toledoblade.com -- The Blade ~ Toledo Ohio

WASHINGTON - The White House communications team preparing "talking points" for administration spokesmen on the war against Iraq makes careful note that they are to refer not to "American forces" storming Iraq but to "coalition forces."

With major allies such as France, Germany, China, and Russia sitting out this gulf war, many Americans are asking what constitutes what the administration cheerfully has dubbed the "Coalition of the Willing" and what exactly are they willing to do?

In the past President Bush has spoken in general about the "ever-growing coalition.'' He has said, "We are grateful for their determination, we appreciate their vision, and we welcome their support."

Yesterday he got more specific as he aimed to boost military morale in a speech at Fort McDill Air Force Base in Florida.

After announcing to cheers and applause that 48 nations now have joined the United States in vowing to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Mr. Bush said:

"All the nations in our coalition are contributing to our steady progress. British ground forces have seized strategic towns and ports. The Royal Air Force is striking targets throughout Iraq. The Royal Navy is taking command of coastal waters. The Australian military is providing naval gunfire support and special forces and fighter aircraft on missions deep in Iraq.''

Denmark, he said, has contributed a submarine which is "monitoring Iraqi intelligence, providing early warning.''

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania have soldiers "forward deployed in the region, prepared to respond in the event of any attack of weapons of mass destruction anywhere in the region.'' They will be joined by soldiers from Ukraine and Bulgaria, he said.

Poland has denied it would supply ground troops, but several commandos were spotted by reporters in Iraq.

Spain, the most significant ally in Europe after the British, "is providing important logistical and humanitarian support,'' Mr. Bush said.

In sum, he said, "Coalition forces are skilled and courageous, and we are honored to have them by our side.''

When asked last week about the size and significance of coalition, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer whipped out a sheet of paper to announce: "All told, the population of the Coalition of the Willing is approximately 1.18 billion people around the world. The coalition countries have a combined GDP of approximately $21.7 trillion. Every major race, religion, and ethnic group in the world is represented."

The point, the administration says, is that the coalition for the second gulf war is much larger than in 1991, which had 34 countries, many of whom supplied large sums of money, troops, and logistical support.

In 1991, U.S. forces made up 70 percent of the 744,000 troops that fought Iraqi forces. But such countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan, and Germany financed a large part of the cost. Altogether, allies chipped in two-thirds of the $60 billion cost of the war.

Nonetheless, of the 300,000 allied troops in this war, 250,000 are from the United States and 45,000 are British. It is doubtful that all the other countries together are supplying even 5,000.

Miffed that many are complaining this White House has not put together a coalition as robust as the one former President Bush organized in 1991 to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, administration officials say they are privately getting moral support even if it is not public.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill, "We have a lot of our traditional allies with us," and named Italy, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain. Many of the others are small countries, which, admittedly, he said, "can't make a major military contribution. But they made a political contribution of enormous consequences" when they said they would stand with the United States.

Bristling, Mr. Powell said there is a "willing coalition of 47 nations'' ready to be counted. Others, he said, can't say it out loud yet, but they will when it's safe. It wasn't clear yesterday which country Mr. Bush was including when he said there are 48 nations and which country Mr. Powell was not including.

Many countries on the list do not even have a military, concede White House aides, but they are nonetheless willing supporters. Such countries include Iceland, Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Costa Rica, and Palau, a tiny, unarmed paradise in the Pacific Ocean north of Australia.

But many countries claim to be doing more. United Press International reported from Morocco that a newspaper there said Morocco offered to send to Iraq 2,000 monkeys said to be trained in detonating land mines.

Qatar is highly supportive of the United States, letting the U.S. Central Command put its headquarters there. But it is not clear which Arab countries are in full support or what they are doing to help since some have asked not to be identified if they support the United States.

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