Americans, maybe lots of them, will be marching against the war in Iraq today, calling for the withdrawal ofUS troops. More alarming for President George W. Bush, public support forthe war, and his management of it, is collapsing. That has been compounded by the administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina, both in terms of lost faith in Mr Bush's leadership and polls showing 54 per cent of Americans want to cut Iraq spending to pay for the reconstruction of their own Gulf.

The president this week would have none of it, saying withdrawal now would "allow the terrorists to claim a historic victory". Be that as it may, he is in a real bind.