So how does the "coalition of the willing" stack up? Is is really 31 countries as the Bush administration maintains or is there a bit of special arithmetic involved?
troop contributions by country
Gulf War 2003
| United States | 300,000 |
| Great Britain | 45,000 |
| Australia | 2,000 |
(New York Times, Wall Street Journal figures)
Gulf War 1991
| United States | 425,000 |
| Turkey | 100,000 |
| Saudi Arabia | 70,000 |
| Great Britain | 35,000 |
| Egypt | 35,000 |
| Syria | 20,000 |
| France | 9,800 |
| Pakistan | 8,000 |
| Bangladesh | 6,000 |
| Morocco | 2,000 |
| Canada | 1,700 |
| Niger | 500 |
| Senegal | 500 |
| Argentina | 450 |
| Honduras | 150 |
(US State Department figures)
On the financial front it appears the administration may eventually ask Congress for an
appropriation of about $60 to $100 billion. Great Britain and Australia are
covering their own costs.
In Gulf War 1 the situation was quite different .. the total financial
contributions to the effort (mostly payable to the US) came to over $70
billion mostly for military expenses (Wall Street Journal) with the big
players being:
| Saudi Arabia | $16.8B |
| Kuwait | $16.0B |
| Japan | $10.7B |
| Germany | $6.6B |
| UAE | $4.0B |
(New York Times figures)
and more than a half dozen other countries gave more than $1B each
As far as I can tell here is what is being offered by 2003 willing countries after months of arm twisting:
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and
the Ukraine will send a few biological and chemical warfare
decontamination experts. In most cases this means less than a dozen people.
Bahrain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kuwait, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, and the
United Arab Emirates, are allowing the use of airbases (although the
US and Great Britain are paying them for the opportunity .. in the
case of Spain rates are ten times commercial rates). Saudi Arabia is
allowing us the limited use of our expensive and extensive bases.
Germany is supplying a few crews to some AWACS observation planes, but this is highly political and there is enormous pressure by the public for their withdrawal.
Bulgaria, Croatia, Jordan, Romania, and Turkey are allowing over-flights. The Turkish agreement might be costly in terms of money and/or future destabilization (the Kurds)
Additionally the US announced on March 19 that it would greatly increase economic aid to Israel - something which should help keep things stirred up in this part of the world.
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I find it very difficult to argue that this coalition of the willing is greater than three. Perhaps Lichtenstein could swell the ranks of the group to 32 by offering a commemorative stamp or two. One has to wonder if this is from the same arithmetic book that the administration used in Florida.
1:53:15 PM 
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