here's the accompanying story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/31/wbush31.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/08/31/ixportal.htmlSuicide bombing and the human and financial cost of occupying Iraq could spell the end of the Bush presidency, reports Julian Coman in Washington
Another week, another bomb. According to one White House adviser, August 19, the day suicide bombs exploded in Israel and at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, was "by far the worst political day for Bush since 9/11".
Friday's events in Najaf have deepened the sense of trepidation among President George W Bush's strategists and spinners.
Last week, a close aide to the President ventured an unlikely comparison that, a few months ago, would have drawn howls of derision from almost any audience in America. "Just like Jimmy Carter" during the Iran hostage crisis, said the aide, President Bush would pay a heavy price at the presidential elections of 2004, if his foreign policy was judged to have failed.
It is highly unusual for members of the Bush administration to draw parallels between the liberal Mr Carter and the leader of America's War on Terror. But, as daily horrors unfold in Iraq, these are unpredictable times in Washington.