davehogg

aiela and I are watching The Daily Show and Jon Stewart started the show with a monologue about how President Bush mentioned in a speech on Sept. 13 that there are 36 countries on the ground in Iraq, and how there are really only 25, and how they are counting Iceland, which only had one person, who has now left, and how the only other countries with any sizable presence are Australia, the UK, South Korea and Georgia, but how the United States still makes up a massive percentage of the actual troop count ...

I love Jon Stewart ... but it was really weird hearing him spending almost an entire segment on the exact same thing I blogged about almost four weeks ago!

36?

So "36 countries" actually means the Iraqis, the Americans, and exactly three other countries with 1,000 or more soldiers - Australia, the United Kingdom and South Korea. The Koreans are expected to be gone by the end of the year, but Georgia is planning on going from around 800 soldiers to about 2,000, so it will still be three.

Put another way, the "international effort" is 93% American.

I'm not even vaguely trying to imply that Jon Stewart reads my blog. I'm more confused as to why he is doing a story on this now.