Growing list of casualties dents Bush's public image

In the last presidential election Michael Dahlkoetter voted for George Bush. Next year, the registered Republican is almost certain to vote for Mr Bush again. But the 53-year-old financial adviser is far from happy about what is happening in Iraq. "At this point I still support the President but I'm worried about the casualties," he said, browsing at a bookshop in Dallas. "I'm still supportive and I don't know at what point I would change my view ... If it went on and there were more lives lost."

Even in Mr Bush's home state of Texas, it seems, people are becoming increasingly concerned about the escalating violence in Iraq, the seemingly daily casualties and the danger that the US may be getting immersed in an unwinnable conflict that some have likened to Vietnam. It is also clear that for all the talk of the US not being intimidated, people are losing faith in Mr Bush's ability to lead America away from the looming quagmire.

The most recent Gallup poll published by USA Today suggests that a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Mr Bush is handling the situation in Iraq. While a majority still say the war was "worth it", 54 per cent are unhappy with the performance of the Commander-in-Chief.

In April, when Saddam Hussein was ousted, 76 per cent said they were happy.

Several factors are behind this shift in opinion: the controversy over the way inaccurate intelligence was used to defend a preemptive strike, the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction, and the failure of the US to build international support to offset the financial cost of the war and America's military outlay. Above all, it seems that the human toll is starting to be a major concern for people.

After Friday's downing of the second US helicopter in less than a fortnight, this time with the death of six US soldiers, the current total of troops killed in Iraq stands at around 390, with several thousand wounded. It is a fraction, of course, of the 58,202 troops killed in Vietnam but with daily reports of US deaths as a result of increasingly co-ordinated attacks, the numbers are starting to impact on people.

"[He is] not doing very well. They have found no [WMD] yet and there are the casualties, not just ours but Iraqi citizens are well," said Ingrid Hoffman, a 23-year-old elementary school teacher. "I understand why people say we should not have got involved."

The Bush administration is aware that there is no quick fix to the situation in Iraq. The Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, this week confirmed a plan to reduce US troops numbers by more than 20,000 by next spring, but others have argued that Mr Bush needs to dispatch more, not fewer, troops. "The American press and the American public saw our leaders talk about a 'light at the end of the tunnel' that did not exist during the Vietnam War," Senator John McCain, a former presidential challenger to Mr Bush, said this week. "We can win the war in Iraq but not if we lose support in the US."

Amid a growing sense of anxiety at the White House, Mr Bush has put on a bullish face and insisted his plan for Iraq will not be derailed. In his favour, and for all his problems, none of his nine main Democratic challengers has yet made a real impact with the electorate: if the election were held now, 48 per cent of would vote to give Mr Bush a second term, while 47 per cent would vote against him.

"He is the most polarising President," said Jim Belknap, a museum curator who moved to Texas recently. "Most of the people I know who voted for him are still behind him. Those who did not vote for him hate him."