"Fuzzy Math"
By I certainly expected Bush’s speech to contain an element of Disney-esue fantasy, but I must admit that I’m somewhat surprised to see that The Decider apparently can’t count:
Oddly, he thanked “the 36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq.” At the peak of the “coalition,” back in the fall of 2004, only 31 countries besides the United States had any troops in Iraq. They amounted to 24,000—fewer than one-fifth of America’s numbers—and one-third of those were contributed by Britain. Now, according to the most recent official report (dated Aug. 30, 2007), just 25 countries have troops there; they number fewer than 12,000 (an average of fewer than 500 per nation), and more and more, including Britain, are leaving every month.
Perhaps one of General Petraeus’ charts would have helped.