Poll: NATO Nations Not Coming to the Rescue

A new poll from Pew indicates that few NATO nations are eager to embrace sending more troops into Afghanistan:

While the 2009 Pew Global Attitudes survey of 25 nations found broad global support for President Barack Obama and his policy goals, the one notable exception was his decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan. (The possible troop increase proposed by McChrystal would be in addition to the earlier increase advocated by Obama and asked about in the survey.)

Significant opposition to troop increases was found in all NATO countries polled; at least half of those surveyed in Germany (63%), France (62%), Poland (57%), Canada (55%), Britain (51%) and Spain (50%) disapproved of sending more troops to Afghanistan.

In Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation and longtime NATO ally of the U.S., only 16% approve of a troop increase, while 49% disapprove.

The interesting point, as Pew eludes to, is that President Obama is unable to translate a broad and generic popularity into concrete assistance from Western allies when the chips are down.

(AP Photos)