From the Sandbox

Fred Schoeneman directs us to a nearly-missed story on the homecoming for the Spanish veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Don't miss it.

"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.

"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 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.

In an upset victory that brought the war on terror and the war in Iraq into sharp focus, the Socialist Party leader Zapatero was swept into power, defeating the conservative party of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who had supported the US-led invasion and sent troops as part of "the coalition of the willing."

Spaniards widely applauded Zapatero after he made good on his campaign pledge to pull out Spanish troops before June 30, when the US-led coalition is to cede power to Iraqis.

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 Jose Francisco Casteneda, 29, who was among four sergeants who gathered at a local restaurant Thursday -- sharing newly developed snapshots of their time in Iraq. Each image rekindled all of the intensity and emotion of what they saw during their mission.

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The TV 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 Defense Minister Jose Bono.

"A lot of us were wondering, 'Who is this parade for anyway?' " Collado asked.

As I said, read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, Eric, "an Army lawyer with the 1st Infantry Division's, 2nd (DAGGER) Brigade in Iraq", doesn't have a lot of time to update his blog. But he did this week:

Morale is keeping steady here. We don’t get to see the news that much but we’re aware of the uproar that’s happening back in the states. Between the scandal at Abu Ghraib and the recent beheading it seems like the only news coming out of Iraq is one bombshell after another. I know it’s been said so many times before but there is very little attention being paid to the day to day work that’s going on over here. That’s okay and I don’t think many soldiers mind, but I think we have a different perspective than most people living in the States.

I'm sure you'll want to read it all. (Thursday May 13 post if permalink fails.)

Finally, some thoughts from Cool Blue.