Cohen's Coalition

What's starting to look like an international Iraq-attack telethon got a major boost Monday and Tuesday, when three more countries called in to pledge their support: Canada, Australia and Oman. "This is a real coalition... we are very happy to receive it," said a relieved William Cohen on the latest leg of his Gulf tour. More calls were expected soon, he added.

Whether this will make up for the tepid support Cohen got from Saudi Arabia is another matter. The Saudis didn't even have to nix a request for the U.S. to use its air bases. That's because America was "too chicken to ask... we were afraid we'd get turned down," says TIME Pentagon correspondent Mark Thompson. And there's more embarrassment for the military: An unnamed senior officer on tour with Cohen admitted that even lengthy, punishing air strikes could fall short of eliminating Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, because the U.S. has no idea where they are. "We don't know what we don't know," the officer told the AP. The calls may continue to come in, but are the pledges going to a good cause?