HERE’S A GRAPHIC VIEW of support and opposition in Europe regarding the war, courtesy of The Agonist.

Kind of puts those “unilateralist” claims in perspective, doesn’t it?

LEE HARRIS writes on the difference between helping the Third World and feeling good about ourselves.

DOES FRANCE + GERMANY = EUROPE? Apparently the editors of the Boston Globe are geographically challenged, as this editorial neglects to mention the ten other European countries who are supporting the United States, something that ought to be relevant here. On the plus side, though, it does mention “Chirac’s record of collaboration with Saddam.”

FRESNO STATE and Eco-terrorists — can this be as bad as it sounds?

Maybe it’s a “sting” operation.

NO TATTOOS, PLEASE: We’re sailors.

ROBERT KAGAN writes about courage in the face of anti-Americanism on the part of the European leaders who are standing by America. He’s certainly right about the extent to which the European intelligentsia has aligned itself with Pat Buchanan-style conspiracism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism. And yes, it’s widespread enough that it’s brave to face it down; it’s hard to imagine very many American politicians who would be willing to do so, though I can think of a couple.

But it’s a calculated risk that will pay off big, so long as the United States wins the war. The anti-Americanism won’t go away — it will never go away so long as Europe suffers so many self-inflicted wounds it’s afraid to talk about — but as Fareed Zakaria wrote last year, victory is the best propaganda, and if the war in Iraq goes well it will die down quickly, since a lot of the current upsurge is based on fear. And, unlike many previous administrations, the Bush folks seem to remember who America’s friends are, and who they aren’t.

U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ: Pravda reports, Rantburg decodes. And note this item on Turkey.

NEXT, ARIANNA HUFFINGTON WILL BE MAKING S.U.V. COMMERCIALS: Mickey Kaus is defending Paul Krugman from his critics.

MAYBE A GANG OF ELEVEN? William Sjostrom reports on Irish support.

WHERE DIPLOMACY IS NOT SO SUCCESSFUL: Reader Jake Kreutzer sends this link to a story suggesting that the North Koreans are even stupider, and more suicidal, than I thought.

JOE KATZMAN looks at the diplomatic defeats that France has suffered and doesn’t credit the United States. He says that they have Tony Blair’s fingerprints all over them.

There’s something to this — but it’s not the whole story nor, as I will note in a later post, would the Administration fail to deserve substantial credit even if Katzman’s perspective were one hundred percent correct.

READ THIS POST by Dave Kopel over at The Corner on the latest Rave Act developments. And read the post below it, too.

JEEZ, a new traffic record. Over 112, 000 pageviews today already. Go figure.

IRAQI SPIES IN THE U.S.? That’s hardly surprising, given that we’re basically at war. But this Daily News report offers some surprises, though of course I can’t confirm its accuracy.

BROBECK, PHLEGER IS NO MORE. This won’t excite the non-lawyers, but it’s big news.

UNILATERALISM, MY ASS! (CONT’D): All I can say is, Advantage: Rumsfeld!

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP)–The “new Europe” raised its voice Thursday, as eight of its leaders praised U.S. resolve in disarming Iraq and indirectly chided the traditional powers, France and Germany, for opposing U.S. plans for military action against Saddam Hussein.

But that’s old news. Now, though, the “gang of eight” is a “gang of ten:”

Some of Europe’s newest democracies have expressed the strongest support because of past U.S. economic and political support of their struggle to escape communism.

Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano, in a letter to Bush made public Thursday, pledged “total and unconditional” support in the showdown against Iraq. Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda of Slovakia called the declaration “the clear, right word at the right time,” and said he agreed with it.

The article goes on to minimize (if that’s possible) the military importance of Albania and Slovakia. But that’s not the point. The point is that — despite (or because of) their diplomatic anschluss — France and Germany are now isolated within the E.U. Indeed, there is now talk that the E.U. may splinter as a result of their anti-American efforts.

That probably won’t happen, but it’s a far cry from the “United Europe” stance that Chirac and Schroeder had in mind. Why, it’s almost as if they were lured into this position.

PARIS CORRESPONDENT NELSON ASCHER EMAILS:

Hello.

This is very important:

Though a minimum of 157 signatures was needed, by now more than 160 Euro Parliament representatives have signed the request demanding an investigation into how the Palestinians have been using the money given them by the European Union. Great for the very day the “gang of 8” published its pro-US letter. Maybe things are begining to change this side of the ocean — and, by the way, this is also, and quite officially, the “hole in the head” Chris Patten was in need of.

Another diplomatic success. Heh.

READER ALAN CAMERON POINTS OUT that AOL’s $99 billion loss was close to double Iraq’s total GDP. Heh.

In the words of Jack Palance, “I crap bigger’n you.”

Almost twice as big, though admittedly, that was an unusually large crap. . . .

HMM. SCHWARZKOPF WAS SKEPTICAL, BUT NOW HE’S CALLING BUSH’S SPEECH “COMPELLING.” You don’t think the whole thing was scripted, do you? Surely not.

NO ANTI-SEMITISM HERE. Publish that cartoon with an obviously Arab figure and you’d be charged with “hate speech.” Heck, they might even advertise to find people who were offended.

UPDATE: No hate crime here, either!

I WAS JUST BEING HONEST: My comments on Gary Locke’s performance responding to the State of the Union got quoted in the Seattle Times.

Oh, well, I was nicer than Oliver Willis, who called Locke’s presentation “long and limp.”

DONALD SENSING identifies Bush’s most important sentence.

HERE’S A FIRSTHAND BLOG REPORT of Iraqi chemical weapons.

READER GABRIEL MENDEL POINTS OUT that even though the New York Times is basically ignoring the European leaders’ letter, the robots at Google News — handily outperforming the humans at the Times — have put the story up top.

UPDATE: Better late than never! The Times has it now.

PROFESSOR DAVID MOSER OF BELMONT UNIVERSITY has posted a defense of the Eldred decision on the new Belmont University faculty blog. (A great idea, by the way).

Meanwhile, Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin suggests that under Eldred, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is unconstitutional.