Bush did not literally send troops into Russia. Yet his attempted “liberation” of Iraq (even as another campaign in Afghanistan was ongoing) served as the functional equivalent. In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte counted on his seasoned and highly motivated Grande Armée and his own genius to overcome all obstacles. At the outset of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Hitler’s Wehrmacht was also a seasoned, highly motivated force, even if the Führer’s generalship did not rise to Napoleonic levels. In each case, however, the invaders bit off far more than they could chew. Preliminary success led not to
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