U. S. Move Means Canada Stuck In Afghanistan

But that was before the last congressional elections, when Bush still thought he had a free hand in Iraq. It was also when he thought he could still pacify that chaotic country. Now, with Democrats controlling the U.S. Congress, Republican Bush is no longer free to do whatever he wants. What's also become clear is that he cannot succeed in Iraq. All political leaders seek legacies. So far, that of George W. Bush does not look stellar. He risks being remembered as the first U.S. president to lose a war he deliberately started. For a man who styles himself a wartime president, this must be difficult to bear. How could someone who revels in the title of commander-in-chief leave office without winning at least one war, somewhere? For a while, it looked like Iran would provide that war. Hence, Washington backed Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer, in the hope that Tel Aviv could neutralize Iran's Hezbollah allies there. The Israelis botched that task, but Bush remained fixated on Iran. He tried the old weapons of mass destruction gambit, arguing that Iran's attempts to develop nuclear capability made it a world threat. In the end, not even the Europeans bought that story. Then, Washington accused Iran of targeting U.S. troops in Iraq. That culminated in a bizarre but unconvincing show-and-tell in Baghdad this week, where anonymous U.S. officials attempted to prove, from serial numbers on bomb fragments, that Iran was evil. That didn't go anywhere either. Even Americans were skeptical. http://www.thestar.com/News/article/182760

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