Which countries are planning withdrawls from Iraq?

[Dark]

I know Spain and Poland, but there are others, yes?

[Eureka]

1. Plus Honduras, Dominican Republic...

Apparently Poland is the biggy because they co-ordinate all the smaller forces, so if Poland goes a lot of others will follow.

[KurtNilsen]

7. I think there have been mixed reports coming out of Poland lately.

[Eureka]

11. Yeah, thats the vibe I get too

They are probably getting a lot of pressure to stay because of the umbrella operations for the smaller lots.

Is Fiji still there? Last I heard they were getting bilked on their pay so they might have gone home already.

From my perspective, the Aus Opposition has been getting a lot of grief because they want out by Xmas. The crazy thing is, they are getting bagged out for it but never respond with "Well, if our plan is so bad, whats the governments plan" becuase our fearless piece of shit, sorry, Prime Minister, has no plan other than to keep slurpin on old Georgie*

[KurtNilsen]

12. For the record: I am a supporter of John Kerry's Iraq policy and

hate seeing the coalition break up. I would instead like to see the coalition extended under true International auspices.

That said, the situation in Australia surprised me. Latham IMHO tried to surf the Zappatero wave, but the Australian public would have none of it.

I think Latham came off as an opportunist, and that might been what turned off many voters not his policy proposal per se.

[Eureka]

13. I would appear we have similar positions then

I think it should be done under international auspices, and that the coalition should stay together... BUT... I think the governments currently involved should let people know what the plan is. What is success? How is it measured? What if we can't achieve that?

If they don't know the answers to these questions they should tell people that too. Thousands of people dying is no reason to hide their incompetance.

Also for the record, I think Latham came off as an opportunist mainly because he is. I think he would make a better PM if he was more experienced, because he sometimes gets stumped under pressure and that makes him look more of the opportunist unfortunately.

It's sortof funny saying that though, after all the essence of the statement is that it's bad for politicians to have policies that they know strike a chord with the electorate, but isn't that the whole point?

[KurtNilsen]

15. Arggg. I had just written a lengthy answer, then my computer crashed.

I agree that most governments, Norway included, have done a terrible job communicationg the importance of the Iraq mission.

And no wonder, because the signals coming out the Bush administration have been terribly mixed.

- WMD
- Bring democracy to Iraq
- Payback for 911
- etc. etc.

I am with Friedman who views the Iraqi mission as a generational struggle to transform the middle east. It's kind of wide-eyed liberal optimism that IMHO liberals used to embody and to dream about.

I think it is odd (and sad) to see some liberals jump into the Pat Buchanan camp.

As for politicians being opportunist.. No, it is not popular because we would like to trust them. An opportunist cannot be trusted. We would like that a politcian agrees with our views, but not to change them willy nilly based on the latest fad.

Or so I believe anyways :-)

[KurtNilsen]

2. I am just reading the Norwegian morning papers, and our

force will be gone by the end of June.

The soldiers are dismayed by the decision, but we have cowardly politicians. :-(

[DrWeird]

3. The cowardly thing to do would be stay in Iraq.

Because the US told you to.

[KurtNilsen]

5. Our politicians want to prioritise Afghanistan and Sudan instead.

It was only a small group of army engineers who helped with irrigation, not a fighting force.

They lately spent as much as 50 percent of the time defending themselves as they did performing the primary mission.

[Dark]

4. Be glad

that your troops will be out of that hell in a few weeks.

[KurtNilsen]

6. I don't think patrolling the Afghan-Pakistani border is much less of a

hell.

[Snow]

8. Korea has been doing the polite Asian "no" of evasion - I think

they said they would commit 3,000 troops, not sure if any are combat, but I think all they have in there at the moment are 600. I'd be surprised if any more actually arrive. Especially after the outcome of the election. Noh is a much stronger position now vis-a-vis the pro-american old farts.

[KurtNilsen]

9. Thailand has said they will leave if attacked.

Sounds a bit like an invitation to me.

[KurtNilsen]

10. The Phillipines is considering to withdraw

[SharonAnn]

14. Premature Evacuation? - That's what Jon Stewart called it

tonight on The Daily Show.

[DemosthenesOfTheWest]

16. Which countires are planning on staying.

That should be an easier question to answer.

[SoCalDem]

17. There are lots of news articles here

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