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"You have seen this become a globally unpopular war," Cordesman said. "Most of the world sees it as unjust and sees the United States as having effectively lost because it went to war for the wrong reasons."
Yet two key allies - Poland and South Korea - have signaled they will stand by the United States.
Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Tuesday his government won't decide whether to withdraw its 900 soldiers from Iraq until after the U.S. national election next year.
The Poles have ruled out "escape or desertion, because that would mean losing everything that we've gained," Kaczynski told Polish state Radio 1. "It's going to be necessary to wait on the results of the American elections."
Officially, South Korea is still undecided, and public discontent over its deployment of 1,200 soldiers runs high. But Bush has pressed President Roh Moo-hyun to extend the mission, and recent South Korean news reports suggest the government appears to be leaning that way.
The U.S. also can count on a handful of smaller stalwarts.
Australia's government has rebuffed calls by political opponents to pull out its 550 combat soldiers from southern Iraq.
Romania, too, says it has no plans to withdraw its 600 peacekeepers.
"This is not a subject," said Valeriu Turcan, spokesman for President Traian Basescu, the nation's commander in chief.
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