...the lies that the Bush Administration engineered and had Powell present to the UN for approval. That is never mentioned in the above piece. The Invasion of Iraq was a war of aggression.
What Trump is generally doing now is quite similar: from the boats off the coasts of Venezuela, to the abduction of Maduro and his wife with the killing of many in Venezuela, and to this most recent attack in conjunction with Israel on Iran, it has not ever been demonstrated (as far as I am aware) that any of these actions have been justifiable by any imminent threats to the US. None of these actions were approved before the UN Security Council or were voted on and approved by the US Congress, and Trump is now openly talking of taking Cuba "in some form"--another aggression which will undoubtedly neither be justifiable, approved by a UN Security Council vote, nor approved by a US Congressional vote. Effectively, the US military is being abused by the Trump Administration and used as a private military to serve the whims of an abysmally ignorant, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, and insurrectionist who is not fit to command a fry station at a fast-food restaurant.
So, is it any wonder that US allies (who incidentally Trump has endlessly berated and demeaned over the last nearly two years) would not want to participate in what is arguably an illegal war of aggression and in what might extend to, at least, one instance of war crimes if Hegseth's "no quarter" remarks are ever actualized vis-a-vis Iran? (That omits the double tap strike on, at least, one boat off Venezuela, which could possibly be seen as exactly such an earlier actualization.)
All that being said, it is indeed interesting that CNN fails to point out the illegality of either of the wars they mention in the story. Perhaps, the illegality of this war is the principal reason that US allies (their governments, their civilian populations, and by extension their militaries) wish not to participate.
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