US: Democratic Split Over Iraq Grows Wider

The Washington Post says that elected Democratic leaders, many of whom supported--and still support--the liberation of Iraq, are coming under increasing pressure within their party. Left-wing Democrats, who never approved the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's socialist party dictatorship, are demanding that Democrats in Congress join them in denouncing President Bush's effort to give 25 million Iraqis a chance for freedom.

So far, however, most Democrats in elective office are insisting that success in Iraq is vital to American interests and that calls for an early withdrawal are not only wrong but politically dangerous. Their criticism has focused not on the wisdom of liberating Iraq but on what they see as the Bush administration's incompetent handling of that vital work.