7:22 AM