Bush's domestic agenda overshadowed by Iraq

Health care, energy independence, education and the budget deficit, among others, are all important issues for the nation's well-being, but they took a back seat Tuesday evening to the quagmire that is now the war in Iraq.
President Bush's state of the union address to a joint session of Congress -- for the first time in 12 years Democrats control both chambers -- raised more questions than it answered about his so-called troop surge strategy.
"Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq -- and I ask you to give it a chance to work," the president said during his nationally televised address.
And a short time later, he added this: "Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory."
Question: How long are the American people expected to give the president's new strategy a chance to work?
Bush didn't say, but in the past has made it clear that he will not agree to any deadlines being set for the Iraqi government to take over military operations in the war-torn nation. Such a takeover would result in a drawing down of American forces.
Question: How can American forces shape the outcome of a battle that involves sectarian violence, with extremists Sunnis on one side and extremist Shiites on the other?
Military setbacks
As the president acknowledged Tuesday night, the United States has suffered military setbacks as a result of terrorists, including those backed by al-Qaida and Iran, turning Baghdad into a killing field.
"In Iraq, al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists blew up one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam -- the Golden Mosque of Samarra. This atrocity, directed at a Muslim house of prayer, was designed to provoke retaliation from Iraqi Shia -- and it succeeded. Radical Shia elements, some of whom receive support from Iran, formed death squads. The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal that continues to this day," Bush said.
"This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk."
Question: Who are our friends?
With the daily death and destruction, the goodwill America enjoyed in Iraq when it led a coalition force that topped Saddam Hussein is fast dissipating.
And yet the president remains undaunted. His message Tuesday night was clear: Nothing Congress does, including adopting a nonbinding resolution in opposition to his strategy, will dissuade him from sending the 22,000 additional troops to Iraq.
Given that, members of Congress should press the president to explain what he means by "a chance to work" with regard to his new strategy, and how the American people will know that victory has been achieved.
As things now stand, the United States is caught in the crossfire of a civil war that could go on for years. The presence of more American troops will not end centuries of ethnic hatred.