U.S. Allies in Iraq Want Out, Adding to Bush Pressure

The U.S.-led ``coalition of the willing'' in Iraq will be less willing in 2006.

The U.K., Italy and South Korea are making plans to reduce or even withdraw their troops by the end of next year, following other nations, such as Ukraine and Bulgaria, that have already started to depart. ``It is not a matter of if, but how,'' said Roberto Minotti, senior research fellow at the Aspen Institute in Rome.

The reduction of foreign troop levels will make little difference on the ground in Iraq, where U.S. troops now number 160,000, out of a total force of 184,000. The real impact may be political, undercutting President George W. Bush's claims to be leading an international operation and adding to pressure on him to set a firm plan for a reduction in U.S. forces.

``It makes even more of a mockery of what the administration likes to call a coalition,'' said retired U.S. Army Major General William Nash, now a fellow at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. ``My guess is that it would bring the international legitimacy of the operation into question.''

When U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, the coalition included 35 nations, whose numbers are now down to 28. By the end of this month, Ukraine and Bulgaria will have withdrawn combined troops of 1,250. ``Our troops will be back home before the New Year,'' Ukraine's Chief of General Staff Serhiy Kyrychenko said at a Dec. 12 press conference in Kiev.

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