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

To: JDN who wrote (562198)	4/9/2004 6:08:09 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769667

A coalition showing signs of fracture Strategy Insurgents are targeting forces of smaller countries, exposing the weaknesses in the Pentagon's plans Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Friday April 9, 2004 The Guardian The Shia uprising is exposing the fragility of the US-led coalition in Iraq and putting a strain on the smaller partners. While the 110,000-strong US force and the 8,700-strong British force are geared for combat, many of the other countries joined the coalition in expectation of peacekeeping and reconstruction. To the dismay of US central command, Japanese and South Korean forces have retreated to their compounds after coming under fire, while Ukrainian and Kazakh forces have been driven out of the town of Kut by Shia fighters. The US military is considering whether it needs to redeploy 25,000 expected reinforcements from its sector around Baghdad to the south to bolster the coalition forces. The Pentagon has already shored up its troop levels to deal with the deepening chaos by halting the rotation of some 25,000 soldiers due to go home after a year in the war zone. Hundreds more British troops flew out to Iraq yesterday. More than 300 members of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment plus Territorial Army soldiers from the Glasgow-based 52nd Lowland Regiment left for Basra, where they will form part of the 4,500-strong 1st Mechanised Brigade. Without the support of either the UN or Nato, the US has been unable to call on countries such as France, Germany, India and Pakistan for troops. Instead it has had to rely on a ragtag coalition of about 40 countries as diverse as El Salvador and Mongolia. Between them they contribute 24,000 troops in non-combat roles, primarily engineering. Soldiers from Spain, Ukraine, Italy, El Salvador and Poland have come under fire this week, as well as the Americans and British. One of the first casualties this week was a Salvadorean soldier in Najaf. A Ukrainian soldier was killed on Tuesday in Kut. A Ukrainian defence official said last night that his country's troops would not leave Iraq, but had withdrawn from Kut as "they are not fit for hostilities". No country other than Spain has decided to pull its forces out of Iraq, but the heavy fighting has caused rethinks in many capitals. The chances of these countries responding positively to calls for extra troops are fast diminishing. guardian.co.uk