Iraq's election has fuelled the feeling that the corner may have been turned, reports Conor O'Clery.
For a White House assailed by critics, Sunday's election in Iraq exceeded expectations and brought some relief after nearly two years of blunders and setbacks. However, President Bush was careful in his reaction not to appear too jubilant, to avoid raising expectations that a turning point had been reached and US troops would be coming home soon.
"Terrorists and insurgents will continue to wage their war against democracy, and we will support the Iraqi people in their fight against them," Mr Bush said. But it was only the first step and "we will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security."
While the insurgents suffered a setback in the election, their capacity to continue to inflict casualties on coalition troops was underscored by the death of four US marines yesterday and the shooting down of an RAF plane with the loss of 10 lives on Sunday.
Mr Bush made congratulatory calls to Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi al-Yawer, and assured them that the US would help Iraqis contain the insurgency as they draw up a new constitution.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president and the two leaders "agreed on the need to make sure that the political process is inclusive of all Iraqis, whether or not they voted yesterday".
Mr Bush also called British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as two critics of the war, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, to discuss the election and his trip to Europe later this month, when he will urge greater co-operation over Iraq.
News coverage in the US of the elections has been unanimously approving, and sometimes triumphalist: one news agency headline read: "Giving Terrorism the Purple Finger", a reference to the dye used to identify Iraqis who had voted, and the online Drudge Report splashed a picture of an Iraqi displaying a purple-stained finger that looked remarkably like a rude gesture to war critics.
The display of Iraqis defying threats to go to the polls in large numbers and celebrating in the streets will help bolster public support for Mr Bush's Iraq policy.
As The Washington Post put it, Americans for the first time "finally got a good look at who they are fighting for: millions of average people who have suffered for years under dictatorship and who now desperately want to live in a free and peaceful country."
But paradoxically this could also fuel a perception that a corner has been turned and the Pentagon can start withdrawing US forces. Congressional Democrats have stepped up their calls for the administration to outline a timetable for withdrawal in the wake of the election. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said yesterday that Mr Bush "needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead". America most of all needed "an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there".
Senator Edward Kennedy, who last week called for a US withdrawal from the "quagmire" of Iraq, said Mr Bush "must look beyond the election" and bring some troops home immediately to show Washington had no long-term designs on the country.
The New York Times, which had called last month for the elections to be postponed, conceded that the date of withdrawal had become easier to envision, though it still appeared very far off. It also warned that millions of Iraqis may have been voting as the first step towards a Shia theocracy.
Nevertheless, it said, supporters and critics of the war must rejoice in a "remarkably successful election day" that for now had eclipsed the "multiple political failures" that came before. Retired Gen Barry McCaffrey expressed a view typical of military commentators, that "if we come out too quickly it will unravel the whole thing".
The success of the US mission is now dependant on the new 275-member assembly achieving some crucial aims, analysts say. It has to draft a constitution by December and put it to a referendum. If the draft is opposed by more than a third of voters in three of Iraq's 18 provinces, it falls, so the assembly has a strong incentive to take into account the concerns of the Sunnis who form the majority in four provinces.
The US will be working to ensure that the drafters, who will be numerically dominated by Shia Muslims, enshrine a system of federalism that will keep the Kurds from breaking away, and do not write in sharia law which would, among other things, deny women's rights.
The US must also accelerate the training of Iraqi forces to take over security. This has been lagging behind schedule but Iraqi recruitment may get a boost from the legitimacy conferred on the elected authorities by the popular vote.
Aides to Mr Bush warned that if the Sunni community feels more disenfranchised, the prospect of civil war would increase. They also expressed caution that stimulating democratic movements in neighbouring countries could bring about a crackdown by governments that the US considers allies. Mr Bush's effort to promote the legitimacy of the new assembly in Baghdad since the weekend also included calls to King Abdullah of Jordan, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Another problem for the US is the emerging evidence of massive corruption in Iraq since Washington began pouring in reconstruction money. Yesterday it was disclosed that the US occupation authority in Iraq lost track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries without proper controls or security, communications and adequate staff.
A report by the US Inspector General said American officials relied on non-functioning Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds which were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004. Mr Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority from June 2003 to June 2004, said the report had many "inaccuracies".
However, the official audit watchdog stood by the report, which showed that some of the transferred funds may have been paid to "ghost" employees.
In one case, funds were provided for 8,206 guards at one ministry, but only 602 could be accounted for.