The UN bombing in Iraq had impact

[caribmon]

I am not condoning it, by far. But the results are pretty strong. Even in a hundred degrees you can get cold feet.

Four current coalition armies are backing off and even fewer want to join up.

It's all over now, baby Bush.

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Poland To Withdraw Troops

AUG 21 - 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.

According to Professor Iwinski, the central zone was previously considered a "low- risk area" but Tuesday's bombing had forced a review of security concerns.

News of the blast caused anxiety in Warsaw, where senior officials were meeting Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister, to discuss technical and financial assistance for Poland's new international mission.

Serious concerns persist over the country's largest foreign intervention even within the Polish military.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=435687

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Japanese Troops In Iraq Unlikely

TOKYO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Japanese politicians say it's now unlikely Japan's Ground Self Defense Forces will go to Iraq following the explosion at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

The Diet passed legislation last month authorizing sending the forces to Iraq to provide humanitarian aid and to help reconstruct the war-torn country's infrastructure in "non-combat areas."

But the Mainichi Daily News says opposition politicians now say Tuesday's bombing shows there are no areas in Iraq that are free from possible conflicts.

Even Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, who along with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi spearheaded the move to send the GSDF troops to Iraq, now says such an action may be impossible this year.

Fukuda said: "At the moment I cannot say whether the (GSDF) will be sent within this year or the next year. We will only decide on the timing after carefully studying the local situation."

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030820-071406-1584r.htm

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Spain Under Pressure To Withdraw

MADRID (AFP) Aug 20, 2003 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. .

Spain already has 744 soldiers there, but the death of one of their own number has shocked the population and opposition parties demanded a parliamentary debate in the belief that Spanish forces should be brought home.

Socialist Party president Manuel Chaves called for a parliamentary debate "leading to the exit" of Spanish forces.

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030820162011.e0swgu59.html

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Canada is out as well..

Canada Could Not Spare Soldiers for U.N. Force in Iraq: Defence Minister

QUEBEC (CP) - A mission in Afghanistan, peacekeeping and now giant forest fires in the West leave Canada without spare troops for a potential UN force in Iraq, Defence Minister John McCallum said Thursday.

"There is no question of sending out more soldiers," McCallum said. "We're somewhat overextended anyway. We are overstretched at home right now." Canada has launched a 2,000-soldier mission to secure part of Afghanistan. About 2,000 additional troops will replace them in six months. Another 1,200 Canadian troops are already part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Balkans.

In addition, McCallum pointed out that 671 soldiers are fighting fires in British Columbia.

"This is something out of the air, unpredictable," he said. "We may even go up from there."

Canada has sent aid and humanitarian flights to Iraq. Even as Canada reduces commitments to peacekeeping missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Golan Heights, the soldiers couldn't simply be sent on another mission, McCallum said.

more…
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/08/21/165799-cp.html

[newyorican]

1. They have gone from General Quarters to...

abandon ship!

[CatWoman]

2. but.................but.......................but

our fearless leader predicts the opposite:

Bush: More nations will join Iraq force


By MATT KELLEY


Aug. 22, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The arrival of more coalition troops in Iraq will free American military teams to look for Saddam Hussein's loyalists and Islamic extremists, President Bush said Friday.

Bush predicted more countries would join the nearly 30 who have provided more than 22,000 troops in Iraq. Those foreign troops, Bush said, would help “guard the infrastructure.”


“That'll help free up our hunter teams,” Bush told reporters during a visit to Seattle. The president said “al-Qaida-type fighters” had entered Iraq to attack the U.S.-led coalition.

“They want to fight us there because they can't stand the thought of a free society in the Middle East,” Bush said. “They hate freedom. They hate the thought of a democracy emerging. And, therefore, they want to violently prevent that from happening.”

http://salon.com/news/wire/2003/08/22/iraq_force/index.html

[caribmon]

4. outrageous!

The man is clearly insane. Spin is making me sick.

[shockandawed]

5. yeah, more nations will join the coalition of the billing...

like the countries last week from the pacific rim, eastern Europe (I am sorry rummy - new europe) etc. 238 total soldiers from like 6 countries, and they will only be guarding the Kuwaiti border. Other countries are also pulling out of the dangerous regions, preferring to guard areas that are safe.

[Newsjock]

8. Notice the sources

All of the reports on how the Coalition of the Billing has collapsed are from non-American sources, except for the one UPI report -- which very few U.S. media outlets subscribe to anymore.

Conversely, the Bush whore job is reported by the Associated Press, which is the de facto news source of record for newspapers, TV, and tons of U.S. based websites.

It's the one AP report that will get cited everywhere, without any reference to what's being said elsewhere.

Nothing new about that -- but it goes a long way toward explaining why so many Americans think the way they do.

[EAMcClure]

14. Turkey is going to send tens of thousands of troops

To police the northern oil fields. 10 to 30 thousand strong. And they get to kill some Kurds. That is the coalition Bush is speaking of.

Watch what happens: Bremer, Bush, Rumsfeld, et al. will trumpet Turkey's massive deployment as proof of international cooperation.

They are fucking insane and wisdom crippled. God help us.

Eric

[gully]

3. I hope Bush PAYS!

This is so sad for everyone involved. Namely the soldiers and Iraqi citizens.

Also, we have presidental candidates saying 'we will bring in the UN and bring our boys/gals home. The UN has said they never authorized this war so they are not obligated. Good luck with the UN coming in now *sigh*

I do want to see Bush go down, but man what a price to pay...And, what an f'n mess he's gotten the world into.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. The UN is essentially the US

In the past, I think there may have been a tendency, especially in the west, to view the UN as a separate entity.

The reality, however, is that the UN rubber stamps US policy, whatever that is.

After 12 years of UN sanctions, and an invasion based on a UN resolution, and now a UN-approved occupation, I was surprised to see so many people expressing shock that anyone would bomb the UN.

I think we will see more people who want to do humanitarian work with an organization choosing alternatives to the UN and its various affiliates.

[Gin]

10. I feel conflicted. I want us out of Iraq and opposed the war...and...

I feel saddened that our troops are there, trapped in this mess. I also feel sadness for the Iraqi's who need peace as much as we do.

Nightline last night did a show on Iraq and Unicef may leave because of the bombing. The street kids sleep on the sidewalks with their shoes for pillows.

Unicef offers a daytime refuge for these orphaned kids. They can take showers, have one meal,and sleep safely.. but at 4 in the afternoon, they are put back out on the streets to fend for themselves all through the dark of night. It was heartbreaking.

I want Bush out....but this mess needs to be resolved.

God help all of us on the planet.

[liberalmuse]

7. Our soldiers, and the Iraqi people...

are screwed. The Iraqi people need help with reconstruction. If we pull out of this disaster Bush created, who is going to help them? I know Bush isn't really helping them. He's putting on a front until his people can get the oil pumping out of the country in large quantities. The speech he gave yesterday was his most outrageous list of lies yet. At this point, would the U.N. or other allies even set up in Iraq if Bush were to pull out? (Which I don't see happening, knowing Bush's past history--unless his daddy bails him out again.) The U.N. bombing proved it's much too dangerous in Iraq right now, and likely to get worse.

Our soldiers are stuck in Iraq indefinitely, and no one in this administration gives a shit about them. They are there to distract the resistance by being targets, while the Bushies try to get the oil. They've been put in the prime situation to commit atrocities against the Iraqi people, and vice versa. They're treating the Iraqi's like the Israeli Army is treating the Palestinians. I agree that we need to pull out our men and women NOW, but who is going to be willing to help guide reconstruction, especially after the U.N. bombing?

[DuctapeFatwa]

9. If "reconstruction" were what is desired, it could be done

The US could say sorry, write a blank check, get out of the way, leave any useful and non-weapon equipment, and let other countries in the region help Iraq try to recover.

And Rove and cheney and co could voluntarily go to the Hague and turn themselves in, resign from the UN security council, give them whatever help they need to set up a new HQ in SWitzerland or Fiji or somewhere, and ask them to please come monitor open elections in the US.

And the guy at the car lot could say, "you really like it that much? ahh, just take it, I'm feeling generous today."

[Gloria]

11. How about the "Coalition of the bailing?" as in

bailing out??

The Japanese about face is important because they were going to bring in their very advanced water treatent systems and they were going to supply Iraqis as well as US troops with water!!!

They were going to fully commit sometime in the fall....had advisors out scouting around. Guess they aren't liking what they're seeing. And the Japanese people never wanted to go in....

[mandyky]

12. This alleged coalition was always as phony

as our reasons for invading Iraq.

[starroute]

13. I like your taste in song citations

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.