Welcome to political hair splitting. When there's a solid answer of what constitutes a coalition, the world will be a cold ball of ice under a dead sun.
> I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that assessment. > > For me the root question is not "what international support > did we have?" > but rather "what was the quality of that international support?" > > The charge brought from the Kerry camp is that the coalition did not > represent a "true" coalition but rather a token international effort > "purchased" in many cases with concessions. If we're accepting the > overwhelmingly cost of the war how can this be considered > anything but a US > action? > > > The Bush camp, of course, claims the opposite: that the > coalition is made up > of countries opposed to terrorism and their assistance is > drawn from that > opposition. We are assuming the greater cost of the war > simply because we > are most prepared to do so, not because a lack of support > forces us to. > > > The number of names doesn't really affect these arguments: it's the > particulars behind them. I'm not sure how to gauge that, but > I do think > it's an important question. > > Obviously the number of troops can't really help by itself > (many of these > countries have standing armies in the hundreds or less, so > dozens of troops > can represent a relatively large participation level). > > We might also look at the current coalition and see how it > differs from the > first Coalition as raised by the senior Bush. I'm not sure > how that data > could be best interpreted however. > > There may be no way, two weeks before the election, to ever > get a clear > picture of this. We may have to wait for a more sober, time-consuming > reckoning, but personally that's what I'd like to see. > > Jim Davis > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=34 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:132067 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
