Iceland is wrapping up their participation in the Iraq war. Up until today, the island nation was an integral part of the coalition of the willing. One member of the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit has been in Iraq training the Iraqi army as part of a NATO program. Once dude leaves, Iceland will no longer be in the coalition of the willing.

John Craddock, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO was disappointed with Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir's decision to remove Iceland’s one guy.

Yeah, Iceland estimated that they cannot have one guy, who works as a media representative, in Iraq. It’s just too costly. And dude is probably really fucking hot because he is from Iceland. Oh, also, Iceland sees Iraq as a big fucking mistake.

According to President Bush’s speech last week, that takes the number in the coalition down to 35 nations, right?



After Bush said we had 36 nations helping us in Iraq, bloggers began the search to discover who these nations were. But they have had great difficulty finding all 36 nations. One reason is because the White House decided to include members of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq as members of the coalition of the willing. Here is where our mighty force now stands!

Countries with troops on ground in Iraq

1. Albania
2. Armenia
3. Australia
4. Azerbaijan
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina
6. Bulgaria
7. Czech Republic
8. Denmark
9. El Salvador
10. Estonia
11. Georgia
12. Japan
13. Kazakhstan
14. South Korea
15. Latvia
16. Lithuania
17. Macedonia
18. Moldova
19. Mongolia
20. Poland
21. Romania
22. Singapore
23. Slovakia
24. Ukraine
25. United Kingdom
26. Tonga

United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (Not listed are countries that are providing forces in other categories)

1. Canada
2. Fiji
3. New Zealand

NATO Training NTM-I

1. Hungary
2. Iceland
3. Italy
4. Netherlands
5. Portugal
6. Slovenia
7. Turkey

Canada and New Zealand each have one soldier in Iraq. (I hope they hang out together because they have so much in common.) Also, Tonga actually pulled their force out in December 2004. Oh, wait, so did Canada. Now the number is back to 34. Damn. It’s like the president was lying to make it seem like more countries want to be a part of his horrible war. But they just keep bailing.