So what's up with Europe? What do they want? Why aren't they as convinced of the need to go after Saddam now as the Bush administration?

Kosovo and Bosnia demonstrated that it's really hard for them to make a take tough definitive action even when the problems lie in their own yard. But when it became clear that someone with more gumption was needed to lead them in doing the right thing, they were ready to support that leadership. Is Iraq equivalent to Kosovo?

Probably not. In Kosovo we had atrocities in action with borders crowded with refugees. Iraq is like an atrocity-in-place. The victims are not visible to the cameras. It seems like the European could do with some more convincing. We need to look at what they have to gain by delaying action in Iraq and remove that incentive to procrastinate. There may be legitimate concerns that we are failing to address.

The sad truth of Kosovo is that many lives had to be tragically wasted to generate the grass roots demand that something must be done to stop it...that the risk of allowing the atrocities to continue over-rode the risk of taking action. So far Saddam Hussein has been able to avoid the kind of body count that grabbed the attention in Kosovo. In that sense at least he has been deterred. Perhaps that's a good thing.

But the administration has a problem. It needs more drama to mobilize the support it would like to have, both in Europe and at home. Without the promised Al Qaeda connection they just don't have enough to work with. And that's too bad.

They thoroughly bumbled it. After the success of the (continuing) Afghanistan campaign, they thought they could translate the 9/11 support into anti-Saddam support. The sparsity of their mental capacity reached its limit. If only they had begun pursuing a resolution to the Iraq problem on its own merits of which there are many! They would have enhanced international good will. Instead they squandered it.