Scott is quite right. There might be some legitimate complaint about Italy, Germany, and Spain devoting insufficient forces and enthusiasm to the Afghanistan operation, were it not for the fact that the United States had launched the single most destructive initiative to that campaign, the invasion of Iraq. Iraq colors everything; it empowers opponents of using military force in the European countries in question, makes them (in the case of Spain) a target for terrorists, and throws tremendous resources down a hole. Indeed, to the extent that poppy eradication is a U.S.-led program, the Germans are literally being more productive by doing nothing than the Americans are by spraying crops. The negative impact of the invasion of Iraq does not, unfortunately, stop at Iraq's borders. --Robert Farley
