President Bush’s recently-announced troop surge became all the more perplexing yesterday when Britain announced that they would withdraw almost a quarter of its current troops in Iraq over the coming months. South Korea also announced that it would reduce its troop levels by half by April and would completely withdraw by the end of this year. (For a full list of country troop levels in Iraq click here.)
What a contrast with U.S. policy. The administration must be dizzy from spinning this one. Condoleeza Rice found some good news noting that, “The British have done what is really the plan for the country as a whole, which is to transfer security responsibility to the Iraqis as the situation permits.” Michael O’Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution and an advisor to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, countered that, “If the Brits really do have the ability to redeploy forces, we obviously need them in Baghdad and environs.” Of course, if you were to believe Vice President Cheney’s recent comments about House Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha’s plans to withdraw troops, then apparently the Brits are just “validat(ing) the al-Qaeda strategy.”
With Bush’s planned surge of 21,500, the U.S. will be adding more than 15% to our current troop levels. Contrast this with allies such as Lithuania and Denmark in the “coalition of the just-a-little-bit willing.” They just announced their complete withdrawal by summer.
While Denmark’s 460 soldiers might not seem to be a major commitment, it is significant compared to their total population of 5.4 million (less populous than Wisconsin). In fact, Denmark ranks fourth per capita troop commitments in Iraq… at least until August. The most remarkable thing about ranking coalition partners by their per-capita troop levels is that the United States, despite its huge population, has committed by far the most soldiers per capita. Nearly one in every 2,000 U.S. citizens is deployed. So if you have an impressive Myspace network, chances are one of your virtual buddies is currently in Iraq.
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This entry was posted by Statastico on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007, at 1:50 pm, and was filed in Iraq War, Foreign Policy, Conflict.
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