Battle for US hearts and minds

By Gordon Corera BBC Washington correspondent

In her home in Burlington, Massachusetts, Diana MacDonald leafs through photos of her son Gregory. One shows him holding a sign saying "No War in Iraq", the next has him in full Marine dress uniform.

Gregory was halfway through a master's degree in philosophy when he was called up to go to Iraq as a reserve in the Marines. He felt had no option but to go to serve his country.

Support for military effort has declined in the months since Bush declared end to major combat

"He had made the commitment to the Marines and he was going to go regardless of his personal feelings," says his mother. His views on the war shifted as he spent time in the Middle East.

"I don't think he ever believed in the war but I think he believed he was helping the Iraqi people," Mrs MacDonald says.

Once President George W Bush declared major combat operations over on 1 May, Gregory looked forward to returning home over the summer and in time for his birthday in October.

But his mother remembers that his letters and phone calls changed in tone as events began to take a turn for the worse in Iraq.

In late June, his vehicle overturned on its way to assist another unit under fire in Hilla in central Iraq and Gregory MacDonald was killed.

"The war's not over for all those men who were killed and their families. It's still going on," says his mother through her tears.

Costs of war

Although Diana doesn't blame the government for sending her son to war, Gregory's brother-in-law wants to know why he was there in the first place.

OPINIONS ON MILITARY EFFORT How well is the military effort going? Very well: Late war period - 61%; August - 19% Fairly well: Late war - 32%; August - 43% Not well: Late war - 4%; August - 35% Don't know: Late war - 3%; August - 3% Source: Pew Research Center

And as the casualties mount day-by-day, the American public is beginning to worry.

When President Bush declared major combat operations over, nearly two out of three Americans thought the military effort was going very well. That's now down to less than one in four.

The polls also suggest that people aren't against the war as a whole - the majority still think it was justified - but they are worried about the costs - both in human lives and the more than $4bn a month price tag for occupying Iraq.

The 3rd Infantry Division which did much of the fighting is now returning home after nine months, but there's little sign of the overall size of the Iraq deployment being reduced with new troops being rotated in.

"We knew how to win the war but we didn't know how to win the peace," said Rachel Weston in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "I think its going to be a long haul and I don't think the president's levelling with us."

War talk

This developing concern is in turn having a political fallout. Previously, Democrats believed that they could beat President Bush by turning attention away from foreign policy and towards the economy but some are now wondering if they should be talking about the war after all.

The 3rd Infantry Division may be coming home, but new troops are being sent into Iraq

But they are unsure how far to go on the subject. Senator John Kerry - who backed the war - is criticising the president for not doing enough to help bring other countries into the coalition which would in turn reduce the strain placed on the US.

"There's a great concern in America about how we're going to win the peace," he told the BBC.

"And they're very concerned about the cost. I regret the president didn't do the hard work of diplomacy and show the patience and the planning to do this right."

Another Democratic presidential hopeful, Howard Dean, is firing up party activists by touting his record of opposing the war from the start. His approach works with activists but risks being seen as going too far and being unpatriotic.

Whether or not these strategies work will ultimately depend on what happens on the ground. If Iraq does turn into the feared quagmire and the toll of casualties continues to mount then the political cost for President Bush at home could be massive.