Wednesday, March 16, 2005
MULTILATERAL WITHDRAWAL FROM UNILATERAL INVASION
Forces that occupied Iraq unilaterally are now leaving in non-unilateral fashion:
Italy will pull its 3000 troops out of Iraq, the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, announced … Australia, against the tide, said last month it would increase its force in Iraq from about 400 to 850 …
The departure of the 3000 Italian troops, the fourth-largest contingent after the US, Britain and South Korea, follows the decision of Poland, another key European ally of the US, to withdraw several hundred of its 1700 troops in July and the remainder by the start of next year.
Ukraine and the Netherlands have both begun withdrawing their 3000 troops, the Netherlands despite US pressure not to do so. Bulgaria announced on Tuesday - after a Bulgarian soldier was accidentally shot by US forces - that its 450 troops will leave by the end of the year.
Before the war: bad that no countries supported the US. After: bad that all the countries that supported the US no longer support the US.
Besides Australia and Britain, obviously. It still isn’t unilateral.