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September 2005 could go down in history as the month in which Iraq policy finally turned around. By all indications, members of Congress returning to Capitol Hill this week will come back having heard, loud and clear, from their constituents that it’s time to end the war in Iraq, victory or no. And it’s not just Democrats.

“I’ve been hearing from a lot of folks on the Hill, from Republicans, who are worried about Iraq,” says a former senior state department official. “They’re calling me to ask: How long can this go on?” And when members of Congress ask, “how long,” they mean: "Can it go on like this until November, 2006?"

Public opinion, which began shifting decisively against the Bush administration’s Iraq police one year ago, now overwhelmingly favors getting out, and clear majorities now say that the war in Iraq wasn’t worth fighting in the first place. A stunning poll from CNN and USA Today released last week asked voters: “If you could talk with President George W. Bush for 15 minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you, personally, advise him to do?” Far and away, the answer was: Out now. Forty-one percent picked: “Pull the troops out and come home. End it.” Others picked more subtle variations on the same theme: “Come up with and execute a well-thought-out exit strategy” (6 per cent); “Join in and work with the United Nations” (3 per cent); and “Admit to past mistakes. Apologize” (3 per cent), making a total of 53 percent opposed to