The Magnificent 37

In case you're wondering what other nations make up the 37-nation coalition of forces in Iraq cited by President Bush in his Oval Office speech, you may need a scorecard.

Moldova is in (12 troops), but Tonga is out. Bosnia & Herzegovina contributed as many as 37 soldiers in theater, but Slovakia and Hungary have pulled out. El Salvador has stayed, but Nicaragua has gone. Australia, yes; New Zealand, not so much. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, you betcha; Denmark and Norway, gone. Mongolia is in, but Ukraine is out. It appears that Kazahkstan's 29 troops, and Armenia's 46, are hanging in there, but Thailand has left the building. For more stats, there's always the Google.

All those troops' lives are, of course, as precious to their families, nations and Gods as are the lives of Americans serving in Iraq sacred to their kin and communities and Creators. So, too, though it may be hard for some to imagine, are Iraqi lives.

But when George W. Bush tries to bolster his case for a permanent US military presence in Iraq by citing the splendid international alliance he's mustered, you have to wonder whether what he really wants us to believe --and what he actually may believe himself -- is that the contributions he's strongarmed from Fiji, Albania et al are just as impressive as the 160,000 troops that his old man wrung from the likes of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France.

Sometimes it's just too hard to suppress the suspicion that all of us are just bit players in a delusional son's deadly Oedipal psychodrama.

Comments

[miketheintrepid]

Be a Patriot and Add to The Coalition of the Willing



According to denverpost.com as of 22 Feb 07 Slovenia had 4 instructors training Iraqi security forces and Netherlands had 15 soldiers.

Here"s your chance to add to the "Coalition of the Willing". To the best of my knowledge the rule book does not state a country must be land based. Pick a latitude and longitude over water that no country claims; somewhere on the high seas. Get a bunch of your buddies together and select a name for your country. Waterland comes to mind, but if you can"t think of a name just use an ex girlfriend"s name like Jennifer. Draw up a constitution but don"t spend a lot of time on it. As has recently been demonstrated by our federal government thinking things through would just add to confusion and failure. No, it"s best just to surge full steam ahead. A simple statement like "In search of all Jennifers everywhere" will do.

So now you have a country with a name, location, constitution, and a nomadic population traveling abroad. Your next step is to define a mission. Some contractors in Iraq make big bucks serving food. To boost moral I prefer the mission to be "Training all Jennifers in Iraq girl"s volleyball."

Next, approach the bush administration with a full color brochure and a contract with a bunch of math on it. Ask for a plus cost no-bid contract. The administration is very good at giving those out with congress" approval.

I almost forgot, your country will need an off-shore banking account with favorable tax codes and it will need to be located on land. If you don"t know of one just ask your nearest multi-millionaire CEO or CFO. I"m sure he knows of a few.

If enough people did this we could pump up the coalition of the willing to maybe 100,000 or 200,000 countries instead of this paltry 23 countries we have now.

[miketheintrepid]

(continued)

This is a win, win situation. You and your buddies would be supporting the war effort and in return have your own country with low taxes and good paying jobs. Besides; neoconservatives, the bush administration, and republicans everywhere would be delighted with the political cover going into the "08 elections. They may even gloat a little and say, "I told you so."

http://test.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_5278579

[BillCarson]

The real "Coalition of the Willing"...

* Halliburton
* Bechtel
* Exxon/Mobil
* Blackwater
* The Carlyle Group
* Lockheed Martin
* Chevron
* The House of Saud

[SharedHumanity]

Hey Marty, leave the Moldovans alone. There are over 3 million people in the Republic of Moldova and they are a beacon for freedom and a trusted ally.

And they are very tolerant of their ethnic minorities such as the 150,000 Gagauzians whose primary cultural feature is a deep fascination and admiration for automatic weapons (Gaga over Uzis).

[pimothy]

For a pretty accurate source on this go into wikipedia.org and enter Multinational Force Iraq. It's very interesting.

[naschkatze]

Ah, yes! Ruritania, our loyal allies, will help the US in Iraq. LOL post, Marty. Moldova (12), LOL.

[Moostor]

What U.S. allies other than Great Britain and possibly France have the ability to field an overseas army?

[elrud]

Bush is not just delusional. He's a total psycho.

Years of coke and booze fried his brains.

He convinced himself, with some help from religious nuts that "He" was chosen to wage war against "Babylon" (Iraq/Iran area), a good vs. evil Armageddon. "God" guides him in this "Special Mission" to end the world as we know it.

Of course, oil and war profiteers saw everything as an opportunity to feed their insatiable greed and prodded him on.

[brutus948]

don't take Moldova's 12 troops lightly. Those guys are bad asses. Each of can handle at least 100 insurgents :-)

[duster]

Early comments about Baaa and her baby Bush were close but not on the mark. "W" suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder. She was and still is a drinker. He has the physiological characteristics (facial features) associated with the disease, doesn't read, makes the same mistakes over and over, .... The R neocons working for Reagan discovered that you don't have to have a body that's all there to "work the government" that's why they are (were) all around and insulating this one from objective reality.

[poopdeck]

How about calling it "The Alliance of the Quitting"?

[OCPatriot]

There is no coalition. There is only the U.S.A. and a token group of other countries. The British, after Blair, finally got smart and have been withdrawing. Bush lied, and soldiers and civilians died.

[accountability]

"Sometimes it's just too hard to suppress the suspicion that all of us are just bit players in a delusional son's deadly Oedipal psychodrama."

Thanks Marty.
I try and I try to look at all the facets of WTF are they doing, but the sure and certain knowledge that this person is mentally ill is what I consistently come too. He is a manipulative, narcissistic, delusional, madman and I just cannot understand how he is still in office.

He truly is insane.
I keep seeing Congress as the abused spouse in a sick co-dependent relationship. She keeps threatening to leave, but she never does. He has no consequences for his abusive, violent and humiliating behavior (and he never has had) and so he continues. She so wants to make it work so she keeps enduring, afraid of the consequences if she leaves, what about the kids?

this is the sickest I have ever seen this country.
EVER. And I ain't no spring chicken baby.

[MunkEBidnis]

No! No! And No! If it were only so that he were an insane, delusional, madman. I think of the lawyer that told a group of his friends, "If any of you ever get into trouble, I'll be there to defend you to your last dollar." We are being defended to our last dollar in a plan whose consequences should not have been a surprise to anyone.

[FrankWillsGhost]

You know what is REALLY getting me fired up?!!!

The media is all reporting that "Bush has called for a reduction in troops."

For example, read the 2nd paragraph in today's NYTimes on Bush's speech. Only after you get more than 1/2 way into the article do they mention, "a reduction of 20,000 troops next July." TV News stations are reporting this phrase WITHOUT even mentioning this significant clause.

Thus, it makes it sound like Bush has made the "decision" to begin pulling troops out and most idiot Americans will assume this means tomorrow. They won't understand that this means NOT FOR ANOTHER YEAR!!!!

Media manipulation and tacit support is why this idiot is still in office and the remaining 30% who support mad king George don't bother or can't read beyond the headline.

I just wanna scream!!!!

[FrankWillsGhost]

I checked online and found that:

There are 10,008 non-US troops (coalition forces) currently in Iraq.

The following countries had deployed troops, but have withdrawn:

Slovakia, Spain, Japan, Italy, Ukrain, Netherlands, Thailand, Honduras, Hungary, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Portugal, Nicaragua, Phillipines, Tonga (all 43 of them), Iceland.

The remaining include 5,500 British (45K at the invasion), Kazahkstan, Moldovia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Bulgaria, Estonia, Albania, Mongolia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, South Korea, El Salvador, Romania, Georgia, Australia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Herzegovinia, and Poland (2,500 and now down to 900). 21 left in total, a far cry from 37.

What a joke. Pathetic.
BTW, How can anybody continue to support Bush? I guess they're just too damn (1) Embarrassed they supported what turned out to be the worst president of all time (2) Completely delusional and psychotic (3) a member of Maliki's government.

[landofthefree]

Iceland has just announced that they are withdrawing their "force" - the ONE soldier who is in Iraq.

You read that correctly. Iceland has had one soldier in Iraq, and even that person is being withdrawn. http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/14/iceland-to-pull-lone-soldier-out-of-iraq/

TP has been talking with the Pentagon to get confirmation on what countries are there - they're saying 34, only 33 after Iceland does its massive withdrawal.

How many of the non-US soldiers are going to be withdrawn in the next six months? I'm guessing that there will be far less. We know the British are withdrawing a lot of their forces (though redeploying up to 350 near the Iranian border).

Our soldiers are gradually taking over more of the burden, and they're sitting ducks.

[Bocababs]

Marty, if I had to write my own book about the extraordinary events this past week leading up to the President's speech last night I would title it:

"BETWEEN I-RAQ AND A HARD PLACE"