AP Analysis: Iraq Policy Isolates Bush

President Bush walks out of the Oval Office as he departs the White House in Washington for a trip to Wisconsin and Colorado in this Feb. 20, 2006 file photo. Bush once reportedly told lawmakers he was determined to stick with the Iraq war even if his wife and his dog were the only ones left at his side - and he's getting close. Americans were already angry over the war before Bush said Wednesday night he would try to bring shattered, unrelentingly violent Iraq back from the brink, but even with the steps announced in tandem - Bush is nearly alone. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

WASHINGTON -- President Bush once said he was determined to stick with the Iraq war even if his wife and his dog were the only ones left at his side.

It's moving in that direction.

People in the United States already were angry about the war before Bush said he would try to bring unrelentingly violent Iraq back from the brink by adding 21,500 more U.S. troops to the 132,000 there now.

Polls show the U.S. public overwhelmingly does not like the idea. Democrats always in opposition were joined very publicly by some Republicans in dissent. Even Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had to be persuaded to go along with a larger U.S. presence in Baghdad.

"He is as isolated as a president can be," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Boston University.

Lawmakers did authorize the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today, however, the Democratic-controlled Congress is poised to produce votes against a policy that, although nonbinding, will reverberate into the 2008 elections.

And Bush's problem with Washington's politicians is not only the product of the new partisan divide.

Moderate Democrats who had the president's back on the war are jumping ship. The din of disapproval is heard even among some conservative Republicans. The time when only a few GOP lawmakers gingerly would criticize the president's leadership on the war has given way to the kind of no-holds-barred rhetoric heard the day after Bush's Wednesday night speech.

"The most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., a presidential aspirant and persistent war critic. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., until now a war supporter, said, "I have not been told the truth."

GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of the holdouts on Bush's side who wants more troops, acknowledged it was anyone's guess whether most Republicans will back the president when the votes are called. "I hope the overwhelming majority of my Republican colleagues will come on board, but I can't predict that," he said.

Bush treated Republican leaders from the House and Senate to an overnight at Camp David to work on strategy on keeping party members in line after a week of defections that ranged well beyond Iraq.

The politicians are following the public. Seventy percent of those questioned oppose sending more troops to Iraq and doubt that doing so will help, according to AP-Ipsos polling in January. Approval of the president's handling of the war stands at 29 percent.