U.S. says Iraq coalition is not crumbling

ROFL.

yeah right Georgie-- too bad you didn't use THAT joke at the Correspondents dinner instead, it's a lot funnier than looking for WMD in the Oval office.

:eyes:

The U.S. threatened Manila if they pulled out. Poland is thinking hard about it, and the Dominican Republic is gonna to do it. And in Italy the country will soon be demanding that their troops come home.

Poland is no longer communist, it understands the principle of renegotiation. It should hire Leigh Steinberg. Bush might keep his coalition, but it won't be cheap.

not for 50B.

'Ya know jobycom, the U.S. is gonna have to ask congress for more money to support the war. And this is election year. This isn't go over very well.

Why Leigh Steinberg? Isn't he that NFL agent?

he's the NFL agent.

My point was that Poland is holding out for more money, just as an NFL player holds out of training camp to force the renegotiation of his contract. Poland's original price to Bush isn't enough now.

And don't overestimate the awareness of the American people. When Congress recesses after passing whatever Bush wants, those who voted for the increase will go home and claim that their opponents are anti-American and anti-troop for refusing their needs.

"Do we want to repeat the mistakes of Viet Nam?" they will ask, and they will redefine the problems of Viet Nam as being that the soldiers weren't funded enough, and then every time Kennedy or someone else says "Iraq is another Viet Nam" the voters will have been conditioned to associate "Viet Nam" with "our troops need more money," and "support Bush."

As for the buyoff money for Poland and the rest, it will come in less recognizable forms-- debt forgiveness, lower tarrifs, market controls and concessions, etc. So the people won't see it as money, if they notice at all.

The only thing that will break that conditioning or cause people to see through the scam will be an economic disaster that puts large numbers out of work, or a personality cult that causes people to trust Kerry but not Bush. Then Bush will sound like a liar. But it won't be because Americans hear large numbers involved with the debt. It has to effect them right then for them to understand it.

A lot more dead soldiers could break Bush's hold. Which is, obviously, why the media is no longer reporting dead soldiers.

It isn't that I think the American people are dumb. They are just busy with their lives, and still assume that the media is the one they grew up trusting. They missed the point when it turned into Pravda, thus they won't have the information to not trust Bush.

On edit: My point, if it is still not clear, is that just because countries are talking about withdrawing, don't count on it. There is more than one reason they may threaten to bolt. And Bush has a lot of money to make it worth it for them to stay. Consider it a campaign expense, to stop the bad press.

I think a lot of people might be angry if Congress appropriates another $100 billion for the war. They might start asking their representatives, "Where's MY share of all this money we're spending on Iraq? Where's my new job? Where's my health insurance? Where's MY perks and pork and new projects and no-bid federal contracts?"

I think it's going to make Kerry's previous vote against appropriations easier to understand for a lot of Americans. They might start thinking, "Maybe Kerry had the right idea. This is getting too damn expensive."

I agree that some folks will react the way you outlined above. It's possible that others will react the way I've outlined, too. At the very least, I think that this expensive war is muddying the waters in a lot of ways and hurting Chimpy.

Of course, this is totally ignoring the very real moral costs of the war, which are another thread altogether. I'm just talking about the way that conservatives might react to the thought of spending all this dough in Eye-rak, as they like to call it, and not on their pet projects.

That a spending increase could backfire and make Kerry's vote against appropriations look wise.

I agree that the financial costs are insignificant to the moral costs to our nation, and that is insignificant to what is happening in Iraq. But if money is all America understands, then let's use it.

Neo-Con administration that's rubbing its hands together saying, "good, let them leave. More oil for us."

and refuse to come back unless the UN not the US runs the show. Isn't that what Spain said: they would leave unless it was under the UN? Talk about humiliating for Dubya. The world exercises its power over him by being - guess what - united!

Then it must be crumbling.

they are such a small number of soldiers that it doesn't matter in the actual war...the only way it matters is in the phony facade that
an actual "world coalition" exists and agrees with the wackos in the WH.

The coaliton never existed -the Marshall Islands is part of the coaliton and contributing soldiers???O&^*%& ha ha ha)

The WH denies the coalition is crumbling and the emperor is wearing a beautiful new suitof clothes - not.

so there are always Fijians on active duty somewhere, actually.

and given some kind of leadership role. So, this isn't the kind of PR that is welcomed by the WH.

The Poles control a sector with other forces under them - It might me the Kut area, or I might be talking out of my arse.

LOL and RFLOL the Neo-Clown wet dream is falling apart ...

,...maybe life would look better. But NO,...self-serving, self-centered arrogant f*cks,...they just cannot possibly swallow doing something other than serving themselves.

GRRRRRRR!!!!!

If only they paid the price that they have feakin' laid upon humanity for their greed and arrogance and covetness and selfishness!

I do believe in God. And I do believe in life after death.

I do believe in justice.

I do believe Ronnie and Rummie and Georgie and all those like them,...will be sent straight back down to live the aftermath of what they delivered.

they may have had a nasty dictator but their buildings were standing, no one was bombing their police stations and school buses,they didn't have drive by shootings by their own people, and they more or less had a stable society. Think they hate us for our
freedoms?

My God, can you imagine our streets looking like that? and how we would feel about the prosecutor of such atrocities?

it's hard to see what's actually going on.

We actually had a coalition? I thought they were the guest workers returning.

fools.

that donated a CORVETTE?!

Seriously, I heard that when they were firing up this joke..

Dominican Republic 302 troops
Press Secretary Scott McClellan declares, "The coalition remains strong and the resolve is firm."
McClellan was reacting to word that the Dominican Republic will pull its 300 troops out of Iraq soon
http://www.fox23news.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=80675D34-9510-4361-9255-F17C3EA87F55

Honduras 368 Troops
Civil society groups in Honduras applauded the government's decision to withdraw the country's 370 troops from Iraq, while voices in El Salvador called for a pullout of the Salvadoran forces as well.
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/cevallos.php?articleid=2351

Nicaragua 115 troops pulled out in February and will only to return troops to Iraq under U.N.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N21163072.htm

Norway will leave in June
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/14/iraq/main611906.shtml

Khazakhstan announced they will pull out as well
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=700
El Salvador

374 Salvadorans will stay until July, if there is nothing on the contrary in the next days.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/12585_troops.html

Thailand has also said it would pull its 451 medical and engineering troops out of Iraq if they were attacked.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=qw1082506863401B262&set_id=1

Philippines
Last week, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said mounting violence in Iraq has prompted her government to study whether to withdraw its nearly 100 troops from Iraq.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/04/22/ap/Headlines/d823o3400.txt

Poland's outgoing prime minister suggested that his country, which commands a division of 9,500 European troops in a violent area of central and southern Iraq, might have to reconsider its commitment to stay in Iraq after Spain's decision last weekend to withdraw its soldiers. The multinational force that Poland leads includes 2,400 Polish troops.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-te.coalition22apr22,0,453040.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

Bulgaria demanded military protection for their troops.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=700