Is Ireland part of 'Coalition of the Willling'

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday March 19, 2003 13:33 by Anti war

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has claimed that 45 nations support the war on Iraq. 30 countries were willing to be named but 15 preferred to remain anonymous. Is Ireland one of these 15 countries? It would seem so.

Remarks by Whitehouse Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at yesterday's press briefing seem to confirm that Bertie did indeed pledge to Bush his Government's committment to be part of the coalition of the killing. However, this support is rather shamefaced in that Ahern did not want Ireland to be publicly named with the other 30.

Here's how Fleischer defines participation in this "coalition":

"Well, we have all along said, in terms of actual, active combat, there would be very, very few countries. In terms of providing the neccessary means of basing or overflight, which afterall, is how combat would ensue- you can't have combat if you don't have supplies, you can't have combat if you don't have overflight- it will be a rather large number..."