Support for Iraq policy dives after Katrina
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-22 06:54

The Iraq war and occupation have cost over $200 billion so far. The United States is spending $5.6 billion a month there, or almost $186 million a day.

Some Republicans, like Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), had been arguing even before the hurricane hit that the current Iraq policy was unsustainable.

"We are seen as occupiers, we are targets. We have got to get out. I don't think we can sustain our current policy, nor do I think we should," he said in an interview last month.

More and more Republicans may break with the president in coming months if U.S. casualties continue to mount in Iraq and the country seems no nearer to stability.

But the party as a whole had little choice other than to stick with Bush, said political scientist David Birdsell of Baruch College in New York City.

"They don't have anywhere to go. If they should go in a different direction, then which direction?" he said.

Democrats, who up to now have been reluctant to criticize the Iraq policy for fear of seeming unpatriotic, may also feel more able to do so.

"So far, the Democrats have been cowardly and unwilling to speak out. They need to do so if they want to reap the political benefits of Bush's unpopularity," said Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think-tank which opposed the Iraq invasion and occupation.