BBC NEWS reports that Poland will pull its 1,700 troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. It seems that the Europeans from both "Old" and "New" Europe have had enough and plan on leaving no matter the situation. The BBC reminds us that

Italy, with just over 3,000 troops in Iraq, has said it wants to pull its contingent out as soon as possible.

The Netherlands (about 800 troops) and Ukraine (1,600 troops) have begun phased withdrawals of their contingents.

The last Ukrainian troops are due to leave by mid-October.

Bulgaria (about 500 troops) also wants to pull its troops out this year.

Hopefully, the "messy" phase of Freedom and Democracy will be over by the time the Europeans leave. At the very least those tens of thousands of Iraqi troops Georgie claims have been trained by last November had better be ready by the end of 2005 or things could get real messy.
posted by Idle Crank at 4/12/2005 10:57:00 AM