U.S.-Led Coalition Withering Fast

U.S.-Led Coalition Withering Fast
Associated Press | October 10, 2007


Britain's decision to bring half of its 5,000 soldiers home from Iraq by spring is the latest blow to the U.S.-led coalition. The alliance is crumbling, and fast: excluding Americans, the multinational force was once 50,000 strong - by mid-2008, it will be down to 7,000.

President Bush, facing opposition to the war from the Democrat-led Congress, also is paring back. He says he is committed to gradually reducing the American force from its current peak of 168,000 Soldiers to just over 130,000 by next summer.

U.S. troops already are stretched thin trying to contain Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslim extremists. But defense experts say the shrunken coalition probably won't make much of a difference because most of the non-U.S. forces have largely stuck to non-combat roles.

"This is a U.S. and Iraqi coalition - nothing more and nothing less," said Anthony H. Cordesman, former director of intelligence assessment at the Pentagon and now an analyst with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

~snip~

Even staunch U.S. partners have given in to growing public and political opposition to get out.

"You have seen this become a globally unpopular war," Cordesman said. "Most of the world sees it as unjust and sees the United States as having effectively lost because it went to war for the wrong reasons."


Rest of article (good read) at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,152197,00.html

I only mention this because DUH-bya always mentioned Iceland as a member of the coalition.