El Salvador may commit more Iraq troops

Myrtle Beach Online ^ | July 19, 2005 | AP staff

[seacapn]

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Salvadoran President Tony Saca said Tuesday he would be willing to send more humanitarian troops to Iraq despite the ongoing threat of terror attacks against U.S. allies there.

El Salvador is the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq following the withdrawal of Honduran, Nicaraguan and Dominican soldiers who had served under the Ultra-Plus Brigade formerly led by Spain.

Spain withdrew troops after terrorist attacks on March 11, 2004, in Madrid. The attacks killed 191 people on four commuter trains, prompting voters to elect a new prime minister who opposed the war in Iraq.

El Salvador has been sending humanitarian troops to Iraq since August 2003. The fourth contingent is scheduled to return home next month.

"With or without troops" in Iraq, the terrorism danger "for the country and for the world is enormous," Saca said. "We cannot bow down in the face of terrorism, or be afraid."

[seacapn]

Cpl. Samuel Toloza of El Salvador's Cuscatlan Battalion displays his bloodstained knife that he used to fend off Iraqi gunmen in Najaf, Iraq

Source:

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040503-115511-7092r.htm

[Caged in Canuckistan]

Time for El Salvador to be included in NAFTA, if they aren't already.

[seacapn]

What's even more interesting is that Tony Saca, the president, is descended from Palestinian immigrants, and he faces opposition from the former communists in the opposition FMLN party - the rebel group that became a political party after El Salvador's civil war ended in the early 90's.

[lilylangtree]

Why? To help push the US into CAFTA. No way!