Nobody has said that cooperation and diplomacy are the equivalent of surrender. Unless you are negotiating to set up a surrender, of course. As I've said before, diplomacy and negotiations are means, not ends. How you judge them depends on what you're trying to accomplish with it.

Despite the mythology, America has a lot of friends. There were dozens of nations in the coalition that went into Iraq, and not all of them were little Eastern European nations, either. There are still about 14,000 non-US troops in Iraq, about half from Britain, and the rest from about 20 other nations. There are more in non-military roles.