Will Europe Stand Firm For Their Principles?

Europeans as a rule don't like the war in Iraq. Afghanistan is ok--heck, this is the first conflict where NATO's collective defense has been invoked. NATO is deploying more to Afghanistan as it avoids Iraq. Individual NATO countries are shifting away from the controversial Iraq theater for the acceptable Afghan theater, too.

So here is where it gets strange. While it is true that Iraqi terrorists are more lethal than Afghan terrorists, all theaters are not created equal:

But in Afghanistan, more of the NATO peacekeepers are moving into pro-Taliban areas of the south. There, lots of violence is to be found, more than one would encounter in, say, southern Iraq. Such is the price of political correctness.

Europeans are moving from quiet sections of Iraq to hot sections of Afghanistan. But Afghanistan is "good" while Iraq is "bad."

Will Europe have the will to accept more casualties in Afghanistan? We shall see if Europe really is willing to fight for what they believe in or whether they simply don't want to fight.

UPDATE: Only minutes later I can add that NATO is willing to attack in the tougher theater they are in:

"Reports indicate that more than 200 Taliban fighters have been killed since Operation Medusa began early Saturday morning," the NATO force said in a statement.

It said more than 80 suspected Taliban fighters were captured by Afghan police and a further 180 insurgents were seen fleeing the district.

NATO has lost 4 killed in the attack plus 14 British air crew when their plane supporting the fighting crashed.

I have no doubt that as Western forces, Non-American NATO forces can fight effectively. The question is whether the casualties they endure will be too much for them to continue fighting.