US: Leading Democrats in Congress, along with a prominent Republican senator, united yesterday to call on President Bush to take a different approach to the world community to get help in bringing the situation in Iraq under control.
The calls came a day after 16 American soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down near Baghdad, prompting a renewed debate in the US on the course of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.
Mr Bush vowed yesterday that "America will never run" and "will do what is necessary to make our country more secure", but gave no indication of a change in strategy. A free and peaceful Iraq "will make it more likely that our children and grandchildren will be able to grow up without the horrors of September the 11th", Mr Bush said. "We'll defeat the terrorists there so we don't have to face them on our own streets."
Mr Bush's remarks, at a gathering of small business leaders in Alabama, underline a new determination by the White House to justify the US occupation of Iraq by linking it with the need to prevent another al-Qaeda-type attack on the United States.
The Vice-president, Mr Dick Cheney, struck a similar note when he told a Florida fund-raising dinner at the weekend: "Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror. We are rolling back the terrorist threat and defeating it at the heart of its power in the Middle East."
With just a year to go to the 2004 presidential election, an ABC-Washington Post poll released on Sunday found that for the first time, a majority of Americans - 51 per cent - disapproved of the way the president is handling Iraq.
This makes it even more important for the Bush administration to convince Americans that its policy is essential to Americans' own security.
However Republican senator Mr Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said about the deteriorating situation in Iraq: "We need our major NATO allies in there and in there fast."
This puts Mr Lugar at odds with the administration which has not recruited NATO or UN help in the occupation. France, Germany and Russia, have declined to offer troops or funding to the coalition forces because they said the American government would not cede enough post-war authority to the UN or give a firm date for handing over power to Iraqis.
Democratic congressman Mr Dick Gephardt said: "We cannot solve this problem alone" and said Mr Bush should sit down with foreign leaders, "treat them with respect and get the help that we should get from our friends."
Gen Wesley Clark criticised the "failure of the administration to present an adequate success strategy" as "an example of the leadership gap that has emerged at a time when the country needs direction most". Another 2004 candidate, Senator John Kerry, said Mr Bush should go to the UN "with humility" and state clearly that the world "has a stake in what is happening".
Democratic senator Mr Joseph Biden, who is not running in 2004, criticised the Bush administration's war effort for lacking a "sense of urgency" in securing the peace and said more troops were needed for the job.
The US, he said, needed to "bring in NATO, bring in other folks and give up some authority. We act like Iraq is some kind of prize that we won."
In an expression of concern from the right, Mr James Carafano, a defence policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank in Washington, said Mr Bush erred by not preparing Americans for the problems of post-war recovery. "We may take casualties up until the day we leave," he said.
Mr Bush did not mention Sunday's casualties in his speech, but said: "Some of the best have fallen in service to our fellow Americans. We mourn every loss. We honour every name. We grieve with every family." September the 11th had taught that America must be diligent and active, but "we can't hope terrorists will change their attitudes," he said.
"I like to remind people that therapy is not going to work with this bunch and that's why we've got some really incredibly brave people on the hunt. We will win the war on terror, there's no doubt in my mind."
He added: "We remember the lessons of September the 11th, but we also remember that free nations do not attack their neighbours; free nations do not develop weapons of mass terror to blackmail or hold hostage the world."
The continuing grim news from Iraq is also thwarting Mr Bush's efforts to focus on domestic issues such as the unexpectedly high growth rate of 7.2 per cent in the third quarter.