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This morning was attacked by liberal Bush bashers over coffee. Their arguement was the United States need a colalition of nations. I laughed and quoted Rummy from yesterday's briefing that 90 countries are in the fight on terrorism and 20 nations have boots on the ground. Spent a good bit of time this morning on the internet searching for the list and failed to find a current list. Can any Freeprs help with this list and where can we find it ?? Thanks

The Spanish government came under pressure Wednesday to withdraw its troops from Iraq as it mourned the first Spanish fatality in the international reconstruction effort to rebuild the war-shattered country. Navy captain Manuel Martin Oar was one of at least 24 people killed in Tuesday's attack against the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which has been condemned around the world. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a staunch US and British ally in the war on Iraq, has pledged a 1,300-strong troop contingent for the reconstruction effort despite growing public concern. Spain already has 744 soldiers there, but the death...

Poland scaled back its military commitment in Iraq yesterday in response to Tuesday's devastating attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. Under a hastily agreed new formula for the occupation, Polish troops will withdraw from a "high-risk area" near Baghdad, leaving the territory to come under the command of US forces, Polish Foreign Ministry officials revealed."We have ceded 1,000 square kilometres that would have come under the control of the Polish command to the US administration," Tadeusz Iwinski, a senior foreign policy adviser to the Polish Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, told The Independent.Poland is due to take formal charge of...

<p>August 15, 2003 -- A NTIWAR or administration critics continue to lament (or rejoice) that only a "handful" of foreign troops are in or on their way to Iraq, thanks to the Bush administration's supposed "unilateralism." Yet there are already rather more foreign troops already in Iraq than most people realize.</p>

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — The Bush administration has abandoned the idea of giving the United Nations more of a role in the occupation of Iraq as sought by France, India and other countries as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping there, administration officials said today. Instead, the officials said, the United States would widen its effort to enlist other countries to assist the occupation forces in Iraq, which are dominated by the 139,000 United States troops there. In addition to American forces in Iraq, there are 21,000 troops representing 18 countries. At present, 11,000 of that number are from...

Polish Troops Look Forward to Iraq Duty By ANDRZEJ STYLINSKI .c The Associated Press SZCZECIN, Poland (AP) - The Polish public is less than supportive about sending their soldiers into Iraq. But as Poland readies for its largest peacekeeping mission ever, soldiers say they are looking forward to showcasing their military prowess while offering Iraqi a helping hand. ``We have some idea about what life will be there - certainly dangerous - but we are trained for that,'' says Pvt. Jacek Herbot, 23. ``It will be difficult for us to understand each other, hard to adjust to Arab customs. I...

Battle of Wills Itsuo Inouye, The Associated Press Japanese lawmakers in the upper house got into a shoving match July 25 over a bill that would send Japanese troops to help with the reconstruction of Iraq. Yuko Mori, a female opposition lawmaker (center), swarms over the crowd in an effort to reach a chairman involved in the bill's passage. The ruling party planned to approve the bill.

<p>SZCZECIN, Poland &#8212; More than 2,000 Polish soldiers left for Iraq yesterday, the first in a series of deployments from a Europe that has proved willing to send troops to Iraq despite anti-U.S. pressure from France and Germany.</p> <p>The soldiers will be part of a 9,200-strong Polish-led multinational division ensuring security in one of postwar Iraq's four zones.</p>

  China:  Japan has an Axe to Grind     Despite a last-ditch protest by all the opposition parties, Japan's Upper House approved a controversial bill on Saturday to send the Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to help rebuild Iraq. Under the new law, which is valid for four years, Japan will dispatch some 1,000 of its SDF soldiers to Iraq in October. Their role will be to provide logistics support to the United States and British forces in humanitarian relief, reconstruction efforts and peacekeeping operations. The new law, for the first time, enables Japan to send its SDF troops overseas to...

Poland, U.S. Agree on Iraq Peacekeepers .c The Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The United States has agreed to provide transportation and other support for 9,000 Polish peacekeepers heading to Iraq, an official said Tuesday. The agreement was signed by Poland's Deputy Defense Minister Janusz Zemke and the U.S. Defense Department's comptroller, Dov Zakheim, last week, said Col. Eugeniusz Mleczak, a Defense Ministry spokesman. Mleczak said the U.S. agreed to provide airlifts for most of the 9,000-person unit to Iraq, additional equipment, camp construction, and medical care and food. The spokesman did not disclose the value of the support....

Costs Expected to Be More Than $200 Million The Pentagon has agreed to pay more than $200 million in airlift and support costs for a multinational peacekeeping division under Polish command that should be deployed to southern Iraq by the end of September, a senior defense official said.Dov S. Zakheim, the Pentagon comptroller, said Friday that a letter of understanding signed last week with the Poles calls for the Defense Department to pay $30 million to $40 million in airlift costs for transporting most of the 9,000-member division to Iraq and about $200 million to cover meals, medical care and...

<p>Next month, the main body of a force commanded by Poles and comprising Spaniards, Ukrainians, Bulgarians and others from 22 countries arrives to keep the peace in a swath of central Iraq. These are America's "new" allies. Iraq will be their proving ground.</p>

Fighting erupted between MPs as the Japanese parliament last night authorised the deployment of troops to Iraq, the country's biggest military mission since the Second World War. Dozens of MPs from the opposition Democrat, Liberal and Communist parties leapt at the chairman of the upper house diplomacy and defence committee as it approved the bill before it was sent to the full house for the final vote. The chairman's supporters rushed to protect him and a fracas ensued, with MPs grappling with each other, shouting and throwing punches. "I cannot accept this decision," said Yuko Mori, a woman Liberal MP...

TOKYO - Japanese lawmakers voted to send Japanese forces to Iraq (news - web sites) to help with reconstruction, despite delaying tactics by the opposition that deteriorated into a wild shoving match. The passage of the bill was a victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who campaigned hard to send peacekeeping troops overseas as he seeks to raise Japan's profile on the world stage. He also aims to distance his administration from the "checkbook diplomacy" for which the world's second-richest nation was criticized during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). Opposition parties criticized the legislation, saying such peacekeeping...

France Says Troops Would Prolong Conflict .c The Associated Press PARIS (AP) - French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on Thursday rejected a renewed U.S. appeal for more international military support for Iraq, saying that sending in French troops would only prolong a tense situation. De Villepin also said the deaths Tuesday of Saddam Hussein's sons, Odai and Qusai, signaled ``the end of an era'' but warned they could spark more resistance from some Iraqis who might try to ``avenge'' the two sons. ``To build on a system that now exists (and) to add foreign forces to the coalition forces...

Troops bear 'Moor Killer' badges Giles Tremlett in Madrid Friday July 25, 2003 The Guardian (UK)A row broke out in Spain yesterday after the country sent its first troops to patrol Iraq wearing on their shoulders the Cross of St James of Compostela - popularly known in Spain as "the Moor Killer". Patches bearing the cross, the symbol of a saint who allegedly guided the medieval Christian re conquista of Spain from the Muslims, are to be worn by a 2,000-strong Spanish brigade in central Iraq, who will patrol the sacred Shia city of Najaf. While newspapers and radio stations...

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has announced in a press conference held in Jeddah by the end of last week that Saudi Arabia will not take part in the peace keeping force in Iraq, unless that will be requested from an "Iraqi legitimate government." Al-Faisal who will arrive in Egypt today to hand over a message from the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to President Hosni Mubarak, denied that Washington made a request to this effect to Riyadh. Al-Faisal said "nothing of that sort had happened, and the Kingdom considers the founding of a governing council as a positive...

The Bush administration has asked Turkey to send troops to Iraq to help stabilize the country, the Turkish prime minister has reported. . Such a request, if confirmed, would come after a period of tension between the two longtime allies. Earlier this month, U.S. soldiers detained 11 Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq on suspicion that they were trying to assassinate a U.S.-backed Iraqi Kurdish official. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday in a speech that the United States had asked the Turks to send soldiers into Iraq as part of a proposed multinational force to help the Americans maintain...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the United States Monday to quickly restore control of Iraq to its people, warning that "democracy can't be imposed from the outside." In the 23-page report to the Security Council, Annan also noted concerns about the U.S. treatment of Iraqi detainees and the failure to improve security in Baghdad. While Annan welcomed the creation of a U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, he wrote that Iraqis had expressed "an overwhelming demand for self-rule." "It is important that Iraqis are able to see a clear timetable leading to the full restoration of sovereignty," Annan wrote. The...