Prodi Problems

Italian Prime Minister Prodi has resigned under tense political circumstances.  He defeated Bush’s Italian foreign policy man, Berlusconi, about nine months ago and has had a hard time keeping many elements of his center-left coalition in line on the issue of foreign policy in Afghanistan, amongst other things.  The problem is that the leftists want to leave Afghanistan prematurely (like our Democrats on Iraq), but the popular position in the center and right is that the humanitarian and just mission must be maintained until its logical completion.