Iraq war poses problem for both sides of US politics

Correspondents Report - Saturday, 10 December , 2005
Reporter: Michael Rowland
HAMISH ROBERTSON: But first to the United States, where the conflict in Iraq is creating a major political headache - not just for the Republican administration of President George W Bush - but also for the Democrats.

The President made yet another attempt last week to convince an increasingly sceptical US public that the war is winnable - while Democrats tore themselves apart trying to come up with a unified position.

As the military stakes grow higher every day - so too do the political ones in Washington - on the eve of a Congressional election year.

Here's our North America correspondent, Michael Rowland.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: As US soldiers struggle to complete their mission in Iraq, back in Washington their Commander-in-Chief is fighting a grim battle to prevent his presidency being consumed by a war that many Americans now believe has gone horribly wrong.

George W Bush this week fired another salvo in his political counter-offensive to boost sagging public support for the war

In the second of four speeches aimed at outlining his strategy for victory in Iraq, the President was talking up the reconstruction effort.

GEORGE BUSH: In two and a half years, the Iraqi people have made amazing progress. They've gone from living under the boot of a brutal tyrant, to liberation, to free elections, to a democratic constitution. A week from tomorrow they will go to the polls to elect a fully constitutional government that will lead them for the next four years. By helping Iraqis continue to build their democracy we will gain an ally on the war on terror. By helping them build a democracy we will inspire reformers from Damascus to Tehran.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The President is hoping next week's elections will prove to be something of a circuit breaker for proponents of the war.

The Bush administration is leaping on any signs of progress, no matter how tenuous, to show that the invasion and the grinding daily battle against the insurgents will all be worth it in the long run.

Most importantly, every day of progress is one day closer to US troops leaving Iraq.

The issue of when American soldiers should come home may be exercising the President's mind as he reads those depressing opinion polls but it's also a topic that's troubling the Democrats.

At a time when party strategists had been hoping to capitalise on the administration's problems, the Democrats are struggling to come up with a unified position on Iraq.

While senior Democrats are happy to criticise the President's handling of the war, they're very much boxed in because of their earlier votes in favour of the US led invasion.

Very few party figures, particularly those eyeing a presidential bid in 2008, are wary of jumping in behind Democrat congressman and decorated Vietnam veteran, John Murtha, who's calling for the immediate withdrawal of all US troops.

The Democrats' chairman, Howard Dean, created more havoc for his party this week when he declared all hope was lost in Iraq.

HOWARD DEAN: I remember going through this in Vietnam, and everybody kept saying oh, just another year. Yeah, we're going to have a victory. Well we didn't have a victory then and we cost us 25,000 more American troops because people were too stubborn to be truthful. We ought to bring the guardsmen home now, over the next six months. That's the 80,000 National Guard and reserves. Then we ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, where we don't have enough troops to do the job, and where we're welcome. The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: It's a view that stands in stark contrast to the party hawks, such as former vice presidential candidate, Senator Joe Lieberman.

JOE LIEBERMAN: The costs of victory will be high in American lives lost and American resources spent. But the cost of defeat would be disastrous in the collapse of the new Iraqi regime, civil war in Iraq, regional war beyond its borders.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Still, the opinion polls continue to show it's not the Democrats most likely to be punished if the war in Iraq turns uglier and the US death toll continues to rise.

There were signs this week of a siege mentality developing in the Bush administration.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took aim at the media for rushing to report negative stories about the US military.

DONALD RUMSFELD: We've arrived at a strange time in this country where the worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact. Speed, it appears, is the critical determination, the determinant, and less so, context.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The war of words in Washington is becoming just as intense as the fire fights in Iraq and the rhetoric is certain to become much more incendiary as election year approaches.

In Washington this is Michael Rowland for Correspondent's Report.

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