Posted on 01/08/2005 4:17:26 PM PST by jb6
In Short:
While Slovakia has reiterated its commitment to the coalition forces in Iraq, Hungary has announced a full troop withdrawal by the end of the year.
Brief News:
Slovakia has no intention to recall its 100-odd troops from Iraq and will continue to maintain its contribution to the coalition forces there, President Ivan Gasparovic said at NATO headquarters on 25 November. Meanwhile, Hungary announced that its 300-strong military contingent would be fully withdrawn from Iraq by 31 December 2004.
According to Gasparovic, whose country joined NATO in April 2004, Slovakia's military involvement may even increase after the scheduled January elections in Iraq. Slovakia's troops consist mostly of military engineers charged with de-mining operations.
Meanwhile, Hungary is set to join the dozen or so countries among NATO's 26 members which prefer to "bow to public pressure" and stay away from Iraq. Under a recent decision by the parliament in Budapest, Hungary announced on 25 November that it would fully withdraw its forces from Iraq by the end of the year. However, local press reports said that Hungary's defence minister has been authorised to negotiate the contribution of 150 Hungarian soldiers to NATO's newly proposed training mission in Iraq.
Of the original 32 states in the Iraq coalition, 15 have already packed up or plan to withdraw. These include Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, the Philippines, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Moldova, and Bulgaria. Japan aims to limit its military presence to non-combat roles. Still present are Britain, South Korea, Italy and Australia. Germany, along with Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Spain have refused to let their troops stationed at NATO's operations bases participate in the military alliance's new training mission in Iraq.
Also, news that the EU plans on having a united foreign policy while extending its borders immediately to Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Turkey and in the future to Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbajan and possibly central asia.
Now, let us ask ourselves, judging from who runs the strings in the EU and their view of America, just where is their foreign policy going to take them visa vi us?
bump
To be fair, I don't think the US demanded a very long term of support when these countries were first enlisted in early 2003. Poland had GROM commandos in there from the outset. Most nations assumed the mission would be winding down by 2005 anyway. But there's a famous saying about what happens when we assume...
You're confusing Serbia (Yugoslavia) with Slovakia, the eastern half of former Czechoslavakia. The serbs are, however, serving in Afghanistan, regardless of the fact we are still following Bubba's stupid plan in Kosovo.
Oh do tell.
Apart from instructing certain of our officer corps in the intricacies of paying for pizzas with personal checks, we really neither want nor need anything Belgrade is offering.
What we do want is for them to live up to their responsibilities in regards to the ICTY, 'cause until they do, we're going to treat their military like the bunch of incompetent mass murderin' civilian killin' morons they are.
Yeah, and your precious islamics what do they do? Give Bin Ladin honorary citizenship in Bosnia. You are such a shill for the islamics. God, you'd even attack those helping us in afghanistan to push your little islamic agenda along.
You really don't have any decency, do you?
What we do want is for them to live up to their responsibilities in regards to the ICTY, 'cause until they do, we're going to treat their military like the bunch of incompetent mass murderin' civilian killin' morons they are.
Lets talk about the ICTY, like when your precious "Bosniaks" were bringing massive amounts of heavy weaponry, like tanks in country in 1995, 96 and 97 and were prepared to drive over our troops to get at the Islamics. I happened to be on a couple of conviscation raids that almost turned into fire fights with your islamics. The only thing that stopped it was that they didn't want to loose their M60A3s that the Boob in charge had promised them (Clintonats).
Yeah, 1996 was a hell of a year, like when your islamics went to reoccupy a village "peacefully" while bringing along 100mm RPGs, 120mm mortars and enough machineguns and other ordance to start a nice offensive.
That you'd pick on those helping us just shows how islamic your soul is.
Hay, come on over, Hoplite is showing his islamic roots again. He's slamming the serbs for helping us and calling them murderous bastards. Typical.
Now you are paraphrasing that moron Richard Holbrooke (he asctually used the word "a$$holes" without the dollar signs). What does that make you? Can't you be a bit more original?
Duh.
Face it, jb6 - you're just another dumb kid talking big 'cause you think nobody's smarter than you.
The bad news is, there are a lot of people smarter than you, you're not smart enough yourself to realize it, and as a result FreeRepublic gets littered with the trainwrecks that result from your febrile attempts at intellectual discourse on various threads.
And here's something for your empty cluebag - I'm an atheist. I've only ever given my allegiance to one thing in my entire life: my country, America. So I don't have the problem you do when America's interests and those of the Orthodox world collide, as in the case of the Ukraine, or Bosnia, as the case may be.
As to your other assertions, well it's just more ignorant garbage, isn't it. You don't know your fourth point of contact from a hole in the ground, much less what went on in Bosnia.
The Serbian Army is up to their eyeballs in warcrimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and still maintain enough control over the civilian government in Belgrade that they don't have to worry about being held to account.
The only thing they're good at, as I said, is killing civilians. So we've confined their activities to Serbia.
Sucks to be you, sorry. But if you want to be treated like an equal, you better start acting like one and pick up and take out your own trash instead of endlessly whining about how put upon by the rest of the world you are.
Oh I feel so humbled by your vast intellect. We shall now call you the Brain and watch you try to take over the world.
I'm an atheist. I've only ever given my allegiance to one thing in my entire life: my country, America.
In which case you suffer from the same post Christ disease of most of western Europe in your Islamic infatuation. As for your allegiance, I have to wonder, since you attack those who help our soldiers in Afghanistan, while defending those who give succor to our enemies. Doesn't sound to American, well not Red State anyways.
You don't know your fourth point of contact from a hole in the ground, much less what went on in Bosnia.
Yeah, what ever Mr. Holbrook, what ever.
There are no Serb troops in Afghanistan.
I can't even have any fun doing this - you're but a sad shadow of the know nothing Ortho-bigots who've blazed the path you're following.
Been here, done this, and you're pre-owned.
What can you do? Clearly, some folks just love the taste of Muhammedan meat-whistles.
I don't believe you. Say something doubtful or critical of Islam or the moongod it worships. Muslims are allowed to lie and deceive the "infidels", so I put nothing past you.
One does not have to be a theist to support a cause. And from everything you write, your pro-islamic agenda is well known on the FR. Try deceiving people somewhere else.
The only thing they're good at, as I said, is killing civilians
You must be talking about the Islamic insurgents in Iraq, not the Serbs. They are good at kidnapping and killing unarmed civilians, the "old fashioned way." Just as they did in Bosnia. And your Kosovo Albanian friends are not too far behind. Of course, not that you notice.
The only reason the Serbs are whining is because the West has been duped into believing that Muslims can be its friends, and won't let the Serbs chase Al-Qaeda sympathizers out of Bosnia and Kosovo for good.
Whatever - Moses, Jesus, Mohammed - all mortal men who's legacies have been embellished to the point of mythical divinity by their followers, to support their parochial, exclusive ownership of the nonexistent Judeo-Christian-Muslim supreme being, and the collection plates that go along with it.
If you weren't so wrapped up in your little Serbian world, Kosta, you'd see that I'm not pro-Islamic, I'm pro-American.
I'm just not afraid to speak up and support the cracking of Serbian heads when y'all get stupid, like you did during the 1990's, and I haven't allowed myself to be cowed into submission by a bunch of rabid Orthodox ethno-racists, which is why we're having this nice little talk now, and you're reduced to calling me a liar because you're bereft of any hope of prevailing in an honest discussion of whatever it is that's got your panties in a twist.
Tell me Kosta - if America supports setting up stable democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, thus benefitting the Muslims who live there, is that a pro-Islamic policy?
How friggin' difficult is this for you to understand?
Very, almost to the point of impossibility, apparently.
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