White House resists major course change in Iraq

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) U S President George W Bush will resist election-year pressure for a major shift in strategy in Iraq, the White House said today, despite growing doubts among Americans and anxiety over the war among Republican lawmakers.

''If you read a lot of (newspaper) stories, people say for political reasons things have got to change. Political reasons do not win conflicts,'' said White House spokesman Tony Snow.

Pressure is growing in the U S Congress for a course correction in a war that has cost the lives of at least 73 Americans in October alone.

''I don't believe we can continue based on an open-ended, unconditional presence,'' Maine Republican Sen Olympia Snowe was quoted in The Washington Post as saying.

She added: ''I don't think there's any question about that, that there will be a change'' in the U S strategy in Iraq after the November 7 congressional elections.

Many Senate Republicans are awaiting the results of a special panel led by longtime Bush family friend and former Secretary of State James Baker, the Iraq Study Group, which is preparing recommendations for a shift in strategy.

The Baker report will not be issued until after the elections, in which Bush's Republicans risk losing control of the House of Representatives as well as the Senate.

White House officials say the recommendations will be reviewed seriously but have already rejected trial balloons such as a phased troop withdrawal, a dialogue with Iran and Syria, and a partitioning of Iraq.

''I think what the president is going to do is provide the reassurance that he is not somebody who gets jumpy at polls but instead is determined to meet the final goal and he understands that it's going to be a tough task,'' Tony Snow said.

Bush, in campaign speeches, has not been sounding like he plans on a major shift, sticking with his goal of staying in Iraq until the new Iraqi government can sustain and defend itself.

''We will fight, we will stay, and we will win in Iraq,'' Bush said yesterday at an event for Virginia Republican Sen.

George Allen in Richmond.

To Democrats who favor a phased withdrawal or redeployment from Iraq, Bush was dismissive. ''That's why they are the party of cut and run,'' he said.

Democratic leaders of the House and Senate wrote a letter to Bush urging him to change course.

''We write out of a deep sense of concern that the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate and that there is no effective plan for improvement,'' they wrote.

Snow said wars throughout American history have caused unease at election time and pointed specifically to Abraham Lincoln's trials and tribulations during the U S Civil War.

''But the president also understands that in the end, public opinion polls are not going to win the war. What's going to win the war is American determination, ingenuity and the proper mix of strategies,'' Snow said.

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