The Coalition Falters

Bowing to internal pressue, another member of our grand coalition in Iraq has announced plans to leave. Hungary announced today that it would withdraw its 300 troops. Even worse, Doctors Without Borders is leaving due to "escalating violence".

To summarize, of the 32 countries that provided a whopping 22,000 troops:

• Spain withdrew its 1,300 troops
• The Dominican Republic withdrew 302 soldiers
• Nicaragua withdrew 115
• Honduras withdrew 370
• Costa Rica has no soldiers
• The Philippines withdrew its 51 in July
• Norway withdrew 155 military engineers
• New Zealand is withdrawing its 60 engineers
• Thailand has said it wants to bring home its 450 troops
• Singapore has reduced its contingent to 33, from 191
• Moldova has trimmed its force to 12, from 42
• Bulgaria's Defense Ministry said it would reduce its 483 troops to 430 next month
• Poland, the fourth-largest contributor, with 2,400 troops, says it intends to withdraw by the end of next year
• The Netherlands, with 1,400 troops, said this week that the latest rotation of troops would be its last contribution to Iraq

15 countries down. Who's left anyway? Well, newly re-elected US President George W. Bush's list of about 50 countries that openly backed the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein was once easily found by following this link. No more: A visit to the White House web site found that the list has disappeared, and that the link that led to it -- "Who are the coalition members?" -- is gone as well.