4 yrs on, war costs Bush at home and abroad

Washington, March 18: Four years after he began the Iraq war, a diminished President George W Bush has sacrificed much of his domestic agenda and eroded US credibility abroad in pursuit of the sort of nation-building he once scorned, analysts say.

The president's job approval ratings have fallen from 90 percent shortly after the September 11 attacks to just over 30 per cent.

He forfeited the dream of cementing Republican control over Congress and his administration is increasingly under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike.

''There is simply no question in my mind that the Iraq war has substantially undercut Bush's ability to get other things done domestically or internationally,'' said Richard Eichenberg, a professor at Tufts University who has studied Bush's approval ratings.

''When he was re-elected in the fall of 2004 he interpreted the election ... by saying that 'I have political capital. I'm going to spend it.' But the fact of the matter is he's spent it all on Iraq and he's got precious little left,'' Eichenberg said.

After the Iraq invasion, Bush's approval ratings became linked to casualty figures and less tied to traditional factors like the economy, Eichenberg and Richard Stoll of Rice University found in researching the president's poll numbers.

''It resembles in a lot of ways what happened with President (Lyndon) Johnson in Vietnam,'' Stoll said. The war ''sort of looms so large that it pushes almost everything else off the agenda.'' In his initial years in office, Bush pushed an 11-year, 1.35 trillion US dollar tax cut through Congress, overhauled the nation's education law and added a drug benefit to the health insurance program for the elderly.

His job approval ratings skyrocketed to 90 percent after the September 11 attacks and that support helped him push through a massive reorganization of the federal intelligence and emergency response operations, consolidating them into the Department of Homeland Security.

Even after he launched his war on terrorism against al Qaeda and its Taliban backers in Afghanistan, Bush maintained solid support at home and abroad, especially among allies in Western Europe, Eichenberg said.

Approval Slips with Iraq War

Concern over Bush's policies began to mount after his invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. His declaration that major combat operations had ended six weeks later under a banner proclaiming ''Mission Accomplished'' was considered hasty. Inspectors failed to turn up weapons of mass destruction, Bush's justification for the war, and Americans were slow to stop looting, restore electrical power and revive oil production.

The Iraq enterprise began to look like a rushed job with little justification and no postwar planning.

As the death toll mounted, Bush's job approval numbers began a slide that has continued until now. He narrowly won re-election in 2004 pledging to win the war on terror, reform the Social Security retirement program, deal with illegal immigration and solidify the Republican majority in Congress.

He made little headway on domestic issues after the vote.

''I can't think of a single major piece of legislation that he has either influenced or shaped,'' said Paul Light, a professor at New York University who follows Congress.

Bush's Republican Party lost control of Congress in the 2006 elections amid scandals and rising public discontent over the war.

Since taking power in Congress, Democrats have kept the administration on the defensive, pushing through their own agenda, conducting investigations and prodding Bush to change course on Iraq.

The US image abroad continues to suffer, despite a concerted administration effort to repair the damage by consulting with other governments.

''The impact has been devastating,'' Eichenberg said. ''American standing abroad is by all measures at its lowest point in history.

This is true in Europe, this is true in other parts of the world.

Whether this can be reversed in a new administration, Republican or Democrat, we will have to see.''

Reuters

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