The "Coalition of the Willing" is decreasing in size and stature rapidly leaving President Bush with few alternatives in Iraq. CNN broke the story of the latest country to announce its imminent withdrawal from Iraq.

Italy will begin a partial withdrawal of its roughly 3,000 troops from Iraq in September, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday, making it the latest member of the U.S.-led coalition to announce plans to leave.

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After the United States, Italy's contingent is the third-largest allied force in Iraq, behind Britain and South Korea. Ten other countries, including Spain, New Zealand and Hungary, have withdrawn their forces, and Ukraine and the Netherlands have announced plans to withdraw this year.

Iraqi troops are not being trained quickly enough to replace the thousands of foreign soldiers leaving the country every year, leaving the situation more tenuous than it should be 22 months after major combat has ended. For those who believe the President will be able (let alone willing) to begin to bring home American troops in the near term, this story is further proof that this simply will not happen any time soon.

Bush's general mismanagement of the war, including his failure to secure sufficient backing of the world community, has led to a substantial drop in the American people's confidence in his Iraq policy. ABC News' Gary Langer writes up some of the results of the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll:

The public sees some benefits of the war — but more for Iraq than for the United States, and, for many, not enough to justify its costs. Seven in 10 in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll call the level of U.S. casualties in Iraq unacceptable, and 53 percent, on balance, say the war was not worth fighting.

This poll finds a huge comedown from public opinion before, during and just after the main fighting two years ago. President Bush's wartime job approval rating reached 77 percent; it's 50 percent now. His approval specifically on Iraq was 75 percent as the main fighting ended; it's 39 percent now, a career low.

The number of people who say the war was worth fighting has fallen from 70 percent during the war to 45 percent now. And the number who say it has put the United States in a stronger position in the world has fallen from 52 percent to 28 percent. (It was a vastly higher 84 percent after the 1991 Gulf War.) Indeed more now say the war left the United States weaker (41 percent) than stronger.

There is little this President can do at this juncture to alleviate the situation; he is much too stubborn to admit that there are problems in the country and begin to reshape the policy.

At this point, it does not help the situation to quabble over whether or not the war was justified (leave that to the history books or the 2006 elections). Now it's time to try to figure out solutions to the many problems in the country so America doesn't lose scores more of its young and hundreds more Iraqis don't die in terrorist attacks.

The first step is more boots on the ground, and Halliburton lackeys won't suffice. Bush needs to figure out a way to rally the support of the world to the cause of Iraq. It won't be easy, by any means, but it must be done.