An article at CNN tells us that the U.S. put together a 30 Nation coalition for war against Iraq. All I can say is, thank God we got the all important Eritrea vote, plus that of two long-time players on the stage of world affairs, both Macedonia and Slovakia.
If you can’t get quality, go for quantity!
I’m sure they counted the Netherlands as well. Our demissionary prime minister announced “political but not military” support to the US/UK initiative. As a result, the coalition formation between his Christian Democrat party and the Labour party is now pretty much on the rocks. So, if Holland is part of the list of 30, it’s a half-assed “we’re with you” from a demissionary PM, who subsequently saw his to-be-formed cabinet go down the drain because of it.
I’d rank that Dutch vote of confidence slightly below Eritrea, in terms of relevance.
Ethiopia is allowing the U.S the use of it’s airspace, if we drop food while flying over.
I didn’t see Canada on the list. What gives? 
Eritrea and Ethiopia are presumably there to curry favour in their long-running border dispute.
Coldy - Holland is on the list.
Honey - I’m sure Canada fell into the usual American blind spot: “whoa, there’s a whole 'nother country north of us?”
I see that, in addition to those already named, world powers like Albania, Latvia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan are willing to cheer us on.
There are roughly 200 nations in the world, the admin could only get 30 of them to say they’re with us in spirit, and most of them fall into the category of “dinky little countries you tend to forget about”. And they’re passing this list around as evidence of the widespread support America has in this war.
One thing that gets me is that they’re calling it the “coalition of the willing.” Most of these countries are willing to do no more than sit on the sidelines and say, “Rah rah, USA.” Britain and Australia are sending troops, but I think that’s about it with respect to actual support.
Somebody needs to hit the Bushies over the head with a clue stick.
The government of Canada is not in on the Iraqi operation. They went with us to Afghanistan (and got hit by friendly fire, and unfairly knocked for not having enough of a military budget to stay long-haul) and now said, no, thanks. They have not, however, removed their personnel attached to US units that could be involved.
AFAIK the US, UK, Australia, Poland and the Czech Republic have troops on the field, Romania and Albania(!!!) have offered to send a batallion and a company, respectively (the CR and Romania specifically anti-bio-chem-warfare units, who would be familiar with the Soviet-derived systems and agents likely to be used by Iraq). Spain, the other Security Council “hawk”, has NOT deployed troops, probably being already extended as far as they ever budgeted for in Balkan peacekeeping and defending small rocks from Morocco. Turkey is listed “in” whether they want or not because, at the very least, they’ll keep the northern border secure. Japan is “in” for postwar support.
But why get out the clue stick? - its so much more effective to whine about how the French are against us and rename Fries while convienently ignoring how Russia, China, Germany have also stated they are against us.
Something about this always brings me back to kindergarten.
Here is the list:
Afghanistan
Albania
Australia
Azerbaijan
Colombia
Czech Republic
Denmark
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Georgia
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Japan *
South Korea
Latvia
Lithuania
Macedonia
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey
United Kingdom
Uzbekistan
(Japan has agreed to participate in post war rebuilding efforts).
Anybody want to assemble the list of nations not on this list?
OK: additional reports – Spain and Denmark will send naval support contingents to Gulf waters. Bulgaria, Slovakia and Ukraine may make NBC units available.
Great Debates. Away it goes.
Japan has no army, correct? So, it makes sense that they are only in for post war support and not the actual invasion.
They do have some sort of a self defense force.
I heard on the radio that some of the nations aren’t willing to be listed as giving support. They are our Secret Supporters.
They really do exist, honest, we just can’t tell you who they are because it’s a secret. Shhh.
It would be useful to make a list of important countries which are not supporting the US:
France,Germany, Russia,China, India, Mexico, Brazil,Canada,Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia etc.
And it’s important to note that in many of the countries listed public opinion is firmly against the war. So it is highly doubtful that they will help pay for the war in any signficant way. And Turkey , though it’s counted, has refused to allow US aircraft to use Turkish airbases to attack Iraq.(it’s only allowed overflight rights). So basically no major Muslim country is public supporting the war in any important way.
So this “coalition” is less than inspiring.
Considering the world has about 192 nations all together (plus or minus 2, depending on how you want to count them), an alliance of 30 is rather embarassing – that still leaves 85% of the world that think the war is a bad idea.
Just as an FYI, I had heard, according to the US State Dept historian, only two times have there been a more larger coalition in history… WWII and Gulf War I in '91. So 30 some countries ain’t bad.
For some reason - the board isn’t allowing me to edit my original post - but I wanted to add that the countries involved in both the WWII coalition and Gulf War I coalition only numbered about 40-65 in both instances, according to State, if I remember correctly.
On the criteria of this “coalition” list even Germany should have been listed as supporting (use of airbases and airspace, thousands of soldiers guarding US bases while their troops are otherwise occupied , crew in Turkey-based NATO AWACS planes, anti-chemical-warfare troops in Kuwait, offer of relief/reconstruction aid if requested by UN). But listing Germany would make the tenuous nature of this “coalition” list too evident.
Besides, I heard Canada has a terrible seal problem they are going to ask UN support for, so they are busy at the moment.
I would guess that probably includes Israel, as well as several of the Arab countries - Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, possibly Bahrain and Saudi (though probably not Saudi, as they have a strong interest in the US not having another oil supply in the region). There’s a chance Iran may be on the list; while they don’t want a US-influenced democracy next door, they may try to make a grab for the Shiite South, or at least wield increased influence there. India might be on the secret list as well, though I’m not sure why they would want to keep it a secret.