Europeans Not Down With This War

There is good news and bad news coming out of Europe. The good news is 77% of Europeans approve of President Obama's handling of foreign policy, in contrast to only 18% who approved of President Bush's approach at the end of 2008.

The bad news is that they still don't like the actual policies. A new poll shows that the majority of every European country involved in the war favors reducing or withdrawing troops- and some don't even have many to begin with. In Western Europe, 55% of those polled favor reducing troops/withdrawing, while a staggering 69% do in Eastern Europe. Or, as Donald Rumsfeld liked to call them, "the New Europe." For those who still have moral qualms about abandoning Afghanistan completely, 10 out of the 12 countries polled demonstrated support for more economic reconstruction aid.

You can read an insightful, though somewhat alarmist piece on the fracturing of the NATO alliance here.