Cuban President Fidel Castro says 1,000 Latin American troops are "cannon fodder" in Iraq and calls for them to withdraw along with the Spanish unit they are serving in. Castro, a fierce critic of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, applauded Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for his decision to withdraw Spain’s contingent of 1,300 troops by the June 30. In a message published on Tuesday by the ruling Communist Party daily Granma, Castro said "more than 1,000 young men from small and impoverished Latin American countries were sent to Iraq as cannon fodder under the command of the Spanish Legion."
This from the same man who sent thousands of Cuban cannon fodder to Angola during the Cold War ...
"The death of any of those youths is thus the responsibility of the Spanish state," he said. "The Latin American people have the right to expect the immediate return of those young men." Castro welcomed the Socialist victory in Spain and condemned the attacks that killed 201 people, lamenting that the Spanish people had paid the price of involvement in an unjustified war in Iraq. |