Members of the "Coalition of the Willing" are named
2Colin Powell reveals the names of the “Coalition of the Willing” on March 18th 2003
In a play for legitimacy after its attempts to win the support of the UN security council went down in flames U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that thirty nations have joined with the United States in a "coalition of the willing" to remove Saddam Hussein from power
Eventually the list would expand to include 48 nations. Most of the countries listed would not participate in combat operations, in fact some of them did not even have standing armies.
The concept of the coalition was heavily criticized from the outset with the main points being that it was just a cover to sell an illegitimate war to the US voters and that many of the nations
had joined the coalition thanks to US financial aid rather than out of a belief in the objectives.