A Coalition of the Willing?

As it turns out, only one of the countries named as supporting the US in a "coalition of the willing" actually has a majority in support of the war.



A Coalition of the Willing?
By Dru Oja Jay

From the [1]Washington Post:

France and Germany lead European opposition to a speedy attack. But Britain,
Italy, Spain, Denmark and Portugal, as well as Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic, have firmly backed the U.S. position. On Wednesday, 10 more
European governments, in the former communist east, jointly declared support
for Washington. They were Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

A quick scan of opinion polls reveals that, while governments are supporting
the US, the people are solidly opposed to unilateral and even UN action in
all but a few countries. This can be explained by diplomatic pressure which
has, for now, had a greater influence on policy that widespread domestic
opposition to military action.

Britain: 86% say give weapons inspectors more time, 34% think that US and
Britain have made a convincing case for invasion. [2]»

Spain: 80% opposed to war, 91% against attack without UN resolution [3]»

Italy: 72% opposed to war [4]»

Portugal: 65% say there is no reason to attack now [5]»

Hungary: 82% opposed to invasion under any circumstances [6]»

Czech Republic: 67% opposed to invasion under any circumstances [7]»

Poland: 63% against sending Polish troops, 52% support US "politically" [8]»

Denmark: 79% oppose war without U.N. mandate [9]»

Australia: 56 per cent only backed UN-sanctioned action, 12% support
unilateral action. 76% oppose participation in a US-led war on Iraq.
Australian Senate voted 33-31 to censure Howard for committing 2,000
soldiers to US action. [10]»

The "[11]Vilnius 10" is a group of 9 countries that are seeking membership
in NATO and Croatia. In many cases, their future security depends on NATO
membership. In Estonia, for example, there is a tangible fear that Russia
will take over again, given a militaristic enough government and the right
opportunity (the--thankfully past--popularity of the fascist Vladimir
Zhirinovsky was a good indication of this possibility. Zhirinovsky had a map
in his office showing the borders of Russia expanded to include the former
Soviet Union and Alaska). In any case, it's doubtful that these governments
are supporting the US for any other reason than to get diplomatic points (or
conversely, not piss away their chances of NATO membership).

Taking Estonia as an example again, we find that the government has
supported war [12]without any debate in Parliament, despite 70% of the
people and major newspapers opposed to war in Iraq. When a group of young
Estonian activists tried to organize a march, they were threatened with
arrest and the possibility of never being able to obtain a US visa. The
diplomatic pressure against countries has no doubt been no less intense,
given that the US has the economic clout to make or break many individual
members of "new Europe".

Latvia: 74% oppose taking out Hussein with military force [13]»

Romania: 38% opposed, 45% in favour [14]»

Macedonia: 10% support war on Iraq [15]»

Bulgaria: 21% support war [16]»

Estonia: 30% support war [17]»

Slovakia: 60% oppose sending Slovak soldiers [18]»

Information for Albania, Croatia, Slovenia and Lithuania was immediately
available via Google news, but according to [19]this report, Romania is the
only country in the "Vilnius 10" that has a majority of the population
supporting the war.

For comparison purposes:

France: 76% against war without UN support [20]»

Germany: 55% against war with UN support, 90% against war without UN
support. 57% hold the opinion that "the United States is a nation of
warmongers". [21]»

The [22]Gallup International survey, upon which many of the figures cited
above are based, also found that of the 41 countries surveyed, "half of
[the] population is not in favour of military action under any
circumstances." Also, one in five Americans were found to be "against
military action under any circumstances." Notably, the poll also found that
people worldwide are more worried about the "gap between the rich and poor"
more than any other issue, including terrorism.

 References:
   1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38226-2003Feb6.html
   2. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+britain
   3. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+spain
   4. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+italy
   5. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+portugal
   6. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+Hungary
   7. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+Czech
   8. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+Poland
   9. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+denmark
  10. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+australia
  11. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22vilnius+10%22+nato
  12. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/02/11/012.html
  13. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+latvia
  14. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+romania
  15. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+macedonia
  16. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+bulgaria
  17. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+estonia
  18. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+slovakia
  19. http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/02/07022003192525.asp
  20. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+france
  21. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=iraq+poll+germany
  22. http://www.gallup-international.com/surveys.htm



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Posted on Monkeyfist at http://monkeyfist.com/articles/835