Norwegians Next

Next up on the "Pullout Parade" (after Spain, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic…and possibly Poland and Australia): Norway.

Oslo has rejected an appeal by the United States to keep Norwegian troops in Iraq after a planned pullout in June when Norway aims to focus on helping stabilise Afghanistan.

NATO-member Norway, which did not support the U.S.-led war in Iraq last year, sent a company of about 180 troops to help stabilise the south of Iraq after the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

"We must follow our original plan, of a commitment until the summer," Foreign Minister Jan Petersen told NRK television on Friday after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed hopes that Oslo might reconsider its plan to pull out in June.

That quagmire in Iraq is breaking up that old coalition of our. One might question, though, how much of a coalition it ever was, given the minute troop commitments of other countries compared to the U.S.

Still it's interesting that Norway is focusing it's energies on the country that did have connections to the 9/11 terrorists, rather than one that never did.