The results show the public support for the ideas behind the Democrat Party's proposals, though they were defeated in the Senate last week.

One of the proposals called for starting withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end and withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007.

Another proposal was a nonbinding resolution that called on the government to start "a phased redeployment of U.S. forces" by this year's end but did not set a deadline for completion.

Meanwhile, an uptick in optimism toward the war after the killing of al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi earlier this month seems to have evaporated.

Richard Eichenberg, a scholar at Tufts University who studies presidential polling, said public views on Iraq are too set to be changed by momentary developments, even positive ones.

"The other piece of quote-unquote 'good news' is the unity government in Iraq, but it's not as if we're hearing that they have made great strides in eliminating the militia influence or violence anywhere in Iraq," he said, adding "there's still a steady drumbeat of bad news."

When asked about the survey, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Bush "is not going to conduct the war based on polls."

"His leadership is based on his strategy for victory. A democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will strike a blow to the terrorists and ensure a more peaceful world. As the president has said, we are in it to win," she said.

Scott served earlier in Iraq with another unit, but volunteered to help the 1st Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Marine Division, when it was looking for more troops. Many others also agreed to deploy again: about half of the 500 original members of the 1st Battalion are in Iraq by choice, said Gunnery Sgt. Pete Walz, a spokesman for the reserve battalion stationed in Fort Devens, Mass.

The 1st Battalion's numbers shows the increasing reliance on volunteers from the reserves and the National Guard, even as the total number of reserve units is going down.

The extended Iraq conflict, and the Afghanistan fight, have forced U.S. commanders to use reserve forces more heavily than at any other time in recent decades.

During the Vietnam War, active duty troops did the vast majority of the fighting. In Iraq, by comparison, the reserve troops made up half of the ground force for much of last year.

After signs that the reserve system was in trouble - including a major recruiting shortfall by the Army National Guard - the Pentagon moved to reduce the numbers of reservists called up. Of the roughly 127,000 U.S. troops in Iraq today, the number has dropped to about 21 percent, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

U.S. commanders have said part-time troops will play a much smaller combat role for the remainder of the war.

But reservists haven't shared only the duty, they've shared the toll. In 2004, about 20 percent of the 845 U.S. military deaths in Iraq came from the reservists' ranks. In the first nine months of 2005 - when an Army National Guard division was sent into battle for the first time since the Korean War - reservists accounted for 36 percent of 595 U.S. deaths.

Though many reservists and national guardsmen in Iraq have been assigned to support roles, others have been sent to some of the most violent areas of the country. Scott's battalion is responsible for Fallujah, the former insurgent stronghold where militants are trying to make inroads.

It's no less dangerous for these reservists than for the active-duty Marines.

Last year one battalion of Marine reservists in western Iraq suffered 48 fatalities during a seven-month tour. In the summer of 2005, the Army's Georgia National Guard was stationed in Mahmoudiyah, one of Iraq's most dangerous areas, and quickly suffered several deaths before being moved to a calmer area.

But despite the long deployments, the risks, and fears of an extended Iraq conflict that have driven many away, others continue to volunteer.

In Fallujah, the Marine reservists who volunteered said they did so for many reasons, ranging from patriotism, to a sense of camaraderie with other troops from their hometowns, to the opportunity to save money.

"What I tell a lot of people is that we've got to finish what we started," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Hale, of Albany, N.Y., a correctional officer back home who now oversees one of six checkpoints leading into Fallujah. "I knew they needed a staff (noncommissioned officer), and the other guy wasn't going."

Some Marines, particularly those with wives and children, acknowledged the stress of being away for months. Sgt. Mark Sabourin, a carpenter back home in Bellingham, Mass., said he had a child back home who was "attached to his hip" but yet he still agreed to deploy to Iraq for the second time.

"My biggest reason was to take care of my Marines," said Sabourin, 37, noting that his battalion had several young Marines with only two years of experience. "I wouldn't feel right sitting at home watching these guys on TV, doing what they need to do. That's not why I joined the Marine Corps."

Sgt. Recordo Demetrius, a mechanic taking a break from repairing a Humvee damaged by a roadside bomb, said his wife was a "little reluctant" about his second tour in Iraq. He acknowledged that the stress of deployments often falls on relatives back home.

"I think it's harder for the families back home than the Marines who are doing it. Some of them understand. Others are like, 'Why are you doing it?'" said Demetrius, a New York City police officer.

While sometimes their families lack confidence in the mission, many of these Marines said they see important gains in Iraq.

"Every day I think about going home. But if I had the opportunity, I wouldn't. I'd stay here," said Sgt. Manuel Felicio, 31, a native of Rhode Island, on his first tour.

Scott too says he thinks about home, and looks forward to spending time at the end of this deployment with his sons, ages 6 and 10. "It's wearing a little bit, since my boys are at the age where I should be teaching them to throw a football, how to fish," he said.

The extent of the problem emerged in a restricted Army document issued to soldiers of the London Regiment, a Territorial Army unit, which has soldiers from its ranks serving in Iraq.

The document warns soldiers preparing to take part in operations that insurgents in southern Iraq have managed to obtain the home telephone numbers of soldiers by using electronic intercept devices to hack into mobile phone systems.

It is understood that the threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be killed fighting in Iraq, to verbal abuse. Many of those who have received calls say that they were made by people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent.

The military document states that there have been "many instances in the last weeks of relatives and friends of personnel serving abroad on operations getting nuisance phone calls" from Iraq.

It adds: "Investigations indicate that the 'callers' of these nuisance calls have acquired the numbers from personnel using their own mobiles to phone. This is fairly easy using today's technology. It makes no difference whether the mobile is of UK origin or sourced abroad.

The MoD is keen to establish the extent of these nuisance calls, to determine whether there is a pattern to them. All ranks are to be aware of the possibility of receiving nuisance calls if using mobiles to phone home."

Since the start of the war in Iraq, a number of high profile soldiers are believed to have received death threats from opponents of the war.

Cpl Mark Byles, who won the Military Cross in 2004 after leading members of the 1st Bn of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment in a bayonet charge, received a death threat after his story appeared in the press. Abu Baker Mansha was later sentenced to eight years imprisonment for plotting to kill the soldier.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that families of soldiers serving in Iraq had received "nuisance calls", including people calling the homes of soldiers from Iraq then hanging up.

The spokesman said: "We would not describe this as sinister. We have no evidence of anyone receiving any death threats."

The announcement of the vaguely worded plan prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers to condemn any move that would pardon insurgents who had attacked U.S. soldiers. More than 2,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Maliki has said the plan is aimed at bringing Sunni Arab insurgents into the political process.

Some Sunni leaders call attacks against U.S. troops "legitimate resistance" against foreign occupiers.

The plan has been the subject of intense negotiation among the fractious sectarian and ethnic parties in the governing coalition.

Richmond Jr. said that he shot Kadir because he thought he lunged at the soldier who was holding him, Sgt. Jeffrey D. Waruch, and that he wasn't aware Kadir's hands were bound. (Ed: Sure!)

Waruch was accused in another shooting, in which a 13-year-old girl was killed and her mother and sister wounded. Waruch was discharged without being accused of a crime. Army officials determined it was unlikely they would find sufficient evidence against him.

"First of all - and I hope this will be also said at the UN - we need to emphasize the uniqueness of the situation concerning security in Iraq, express our condemnation of what has happened, and call for drawing conclusions from this," Safonov said

First Vice-Speaker of the Russian State Duma, Lyubov Sliska, joined Safonov in blaming the coalition.

"We can see how the coalition forces are 'restoring order'," she said.

"Every day dozens of innocent people are dying, and now diplomats are geting killed, too. The responsibility for what is going on in Iraq lies upon those who sought mass destruction weapons here, but found nothing," she said.

On Sunday, Arab in an Internet statement an al-Qaida terrorist group in Iraq said it had executed the four employees of the Russian Embassy in revenge for what they claimed was "the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.

ergei Lavrov told journalists that efforts were being taken so that "the relatives of the four men can receive and bury the bodies of our comrades, and so that the criminals who committed this ghastly crime are found and brought to justice."

On Sunday, Arab television channel Al Jazeera reported referring to an Internet statement made by al-Qaeda in Iraq that terrorists had executed the four men in revenge for what they claimed was "the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, said the overwhelming security operation launched two weeks ago to rein in violence in Baghdad was moving more slowly than hoped.

"It's going to take some time. We do not see an upward trend. We ... see a slight decrease but not of the degree we would like to see at this point," he said at a news conference

However, Caldwell added, "we don't see this as turning into a civil war right now."

U.S. officials hope the willingness of leading Sunni Arabs to withdraw support for the insurgency will help heal the nation.

Yesterday, an influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's 24-point reconciliation plan.

Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, the head of the Sunni Endowment, the state agency responsible for Sunni mosques and shrines, applauded the provision that calls for the release of all prisoners who have not been charged with crimes.

He called on the government to implement the plan quickly, but emphasized it should include the disbanding of armed Shiite militias. Minority Sunnis have accused Shiite-led militias -- who have infiltrated the police and armed forces -- of random detention and killing.

Al-Samaraie's endorsement came a day after key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce.