What are your problems with the presidential candidates?

[HasimirFenring]

Per capita, that's about 30-50% of the US committment, off the topic of my head.

You mean 30-50% of the US military?  I'm afriad I don't understand

[nemafakei]

That statement meas that if US sent 10% of their population to Iraq, the Danish would hav sent 3%-5% of theirs. Now the numbers are actually lower, but I was merely pointing out that altough the danish sent fewer forces per capita than the US, the number is not as ridiculous as it seems.

[HasimirFenring]

That makes sense, thanks.  Where are those troops deployed?  As I recall, the British were mostly in southern Iraq.  What about the other nations?  Are they stationed in as violent a zone as the American troops are?

[Wolf]

Probably not, since we don't hear about too many non-US soldiers turning into casualties. Though, I could be wrong.

[HasimirFenring]

That was my impression as well.

[nemafakei]

But then, if you kill 100 soldiers randomly, most are going to be Americans because there's more of them.

"Are they stationed in as violent a zone as the American troops are?"

Hm... wonder where the causality comes in...

[Wolf]

Actually, I read that there were over 440,000 Iraqis serving with the Coalition. And that was almost a year ago. If you kill a hundred Coalition members in Iraq randomly, most of them would be Iraqis, and the remainder would be Americans.

[Andoreion]

This is a bit of an old list (May of this year), but it does provide a bit of insight: (Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/iraq/foreigntroops.html)

Who is securing and rebuilding Iraq?

CBC News Online | Updated May 6, 2004

COUNTRIES WITH TROOPS AND MILITARY PERSONNEL IN IRAQ

In addition to the United States, which has more than 130,000 troops in Iraq, many other countries have sent military personnel. The number of non-American coalition troops is more than 40,000, though numbers fluctuate.

United Kingdom: 9,000 soldiers

Italy: 3,000 soldiers, some serving as police and engineers

Poland: 2,400 soldiers

Ukraine: 1,600 soldiers

Netherlands: 1,100 soldiers plus a logistics team, a field hospital, military police and 200 engineers

Japan: 1,100 soldiers assigned to reconstruction

Australia: 800 soldiers

Romania: 700 soldiers plus 149 de-mining specialists, military police and "special intelligence" members

South Korea: 600 military engineers and medics

Bulgaria: 480 soldiers plus chemical warfare experts

Thailand: 440 soldiers assigned to humanitarian missions

Denmark: 420 soldiers including medics and military police

El Salvador: 360 soldiers

Hungary: 300 soldiers

Norway: 179 soldiers, mostly engineers and mine clearers

Mongolia: 160 soldiers involved in peacekeeping

Azerbaijan: 150 soldiers taking part in law enforcement and protection of historic monuments

Portugal: 125 soldiers functioning as police officers

Latvia: 120 soldiers

Lithuania: 115 soldiers

Slovakia: 102 soldiers

Czech Republic: 80 soldiers, serving as police

Philippines: 80 soldiers plus police and medics

Albania: 70 non-combat troops

Georgia: 70 soldiers

New Zealand: 60 army engineers assigned to reconstruction (expected to leave in Sept. 2004)

Moldova: 50 soldiers including de-mining specialists and medics

Macedonia: 35 soldiers

Estonia: 30 soldiers

Kazakhstan: 30 soldiers (expected to leave end of May 2004)

Spain withdrew its troops from Iraq following the election of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on March 14. Honduras and the Dominican Republic quickly followed suit. The three countries combined had nearly 2,000 troops in Iraq. Nicaragua withdrew its 115 troops at the end of March 2004 for economic reasons.

Countries that provide non-military support include: Kuwait and Qatar, which have hosted the U.S. Central Command and the invasion force; Ethiopia and Eritrea, which have given use of bases or ports; and Turkey, which has given permission for airspace use. Others countries have opted to give political support: Angola, Costa Rica, Colombia, Iceland, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Panama, Rwanda, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Uganda and Uzbekistan.

In early April 2004, the Bush administration indicated it was negotiating with another 50 countries that had expressed interest in providing peacekeeping troops.

[nemafakei]

And 500,000 interpreters.