Growing Ever Deeper: the Trans-Atlantic Divide

The New York Times' Richard Bernstein has an in-depth article on the growing trans-Atlantic divide at the International Herald Tribune. This week's Europa column is pretty defeatist, dismal, and depressing, and although all the news from, say Poland, is not altogether good, it is comforting to read this:

In Poland, which with Britain is the strongest American partner in Iraq, the killing of the [Polish] journalists was seen as a reminder of a basic element in the picture: that Abu Ghraib was the United States failing to function as it normally does, while torture, beheadings and assassinations are normal procedures for those opposing the United States in Iraq.

"What's interesting is that the level of support in Poland for sending troops to Iraq went up from 55 percent to 65 percent in the last few weeks," said Andrzej Jonas, the editor in chief of the English-language Warsaw Voice. "Probably this is because Polish people believe in power rather than in withdrawal."