Iraq and the U.S. Midterm Elections
[Commentary] Will the Republicans 'stay the course' in congress?
                             by Jay Hauben

With midterm elections looming in less than two weeks, the news about the Iraq War seemed all bad 
for President George Bush. For three and a half years his optimistic call has been "stay the 
course." In all this time he has said any other policy would be "cut and run."

But 93 U.S. service people have been killed so far this month, the highest monthly death count in 
over one year. Violence especially in Baghdad has intensified despite the extra troops the U.S. put 
there to establish some security. Over 961 Iraqis have been killed in the same period.

Meanwhile every major poll finds the majority of those in the U.S. in key states who expect to vote, 
are upset with the war and what Bob Woodward in his book called Bush's State of Denial. Even 
Republican Party elders were expressing doubt that the Bush administration's policy was succeeding.

On Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow told the press Bush had dropped the phrase, "stay the 
course" because it "left the wrong impression" that the president was inflexible. During an 
interview by ABC News on Sunday, Bush stressed that he is "not patient forever" and expects the 
Iraqi government to take increasing responsibility for security. Administration officials provided 
details of their efforts to devise benchmarks for measuring the Baghdad government's progress.

On Wednesday, Bush gave a press conference where he emphasized that the victory he sought in Iraq 
was security and a stable government and that depended not only on U.S. efforts but success by Prime 
Minister Nouri al Maliki in dealing with the resistance. Bush used the word benchmarks 13 times. He 
said the U.S. would not let itself be caught in the middle of a civil war. Former U.S. National 
Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wondered in a commentary if this was Bush's preparing for a 
policy of "blame and run."

The Bush regime has this week moved quickly to put a new face on its Iraq policy. As the elections 
draw closer, will this talk of a change of course in Iraq help save the Bush regime from a 
Democratic majority in both houses? Is that its purpose? Will there really be any change in the war 
in Iraq? It remains to be seen if either of these goals will be achieved. But the resistance in Iraq 
is likely to increase and there are many in the world who hope that the rejection in the U.S. of the 
Bush regime's war in Iraq will grow.