Some in Bush's 'coalition of the willing' are suddenly losing their will

WASHINGTON — President Bush's prized "coalition of the willing" — the three dozen countries that are contributing military forces in Iraq — appears suddenly to be losing some of its will.

First Spain said it was getting out, then Poland threatened to leave early, and on Friday the South Korean Ministry of Defense announced that it will not send its troops to the area of Iraq that U.S. commanders had requested, although it said it would position them elsewhere in Iraq.

The coalition may not be crumbling, but neither is it gaining the political traction that the Pentagon had hoped for as it tackles the difficult task of finding fresh forces for the Iraq mission in 2005 and beyond.

On Friday, the national security adviser to President Aleksander Kwasniewski said the Polish leader told President Bush that Polish troops will stay in Iraq "as long as needed, plus one day longer."

Those comments came one day after Kwasniewski said Polish troops might leave Iraq months earlier than planned and that Poland had been misled over Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction arsenal. Kwasniewski pledged to keep the troops in Iraq in a phone call by Bush to mark the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the adviser, Marek Siwiec, told reporters.

A key element of the Bush administration's strategy for Iraq is to put an international face on the military force that is not only helping rebuild the country but also to trying to snuff out a resilient insurgency.

That strategy is meant to counter the charge by critics that the administration took a unilateral action in attacking Iraq, and that it has failed to garner sufficient allied support in the war's aftermath.

It's possible, of course, that security conditions in Iraq will improve so markedly over the remainder of this year that a military force much smaller than the current one of about 140,000 will be required. In that case the United States may not need additional allied troop contributions.

But if the insurgency persists or gains ground, then any slack in coalition contributions — as suggested by Spain, Poland and possibly South Korea — may have to be made up by deploying even more American forces.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an Associated Press interview Thursday that there are now about 115,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, plus about 24,000 coalition troops. Nearly half of the coalition contribution is from staunch ally Britain.