Helicopter death toll raises pressure on Bush

THE loss of American life during the largest US ground offensive in Afghanistan raised the stakes in the political battle at home over the direction of the War on Terror.
The rising death toll has increased pressure on the Bush Administration to explain its war goals as US special forces prepare to go into action in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Yemen and the Philippines and Congress takes up the President’s request for an increase in defence spending.

The emerging clash between the Bush Administration and Congress follows criticism of the President’s lack of consultation with legislators by Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader and a potential presidential candidate.

Mr Daschle put the cat among the pigeons last week when he suggested that the first phase of the war was not yet over because US forces had failed to kill or capture the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or the Taleban’s Mullah Muhammad Omar.