WAR: Ukraine; Pullout of Troops From Iraq Is Primary Task, page 1

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 10:24 AM

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Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's new president has stated that "the pullout of our peacekeeping contingent from Iraq is the primary task," in a statement made to his top military commanders. Ukraine currently has about 1650 soldiers serving in Iraq under Polish command.

ap.tbo.com
His government has promised to withdraw the troops this year. Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko said eaid earlier the contingent could be withdrawn by October.

Later in the day, after meeting Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Gritsenko said Ukraine could cut some 700 troops by April, according to his spokesman, Andriy Lysenko. He said the decision would be made after Ukraine's Defense and Security Council meets next week.

"The military's task is to withdraw troops without losses and for politicians it is to negotiate with our international partners, beginning with the Iraqi government," Yushchenko was quoted as saying.

The troop deployment was widely seen as an effort by former President Leonid Kuchma to repair relations with Washington, frayed by allegations that he had approved the sale of radar systems and other military equipment to Saddam Hussein's regime in violation of U.N. sanctions.

The deployment is deeply unpopular among Ukrainians, and one of Kuchma's last orders was to bring the troops home. In January, eight soldiers died in an explosion that Ukrainian defense officials described as a terrorist attack.

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One by one, our allies are pulling out their troops from Iraq or setting deadlines and goals for withdrawal, when will we do the same? I personally would have thought that the proposed fund for rewarding allies assisting us in the War on Terror would convince some the remaining countries in the coalition to stay the course, but I guess money can't really buy everything or maybe the Ukrainians were unhappy with whatever offer was or will be made to them.

kazi

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 01:26 PM

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What a frigginmess this Iraqi war is. Bush goes out everday to deflect attention from the war, be Social Security, the econony, Laura's new stand on ship shaping the east wing, Or even the judicial nominee fiasco, but the people polled still point to the war as our main concern. Hell yeah yeshenko wants out of Iraq, he has a country to run. And how much death benefit do you think the Ukrain can afford to pay.

subz

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 06:14 PM

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The US dollar is pretty worthless now and will be worth even less in the future.

The Americans big sticks are looking smaller and smaller.

Its political Darwinism at its best. All these countries governments are pulling out to survive. In the end you'll see the US taking a much lower role in World politics.

marg6043

posted on Feb, 17 2005 @ 06:28 PM

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I have to agree with both of you, the media has diverted the attention to other things rather of what is going on with Iraq.

And yes the dollar is going down and soon we are going to feel it when goods that come in the country cost more to buy and it will be pass down to us the consumer.

One thing that strikes me the most is that we all the disable vets coming from Iraq, in the last 82 billion asked for the "WAR" is not reference to help for our Iraqi Vets, prompting one of our senators to add an additional 2 billion for them.

I tell you I agree Ukraine can afford the cost of getting more of his soldiers death.