Bush started with 32 nations in his 'coalition" -- the vast majority which failed to provide anything more than moral support. (Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.)
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Four more are in the process of leaving -- Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. Several other nations have pledged to increase their troop levels -- South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Through it all, the US is struggling to keep the whole effort from falling apart.
Australia's pledge to increase its commitment will bring its troop strength to 880 -- fewer than half the 2,000 troops it had during the war. And only about 250 are in Iraq, with the rest in air and naval support positions nearby, Australian envoys say. For Australia and some other countries, increases are mainly meant to enhance security for their own troops, embassies and personnel.
Support is also tenuous in nations Washington considers to be key players. The vote this week in Italy's House of Deputies to extend its deployment was 257 to 207, a reflection of the almost even public split, an Italian envoy said. Playing to strong public antiwar sentiment, Australia's opposition pledged to withdraw troops by Christmas if elected, while revelations about the Abu Ghraib prison abuse led Hungary's opposition to call for a withdrawal despite originally supporting the deployment.
A strong international presence in Iraq is essential if we are to help transition the nation into some sembleance of democracy. This administration's inability to secure meaningful levels of international support (and no, 12 troops from Moldova don't count) is one of its biggest failures in a long list of failures in Iraq.