Josh Marshall: 36 Nations

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/053142.php

36 Nations
09.13.07 -- 11:06PM
By Josh Marshall

ThinkProgress caught Chris Matthews' reaction to President Bush's claim that there are 36 nations with troops on the ground today in Iraq. And we're curious too. What the hell is the president talking about? Which countries are these? There are two countries with a real troop presence in Iraq: the US and the UK. And the Brits make up only a tiny fraction of the overall 'coalition' force. Early on there were Spanish, Italians, Poles and a lot of other countries -- not with a lot of troops but with enough to give some token international participation. But pretty much all of those countries have left now.

I know in the past the White House used to inflate these numbers by including token commitments from former US Pacific Islands protectorates. Ten guys from Micronesia. Three mechanics from the Solomon Islands.

In a lot of cases the administration has just opened up the diplomatic cookie jar to bargain for a few soldiers from countries with acute need for American help in order to puff up these numbers.

But again, this is 2007. I doubt the White House just came up with this number out of the blue. I'm sure there's some very strained and feeble argument and data behind. But I'd really like to hear it. Anyone know who these 36 counties are?

Late Update: This is the best the AP could come up with ...

There may well be 36 nations contributing to the cause, but the overwhelming majority of troops come from the United States. For example, Albania has 120 soldiers there and Bulgaria has 150 non-combat troops in Iraq. Bush visited both nations this summer as a thank you.

Okay, that's four. 32 to go.

[SoCalDem]

1. Who they are, and what they do

here they are and their likely contributions



Afghanistan...yaks?
Albania..........assorted rocks & sticks
Angola...........assorted jungle animals
Australia........diggirree doos & boomerangs
Azerbaijan......couscous
Bulgaria........conscripted homeless gypsies
Colombia......need you ask???
Costa Rica...spider monkeys & killer-parrots
Czech Republic...waiting to see what the Slovaks bring
Denmark....Cheese & fruity pastries
Dominican Republic.....beach sand & baseball players
El Salvador.....bananas &coffee
Eritrea...gotta have people to serve the coffee
Estonia....whatever Latvia brings..only more of of it
Ethiopia....framed pictures of Haile Selassie
Georgia...peaches? (oh the OTHER Georgia)
Honduras....passion fruit, mangos & papayas
Hungary...goulash
Iceland....lava chunks
Italy......spaghetti & canneloni
Japan... tons of "made in" stickers & fake beards
Kuwait...valet parking
Latvia....See Lithuania & Estonia
Lithuania...See Latvia & Estonia
Macedonia....Mace?Myrrh? Frankensence?
Marshall Islands...underage female factory workers
Micronesia...leeetle tiny sea shells
Mongolia....spicy mongolian bbq
Netherlands....clack clack clack, go the wooden boots
Nicaragua......coffee & banana leaves
Palau.....ceremonial scary masks
Panama........canal water & yellow fever mosquitos
Philippines......volcano dust
Poland..........pierogies & kielbasa
Portugal.......corked bats for sand ball
Romania......anti-vampire technology
Rwanda.......Misty Gorillas
Singapore.... a few tangy slings
Slovakia.......waiting to see what the Czechs are bringing
Solomon Islands...wisdom?
South Korea.....kim chi
Spain.....flamenco teachers
Tonga...drums & dancers
Turkey....whirling dervishes
Uganda...Framed pictures of Idi Amin
Ukraine...loose nukes
United Kingdom...um..dude, they left
United States..the whole shebang
Uzbekistan...more valet parking

[babylonsister]

3. Gasp! Can't....stop....laughing!

Where did you get that list? Best laugh I'll have all day, and it's so early!

[SoCalDem]

5. My brain did it

:)

[babylonsister]

18. Your brain is in tip-top shape. What a hoot! nt

[NNN0LHI]

20. You got a good brain n/t

[opihimoimoi]

9. SoCal, Ya done it again....LOL....made me laugh

[malaise]

11. LOL

Priceless :rofl:

[chimpymustgo]

22. SoCalDem - you HAVE to post this separately in it's own thread. Classic!

:applause:

[SoCalDem]

24. you talked me into it..

:) I'm easy :)

[Jacobin]

23. Okay. That's a DUzy right there.

:thumbsup:

[BrklynLiberal]

25. Thanks to the DUzys I got to see this incredible post!!!!

WOW!!!!
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[madokie]

2. I'm thinking what he is talking about is the people who are merc's there

blackwater has employees from several countries would be my guess

[KharmaTrain]

7. BINGO!!!!

IRC, American mucky mucks were being protected by Jordanian and Eygptian "security" agents. My bets are those "lucky 36" are ones that have paid mercenaries in the country as part of multi-national companies diving into those pallets of cash that flow into, but never out of Baghdad.

Plus, don't forget all those missionaries who came to reclaim "the Garden of Eden"...

[madokie]

21. Yep that rounds it out huh, mercenaries and missionaries

the garden of eden is my back yard though ;-)

[Junkdrawer]

26. Do they count the al Qaeda mercs too?

:shrug:

[napi21]

4. I don't know what the #'s are now, but I remember seeing a complete breakdown

of who was actually serving in Iraq, and some of the small "countries" had 1, 3 or less than 10 people there! Shrub was just trowing #'s around again, with NO substantion!

[hlthe2b]

6. Maybe he's counting Native American tribes...

LOL


Actually there ARE a lot of Native Americans serving, so I suppose I should not put this past him!

[babylonsister]

8. More likely someone pulled that number ouf of thin air; no one has

substantiated where it came from, at least not yet. What's amazing to me is, did whoever wrote that tripe think no one would check? Perhaps that's how it was handled in the past, but we're in a different ball game now.

[liberal N proud]

10. Tweety's reaction was monumental

Here we have a media whore who suddenly woke from the 6+ year stupor he has been in falling head over heels for the regime.
Tweety was in rare form last night, even before the speech you could tell it was no longer playing his way.

[tnlurker]

14. He seems to be better when he is on with Keith.

I think being with Keith forces him to follow that line. When he is by himself he often falls back to his old self of kissing up to the administration.

[babylonsister]

16. Not lately; he's changed his tune. He's as disgusted as we are, I think. nt

[SoCalDem]

17. It's not HIS show.. He knows that Keith will not let him lie

He can get away with BS on his own show..

[0007]

12. Man, everyone is forgetting about the fighting Fijians. So I guess

junior has added the Fiji Islands as playing a part in the buddy buddy game to bully a little country already on its knees.

[Jane Eyre]

13. Here' a link

The latest numbers listed here are from March 2005, listing 25 coalition members remaining:

http://www.usiraqprocon.org/pop/coalitionmembers.html

One question I have is whether or not Bush is also counting foreign nationals fighting in the American armed forces. There is no question that there are soldiers in our armed forces who were recruited with the promise that they and their families would be rewarded with green cards and/or citizenship due to their service. I noticed that Mexico is not listed at the above list, yet I can't imagine that there are not soldiers fighting in Iraq in the US armed forces who are Mexican citizens. Are these soldiers being counted as representatives of their home countries even though they are fighting in the US armed forces?

[Jeroen]

15. The Netherlands had troops in Iraq. But they left last year. n/t

[Netbeavis]

19. its that fuzzy math again.... n/t

[entanglement]

27. One more: Dumbfuckistan

[warren pease]

28. There's some very informed speculation here:

http://tinyurl.com/2a7fcg


wp