Monday, December 21, 2009

Micronesia: US ally in Iraq (it sent one soldier)

"Russia, in fact, may have learned the technique from the United States. For years, the U.S. has been propping up a trio of small Pacific islands or island networks it wrested from Japan during World War II, in exchange for their diplomatic support: Palau (population 20,000), Micronesia (107,000) and the Marshall Islands (64,000). President George W. Bush liked to inflate the number of nations belonging to the "coalition of the willing" for the Iraq invasion by including them, even though they couldn't supply any troops because they're completely reliant on the United States for military defense. They vote with the U.S. on nearly every United Nations initiative -- though on the rare occasions when they defect, as Micronesia and the Marshall Islands did in October when the General Assembly voted to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba, you know Washington is on shaky ground."