| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| El Salvador can serve lesson for Iraq: Rumsfeld |
| 2004-11-12 |
| Iraq can learn from the recent history of El Salvador, a country wracked by civil war that has developed into a stable democracy and close US ally, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said on Thursday. Rumsfeld, speaking at the US Embassy here, thanked the Salvadorans for supplying troops for US operations in Iraq. El Salvador, with about 370 soldiers in the only other country in the Western Hemisphere that currently has troops there. " We are deeply in your debt," Rumsfeld said during a Veterans Day ceremony honoring Salvadoran soldiers and US. He held up El Salvador as " a nation that understands well the human struggle for liberty and democracy." " The fight is not easy. It never is. It requires patience. And it has costs," Rumsfeld said before laying a wreath on a monument remembering US citizens, including 20 US military personnel, who were killed in the civil war. Salvadoran troops have fought well in Iraq, US military officials say. In one case, soldiers fought off Iraqi insurgents with knives after running out of ammunition. The only Salvadoran to be killed in Iraq died during that battle. At home, though, the Salvadoran government has faced protests for sending troops to the conflict. On Friday, Rumsfeld was set to award the bronze star to six Salvadoran soldiers who, on March 5, defended a convoy during an ambush and are credited with saving the lives of six Coalition Provisional Authority personnel. Their leader, 1st Sgt. Fredy Castro Urbina, was a veteran of the civil war. Speaking with reporters on the flight to El Salvador, Rumsfeld said hundreds of insurgent fighters had been killed in the fight for Fallujah, but offered no prediction on when the city would be secured. He also acknowledged that some insurgents escaped but predicted that Fallujah would be eliminated as a " safe haven for extremists, former regime elements and terrorists." US troops were " well along in that task and they will finish it successfully," he said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 And, of course, the Left fought us every step of the way there, too. No enemy too small, no enemy too large, to back against AmeriKKKa. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-11-12 4:17:48 PM |