Coalition of the Willy-Nilly

George Bush said in his speech that there are 36 nations with boots on the ground in Iraq.

One example from the president's list of 36 is Iceland which has sent a single public information officer to serve in the NATO mission in Baghdad. More robustly, Italy has 8 officers on the NTM-I mission in Baghdad, Portugal is considering sending "up to 10."

  TPM

If you take a look at the list we were provided [by the White House], by a National Security Council official, the first heading is "Countries with troops on ground in Iraq." Only 26 countries appear in that category. The remaining 10 countries are assigned to either United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq or to NATO Training NTM-I.

So by the President's own accounting, the math is wrong. As Spencer Ackerman points out, there are other problems with the numbers. Canada is listed, for example, among the 36, but it pulled out its one and only person in Iraq months ago.

  TPM

Albania [...] has just 120 soldiers there and Bulgaria has 150 non-combat troops in Iraq.

  Think Progress

New Zealand does contribute its own soldier -- that's soldier, singular -- to UNAMI.

  TPM Muckraker

Sigh.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.