http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/29/1059244620873.htmlUS signs up helpers for Iraq operation
By Vernon Loeb in Washington
July 30 2003
The United States has named 30 governments that have agreed to help in Iraq by contributing to military or police operations.
Some of the countries are unable to pay for their own contributions so they are talking to the US about financial assistance, said the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher.
The US is anxious to muster as much international support as possible for its forces in Iraq, who face daily attacks and are costing about $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) a week.
The list of governments willing to contribute includes many of those who supported the US invasion of Iraq in March, and none of the main opponents.
A Pentagon official said that it had agreed to pay more than $US200 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.
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from August 2003 in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11485-2003Aug18?language=printerBush Revises Views On 'Combat' in Iraq
'Major Operations' Over, President Says
By Dana Milbank and Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 19, 2003; Page A15
President Bush, revising his earlier characterization of the fighting in Iraq, said in an interview released yesterday that combat operations are still underway in that country.
In an interview with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service given on Thursday and released by the White House yesterday, Bush interrupted the questioner when asked about his announcement on May 1 of, as the journalist put it, "the end of combat operations."
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In the interview, Bush, asked about the burden on U.S. troops in Iraq, said other nations will be providing troops. "Polish troops are now moving in and will be in, I think, by September 4th of this year, which is in two weeks -- that's a major Polish contingent," he said. "There will be other nations going in to support not only the Polish contingent, but the British contingent."
The Poles have agreed to send 2,400 troops to lead a multinational division including 1,640 troops from Ukraine, 1,300 from Spain and smaller units expected from Hungary, Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mongolia and the Philippines. The Pentagon has agreed to pay much of the cost of the Polish troops.
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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH01Ak02.htmlAug 1, 2003
US bartering arms for soldiers for Iraq
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - Faced with a rising death toll among its soldiers in Iraq, the United States is trying to "buy" foreign troops for a proposed 30,000-strong multinational force in Baghdad.
"When they were seeking UN support for a war on Iraq, they were twisting arms," one Asian diplomat said. "Now they are offering carrots in exchange for our troops."
The inducements - including weapons and increased military aid - have apparently been offered to at least three countries whose troops Washington desperately needs to bolster the fledgling multinational force in Iraq and relieve the pressure on US forces in the war-ravaged country.
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