U.S. President George Bush is set to make a primetime television appeal to Americans next week in an attempt to shore up dwindling domestic support for the war in Iraq, where anti-occupation fighters continue to inflict deadly attacks on the U.S. forces.
President Bush will attempt to persuade an increasingly sceptical public to continue support for the war in a speech on Tuesday evening at the Fort Bragg army base in North Carolina.
But the continuing violence in Iraq, so far accounting for the lives of more than 1,700 U.S. troops, has contradicted the upbeat rhetoric coming from the White House, and sapped public support for American military presence there.
Two major opinion surveys held in the past week found that 59% of Americans now oppose the war.
The Pew Research Centre also found that the number of Americans in favour of an immediate withdrawal had risen from 36% last October to 42% in February, to 46% now.
Abroad, the Pew Centre found that China was significantly more popular than the U.S. among the populations of America's traditional allies, including Britain.
Furthermore, Bush's approval rating has tumbled to a little more than 40 per cent, the lowest of any second-term president since Richard Nixon in the height of the Watergate scandal.
But the more serious poll result is the decline in public support for the war, which proved fatal to the Vietnam war three decades ago.
Republicans and Democrats are complaining that the administration has no credible plan for victory, while General John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, has voiced the military's alarm over the public mood.
Troops in Iraq were becoming aware of the decline in enthusiasm for the war at home, General Abizaid told a Congressional hearing, and the troops were asking him "whether or not they've got support from the American people". While confidence among soldiers in the field was high, "I've never seen the lack of confidence greater" among politicians in Washington he said.
Speaking of his native South Carolina, Senator Lindsay Graham told General Abizaid that "in the most patriotic state I can imagine, people are beginning to question ... I think we have a chronic problem on our hands."
The White House believes that the blame for the decline in support lies mainly with the unrelenting tide of bad news.
"People see disturbing images on their television screens coming out of Iraq," Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman said Friday, adding that Bush would seek to bolster support in his Fort Bragg speech.
"The president will be talking about the broader view about what we're trying to achieve there," he said. "The American people have not really heard the strategy for success in Iraq."
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