Should the world have just sat on its hands and watched Iraq invade kuwait and force its dictatorship on its people?
Should the world have just sat on its hands while the teliban in Afghanistan aided Osama bin Laden in plotting major terroist attacks and forced its way of living apon the people of Afghanistan?
Should we all just sit on our hands and watch major terrisom events such as Sept 11 and the bali bombings unfold?
Should the world have just sat on its hands when Germany tried to invade and take over much of europe? Gassing millions because they happened to be jewish?
It wasn't just the USA who helped stop all this from happening, it was the majority western countries, united together. Whilst the USA is the country with the most troops and the major player, I am thankful they did what they did, and stopped the above things mentioned from happening.
You can't just expect things to change in Iraq and Afghanistan overnight. But hopefully now with a free government over time the life for millions living in these countries will be improved. Look at Germany now, its slightly different place to that of the 1940's.
And anyone who says the amount of lives lost would have been far less, had these regimes of Sadam Hussain, Osama bin Laden and Hitler been able to continue for decades I think is living in the land of fairies.
There is a list of countries involved in the war in Iraq. its a world effort.
United States: 250,000 invasion--145,000 current (10/06)
United Kingdom: 45,000 invasion--7,200 current (9/06)
South Korea: 3,300 invasion--2,600 PLANNED (12/06)
Poland: 194 invasion--2,500 peak
Australia: 2,000 invasion--1,400 current (11/06)
Romania: 865 troops
Denmark: 422 deployed 7/03--545 current (12/06)
Georgia: 500 invasion--300 current (8/06)
El Salvador: 380 troops
Czech Republic: 300 troops
Azerbaijan: 150 troops
Latvia: 136 troops (deployed 4/04)
Mongolia: 131 --100 current (1/07)
Albania: 120 troops
Slovakia: 103 current (9/06)
Lithuania: 50 troops
Armenia: 46 troops
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 36 troops
Estonia: 35 troops
Macedonia: 33 troops
Kazakhstan: 29 troops
Moldova: 24 invasion--12 current (9/06)
Canada: undisclosed number of JTF2 operators
Italy: 1,800 troops (deployed 7/03 - withdrawn 11/06)
Ukraine: 1,650 troops (deployed 8/03 - withdrawn 12/05)
Netherlands : 1,345 troops (deployed 7/03 - withdrawn 3/05)
Spain : 1,300 troops (withdrawn 4/04)
Japan: 600 troops (deployed 1/04 - withdrawn 7/06)
Bulgaria : 462 troops (withdrawn 4/06)
Thailand: 423 troops (withdrawn 8/04)
Honduras: 368 troops (withdrawn 5/04)
Dominican Republic: 302 troops (withdrawn 5/04)
Hungary: 300 troops (withdrawn 3/05)
Nicaragua: 230 troops (withdrawn 2/04)
Singapore: 192 troops (withdrawn 3/05)
Norway: 150 troopss (withdrawn 10/05)
Portugal: 128 troops (withdrawn 2/05)
New Zealand: 61 troops (deployed 9/03 - withdrawn 9/04)
Philippines: 51 troops (deployed 7/03 - withdrawn 7/04)
Tonga: 45 troops (deployed 7/04 - withdrawn 12/04)
Iceland: 2 troops (withdrawal date unknown)