A World without Power

Try as he might, the biggest challenge President George W. Bush currently faces is to persuade American voters that his policy in Iraq has been a success. Yes, Saddam Hussein has been toppled from power, but the evidence that he mounted a serious and imminent threat to the United States or indeed American allies is not widely seen as compelling. A new government has been installed in Baghdad, but armed militias continue to operate in centers of insurgency like Najaf and terrorist attacks continue unabated in the capital and other cities. The total number of Americans who have lost their lives is not far short of a thousand. The total cost of the undertaking seems likely to be at least $100 billion. And the conspiracy theory that the invasion of Iraq was merely a ploy to keep down the price of oil has been completely discredited; gasoline has never been so dear. Small wonder that half of all Americans think it was not worth going to war at all.