Desperation

The US is now so desperate for troops to die for Haliburton and provide a fig-leaf of international respectability in Iraq that they asked Cambodia to contribute. Cambodia's answer? "No" - and in no uncertain terms:

"We will not send our armed forces to Iraq because the issue there is not in the hands of the United Nations," Hun Sen told reporters.

But even if the UN were in command, Cambodia would still not send troops to Iraq or Afghanistan, he said following a meeting last week with US Ambassador Joseph A Mussomeli, who asked him to consider sending troops.

"Every day we have seen people get killed and taken hostage" in Iraq, Hun Sen said.

"So I will not let my people, who went through 30 years of suffering from war, see more horrible days of separation and suffering from the continued terrorist activities of decapitating hostages in Iraq," he said.

I guess unilateralism has a price after all...