Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Friday, August 19, 2005
Has the "Tipping Point" on Iraq Been Reached?
Republican lawmakers, who face mid-term elections in 15 months from now, and the military itself, which, as a result of the Vietnam debacle, has taken as an article of faith that the loss of civilian support must be avoided at all costs, appear increasingly restive and unhappy with the course of events.
"There are more and more voices within the party and military who are beginning to acknowledge that the situation in Iraq is not only not improving, but is actually getting worse," said Jim Cason of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a lobby group that opposed the war.
"The administration is under more and more pressure from within -- especially from the Pentagon and influential Republicans on Capitol Hill -- and it clearly hasn't figured out what to do about it."
Media coverage of the war has turned particularly gloomy over the past several weeks, and particularly since the Aug. 3 killing of 14 U.S. servicemen in one deadly bombing incident.
The front-page headlines tell the story. "In Iraq, No Clear Finish Line," which ran in the Washington Post a week ago, was soon succeeded by "U.S. Lowers Sights on What Can be Achieved in Iraq," which was then eclipsed by a more general analysis Thursday entitled "U.S. Policy on 'Axis of Evil' Suffers Spate of Setbacks."
Among other points, that article noted that the administration's blunders in Iraq had clearly strengthened the strategic position of North Korea and especially Iran, whose influence with the new government in Baghdad has been growing steadily, much to Washington's discomfort.
As for the other "court paper" of the U.S. capital, the New York Times, a searing critique of Bush's policy by columnist Frank Rich entitled "Someone Tell the President the War is Over" appeared virtually everywhere on the Internet almost the instant that it was published last Sunday.
And an analysis Thursday, "Bad Iraq War News Has Some in the G.O.P. (Republican Party) Worried over '06 Vote," argued that even among staunch war hawks in Congress, Iraq was fast becoming a political albatross of Vietnam-like dimensions.
Even arch-hawk Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, admitted that the near-victory of the Democratic candidate and Iraq veteran who denounced Bush as a "chicken hawk" in a solidly Republican district in Ohio earlier this month was a "wake-up call" for the party.
Public opinion polls have been telling a similar story. A Newsweek poll taken two weeks ago found that confidence in Bush's handling of the war had fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, which, as Rich pointed out, was roughly equivalent to the approval rating of former President Lyndon Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War after the 1968 Tet offensive that is widely believed to have marked the "tipping point" in public opposition to Washington's intervention in Indochina.
An earlier Associated Press-Ipsos survey found somewhat more support for Bush's Iraq policy -- 38 percent. But that was also an all-time low for that survey and was also conducted just before the killing of the 14 Marines.
Another poll by USA Today, CNN, and Gallup published a few days later found majorities believe that going to war in Iraq was a mistake and has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism, and now favour withdrawing U.S. troops. A third of those questioned said they want all troops withdrawn immediately.
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