It seems appropriate to inject some hard objective numbers into the sea of collective 100-Day Obasmic moan emanated from the drive-by media. So I’ll kick off my own version of the coverage with a hard look at how much better Obama is at getting the world to cooperate with us and to love us and to just generally wish us warm fuzzy feelings.
Oprha’s “The One” went to Europe with much hoopla and fanfare and asked the Euros to contribute additional troops to the war effort in Afghanistan.
Now lets remember that all the while we were fighting the war in Iraq the liberals here and in Europe were all saying that Afghanistan is the war that we should be fighting and that as soon as Bush is gone, why the world will come as one and la di da
HERE IS HOW MANY ADDITIONAL TROOPS HE GOT : ZERO!
And below we have president George Herbert Walker Bush “going it alone”
Multi-National Force-Iraq Shoulder and Sleeve Insignia
Here is how Blackfive ran down the numbers.
Did you know that there are more than 30 other countries with troops in Iraq? The Associated Press gives the numbers:
Albania — 71 non-combat troops in northern Iraq.
Azerbaijan — 150 troops for law enforcement and protection of religious and historic monuments in Iraq.
Bulgaria — 485 troops patrolling Karbala, south of Baghdad. An additional 289 are to be sent.
Central America and the Caribbean:
Dominican Republic (300 troops), El Salvador (360), Honduras (360) and Nicaragua (120) are assisting a Spanish-led brigade in south-central Iraq.
Czech Republic — 296 troops and three civilians running a field hospital in Basra, and a small detachment of military police.
Denmark — 406 troops, including light infantry, medics and military police. An additional 90 soldiers are being sent.
Georgia — 69 troops, including 34 special forces soldiers, 15 engineers and 20 medics.
Estonia — 55 troops.
Hungary — 300 transportation troops.
Italy — 3,000 troops.
Japan — Delays a decision Thursday on sending troops to Iraq, citing security concerns after a surge in anti-coalition violence.
Kazakhstan — 27 troops.
Latvia — 106 troops.
Lithuania — 90 troops.
Macedonia — 28 troops.
Moldova — Dozens of de-mining specialists and medics.
Netherlands — 1,106 troops, including 650 marines, three Chinook transport helicopters, a logistics team, a field hospital, a commando contingent, military police and a unit of 230 military engineers.
New Zealand — 61 army engineers for reconstruction work in southern Iraq.
Norway — 156 troops, including engineers and mine clearers.
Philippines — 177 troops.
Poland — 2,400 troops, command of one of three military sectors in Iraq.
Portugal — 120 police officers.
Romania — 800 troops, including 405 infantry, 149 de-mining specialists and 100 military police, along with a 56-member special intelligence detachment.
Slovakia — 82 military engineers.
South Korea — 675 non-combat troops with more forces on the way. But Seoul will cap its force at 3,000 rebuffing Washington’s request for additional soldiers.
Spain — 1,300 troops, mostly assigned to police duties in south-central Iraq.
Thailand — 400 troops assigned to humanitarian operations.
Ukraine — 1,640 troops.
United Kingdom — 7,400 troops, with an additional 1,200 planned.
The United States is in discussions with more than a dozen other countries about providing troops.
Update 11-15-03 7:30AM CST: It seems the Associated Press left out two very important countries that have troops in Iraq.
1. Australia — 850 troops in the theater with 250 in Iraq. Thanks to Sean for the information.
2. Mongolia — 171 troops as part of the Polish led Multinational Division south of Baghdad. Thanks to Jeffrey Boulier of Electronic Chickens for the information.
Blackfive commenet: Hey, if you listen to the Democrats tell the story, we are all alone. While we need more help, it isn’t as nearly as unilateral as you would think.