From The Guardian UK
By Simon Tisdall

The battle of Bush’s ear began in earnest yesterday following publication of the Iraq Study Group’s report. The US president’s instinct is to hang tough, gambling that “a last big push” will bring victory of sorts. “We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done,” he said last week. Amid great uncertainty, one thing is sure: George Bush does not do graceful exits.

All the same, the president will have to listen up, and change his tune and tactics, as post-midterm intimations of political mortality steadily narrow his choices. Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon pit bull, has gone. So, too, has John Bolton, the ambassador who put the “UN” in unilateralist. Mr Bush and Dick Cheney, the White House eminence grise, will use separate Iraq policy reviews by the defence department and national security council to dilute or deflect the report’s impact.

But the Study Group’s overall conclusion – that the Iraq disaster is fatally damaging global US interests – places fierce pressure on Mr Bush to shift ground fast. With polls favouring a phased withdrawal, with congressional Democrats firmly in the driving seat, and with Mr Rumsfeld’s proposed replacement, Robert Gates, warning that matters cannot go on as they are, this pressure may become irresistible.

And the White House faces a trap. If it is seen to reject the report’s bipartisan advice, everything that goes wrong in Iraq from now on will be laid squarely at the Republicans’ door. The 2008 presidential succession struggle may turn on what Mr Bush decides next.

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