Two U.S. Allies Leaving Iraq, More May
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Yahoo News/AP
WILLIAM J. KOLE
December 1, 2005
VIENNA, Austria - Two of America's allies in Iraq are withdrawing forces
this month and a half-dozen others are debating possible pullouts or
reductions, increasing pressure on Washington as calls mount to bring home U.S.
troops.
Bulgaria and Ukraine will begin withdrawing their combined 1,250 troops by
mid-December. If Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Poland and South Korea
reduce or recall their personnel, more than half of the non-American forces in
Iraq could be gone by next summer.
Japan and South Korea help with reconstruction, but Britain and Australia
provide substantial support forces and Italy and Poland train Iraqi troops and
police. Their exodus would deal a blow to American efforts to prepare Iraqis to
take over the most dangerous peacekeeping tasks and craft an eventual U.S. exit
strategy.
"The vibrations of unease from within the United States clearly have an
impact on public opinion elsewhere," said Terence Taylor of the International
Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. "Public opinion in many of these
countries is heavily divided."
Although the nearly 160,000-member U.S. force in Iraq dwarfs the
second-largest contingent — Britain's 8,000 in Iraq and 2,000 elsewhere
in the Gulf region — its support has shrunk substantially.
In the months after the March 2003 invasion, the multinational force
numbered about 300,000 soldiers from 38 countries. That figure is now just
under 24,000 mostly non-combat personnel from 27 countries. The coalition has
steadily unraveled as the death toll rises and angry publics clamor for troops
to leave.
In the spring, the Netherlands had 1,400 troops in Iraq. Today, there are
19, including a lone Dutch soldier in Baghdad.
Ukraine's remaining 876 troops in Iraq are due home by Dec. 31, fulfilling a
campaign pledge by President Viktor Yushchenko. Bulgaria is pulling out its 380
troops after Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, Defense Minister Veselin
Bliznakov said.
In his strategy for Iraq, announced Wednesday,President Bush said expanding
international support was one of his goals. He also seemed to address the issue
of more allies withdrawing.
"As our posture changes over time, so too will the posture of our coalition
partners," the document says. "We and the Iraqis must work with them to
coordinate our efforts, helping Iraq to consolidate and secure its gains on
many different fronts."
Struggling to shore up the coalition, Bush stopped in Mongolia on his recent
Asia trip and praised its force of about 120 soldiers in Iraq as "fearless
warriors."
At least 2,109 U.S. service personnel have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count. At least 200 troops from
other countries also have died, including 98 from Britain. Other tolls: Italy,
27; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark,
El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; Hungary, Kazakhstan,
Latvia, one each.
Underscoring mounting opposition in nearly all coalition countries, a poll
published in Japan's Asahi newspaper this week showed 69 percent of respondents
opposed extending the mission, up from 55 percent in January. No margin of
error was given.
Japan's Kyodo News service reported Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's Cabinet would decide Dec. 8 to allow its 600 troops to stay for
another year, but it could decide later to withdraw troops around May.
A British drawdown would be the most dramatic.
Although Prime Minister Tony Blair's government insists there is no
timetable and British forces will leave only when Iraqi troops can take over,
Defense Secretary John Reid suggested last month that a pullout could begin "in
the course of the next year."
South Korea, the second-largest coalition partner after Britain, is expected
to withdraw about 1,000 of its 3,200 troops in the first half of 2006. The
National Assembly is likely to vote on the matter this month.
Italy's military reportedly is preparing to give parliament a timetable for
a proposed withdrawal of its 2,800 troops. Premier Silvio Berlusconi's
government has said it plans to withdraw forces in groups of 300, but in
accordance with the Iraqi government and coalition allies.
Poland's former leftist government, which lost Sept. 25 elections, had
planned to withdraw its 1,400 troops in January. The new defense minister,
Radek Sikorski, visits Washington this weekend for talks on Poland's coalition
plans, and the new government is expected to decide by mid-December whether to
extend its mission beyond Dec. 31.
"Some formula of advisory-stabilizing mission could remain on a smaller
scale, of course, and our commanders are prepared for several variants," Col.
Zdzislaw Gnatowski of the Polish army's general staff told The Associated
Press.
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of the Australian Defense Force, has
said about 450 troops in the southern province of Muthanna could leave by May.
Australia has about 900 troops and support staff across Iraq.
Many coalition members have pledged to stay in Iraq for all of 2006; at
least one, Lithuania, has committed to the end of 2007. And the coalition is
still drawing new members, most recently Bosnia, which sent 36 bomb-disposal
experts in June.
"We are getting letters of gratitude from the U.S. commanders for our
peacekeepers' excellent service," said Ilgar Verdiyev, a Defense Ministry
spokesman in Azerbaijan, which has 150 troops in Iraq and is one of the few
mostly Muslim countries to contribute.
Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Ryan Lucas in
Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
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