In our so-called unilateral invasion and liberation of Iraq, we gathered close to 50,000 in our Coalition of the Willing (initially, Britain provided that vast majority, with Australia and Poland contributing smaller numbers). Yet even more than three years later, over 20,000 allied troops participate in Iraq. Only about 40% of those are British.
So let's see how the rest of the world, that glorious "international community" I keep hearing about, does in scraping up 15,000 soldiers to actually implement the Gold standard of action in southern Lebanon--a UN Security Council resolution.
Sadly, the French are giving a good shrug to the notion that they should lead an aggressive combat mission to disarm Hizbollah:
France, meanwhile, wants to send a small, purely symbolic contingent to the force, and the United Nations is trying to convince French officials that such a decision would be devastating, a news report said Thursday.
Though France has been widely expected to lead the force, the newspaper Le Monde reported that it planned to contribute merely 10 officers and 200 military engineers.
Shocking! Especially when you consider that that "international test" was written in French and has to be translated into English for us to take it. And France refuses to enforce a UN Security Council resolution? How can this be? Quickly, nurse! Five CCs of nuance, stat!
And it isn't just France with cold feet after coming face to face with a task blessed by the international community:
The United Nations has not yet received any formal offers of new troops for the 2,000-strong U.N. force, known as UNIFIL, though France, Italy, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei have indicated they will make significant contributions.
"Significant" must not mean what I thought it meant, since the French only want to commit a "symbolic" force. That pretty much sums up the UN, eh? So what will the new and improved UNIFIL be called? UNIFAIL or UNIFUTILE?
Hey, cut out that laughter. This is serious stuff.
UPDATE: Thanks to He Who Kills Bandwidth (Instapundit) for the link here. And I do believe this is the first time Smash has linked (Just what rank is he up to, anyway? Navy ranks have always confused me. I'm reasonably sure you don't salute a Petty "Officer" anyway ...)
