ther countries. While the British contribution is substantial, even it is somewhat in the nature of a fig leaf over what is effectively a unilateral American action. In short, the United States has the means to invade Iraq and depose the Saddam Hussein regime, and is militarily capable of doing so whether it has any support from other countries or not.
However, because the action has been an all-but-unilateral American action, whatever complications and problems stem from the operation, and from a subsequent occupation of Iraq, will also be almost exclusively America's problems. American policy will bear the responsibility for consequences, and the burdens of reconstruction, and American taxpayers will foot the bills.
All of this is in striking contrast to the first Gulf War of 1991, which resulted from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In that crisis, the United States and others secured a series of resolutions from the United Nations Security Council, demanding Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, and author
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