Britain Reduces Troops in Iraq

[Witling]

Iraq couldn't work from the start.

"The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units."

How's that democracy in Iraq coming?

Guardian

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Hopefully this war will put an end to the neocons in washington. They have done irreparable harm to our nation's reputation and to the Middle East itself.

 

[CarpeDiem99]

Your link doesn't work.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: CarpeDiem99
Your link doesn't work.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq...0,2763,1307980,00.html

 

[klah]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/a...e/0,,2-1268130,00.html

user/pw: laexaminer

Britain ready to send more troops for Iraq election
September 18, 2004

Mr Hoon(Secretary of State for Defence) told fellow European defence ministers in the Netherlands that Britain was ready to send hundreds more troops to the region before the January elections. Tony Blair is expected to discuss the need for reinforcements when he meets Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi leader, tomorrow, and a 680-strong battalion is on 24-hour standby.
...
A final decision on whether to reinforce the 9,000 troops in Iraq will be made after discussions with Major-General Bill Rollo, the British commander, but a senior defence source said ?Contingency plans have been made and with warnings of worse violence to come as elections near, it begins to look as if more troops will be needed.?

 

[ntdz]

britian has 7500 troops in iraq, not "5000 strong"

I dont believe they would pull troops out anyway...

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: Witling
How's that democracy in Iraq coming?

It's headed straight for civil war don't you know. All according to plan...

😕

 

[daveshel]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
Hopefully this war will put an end to the neocons in washington. They have done irreparable harm to our nation's reputation and to the Middle East itself.

Indeed.

But for all the Blair bluster, I would have thought britain would have had more troops there in the first place.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: ntdz
britian has 7500 troops in iraq, not "5000 strong"

I dont believe they would pull troops out anyway...

How many NON-US "Coalition of the Willing" troops are in Iraq?

How many US troops are in Iraq?

 

[DealMonkey]

I found a break-down of current troop levels from earlier this year (May '04). Some of these countries may have already pulled some or all of their troops out. Keep in mind the U.S. has around 130,000 troops in Iraq right now...

Which countries remain?
United Kingdom: 9,000 soldiers
Italy: 3,000 soldiers, some serving as police and engineers
Poland: 2,400 soldiers
Ukraine: 1,600 soldiers
Netherlands: 1,100 soldiers plus a logistics team, a field hospital, military police and 200 engineers
Japan: 1,100 soldiers assigned to reconstruction
Australia: 800 soldiers
Romania: 700 soldiers plus 149 de-mining specialists, military police and "special intelligence" members
South Korea: 600 military engineers and medics
Bulgaria: 480 soldiers plus chemical warfare experts
Thailand: 440 soldiers assigned to humanitarian missions
Denmark: 420 soldiers including medics and military police
El Salvador: 360 soldiers
Hungary: 300 soldiers
Norway: 179 soldiers, mostly engineers and mine clearers
Mongolia: 160 soldiers involved in peacekeeping
Azerbaijan: 150 soldiers taking part in law enforcement and protection of historic monuments
Portugal: 125 soldiers functioning as police officers
Latvia: 120 soldiers
Lithuania: 115 soldiers
Slovakia: 102 soldiers
Czech Republic: 80 soldiers, serving as police
Philippines: 80 soldiers plus police and medics
Albania: 70 non-combat troops
Georgia: 70 soldiers
New Zealand: 60 army engineers assigned to reconstruction (expected to leave in Sept. 2004)
Moldova: 50 soldiers including de-mining specialists and medics
Macedonia: 35 soldiers
Estonia: 30 soldiers
Kazakhstan: 30 soldiers (expected to leave end of May 2004)

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

It's a shame what precious an opportunity Bush wasted to unite our country. Now we are as divided as ever.

 

[Witling]

Nutz, this is a quote from the Guardian, "Currently there are 8,000 British troops in the 14,000-strong 'multinational division' in southern Iraq, which has responsibility for about 4.5 million people." Note that the original quote talks about "combat" troops.

Deal Monkey, nice summary of the troops in Iraq. A link would be helpful so we can assess the timeliness and political bent of the source.

 

[klah]

Non-US Forces in Iraq - 30 August 2004

source: globalsecurity.org

The size and capabilities of the Coalition forces involved in operations in Iraq has been a subject of much debate, confusion, and at times exageration. As of April 23, 2004, MNF-I/MNC-I claimed that 33 countries were contributing forces to operations in Iraq although, the list provided only listed 32 countries. These were Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Rep, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Ukraine. Not included in that tally was Spain, which was about to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Also not included in that list is Singapore, which had pledged to dispatch 191 troops to Iraq and which were, by that date, already in country.

Since then, Spain pulled out its troops out the country. So did the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras. The Kingdom of Tonga did, however, deploy 45 Royal Marines in early July to Iraq. With the withdrawal of the Philippines Troops, there are 31 countries participating in the coalition. On September 6, Armenia announced that it would deploy 50 troops to Iraq. Once this deployment takes place, there will be 32 countries participating in the coalition.

Total non-U.S. force is ~27,000. The Armenian troops have still not been sent, so the country list stands at 31.