Wanted: a world leader

A Globe columnist recently wrote that "realists" such as Michael Ignatieff are right to give responsibility for world security to the West and its leadership to America. However, the U.S. leadership role is sadly collapsing before our eyes at a time when dangers abound.



The mess of Iraq is nowhere a good leader would have gone, and it's getting worse — in July and August, more than 5,000 Iraqi civilians died in sectarian violence in Baghdad alone, as Iraq careens toward break-up.

All told, there have been 2,700 U.S. dead and thousands maimed; financial costs in the hundreds of billions; new highs in Iran's prestige; the metastasis of jihadism; and, very pertinent to Canadian risk, deepened danger from jihadists in Afghanistan who revived when the U.S. yielded priority to its war on Iraq.

This is not what the Bush administration intended: U.S. intelligence agencies admit that the war on Iraq has aggravated the dangers of terrorism. The damage to confidence in the United States, even among most Americans, is startling as human rights take a tumble, and the truth spreads of the manipulative use of disinformation that the war's dishonest proponents in Washington and London foisted on their citizens.

The American reputation, including its reputation for competence, has plummeted around the world. Other responsible leaders don't try to debate this harsh set of outcomes; it is so tragically obvious. But, for them, it's bad news in dangerous times.

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