A Worthy Coalition

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

At the first presidential debate, Senator Kerry dismissed the multinational force in Iraq as a sham. “We can do better,” Mr. Kerry promised, provided we elect “a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table.” But which allies? This argument for a Kerry administration – a central theme of the senator’s campaign – relies on a certain species of amnesia. Somehow, Mr. Kerry has willed the coalition of the willing into nonexistence.


“When they talk about a coalition – that’s the phoniest thing I ever heard,” Mr. Kerry told a Pennsylvania audience.


“This president’s pride has brought us a coalition of the few barely willing to do anything at all,” the senator said in a 2003 speech at the Brookings Institution,”160 Mongolians, 43 Estonians, and 83 Filipinos is not a coalition. It is a cover-up.”


Mr. Kerry should run that assessment by the president of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who recently decorated a Mongolian soldier for saving the Polish division’s headquarters from a terrorist attack. Sergeant Ganbold Azzaya shot and killed a suicide bomber before he could drive a truck laden with explosives into the Polish-led multinational compound in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The president of Mongolia, Natsagiyn Bagabandi, awarded Sergeant Azzaya the Army Medal of Honor at a ceremony in August.


The Mongolians don’t see themselves as part of a cover-up. “Mongolians talk of supporting democracy in Iraq, of bolstering geopolitical ties with the United States and of returning their nation’s long-eclipsed name to the world stage,” according to Mongolia’s UB Post. “Now,” a Mongolian military spokesman told the newspaper, “everyone will know where Mongolia is.”


The Bush administration has taken the opportunity to strengthen ties with Mongolia, a strategic ally sandwiched between China and Russia, and to support its transition to liberal democracy.


Estonia’s participation in the coalition has also been significant, Mr. Kerry’s comments notwithstanding. In February, Sergeant Andres Nuiamae, who served in West Baghdad, became the first Estonian soldier killed in action since Estonia regained its independence in 1991.”We can never overestimate his courage and readiness to serve Estonia as well as all states and nations who hold dear the ideals of freedom and democracy,” the Estonian prime minister, Juhan Parts, said in a statement. Estonian soldiers serve alongside Americans in the 1st Cavalry Division. Three have received the Bronze Star.


Mongolia and Estonia are only two of several formerly communist countries working to bring democracy to Iraq. All seven of the newest signers of the North Atlantic Treaty acceded to the alliance while participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. “The peoples of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia have a fresh memory of tyranny. And they know the consequences of complacency in the face of danger,” President Bush said when he welcomed the countries’ foreign ministers to the White House in May 2003. “They have proven themselves to be allies by their action. And now it is time to make them allies by treaty.”


Romanian military police patrol the area around An Nassiryia along with Italian carabinieri and Portuguese gendarmes. The president of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic, recently awarded a Medal for Bravery to one Slovak soldier, Miroslav Stanik, who saved the life of a Polish soldier under mortar fire.


Soldiers from elsewhere around the world also identify with Iraq’s struggle. “Our country came out of a similar situation as in Iraq 12 years ago, so people in El Salvador can understand what is happening here,” Colonel Hugo Omar Orellana Calidano told the Associated Press, referring to his country’s civil war. The Salvadoran troops in Iraq constitute El Salvador’s first peacekeeping mission abroad.


In April, a unit of 16 Salvadoran soldiers found themselves surrounded by Mahdi Army fighters in Najaf. After hours of combat, the unit ran out of ammunition, 12 of their number lay wounded, and one had been killed. About 10 Mahdi militiamen tried to seize one of the soldiers. Corporal Samuel Toloza charged at the enemy gunmen with a switchblade, stabbing several of them and protecting his fellow soldier before reinforcements arrived.


“They’re probably the bravest and most professional troops I’ve ever worked with,” a Coalition Provisional Authority official, Philip Kosnett, told the Associated Press at the time. Mr. Kosnett nominated six Salvadorans for the Bronze Star.


Iraq is also the first peacekeeping operation for Kazakstan, a Muslim country in Central Asia. Kazakstani engineers had destroyed 2.7 million units of ammunition in Iraq as of last August. Peacekeepers from the country also work to clear land mines from the Iraqi terrain. “I’m very proud of the relationship that developed between Kazakstani soldiers and American soldiers in a very difficult combat zone,” said General John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, when he visited Kazakstan two months ago. “And of course, in the future, we hope to develop further our ability to help work on border issues and counterterrorism issues, because all of us know that this region is one where extremism is playing too great of a role.”


Troops from another Muslim nation, Azerbaijan, patrol areas with the highest concentrations of Shiite shrines and historical relics. Azerbaijani peacekeepers are responsible for security as well as the preservation of Iraqi cultural and religious artifacts.


Ukrainian peacekeepers, meanwhile, have collected more than 650 weapons and destroyed 146,000 explosive devices and 550 pounds of TNT. Earlier this year, Ukrainian soldiers averted an attack on coalition forces when they discovered an improvised explosive device attached to a bridge and neutralized it with precision fire.


It’s true that not every country in the coalition maintains as large a military force as America or Great Britain. But that is not to say that their participation is not a diplomatic achievement, or an important show of solidarity with America. The Kingdom of Tonga has sent 45 Royal Tongan Marines to Iraq, the country’s first peacekeeping deployment outside the South Pacific. The contingent may not sound very large, but it constitutes a full 10% of the Tongan Defense Forces. This commitment – a large one for the small island nation – continues an important tradition of friendship with America. Tonga served with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force on the Solomon Islands during World War II. Today, Tongan Marines serve with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in the Al Anbar province of Iraq.


“Tonga,” writes Lieutenant Commander Solomone Savelio, “had an obligation to the Coalition of the Willing to make a commitment when U.S. asked for assistance.”


Mr. Kerry dismisses the smaller countries serving with America in Iraq as “window dressing.” Mr. Kwasniewski, however, disagrees. “It’s sad that a senator with 20 years of experience does not appreciate Polish sacrifice,” the Polish president said following last week’s debate. “It’s immoral to not see this involvement we undertook because we believe that we have to fight terrorism together, that we need to show international solidarity, that Saddam Hussein is a danger to the world.”


“If we are an arrogant nation, they’ll view us that way,” Mr. Bush said four years ago during a debate with Vice President Gore, “but if we’re a humble nation, they’ll respect us.” The president is often accused of failing to heed his own advice. But in defending the coalition in Iraq, Mr. Bush has proved to be a humbler leader than Mr. Kerry. “I respect every soldier, from every country, who serves beside us in the hard work of history,” Mr. Bush said at the Republican convention. “America is grateful, and America will not forget.”


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