“This is the time for us to be steadfast, not get weak in the knees,” said Powell in a July 27 television interview.

In addition to Hungary, Powell visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Poland to boost support among Washington’s allies for the occupation.

Budapest’s 354 troops in Iraq are scheduled to stay through the end of the year. The government of Poland has the fourth-largest contingent in Iraq with more than 2,300 troops. The Bosnian government announced July 28 that it intends to send 36 soldiers to Iraq by December 31.

Powell’s tour came two and a half weeks after Manila withdrew the last of its small force in Iraq, made up of 43 soldiers and eight police, one month ahead of schedule. The early withdrawal took place amid threats by the “Iraqi Islamic Army” to behead a Filipino truck driver the group had taken hostage, and subsequent protests in the Philippines demanding the government comply.

Various opposition groups inside Iraq have kidnapped over 70 foreigners in recent months aimed at forcing members of the U.S.-led coalition to pull troops out of Iraq and to scare off foreign companies from doing business there. At least eight hostages have been killed—four by beheading. In most cases, the kidnappers have not succeeded in their goals.

Iraqi police set up by the Anglo-American forces have also been a target of such groups, with 710 Iraqi policemen killed out of a total of 130,000 between April 2003 and May of this year.

After the government of Spain withdrew its 1,300 troops in April and May following the election of the social democratic government of José Enrique Zapatero, the governments of Honduras and the Dominican Republic, whose troops were operating under Spanish command, pulled their forces out, too.

The government of Nicaragua also withdrew its troops earlier in the year, as part of a normal rotation, and has not sent another contingent since then.

These pullouts, however, have not presented a military problem for Washington. To increase political support for its war, the U.S. government is seeking to boost the forces of some of states in the “coalition of the willing”—the large majority of which have stuck with the Anglo-American occupiers—and lure others to dispatch troops there.

There are currently 31 governments with troops in Iraq. In a July 16 interview with National Public Radio, U.S. secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke about Washington’s efforts to bring other states along. “We have requests out and the Iraqi government has requests out to… five or six countries right now, asking for troops,” he said. “I know Pakistan and India and, I believe, Bangladesh and Morocco and several other countries. There are other countries that have been offering recently.”

Despite the execution of a south Korean civilian hostage by the Iraqi group Tawhid and Jihad June 22, Seoul has maintained its plans to add 3,000 troops to its contingent of 650 in Iraq. This would make the south Korean force the third largest in Iraq after the U.S. and UK forces.

The government of El Salvador, the one other country whose troops were under Spanish command, has committed to stay. On July 15, the Salvadoran legislature extended the mandate of its 380 troops.

One of the topics discussed during the Mideast leg of Powell’s tour was the proposal floated by the Saudi government to involve troops from some Arab countries in the occupation of Iraq. At a conference in Saudi Arabia with Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi, Powell described the proposal as “a welcome idea from the Saudi government.” Powell stopped short of endorsing the proposal, however. “We’re examining it,” he said.
 
 
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NATO force in Baghdad expands world reach of imperialist alliance
Australian rulers close ranks on Iraq
Labor Party drops call for Iraq troop withdrawal, affirms alliance with Washington  
 
 
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