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Friends, Colin Powell said today that there is a coalition of about 45 nations that support taking military action against Iraq, one third of which prefer not to be named. The full article from Reuters follows. I am interested in the usage of language. I am not a native English speaking. But even my limited English tells me the man, whom Harry Belafonte has called a "plantation slave", is lying. The US might have a coalition of 45 "governments", but it is dishonest to say that 45 "nations" support the US in its war. We know for certain that the majority in Britain, Spain, Italy, Japan, Turkey and in Muslim states oppose war against Iraq. Which nations support war then? It would perhaps be better to call the coalition with the a new name: "The Coalition of the Mendacious" ! That would certainly include the PM who promised us he will get a new SC resolution and assured us he will get the necessary 9 votes.... But once a liar, always a liar... HZ ------------------------------------------ http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=Z5DDCVOYCLVEOCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=2401341 Powell Says U.S. Has 45-Nation Coalition on Iraq Tue March 18, 2003 01:13 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday there was a coalition of about 45 nations that support taking military action against Iraq, one third of which prefer not to be named. "We now have a coalition of the willing that includes some 30 nations who have publicly said they could be included in such a listing," Powell told reporters. "There are 15 other nations who for one reason or another do not yet wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition." President Bush gave an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday: leave power in 48 hours or face a U.S.-led war that will start "at a time of our choosing" to force Iraq to give up its suspected weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies it has such weapons. U.S. officials released a list of the nations they said would be part of the coalition including: Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy and Japan, which it listed as "post-conflict." The others were South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk