Allies balk at sending troops

[bookman]

Coalition of the Unwilling?


Allies balk at sending troops

By Tom Squitieri and Dave Moniz, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is beginning to bring some of the longest-serving ground troops home from Iraq but is having trouble with its long-term plan to replace American troops with soldiers from other nations.

Having problems with link. On USAToday web site.

link:www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-09-troops-to-return_x.htm

[]didn't seem to help.

[LeftCoast]

1. Try:

Allies balk at sending troops

[HootieMcBoob]

2. re: coalition of the unwilling

This is going to be a big problem. As Bush logic for war/occupation begins to wear more and more thin. It's going to be increasingly difficult to convince countries to commit to helping out.

My original feeling was that they didn't want anyone else helping out because -- to the victor go the spoils. But now as we all predicted things are beginning to get much more complicated and you know what...it sucks for the soldiers that are over there in the shit but...this is what they (bush and the rest) wanted and they are gonna have to deal with it.

I know it's not right to feel this way but I feel vindicated. I am a former Army reservist myself and I am really thankful that I'm not part of this shit right now. Believe me they are gonna have lots of pissed of soldiers and soldiers families to deal with over this.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. How could any body think that

countries with a Government against the war and a populace against the war would send troops to Iraq?

[Eloriel]

4. All you have to do for the link

is copy and paste.

I actually prefer that to the fancy link "hidden" behind text because with the real link I can see the source straightaway, and determine if I want to go to it. Some links I don't want to -- NewsDay, for example, has a very short shelf life and so saved bookmarks go bad real quick. NYT at least keeps an abstract of the article.

[blondeatlast]

5. Our troops are totally demoralized and scared sh*tless, so let's send

theirs?!

Talk about flicking deluded arrogance, get this:

Rumsfeld said the United States welcomes troops from all NATO countries, including France, which opposed the U.S.-led war.

Let's see, France opposed the war because there was no evidence of WMDs. It is nearly 4 months later, the occupation has been over for almost 2 months, and no WMDs found yet. Yet:

Three nations that were counted on for large numbers of troops — India, Pakistan and Portugal — are balking. The Pentagon hoped those three countries would contribute a total of 25,000 to 30,000 troops.