For those of you who didn't read the article:

"Poland may start withdrawing its troops from Iraq early next year, months earlier than the previously stated date of mid-2005."

Not an immediate withdrawl, but it is earlier than anticipated. This may be the signal of a massive withdrawl from Italy as well. But chances are we won't see any real action until after the election in November.


Remember only YOU can help stop Flamewars!

Yeah, this is a non-story.

As a Canadian, when it comes to submarine jokes, let me just say "shut.......up". Thank you.

Polish army also reportedly unhappy with their recent purchase of brick parachutes.

sentex

That chart is misleading. Japan may only have committed 34 bodies, but they happen to members of the Black Lotus Society. They carry darkness and death in their shadowy palms

I thought Japan only sent the army of one.

Congratulations, Bush-- you're such a uniter. Everyone's united, thinking you're a liar.

/it doesn't matter because we're strong! so strong I tell you!

Perhaps we can get Bill Clinton back on the stand and ask him why he lied about WMDs for so long. Of course, it's pointless... He'd just perjure himself some more.

That's what President's do. They lie. When the lie comes from the political party you endorse, it is called 'leadership'.

Bush Lied / Clinton Lied / Kerry keeps on lying - and they ALL got us involved in Iraq. Don't waste your votes on these lying asshats.

They're wrong. It was utilateral action by the US. No one is pulling out because we went in all by ourselves.

someone tell Poland they're not really there.

I'm coming up with 22,484 troops from other nations, as opposed to 110,000 of our own. Soooo, other countries make up roughly 20% of the total?

Of course, in the first Gulf War:

The U.S. had more than 500,000 troops in the Persian Gulf War, while the non-U.S. coalition forces equaled roughly 160,000, or 24 percent, of all forces.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/gulf.war/facts/gulfwar/



Interesting note.. more US soldiers were killed this time around than last time.

U.S. casualties: 148 battle deaths, 145 nonbattle deaths
U.S. wounded in action: 467

sod213, I think it's because we didn't occupy the last time. I'd have to check but I think if you stopped the tally when the assault stopped and the occupying started, they'd be lower this time. Mostly because we weren't shooting each other as much this time. I'm pretty sure that most of the 145 non battle deaths were fraternal kills.

Laugh all you want at the small force Japan sent but I hear they are a force to be reckoned with.

Valdemiro

I feel as if you robbed my joke completely.

Misled. Led miserably.

Dang I was hoping any world leader who contributed troops would be as stupid as Aznar and remain in the "coalition" until he was rejected by his own voters.

Millions across the world marched in protest and were ignored by their countries' leaders. The lies were obvious and refuted yet the media went along with popular sentiment for 9/11 paybacks. The leaders deserve our rage. The media, sadly will still be with us.

...waiting for the American public to realize...

yawn. You people won't be satisfied until a nuke actually hits us.

badger58 - who people?

Poles? Republicans? Democrats? Molepeople?

I bet Japan is appalled at Lithuania's lack of commitment to the war.

WMD submitter should be missiled for misleading us on the spelling of misled.

isn't racism great? asshats.

and the Polish Airliner that crashed in the cemetary.

The weapons will turn up. Probably in Syria, hopefully not in a terrorist act in Europe.

And the Coalition of the Unwilling grows.

Pretty soon it will just be us, like some ignorant bastard who won't face up to the fact that he's full of shiat. Although we'll probably have a couple of loser countries tagging along for the benefits of hanging with the bully.

Japan just needs to send one bomb and it's over:



Ah, Memories...

McRat -

Just so you know, Bill Clinton is going to be on the stand to answer questions about terrorism, Iraq, WMDs, and how he handled them. So will Gore. They both agreed to give the 9/11 commission their full cooperation.

I don't see that promise from Bush or his people.

Me thinks the Pole is covering his ass now that he has seen what happened to the Spaniard. Have the Polish got an election coming?

/expecting fireworks

President Bush, in the chow line with troops at Fort Campbell, Ky., after delivering a speech, was asked about Kwasniewski's remarks but shook his head and said, ''I'm here to eat.''

Are you? Looks like you were there to give a propoganda speech and when confronted with something that a REAL president would deal with, you chose to run away like a scared little girl.

Please don't hate the secret service for letting that journalist find out what a chicken shiat you are.

Hanging in a chow line!

Good Times.

They're just leaving because it's spring and their snow tires are melting.
Hondouras is pulling out with Spain but it won't make the news because they don't have any food we can rename.

tbond

In the President's defense (which y'all know I rarely come to), perhaps he hadn't been briefed on Kwasniewski's comments by the time the reporter asked him about them, or perhaps he had been briefed by the White House and State Department hadn't ironed out the response they wanted to give.

(Unfortunately with the current occupant) The words of a US President have enormous implications. So he shouldn't be giving his opinions about a foreign leader's remarks unless he has (1) been briefed on them, and (2) gets his story straight with the policy people.

The last thing we want as a nation is to encourage GWB to start speaking his mind without consulting the braintrust.

/expecting fireworks

So should we. I'm planning on spending the first week of November barricaded in my apartment. Feel free to come - but it's BYOB.

I concur on the unneccesary presence of 33 EXTRA ninjas.

Sheesh, ninjas could have sabotaged the Iraq thing to begin with, but then again why would they for a bunch of treaty breaking, beer slugging, racist fatasses?

/maerica teh suxxors
//moovin to jApan

The Poles are a great ally. Britain went to war to save them. The Germans and Russians tried to exterminate them. The surviving Air Force escaped to France. France wouldn't fight (Go figure). They Re-escaped to Britain and stood up their own squadrons within the RAF. 20% of the RAF was Polish during the Battle of Britain. The Poles accounted for significantly more kills per squadron than their RAF brothers.

Despite their contribution Churchill and Roosevelt negotiated away their freedom and handed them over to Stalin.

When everyone else cuts and runs... the Poles will still be there. (Ref: Kosciuszko Squadron)

Be interesting to find out exactly what we told the Poles.

despite the Coalition of the Willing being a pretty pethetic ensemble, I do like the idea that even the less powerful countries can see a place for themselves in global actions. It's nice to see a country like El Salvador be able to have it's act together enough to send out a troop contingent.

Bravo, Tuna_Fish_Killer. Well said.

dbaggins, methinks thats because the small countries get 'favours' for participating.. makes the US look good cos they have support, small countries benefit.. win-win

that is, until the small countries realize the favours arent worth the money they're spending, and attracting the ire of terrorists..

It might be that there were bribes to these smaller states for them to send in troops.

I suspect Poland will stay with troops in Iraq as long as they have large reconstruction contracts. They got a pretty nice kickback if I remember.