15 September 2007

I got your 36 countries right here!

Where in the hell did Captain Codpiece's speech writers come up with the "36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq" figure from. By my reckoning there are currently 22 nations, including the US, in the coalition of the less and less willing. 11 of these (Armenia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova and Mongolia) currently have 100 or fewer troops on deployment. There are 3 other nations (Fiji, Canada and Denmark) who have a small number of troops as part of the UN mission; not under American command and control. There are another 9 countries (the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Portugal, Norway, Italy, Slovenia, Turkey and Iceland) who have a handful of troops as part of the NATO mission that is training the Iraqi police force. None of these countries have more than 15 nationals in Iraq.

By my reckoning that comes to 33 nations. Maybe he is counting Blackwater and a couple of the other providers of mercenaries as countries as well.

Is they intentionally trying to make him look like a complete tosser or what?

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