Wishing to steady the nerves of the more than 30 other governments with troops on the ground, Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, was due to meet President George Bush on April 16th for what seemed bound to be a summit-of-the-reso-lute. And while Mr Bush this week was promising the American public that he would stay the course in Iraq, his vice-president, Dick Cheney, who happened to be in Asia, was working to stiffen the resolve of the Japanese and South Korean governments; both have some 500 troops in Iraq, and still have plans to deploy more. But the broader diplomatic outlook is now more complicated than ever.
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