Two Things that Are Incompatible -- Traditional Allies and "Bush Charm Offensive"

Well, I guess they're agin us...

US Secretary of State Colin Powell's "charm offensive" in Europe bore little fruit on Thursday. NATO officials dashed US hopes the alliance would significantly boost contributions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the first day of his trip to Europe, what many are calling a "charm offensive" to sooth over tense transatlantic relations, US Secretary of State Colin Powell received disappointing news. Despite US hopes European members of the alliance would contribute to a larger officer training facility in Iraq and expand peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, he came up empty-handed.

At Thursday's meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer hailed the decision on the part of certain members of the alliance, including Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland, to send more staff to an existing training facility in Baghdad, thereby boosting the total number from 60 to 300.

But that contribution falls well below US expectations, and prompted an angry outburst from Powell at a press conference. He specifically took issue with certain NATO members' decision to prevent staff seconded to the alliance from taking part in military training missions in Iraq, namely Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, and Spain.

"When it comes time to perform a mission, it seems to us to be quite awkward for suddenly members of that international staff to say they are unable to go," he said, claiming such actions undermine the credibility and cohesion of NATO.

It would be funny, except, of course, it's not.