Say Anything Blog

The AP gets hysterical:

VIENNA, Austria - Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or reductions, increasing pressure on Washington as calls mount to bring home U.S. troops.

Bulgaria and Ukraine will begin withdrawing their combined 1,250 troops by mid-December. If Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea reduce or recall their personnel, more than half of the non-American forces in Iraq could be gone by next summer.

Japan and South Korea help with reconstruction, but Britain and Australia provide substantial support forces and Italy and Poland train Iraqi troops and police. Their exodus would deal a blow to American efforts to prepare Iraqis to take over the most dangerous peacekeeping tasks and craft an eventual U.S. exit strategy.

Wait a minute. I thought our allies in Iraq were inconsequential. I thought they were a coalition of the "bribed and coerced." I thought we were "going it alone" in Iraq. Now when these forces the media deemed insignificant during the Presidential campaign are leaving they're suddenly mission critical?

Give me a break.

More from the article:

In the months after the March 2003 invasion, the multinational force numbered about 300,000 soldiers from 38 countries %u2014 250,000 from the U.S. and 50,000 from other countries. The coalition has steadily unraveled as the death toll rises and angry publics clamor for troops to leave.

Now the nearly 160,000-member U.S. force in Iraq is supported by just under 24,000 mostly non-combat personnel from 27 countries. Britain has the second-largest contingent with 8,000 in Iraq and 2,000 elsewhere in the Gulf region.

Seems like both America and our allies have drawn down troop levels by significant amounts, 36% for America and 52% for our allies. As far as I know, all of this (with the exception of Spain's departure) was done according to plan. Also, level of troops being withdrawn that prompted the AP to claim that the coalition in Iraq is "unraveling" is 1,250 troops.

That's just 0.67% of the total number of troops deployed. That's hardly an "unraveling."

This from the article is also interesting:

"The vibrations of unease from within the United States clearly have an impact on public opinion elsewhere," said Terence Taylor of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. "Public opinion in many of these countries is heavily divided."

I don't think we're in danger of losing any significant amount of support from our allies in Iraq, but its nice to know that the Democrat efforts (lead by Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha) to convince Americans that we're losing the war is having such a wonderful impact on our image abroad and the morale of our friends.