Bush's parallel war for sustained support

The footage couldn't be more vivid: American prisoners of war, nervously answering their Iraqi interrogators. Anguished Iraqi civilians coping with the aftermath of bombing and shelling. A tank rumbling through a sandstorm on its way toward the decisive battle for Baghdad.

While administration officials say President Bush has watched little of the television coverage of the war, Americans are glued to their sets. And therein lies Bush's biggest challenge as a war president: keeping the public with him through the inevitable ups and downs of conflict.

"The danger is that people will treat the war like the Dow - a one-day setback could lead to enormous pessimism, a one-day success could lead to unrealistic optimism," says Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. "Bush's task is to remind people that war is not a matter of individual days but of an effort over a long period of time."

The president and his team have been doing just that since the war started last week. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reminds reporters that the public isn't really seeing the war; it's seeing "slices of the war."

So far, American support for war remains strong - higher than 70 percent, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. In Britain, where war with Iraq has been far less popular, polls show growing support for Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is likewise warning his people of "difficult days ahead."

Raising expectations for a swift, successful overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime was, in fact, part of the Bush administration's game plan. Bush needed strong public support to gain congressional backing. His tough messages were simultaneously aimed at Baghdad as part of the psychological battle preceding the physical war. Now, the message that matters most to Iraqis is delivered by cruise missiles, though "psyops" continues with leaflets.

Tuesday, Bush formally unveiled his war-budget request to Congress - $75 billion over the next six months, which includes $63 billion for the war itself, $8 billion for international aid and relief, and $4 billion for homeland security. The $63 billion would be enough to keep US forces in Iraq for five months. After that, Washington enters a new fiscal year, and additional money would be budgeted.

The long-awaited war budget is an important signal of the length of the Iraq operation. Administration officials have been saying that the first, most intense phase of combat would last about 30 days - but that US troops would likely be in Iraq for years.

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