Props To Matt Yglesias

Matt told us then what the LA Times is telling us now - Europe is not interested in sending troops to Iraq so that we can send our troops home.

Short excerpt:

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry has staked much of his campaign on a proposal he hopes will convince voters that he can extricate the United States from Iraq more quickly and at less cost than President Bush.

But Kerry's plan, which promises to effectively shift much of the Iraq war burden from America to its allies, so far is failing to receive the international support the proposal must have to succeed.

...But Kerry's proposals depend on changing the minds of foreign leaders who do not want to defy their electorates by sending forces into what many consider to be a U.S.-made mess.

"I understand why John Kerry is making proposals of this kind, but there is a lack of realism in them," Menzies Campbell, a British lawmaker who is a spokesman on defense issues for the Liberal Democratic Party, said in a typical comment.

Many allied countries may welcome a new team in Washington after years of friction with the Bush administration. But foreign leaders are making it clear they don't want to add enough of their own troops to allow U.S. forces to scale back to a minority share in Iraq, as Kerry has proposed.

Comments

[Dan]

This has been clear since Keery started making these claims. Even if he could convince EU leaders in principle, they don't have the political or millitary wherewithal to comply in practice.

[Harold Cutler]

France is unable to send troops to Iraq, even if Chirac wanted to. Their military is strictly third world and the Terrorists would rip them about.

[Gary B.]

That's ok, Kerry's unable to act presidential, even though he really wants to.