Salvadorans Ambushed By Memories in Iraq

washington post ^ | March 25, 2006; A01 | N.C. Aizenman

[Flavius]

SAN SALVADOR -- The convoy of Salvadoran troops was rumbling along a highway in southern Iraq when a bomb exploded under the first Humvee, slicing the driver's neck with shrapnel. As a medic scrambled to reach him, insurgents hiding nearby unleashed a torrent of small-arms fire.

It was the soldiers' first taste of combat in Iraq. But for those who had fought in El Salvador's fierce civil war as teenagers two decades earlier, the skirmish near Diwaniyah last September felt uncomfortably familiar.

Once again, they were crouching for cover against the deafening rat-a-tat-tat of AK-47 assault rifles. Once again, they were firing back with weapons and ammunition supplied by the U.S. government.

[Flavius]

can you see how happy the msm "reporter" is : "... after three other Latin American countries pulled out their forces -- "

[johniegrad]

One reason El Salvador has agreed to stay, according to analysts, is that its three most recent elected presidents have been members of the rightist ARENA party, which has close ties with the Bush administration and shares its commitment to a proposed regional free-trade agreement.

I think the agenda of the article is less about the other nations leaving and more about trying to tie El Salvador's willingness to support troops to President Bush and illegal aliens.

The MSM understands, even if few democrats do, that some right wing support can be drawn away from the Republicans by manipulation of the immigration issues.

[domenad]

Pablo, 37, a corporal now on leave in his cinder-block home in a slum near the capital, said he was hoping for his first raise in 10 years. If it doesn't come through, he said, he will have no choice but to try to sneak into the United States. He has four young children and mounting school expenses. Besides, he said with a hopeful smile, "if the border police catch me, then I'll just explain to them that I'm a Salvadoran who served in Iraq. Then maybe they'll let me stay."

I would most certainly welcome you, friend.

[seacapn]

That reminds me of this story from 2004.

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

[Eagles6]

"The Spaniards didn't fight and only after a long delay agreed to send armored vehicles to help evacuate the wounded."

Spain, the new france.