THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS that returning Spanish troops are unhappy with Zapatero:

“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. . .

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. . . .

Torvisco, who suffered shrapnel wounds, said it was difficult for him to discuss his service.

“The great majority do not understand what we were doing there or what we went through,” Torvisco said. “I think it was worth it to bring peace to a country at war, as we had helped to do in Kosovo and Afghanistan. But I also know that I won’t be able to convince a lot of people in this country of that.”

That’s too bad.