KavkazCenter - Losing hope and power in Iraq

Losing hope and power in Iraq

With the death toll among the U.S. military in Iraq for October hitting 100 and the American President's current approval ratings stuck below 40 per cent, the Bush administration, struggling to win the public support ahead of the country's mid-term congressional elections, seems re-thinking its Iraq war strategy.

Also political experts say that the American President seems to have given up his alleged mission of bringing democracy to Iraq; instead he's looking for an honourable exit strategy.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that October 2006 may be remembered as the month that "the U.S. experience in Iraq hit a tipping point, when the violence flared and shook both the military command in Iraq and the political establishment back in Washington".

Speaking recently to CBS, White House Counsel Dan Bartlett endorsed the assessment, adding that "October has been very busy from a standpoint of operations on the ground and certainly back here in Washington."

Mr Bartlett said that the Iraqi government must "step up and take more responsibility" for the country's security. But at the same time he denied that the Bush administration's war policy has been a sweeping "stay-the-course" commitment, saying "what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in the sand".

Mr Bartlett's statement seemed in line with the U.S. media reports all claiming that the head of the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq and the U.S. ambassador were finalizing a plan that includes a timetable for disarming armed groups in the country and achieving some political and economic goals.

The talks of reconsidering the U.S.'s Iraq strategy and setting a plan for a scheduled withdrawal from the country came in the wake of numerous surveys that had been carried out in recent days, all pointing to the possibility that mounting dissatisfaction with President Bush's leadership and the war in Iraq among Americans would cost the Republicans control over the congress in next month's elections.

"This is the most challenging environment for Republicans since the Watergate year of 1974," Republican political consultant Whit Ayres told reporters, referring to the loss of 48 House seats after the resignation of Republican President Richard Nixon.

Also some Republicans started admitting mistakes committed in Iraq.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican, has been quoted recently, following a visit to Iraq, as saying;

"The situation is simply drifting sidewise."

Another Republican senator declared Iraq "on the verge of chaos".

The American President himself endorsed the comparison between the quagmire in Iraq and Vietnam War. And last week, he, for the first time, expressed dissatisfaction with the situation in Iraq.

Speaking during a conference earlier this week, President Bush acknowledged worries over the current bloodshed in Iraq, saying that it's a source of "serious concern" to his administration.

"I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq, "I'm not satisfied either," Bush said during an hour-long press conference at the White House East Room.

The Bush administration has been facing increasing pressure form leading political figures in the U.S., all blaming the government for failing to pressure Iraqi leaders to exert more effort to end the current violence that has intensified in Iraq in recent weeks.

Bush's recent speech contrasts sharply with the earlier Republican stance, which used to support the President's insistence to "stay the course in Iraq".

But in an unusually harsh warning to the Iraqi leaders, Mr Bush told them not to expect the Americans to do their military duties forever.

"We are making it clear that America's patience is not unlimited," he said, in an attempt to shift the blame for the spiraling violence in Iraq from the U.S. military and throw it on the incompetent Iraqi government.

The current propaganda offensive by the Bush Administration is intended to tell Americans who're going to vote in next month's elections that it has a new strategy and a timetable for troop withdrawal for an eventual "triumph".

But only practice will tell how much this propaganda tactics and the new Iraq strategy would succeed.

Source: AlJazeera