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recent
I have tried to steer clear of social cometary and what not, because the main point of this site is not to make my voice know, but rather to let mommy know what is going on, and to have fun with a web site. I have noticed that a few other people (not many, but a few) are reading this site to, so I feel compelled to add some other interesting things I find that don't have a direct connection to my life in Japan. It's probably good for mom to read these too.... I wonder if she ever does...
Anyway, today I found some interesting links at The Connection about "The Coalition". According to the White House web site
Who are the current coalition members?President Bush is assembling a Coalition that has already begun military operations to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, and enforce 17 UNSC resolutions.
The Coalition will also liberate the Iraqi people from one of the worst tyrants and most brutal regimes on earth.
Contributions from Coalition member nations range from: direct military participation, logistical and intelligence support, specialized chemical/biological response teams, over-flight rights, humanitarian and reconstruction aid, to political support.
Forty-six countries are publicly committed to the Coalition, including:
.... (The list is here) ...This number is still growing, and it is no accident that many member nations of the Coalition recently escaped from the boot of a tyrant or have felt the scourge of terrorism. All Coalition member nations understand the threat Saddam Hussein's weapons pose to the world and the devastation his regime has wreaked on the Iraqi people.
The population of Coalition countries is approximately 1.17 billion people.
Coalition countries have a combined GDP of approximately $21.8 trillion.
Every major race, religion, ethnicity in the world is represented.
The Coalition includes nations from every continent on the globe.
Better yet, a map with coalition countries is here at a page which is titles. All the maps found a the site are great, but one of the maps shows "Iraq's Threatened Heritage" and shows antiques being threatened. It's strange that they don't have a map showing "Iraq's Threatened Citizens". Oh wait... no it's not.
(interestingly enough the title of the site is "Iraq War Weblog, Conflict in Iraq". It doesn't look like any of the weblogs the freaks who read this page are used to, but hey, who ever said that we decide what a weblog is?)
One thing I seemed pretty obvious, but I had no info to justify my view, was that the "Coalition" members is simply a list of countries that the US is using as "moral cover". According to the article, the only coalition members that matter are Australia and Britain, the rest are just "moral support, not major contributions" (this includes Japan of course)
There are also 15 members of the Coalition that are secret members... probably Arab nations who don't want their people to know that they are supporting the war. It is said they "sort of don't comment". IN contrast, I was at a farewell party for a friend of mine this weekend (he was French which guaranteed some interesting conversation) and there were also a couple of Indonesian friends there. They told me that basically Indonesia's stance was "We back the UN" So they really have no responsibility either.
Anyway, there is a lot more, but if you really want to know, you should listen to the program where they talk to various member of the coalition as to why they are in the coalition. For example, the Philippines are in it to get financial support to fight against Muslim separatists.
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