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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DizzyG who wrote (526739)	1/21/2004 9:27:42 AM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Who and what is the Coalition of the Willing? First, All Bush wanted was the US approval for Iraq policies to remain above 50 percent--to get this he outright lied, distorted information, omitted information and mischaracterized both people and events. Secondly, Bush also wanted a list of nation names which he could use in order to help build support for point one above. It didn't much matter what they could contribute or whether they could contribute anything at all--so long as those nations allowed their name to be used for coalition propaganda purposes. 1) Did you know that Bush's Coalition of the Willing represented only 10 percent of the world's population of 197 countries? 2) Did you know that about 75 percent of people in most countries, including coalition members--Britian, Spain, Italy, for example--opposed the war? And that if you subtract that 75 percent of population opposition then the percentage of war support level reduces from the 10 percent (cited in point one above) to about three percent? 3) Did you know that when Yemen, a UN Security Council member, refused to support Bush the Elder's Gulf War that all of its US aid was withdrawn three days following its "no" vote? Did this so-called coalition come into existence on the basis of merit or as a consequence of the US using coercion, bribes, bullying or a threat of action against it as similar to what happened to Yemen? Much hoopla was made about New Europe vs. Old Europe. Many of the New European countries wanted to join NATO, an organization where the US has veto power over whether to accept a new nation. Think this influence had any role? You bet! Military aid of varying kind was also used as a leverage to sign many nations on board. The economic clout of the US is substantial and represents about one-quarter of all economic activity on earth. The power to withhold trade and investment or impose sanctions is considerable for nations needing same. I could go on and on and on an on and show you that this Coalition of the Willing is really not all that willing. Please do read the below link within this post for a better overall viewpoint as to the true nature of Bush's coalition. I've tried to summarize it as best I could. 216.239.41.104 “Coalition of the Willing” Members Country 2001 population (millions) 1 Albania...................3.4 2 Armenia...................3.8 3 Australia................19.4 4 Azerbaijan................8.1 5 Bahrain...................0.7 6 Bulgaria..................8.1 7 Costa Rica................3.9 8 Croatia...................4.4 9 Czech Republic...........10.3 10 Denmark..................5.4 11 Estonia..................1.4 12 Georgia..................5.0 13 Hungary.................10.2 14 Israel...................6.4 15 Italy...................57.7 16 Japan..................127.1 17 Jordan...................5.0 18 Kuwait...................2.0 19 Latvia...................2.3 20 Lithuania................3.5 21 Macedonia................2.0 22 Oman.....................2.4 23 Philippines.............77.0 24 Poland..................38.7 25 Portugal................10.2 26 Qatar....................0.6 27 Romania.................22.4 28 Saudia Arabia...........21.4 29 Slovakia.................5.4 30 Slovenia.................2.0 31 Spain...................39.5 32 Turkey..................66.2 33 United Arab Emirates.....3.0 34 United Kingdom..........59.9 TOTAL.....................638.8 AS % OF WORLD TOTAL........10.4 Sources: List of countries compiled through press reports. Population figures from World Bank, World Development Report 2003.