Technical points: Japan and Saudi Arabia were major bankers of the Gulf War*. This time around, Japan is providing minor logistical support, and the Saudis are providing basing and overflight rights much as the did last time.

*--another technical point, a bit offtopic: About the name...the Gulf War was aptly named because it was a regional conflict about Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. "Gulf War II" would be inappropriate now because it's specifically a war with Iraq. The most accurate name for this war would be simply "The US-Iraq War". However, I've noticed that Bush and his people aren't keen on accuracy in terminology and might prefer the more obfuscatory "Gulf War II" for its association with a war that did have broad international support.

Obviously, the assumption is that without the Lords of Europe, it isn't a "real" coalition at all. Certainly Germany and France feel that way.

The raw number of countries making unspecified contributions to the US-Iraq War doesn't mean much. Nobody could argue that, say, Cameroon is the equal of France, or that the Marshall Islands are the equivalent of Germany. Not just in terms of raw military power, but also in terms of influence in the world. The "Lords of Europe" have considerably more power to cause us problems in the future, which is the point I've been making all along about the consequences of Bush's diplomatic failure.

I wonder if someday we'll find out what contributions those little countries made, if anything, beyond the use of their names. Do we need a refueling base in the Solomon Islands? What could Colombia contribute besides drugs? (Uzi-waving narcotraffickers? Bales of pot to drop on the Iraqi side to mellow them out?) Is famine-wracked Ethiopia going to feed our troops with MREs--"Meals Refused by Ethiopians"? Or would our people prefer bananas from Costa Rica? Would a platoon of yak-mounted cavalry from Mongolia turn the tide of war?

Thanks for the list that actually shows that this so-called "coalition of the willing" is really just a propaganda device.

--Robert