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An unwelcome visitor

VP Dick Cheney is presently visiting Australia - with all the hype and inconvenience that is going to cause the people of Sydney. You know, all air-space above the city blocked off at the time of his flying into Sydney, a 30 vehicle cavalcade from the airport and green-light access wherever he travels in the city.

Do Australians want him here? Most, probably not. It is questionable whether the Government does either, even if Cheney is a "mate" of John Howard.

John Nichols, writing in The Nation, mocks Cheney's trip to Japan to thank them for their support in Iraq. In fact, Nichols analyses the number of countries who have supported the US as part of the Coalition of the Willing - now dubbed by one US TV network, post the UK's decision to partially withdraw from Iraq, the "Coalition of the Leaving".

As Nicols writes:

"Aside from Great Britain, which is dramatically downsizing its presence, only Australia -- where Prime Minister John Howard appears to be channeling Cheney -- and South Korea now have more than 1,000 troops stationed in Iraq. And South Korea, which will extract 1,100 of its troops this spring, may not be around for much longer; the country's parliament has called for total withdrawal by December 31.

According to the www.globalsecurity.org website, which tracks military involvement in Iraq, Kazakhstan, with 29 troops, remains committed to the mission, as does Macedonia, with 33 troops; Estonia, with 34 troops; Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 37 troops and another ten countries, with between 1OO and 865 troops each.

Here's a sobering fact to ponder: Add together all the troops from all the foreign countries that are still in Iraq as committed members of the "coalition of the willing" and you will get a figure that is substantially lower than the 21,5OO U.S." troops that are now surging into the country on President Bush's orders."

Comments

Anonymous said…
Do you think John Howard will back up his rhetoric on Iraq with any new sets of testicles, anytime soon?

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