I'm going to say this very slowly...

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This is our fight... we did not invite Europe to the party in any meaningful way. Europe is not obligated to help us. Yes, a democratic Iraq is in everyone's best interest, but that doesn't mean that we are doing it in a manner that is worth the costs, or at the very least will lead to success. If you don't give them a real seat at the table, they won't jump in and provide resources and personnel that will be under our control.

Let's put it another way: if France started something that was in our best interest to see accomplished, but insisted that we pony up billions of dollars and thousands of troops without allowing us to really say how they were used in the venture, do you really think we would shrug our shoulder and say "Ok."?

Fine, let's tackle global poverty and have new arrangements. But maybe democracies should be contributing to Iraq now. That's called passing the credibility test.

Before anyone gets involved, the US has to first pass a credibility test that it is going to be guided by intelligent planning and policy, not by ideology, greed, and hubris... and we are far short of that right now. Furthermore, what credibility would we have even then if we continue to cozy up to Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Saudia Arabia? Finally, perhaps we would have some credibility if we did in fact show interest in creating new global institutions and fighting world poverty, but its not going to happen with this administration.