Friday, March 21, 2003

Coalition blues. Given the Bush administration's unilateralist bent, it did well to find 33 countries openly willing to support the US invasion. But as the Wall Street Journal notes this morning, it's not much of a coalition: Britain is contributing major military support, Spain and Australia a bit, and that's about the extent of it. One coalition member, Iceland, doesn't even have a military. (No link; subscribers only.)

Christopher Cooper and Mark Maremont report:

With the missiles flying and fighting under way, officers at Central Command in Qatar are careful to refer to every military operation as a coalition undertaking. But in truth, most of the missiles rocking Baghdad, tanks rumbling across the border or soldiers girding for battle are almost certain to be American.

Of course, this is one of those facts that means whatever you want. If you're antiwar, it's evidence that what the US is doing is deeply wrong. If you're with the White House, then this can be cited as support for the notion that only the US is willing to do the dirty work of keeping the country -- and the world -- safe.

What's sure is that this is nothing like the Gulf War coalition of 1991.

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