ONLY 5 per cent of Americans trust the Bush Admin..

Bush not trusted to end Iraq war: poll

Anne Davies Herald Correspondent in Washington
September 11, 2007

ONLY 5 per cent of Americans say they trust the Bush Administration to resolve the Iraq conflict, says a poll published on the eve of the American commander's appearances before Congress.

General David Petraeus was due to give testimony on progress in Iraq early today, Sydney time, to a joint hearing of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees and to the Senate tomorrow.

The New York Times reported yesterday that General Petraeus had recommended that decisions on the contentious issue of reducing the main body of American troops in Iraq be put off for six months.

He has informed Mr Bush that troop cuts may begin in mid-December, with the withdrawal of an American combat brigade, about 4000 troops. By mid-July, the American force in Iraq might be down to 15 combat brigades, the force level in Iraq before Mr Bush's troop reinforcement plan.

The precise timing of such reductions, which would leave about 130,000 troops in Iraq, would depend on conditions in the country. But the general has also said that it is too soon to present recommendations on reducing American forces below that level and has suggested that he wait until March to outline proposals on this question.

The Times/CBS poll published yesterday underscores why the Administration is banking on General Petraeus and its ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, to convince Republicans in Congress and the public to stick with the surge strategy.

Twenty-one per cent said they would most trust Congress to resolve the Iraq war while 68 per cent expressed the most trust in military commanders.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans said the US should reduce or withdraw its troops in Iraq now. Asked if a timetable should be established for withdrawing in 2008, a position many Democrats in Congress have advocated, 64 per cent favoured doing so.

The poll results will only heighten the political dilemma for the Democrats - they believe the Petraeus report has been shaped by the White House but they do not want to attack General Petraeus.

A Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein, said that while he was a "fine general" he did not have an independent view because it was his surge strategy being evaluated.

"General Petraeus is there to succeed. He may say the progress is uneven. He may say it's substantial. I don't know what he will say. You can be sure we'll listen to it. But I don't think he's an independent evaluator," she said.

The former Democratic presidential contender, Senator John Kerry, who lost to Mr Bush in 2004, also expressed scepticism about the value of General Petraeus's assessments. "None of us should be fooled - not the American people, not you in the media, not us in Congress."

Another ABC News-Washington Post poll showed 53 per cent of Americans think General Petraeus will try to make things look better than they really are. Only 39 per cent believe his report will honestly reflect the situation.

Meanwhile, on the eve of September 11, the Bush Administration adopted a gung-ho attitude to the latest message from its biggest foe, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

Appearing on the Fox network on Sunday, the White House homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, said Bin Laden was now "virtually impotent" to launch an attack.

"This is about the best he can do," Ms Townsend said of Bin Laden. "This is a man on the run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes," she said. She repeated her claim that he was impotent again on CNN later that day.

The provocative characterisation came just days after Bin Laden attracted international attention with the release of a video in which he ridiculed Mr Bush about the Iraq war.

"There's nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest this is a trigger for an attack," Ms Townsend said.

But her characterisation of al-Qaeda as impotent sits uneasily with the findings of the most recent National Security Estimate released in July, which found that the US faced a persistent and evolving terrorist threat, especially from al-Qaeda.

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