The White House has cited the outgoing October as the most unfortunate month, in which more than 90 US servicemen have lost their lives and approximately 800 others got injured, the record casualty figure so far this year. President George W. Bush gave a grand news conference on Oct. 25, at which he enunciated his policies on the war in Iraq and announced his new Iraq tactics.

Bush's new tactics are divided into three steps. First, spurring the Iraqi political parties and religious leaders to take measures to constrain their followers and curb factional murders. Secondly, urging the Iraqi government resolve some urgent issues with courage, such as disarming militants and suicide corps, rationalizing the distribution of oil income, amending the constitution to cope with appeals of Sunnis and, finally, seeking aid from other Arab states to persuade armed Sunni armed forces to lay down their arms and partake in the political process.

At the same time, there is a three-step process to enable the Iraqi forces to be able to help this government bring security. One was to train and equip, and the goal is 325,000 troops; the second was to put the Iraqi security forces in the lead, supplemented with the support of American forces; and the third step is for the Iraqi security forces to be able to operate independently.

In fact, what is particularly conspicuous is a time limit or warning the White House set forth for the Iraqi government for the first time, "taking care of itself and self-supporting and self-defense". The message, however, was given on Oct. 24 by General George Casey, the commander of the US forces in Iraq, from Baghdad in a mild way. Casey said 75 percent of the three-step process has been completed and, in next 12 to 18 months, Iraq will be fully capable to assume its security responsibilities. Bush on Oct. 25 also said he has urged the Iraqi leaders to take bold measures to save their country.

Bush has always been in firm opposition to troop withdrawal from Iraq. Democrats were branded as defeatists who "flee right after the fight" when they asked the White House to set for a withdrawal timetable. What is the reason for Bush to abandon its unswerving stance "of keeping to the laid down policy" and have a swift turn today? This seems to have two causes. First of all, the US strategy toward Iraq has suffered consecutive defeat. The White House has placed hopes on the Iraqi new government to advance the national reconciliation process, make the decision to disarm the illegal militia forces and improved security environment with the concentration of forces, but all attempts ended in failure. In his speech Bush acknowledged his own dissatisfaction as well as the dissatisfaction of the American people with the Iraq situation, adding that he had lessons from it and would make related tactical changes to keep pace with developments in the situation.

More importantly, he has to make new gestures before voters in an attempt to retrieve the sliding poll as the Republicans has lost its status as a majority party at the Congress' mid term election. A latest poll shows that not only over 60 percent of the voters took the Iraq war as a mistake, 76 percent of those polled deem the war impaired the international image of the United States, and 73 percent hold that the U.S. should pull its forces from Iraq. Public opinions also regard Bush and the Iraq war have been turned into a negative asset of the Republicans, and some Republican candidates had to distance themselves from Bush's Iraq policies. Situations in the preliminary elections show that the positions of a candidate could possibly determine his successes or failures in the election. Consequently, some Republican candidates have tried their best to avoid or divert the Iraq war topic to other issues. The propaganda offensive launched by the Bush Administration is intended to tell voters that it has a new strategy and a timetable for troop withdrawal for an eventual triumph. But practice will tell how much this propaganda tactics and the new Iraq strategy would succeed.

By People's Daily Online