Iraq Roundup: 'Coalition of the Willing' to become even smaller

South Korea is making plans to pull all of its troops out of Iraq:

South Korea's Defense Ministry submitted a plan to parliament onThursday for the complete pullout of its troops from Iraq, ending whatonce had been the third-largest deployment of foreign troops in thatcountry.

A final decision will be made in September.  The fact that the redeployment recommendation is coming directly from the Defense Ministry shows that it it pretty much a sure bet.

Currently, South Korea has 1,200 troops there.  The only other country besides the U.S. and Britain with at least 1,000 soldiers in Iraq is Australia.  The United States contributes 157,000 troops, and has spent about half a trillion dollars on military expenditures since the war began in March of 2003.

Let's run through the other Iraq news this morning:

• A bomb ripped through a bus station in Southwestern Baghdad during the Thursday morning commute, killing at least 20 civilians.
• Three British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Basra.
• Four more US soldiers were killed yesterday, bringing the total death toll to 3,560.  92 have died in the month of June.
• A Congressional report this week shows mixed results in the training of Iraqi security forces.  "The bottom line is that after three months of studying the U.S. effortto develop the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), we cannot assess theoperational capability of these forces," the report said.  "We are actually left with more questions than answers."
• If an Iraqi Appeals Court upheld a lower court's ruling, 'Chemical Ali' will be hanged.  'Chemical Ali', whose real name is Ali Hassan al-Majid, was responsible for a number of chemical weapons attacks before the United States and Britain imposed the 'no fly zone' after the Gulf War.  'Chemical Ali' is Saddam Hussein's cousin.