I believe that's your problem
The European public needs convincing that Nato's mission in Afghanistan is part of a wider fight against global terror, the US defence secretary says.
The problem, Mr. Gates, is that most of the European voters already do believe that Afghanistan is part of the global "War on Terror". The same one that's being fought in Iraq. And, as you may have heard, they're not terribly fond of that war, and all of its related contests.
At one time, it was believed by many that Afghanistan was justified. It was, at the very least, where the guys responsible for the 9/11 attacks actually were. But once the US left NATO holding the bag so they could go play in the Iraqi sandbox, support for a conflict that means de facto support for the Iraq War hasn't exactly been gaining popularity.
The smart thing to do would be to try and keep the two conflicts separate in people's minds, but smart and Bush foreign policy aren't words that have ever appeared in the same sentence unless in a mocking, sarcastic sense.
So keep linking the two together, and drain away whatever residual support the Afghan mission has. You can be assured that boot-lickers like Harper will still support you, but that will be about all.
