We all know how much fun we had when we came to know of the coalition before the Iraq war, even after many months the coalition counted all those countries who had even a single soldier to help
Anyway, I was listening to NPR last night going back home from work and I heard that now the coalition of willing consists of Spain who few days/weeks back said that they are pulling out, many other countries plus Pakistan. Either the claimiant was lying or other governments have lied about “pulling out”. The claimant said that he even saw ships and ships of soldiers from Spain and that is AFTER Spain said that they are pulling out. I think the claimant on radio was someone who is either with army or someone who travelled with army/govt officials.
Coalition of the willing is mostly coalition for the "filling". Just look at the history of war and see how coalitions were formed.
WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Granada, Panama, Yugoslavia, .......Eventually all of these missions became US lead, US sponsored, US funded and yet supported by smaller groups of other nations.
BTW previous empires like Ottomans, Berbers, Romans, Persians, Greeks always had a coalition for the filling.
Why is it so? The power of time has certain interests to protect, and they invest heavily in the protection mechanism (military, bribes, trade, etc.). Other countries way in their options and send along small contingents. In case of a win, the booty is shared based on the percentage of filling provided by individual countries.
What I remember about Pakistan is that Musharraf was willing but there was resistance from "public" thats why he didn't send any troops, I don't remember when the troops were sent/agreed-to.
