Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Coalition of the "willing" not so willing anymore
As the White House downplayed suggestions that its coalition was beginning to fray, Bush lobbied the Dutch prime minister on the issue but won no commitment that 1,300 troops from the Netherlands would remain in Iraq beyond June. At the same time, Honduran officials said Tuesday that they would pull their 370 troops out of Iraq during the summer, and diplomats speculated that El Salvador and Guatemala might follow suit.
Spain's newly elected Socialist leaders promised this week to withdraw the country's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 unless they were serving under a new United Nations mandate. Incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called the Iraq war "an error" based on "lies," and his condemnations of U.S. and British war efforts have helped stimulate antiwar public sentiments in other countries.
A new poll showed that two-thirds of Italians favor the withdrawal of their country's 3,000 troops ? although Italy's leaders promised to stand pat ? and opposition Dutch political parties called for military withdrawals.
Although small in number compared with the 110,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the other nations' forces are important for giving the war effort an international face; a total of 35 other countries now contribute soldiers. Besides the British, with 8,220 troops, the other coalition members have contributed about 15,000 troops.
Story
posted by chris at 3:32 PM
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