Italian Premier pays surprise Iraq visit

Military History. Boy, you sure can find them Rosalie. That goes down in my favorites which is getting pretty long. I been picking those dates off my VFW calendar. This ones much better, music and all. Thanks.

Spain orders radiation checks was interesting too.

George

This is just the first link I came across for this story that's been reported for a few days.

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=1775839


Dan

they sure knew about the dangers of depleted uranium. This is just one of the many articles written well before the war in Iraq was waged. It well may be that many if not most of the servicemen and women that don't get killed in Iraq will slowly die a horrible death as a result of just being there. The Iraqi people may suffer this type death for generations.

Be sure to read at the very end of the article

http://www.prop1.org/2000/du/du.htm

I haven't been able to find any thing about a cure with a quick searach. Anybody know if anything can be done for those contaminated?

This is very upsetting. I hope there is a cure available. Life is precious in any location.

Being the eternal optimist, I even went to see if it was an urban legend and of course it isn't. Bummer

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I never realized Italy had troops in Iraq.

Hi George,

Isn't that a sad thing due entirely to the media's signing on to the claim that this isn't a *real* coalition simply because it doesn't include France and Germany. Those were also Polish and Ukrainian troops entangling insurgents recently. Proportional to the respective sizes of their military, the contributions of our allies in this coalition is meaningful and substantial. Odd, however, that the same folks hailing Berlusconi's visit seek to find fault when Bush served Thanksgiving turkey to ours

Evie

Hi Evie;

Yes, it is sad. It would be nice to see a little more recognition given to the other countries involved in this coalition. But, I suppose, by the Media standards, thats not newsworthy.

George

Hi, Evie.

Yes, there are several other countries with troops there -- but at least 80% of the total troops are American or British, a major difference from Gulf War I, when there was a true world-wide consensus.

-- Dave K, Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!

... but that was also the reason we didn't finish the job back then. Too many deals cut to get the Saudis, etc. on board. France and Germany had everythign to lose and nothing to gain by actually deposing Saddam. What "diplomacy" do you suggest could have brought them on board? Oh, I don't know, perhaps agreeing to NOT investigate those financial interests or their role in the Oil for Food Corruption (guess who is fighting that investigation most stridently now?) in exchange for their cooperation.

Let's compare:

Gulf War I

The Allied coalition consisted of 34 countries, including Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Honduras, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, The Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Turkey, The United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The U.S. had more than 500,000 troops in the Persian Gulf War, while the non-U.S. coalition forces equaled roughly 160,000, or 24 percent, of all forces. Here are some details about the forces in the Gulf:

U.S. casualties: 148 battle deaths, 145 nonbattle deaths

Iraq as of March 15

Troop count

AS OF MARCH 15

Countries helping in postwar Iraq and their troop contributions:

United States 130,000

United Kingdom 8,220

Italy 3,000

Poland 2,500

Ukraine 1,650

Netherlands 1,307

Spain 1,300

Australia 850

Romania 500

Thailand 451

Denmark 410

Other 25 coalition countries 3,722

I don't see a huge difference there Dave, if one is really objective. Had France joined, what was to be their deployment? As I recall it wasn't a significant number of boots on the ground, and one Mirage jet. Wow!

Evie