The Coalition Of The Willing [/Killing] Is Named

Thursday, 20 March 2003, 1:22 pm
Opinion: Alastair Thompson

The U.S. "Coalition Of The Willing" has finally been named. In naming it U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell observed that it was a bigger group than that arrayed to support the first Gulf War in 1991.

The list is:

"Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan.

+ 15 Nations who are providing assistance but who do not wish to be named."

- Source U.S. State Dept

Notes:

1) Many of the above are providing only moral support and no military or financial assistance.

2) Turkey is still involved in negotiations as to the extent of its support.

3) The U.S. has military forces currently operating in Afghanistan, Columbia, El Salvador, South Korea, Nicaragua and the Phillipines.

4) There were already US military bases pre-war in Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

5) Albania and Macedonia border on Kosovo in which the US was extensively involved in a conflict in 1999.

6) In addition to several countries already noted above, the list includes the following former Warsaw Pact. and Soviet Socialist Republics, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. All these nations are in sore need of U.S., IMF and World Bank assistance to rebuild their economies.

7) Two nations in the list, Eritrea and Ethiopia, were until very recently involved in a protracted war with each other. The negotiated peace was acheived with the assistance of the U.S.

Assuming all these nations either have ulterior motives for their support , or would find it difficult and embarassing not to do so (e.g. Japan with bases in its territory and North Korea on its doorstep.)

We are then left with.

Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, The United Kingdom and Australia.

In four of these nations at least, the UK, Australia, Italy and Spain the Government's have taken their decision to support the coalition in the absence of a UN mandate clearly against the majority public opinion.

The position of the Danish and Netherlands public on this war is not known, but given their long liberal traditions in politics, it seems highly unlikely that they would support it.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

Contact Alastair Thompson

• Linkedin
• Twitter - @althecat
• Facebook
• Email - alastair@scoop.co.nz