Iceland to pull its one guy out of Iraq

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Iceland has announced it will withdraw its one guy from Iraq. Here's the story, via Heraldblog:
Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir has decided to remove an Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (ICRU) member from a NATO training program for the Iraqi army in Baghdad next month, causing disappointment among NATO leaders.

The ICRU member has been working in Baghdad for the last two years, primarily as a media representative, and will cease working there October 1, Morgunbladid reports.

John Craddock, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe for NATO and the US European Command, said at a press conference in Iceland yesterday that Iceland is an important and active NATO member and that he was disappointed with Gísladóttir’s decision.
I'm glad they're not giving even fig-leaf appearance of participating in this disaster. Every country that has even one person there enables Bush to tout how many nations are participating in this disaster. Most people aren't fooled, as they know that American troops form the vast bulk of occupying forces. But having 36--oops I mean 35--other nations participating does lend a veneer of respectability to the operation. Why are other nations doing this? Do they believe America should be occupying Iraq? Are they getting some kind of favors from the US in return? How do their populations feel about their nations' troops being there? There should be a nice chart summarizing this somewhere...

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