Can Bush make Iraq a character issue and thus avoid the war criticisms

AP spins "Kerry would have kept Saddam; He says America traded dictator for chaos that has left U.S. less secure."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/opinion/21krugman.html

OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Last Deception
By PAUL KRUGMAN

t's Ayad Allawi week. President Bush, starting with his address at the U.N. today, will try to present Mr. Allawi - a former Baathist who the BBC reports was chosen as prime minister because he was "equally mistrusted by everyone" - as the leader of a sovereign nation on the path to democracy. If the media play along, Mr. Bush may be able to keep the Iraq disaster under wraps for a few more weeks.

It may well work. In June, when the United States formally transferred sovereignty to Mr. Allawi's government, the media acted as if this empty gesture marked the end of the war. Even though American casualties continued to rise, stories about Iraq dropped off the evening news and the front pages. This gave the public the impression that things were improving and helped Mr. Bush recover in the polls.

Now Mr. Bush hopes that by pretending that Mr. Allawi is a real leader of a real government, he can conceal the fact that he has led America into a major strategic defeat.

That's a stark statement, but it's a view shared by almost all independent military and intelligence experts. Put it this way: it's hard to identify any major urban areas outside Kurdistan where the U.S. and its allies exercise effective control. Insurgents operate freely, even in the heart of Baghdad, while coalition forces, however many battles they win, rule only whatever ground they happen to stand on. And efforts to put an Iraqi face on the occupation are self-defeating: as the example of Mr. Allawi shows, any leader who is too closely associated with America becomes tainted in the eyes of the Iraqi public.

Mr. Bush's insistence that he is nonetheless "pleased with the progress" in Iraq - when his own National Intelligence Estimate echoes the grim views of independent experts - would be funny if the reality weren't so grim. Unfortunately, this is no joke: to the delight of Al Qaeda, America's overstretched armed forces are gradually getting chewed up in a losing struggle.<snip>

Although I'll be damned if I can find the word "unhelpful" anywhere in this story, and Lugar's Senate website fails to post any statement.
No matter- this illustrates the danger of Kerry being painted as "attacking" our troops (once again see- 1971). They will spin this against Kerry as attacking the troops in the field.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/politics/9720418.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp