When our president is wowing them in the Old World, how can this be?
America's European allies are unlikely to commit significantly more combat troops to Afghanistan despite months of pressure from the US and Britain, officials and independent commentators said today.
The reluctance of European leaders, including Gordon Brown, to agree to deploy more of their troops, has angered Washington.
And it's worse than it seems. Our European allies not only largely declined to offer more troops (who would actually fight) from newfound love, they refused under pressure from the current "good" administration.
Back under Bush, we accepted help freely offered and called it the coalition of the willing. We surely quietly asked for more, but in the end we knew that free help is more durable than coerced help. It was enough to win in Iraq (and yes, we have to hold our gains and try to achieve more there).
I guess it wasn't George W. Bush's fault for the lack of help in the field, after all, as our "reality-based" community charged.
Few Europeans have actual combat-ready troops let alone the will to put them in combat.
