One of the big criticisms the anti-war crowd tries to frequently use is downplaying the role of the over 30 nations that have troops either currently serving or served at one time in Iraq by saying they are only sending a couple of soldiers for purely symbolic support but were not really committed to the cause.
The problem with this argument is that if they are comparing say the 50 Tongan marines (who btw are some of the most professional, courteous and squared away troops I've ever met) who are currently here on Camp Victory and other bases to the approximately 180K US military personnel that is not comparing the right numbers. What they need to compare is percentage of total military.
The US has over a million total in the military so there total commitment is around 20%. Tonga's total military is 250 personnel, so they also have committed around 20% of their forces. Then to take it a step further if you compare total number of US military personal in Iraq with total population available for service in the US the percentage is 0.3% which is also the exact same when compared to Tonga.
All this to say that when you actually compare apples to apples, to say that our allies are any less committed then we are just because of a small number of troops being here, that is completely false.
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Despite the dismissive tone of Iraq war opponents, even the smaller allies in the Multi National Force continue to demonstrate how strong the alliance is between the United States and other states large and small around the globe.
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