2,000th death could hardly be worse for Bush

The 2,000th US military death in Iraq could not have come at a worse time for President George Bush.

The symbolic milestone will prompt hundreds of demonstrations, fuelling anti-war sentiment and highlighting a bloody insurgency that shows no sign of abating.

Mr Bush, already under fire in the US over a White House CIA leak and his controversial nomination for the Supreme Court, will face a litany of new questions over the March 2003 invasion.

Cindy Sheehan, the bereaved mother who has become the face of the anti-war movement in Iraq, has already announced plans to tie herself the railings of the White House to protest at the 2,000 deaths milestone.

Her 24-year-old Army Specialist son, Casey, was killed in Baghdad last April.

The protest will likely form the centre point of a new wave of demonstrations across the US over coming days.

The American Friends Service Committee anti-war coalition is helping to co-ordinate activists and has called on Congress to stop the deaths by “stopping the dollars that are funding the war”.

Peace Action also used the grim milestone to demand change.

“Bush failed to have a realistic vision for post-invasion Iraq and his meandering course has led to the grave for over 2,000 American service men and women and estimates upwards of 100,000 Iraqis,” said executive director Kevin Martin.

“Bush’s insistence on continued military occupation feeds the insurgency. Congress must now take the leadership role in bringing our troops home.”

Last week alone 23 US military personnel were killed in Iraq.

The political fallout will only further damage Mr Bush’s vulnerable position.

The New York Daily News this week declared on the front page that Mr Bush was facing the “darkest days” of his presidency, quoting insiders who claimed he was frustrated, angry and bitter.

Poll after poll trumpets the latest all-time low in his approval ratings, and the majority of Americans now believe the war was a mistake.

The ratings have only slid since the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,200 people.

Within days, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to announce the findings of a two-year probe into the leak of a covert CIA agent’s identity, a leak that almost certainly came from the heart of the Bush administration.

Vice-president Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, the President’s right-hand man, are both at the heart of the scandal.

Mr Cheney was the one who told Lewis “Scooter” Libby, his chief of staff, about Valerie Plame’s identity, according to the New York Times. Both Mr Libby and Mr Rove spoke to journalists on the subject and now face possible indictment.

Also causing an outcry in the US is the apparently bungled Supreme Court nomination of lawyer Harriet Miers.

Mr Bush insists his long-time friend is the best woman for the job of associate justice in the highest court in the land.

But the proposal has created a firestorm on all sides of the political spectrum.

Ms Miers has never been a judge and has little experience in the appeal courts. She works as the President’s personal lawyer and little is known about her views, most importantly on the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling concerning a woman’s right to abortion.

As if the controversy was not quite enough, former House majority leader Tom Delay, one of Mr Bush’s key allies, appeared in court last week charged with conspiracy and money laundering.

Mr DeLay is accused of laundering $190,000 (€156,900) in corporate contributions to Republican candidates through the Texas political committee he founded. If found guilty he faces up to two years in jail.

Despite the seemingly endless controversy, the President is publicly keeping his cool.

“I’ve got a job to do,” he told reporters last week. “The American people expect me to do my job, and I’m going to.”