Few resonant phrases are repeated in politics without a deliberate reason, and Keir Starmer’s use of “coalition of the willing” on Sunday could well have been intended as a reminder to the US diplomatic and defence community: we helped you out; now return the favour.
The most famous, or infamous, coalition of the willing was the 30 nations who publicly gave at least some support to George W Bush’s US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
This group was assembled after Washington decided that the Iraq regime possessed weapons of mass destruction that were an immediate threat, and that invasion was required before UN-mandated weapons inspectors had completed their work.
The resultant invasion force, which failed to find the weapons but toppled Saddam Hussein and pushed Iraq into a long period of internal chaos and bloodshed, was dominated by 150,000-plus US forces.
The biggest contingent from the willing partners, as Starmer will know, was the UK, which sent 45,000 troops. Australia sent about 2,000 and the other nations generally committed many fewer, often just a handful of people, or simply allowed the coalition to use their bases.
Starmer’s decision to reintroduce the term came during a BBC interview on Sunday morning where he unveiled an Anglo-French plan to work with the US on a peace deal for Ukraine.
Other partners were expected, he added. “That is a step in the right direction. This is not an exclusion – the more the better in this. But we need to move to a quicker, more agile way of going forward, and I think that is a coalition of the willing states.”
Speaking at a press conference after the summit of leaders Starmer had convened in London on Sunday, the prime minister said a number of other countries had agreed to join this coalition. He did not name them, saying it was up to individual leaders to set this out.
In the end, Bush’s coalition expanded from 31 countries to 38 after the invasion. Whatever the murkiness of its intent and the mayhem it unleashed, it was an enterprise of many nations.
Starmer is not about to have 38 countries sign up to his coalition. But he will very much hope that among the willing will be Donald Trump’s US.
Article by:Source: Peter Walker Senior political correspondent
