WP: New Questions Raised About U.S. Resolve in Iraq, 'Road Map' to Peace

[Nambe]

Washington Post

CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 19 -- President Bush was on the front nine of the Ridgewood Country Club's golf course when the call came from his national security adviser telling him a truck bomb had hit U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

The bucolic setting in which Bush received the grim news served as a symbolic reminder to the president: There is no escape from Middle East violence. Bush cut his golf game short and returned to his ranch -- where, in the afternoon, he received word of a second bombing, this one on a Jerusalem bus.

In contrast to the Bush administration's studied calm, Bush's opponents raised alarms today about the president's policies. Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), a presidential candidate, suggested that the Baghdad bombing might have been avoided "had the president pursued the war on terrorism prior to initiating military action against Saddam Hussein."

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), another Bush challenger, issued a statement saying that the Bush administration should "reassess" its Iraq policy. "It is becoming increasingly clear each day that the administration misread the situation on the ground in Iraq," he said.

Middle East combatants, meanwhile, issued ominous warnings that the Jerusalem bus bombing could mean the end of the U.S. peace plan. An Israeli diplomat said the "whole road map" is in danger of failing if the Palestinian Authority cannot crack down immediately on terrorist groups. -

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