a really delayed SotU comment

The State of the Union is last week's news.

Literally.

But to review, here's the best part:

Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands — (applause) — Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq. (Applause.) As we debate at home, we must never ignore the vital contributions of our international partners, or dismiss their sacrifices.

(Which of course didn't prevent a certain talentless wench from doing just that.)

For the sake of completeness, here is the full list of nations contributing to the Coalition forces of Operation Iraqi Freedom (via The Command Post).

At this time, 35 countries, in addition to the United States, have contributed a total of approximately 22,000 troops to ongoing stability operations in Iraq. These 34 are Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Thailand, the Philippines, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Take a good look: by my count, 15 sixteen of the listed countries are either former Soviet republics or ex-members of the Warsaw Pact (or, in the case of Macedonia, formerly part of communist Yugoslavia). Then there's the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and most dramatically, Nicaragua. (It must gall liberals to learn that Reagan was, after all, correct in supporting the contras.)

Steven Den Beste pays tribute to one of our lesser-mentioned allies here.

Finally, one of the canards oft heard from the left is that the US somehow “created” Saddam. Darren Kaplan puts this one decisively to rest. (Via Instapundit.)