Shortly after President Bush announced an increase of troops in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair made an equally surprising statement.

On Wednesday he announced he is going to start pulling troops out.

And he's not alone.

The "Coalition of the Willing" that the United States put together in 2003 is slowly beginning to fall apart. In addition to Britain scaling back its troop levels, Denmark is pulling out completely and Lithuania is seriously considering pulling its forces as well.

Conversely, Bush plans to deploy an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq to help secure Baghdad.

While countries such as Australia and South Korea will remain in Iraq with U.S. forces, this scaling back of troops is not exactly a vote of confidence for the war in Iraq.

It is important to note, however, that Blair's decision to slowly pull troops out of Iraq is not necessarily a rebuke of the United States' presence in Iraq. Rather, it is something he promised to do when he decided to step down as prime minister, which does not seem to be too far into the future.

But he's stepping down, at least partially, because he got the country involved in a war that most British — from the get-go — did not agree with. As the war dragged on, it began to overshadow Blair's legacy and has started to hurt his Labour Party.

Britain has been slowly distancing itself from Iraq for years. Initially, it sent 40,000 armed forces to fight in Iraq, reduced that number to 9,000 two years ago and now only has 7,100 troops left in the country.

While the loss of 1,600 British, 460 Danish and 53 Lithuanian soldiers, is not crippling to the war effort in Iraq, it does send an interesting message to the world.

The more the United States sinks deeper and deeper into Iraq with a surge in troops, the more other countries are stepping back and pulling out. If this trend continues, in a very short amount of time, the United States will stand alone in Iraq fighting an enemy it can barely define.

This will only put more strain on the backs of the American populace.

With any luck, as it sees its allies packing up and getting the heck out of "dodge," the United States, too, will see the prudence in getting out of a disastrous situation it created.

In leaving, the Brits aren't abandoning the United States. Their leadership just has been quicker to see the writing on the wall and realize that now, the war in Iraq is a lost cause. The war has only resulted in the loss of life and domestic political capital. And this will only become more clear as the public begins to look objectively at the situation — divorced of the knee-jerk fear and patriotism that have gripped both the American populace and our legislature.

Britain has said it's time for its forces to leave. It's about time the United States realized that it should be leaving, too.