Even as Congress moved to approve President George W Bush’s request for continued funding of the Iraq war through the end of this fiscal 2007, a major new poll released on Thursday found that public disillusionment with the war has reached record highs. The New York Times/CBS News poll, the latest in a series of recent surveys that have shown an unexpectedly sharp drop in support both for Bush and the war, came as Congress prepared to vote on a controversial compromise bill that would give Bush some $100 billion dollars more for US military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill was a product of protracted negotiations between the White House and Congress’ Democratic leadership which had hoped to impose a deadline for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by some time next year.

According to the survey, which was conducted from May 18-23, more than three out of four citizens (76 per cent) now believe the Iraq war is going badly — up from 66 per cent just a month ago. A record 47 per cent of respondents said the war was going “very badly”. Perhaps even more important, a majority of 52 per cent of self-described Republicans say the war is going at least “somewhat” badly — a whopping 16 per cent increase from mid-April and a strong indication that pressure on Republican lawmakers, who have remained remarkably loyal to the White House in a series of Iraq-related votes this spring, to abandon the president is increasing.

“It’s the Republican numbers that you have to watch, given the way the White House has governed,” according to Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland’s Programme on International Public Attitudes (PIPA). “Ultimately, it’s only the Republicans in Congress who can persuade the president to change course.” Particularly alarming to the White House

in the latest poll, is the apparent lack of confidence that Bush’s vaunted “Surge” strategy — the addition this spring of some 30,000 troops to the 135,000 already deployed to Iraq — is working.

Only 20 per cent of respondents said the surge — which is designed mainly to tamp down sectarian violence in Baghdad — was improving the situation in Iraq. Three in four respondents, including a majority of Republicans, said the additional deployments, which are expected to be completed by mid-June, was either having no impact or was making things worse there. The new survey also found that 61 per cent of Americans now believe that invading Iraq was a mistake, as opposed to only 35 per cent who believe that it was the right thing to do. The 26-per cent spread was the widest found in any major national polling on that question.

Seven in 10 respondents said Congress should continue funding the war, but only if the Iraqi government meets a number of specific benchmarks set by the US for progress in achieving national reconciliation and in prosecuting the war. The pending appropriations bill includes such benchmarks but permits Bush to continue military operations regardless of whether the benchmarks are met.

Only 30 per cent of respondents in the latest poll said they approved of Bush’s performance as president. Moreover, 72 per cent of respondents said they believe that the country is “seriously off on the wrong track”, the highest percentage ever recorded for that question. — IPS