WASHINGTON (AFP) — Far from unleashing a pivotal political shift, a flurry of reports to the US Congress on President George W. Bush's war strategy in Iraq appear to be simply hardening political divides.
Assessments are due on the war from the White House and a former top general, while an official US auditor's study on Tuesday gave the Iraqi government a failing grade.
The climax of a congressional collision over the war will come next week when Iraq commander General David Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker feature in the most anticipated hearings for years.
But the answer to the question of whether the war is now a quagmire or showing promise still lies in the eye of the beholder.
For Democrats, US troops are bogged down in an intractable civil war, worsening by a dearth of political progress, and should come home.
Tom Lantos, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee complained Wednesday that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was no more than a "Shiite factional leader."
"As long as this remains the case, no number of US troops will be able to stabilize a civil war-torn Iraq."
But Bush's Republicans insist "victory" is still possible in Iraq -- despite a Government Accountability Office study published Tuesday that found Maliki's administration had failed to meet 11 of 18 benchmarks for political and security progress.
Any US withdrawal would be a capitulation to terrorists and invite attacks on US soil comparable to the September 11 strikes in 2001, they argue.
Many members of Congress traveled to Iraq in their summer break to meet top generals, Iraqi politicians and US troops manning the "surge" plan now under the political spotlight.
But far from pushing them towards consensus, the visits appear to have hardened lawmakers' preconceptions.
"Let's be honest, the military surge which reached full strength in mid-June is working," US Republican Representative Jim Saxton said Wednesday.
But Democratic Congressman Joe Courtney drew exactly the opposite conclusion from recent events in Iraq.
"Now, little doubt remains that this plan is not working."
Bush's Republican backers warn against withdrawal and say the defection of Sunni tribes to the US side to battle Al-Qaeda militants in Anbar province shows the surge is working.
"Al-Qaeda, internationally, would say, 'We beat America in the land of two rivers,'" said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
But Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan replied that Iraq is not "the central front on the war against terrorism."
"It is a civil war, (and there is) sectarian violence. Yes, there are some terrorists there but that is not the central front of what Al-Qaeda has been about."
Congressional divisions are partly driven by public sentiment.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now feel Bush was too eager to wage war in Iraq, according to a Harris poll released Tuesday.
A UPI/Zobgy poll in August found half of Americans now opposed to the war.
But the split between Republican voters and Democrats is acute.
Sixty percent of Democrats in the poll believe there cannot be victory in Iraq compared to just seven percent of Republicans.
Republican leaders say they are content to wait for a report on the progress of the US war effort which Bush is bound by law to provide by September 15, before making decisions on next steps.
But the White House appears to have averted a fraying of Republican support in Congress earlier this year, partially helped by some upbeat reports by the military and academics over the last month.
Democrats, who have repeatedly failed to get Bush to accept troop withdrawal timelines, are banking on Republican support collapsing in the Senate, to get them over the 60 vote barrier needed to pass binding legislation.
Some party leaders are reportedly considering softening their demands for a binding end-date for troop withdrawals, hoping to attract Republican support.
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