From the debate:

CHENEY: You made the comment that the Gulf War coalition in ’91 was far stronger than this. No. We had 34 countries then; we’ve got 30 today. We’ve got troops beside us.

It’s hard, after John Kerry referred to our allies as a coalition of the coerced and the bribed, to go out and persuade people to send troops and to participate in this process.

From a Financial Times story quoting the German defense minister:

Germany might deploy troops in Iraq if conditions there change, Peter Struck, the German defence minister, indicated on Tuesday in a gesture that appears to provide backing for John Kerry, the US Democratic presidential challenger. …

Mr Struck also welcomed Mr Kerry’s proposal that he would convene an international conference on Iraq including countries that opposed the war if he were to win next month’s election.

Support is already filing in for Kerry, and it is pretty undeniable that a Kerry victory would be exceedingly warmly received around the world, meaning more international cooperation, and yes, troops and money that the Bush administration has already tried to get, many times, only to be rebuffed.

Note that one of Gwen Ifill’s questions was, “French and German officials have both said they have no intention even if John Kerry is elected of sending any troops into Iraq for any peacekeeping effort. Does that make your effort or your plan to internationalize this effort seem kind of naive?”

Not quite so naive, it seems.

And do I really need to go into Cheney’s 30-nation-troop-alliance and how only a few of them sent actual troops–and how almost as many don’t even have actual troops?