A DECISIVE MONTH

August promises to be a month of decision on what to do about the Iraq war. The White House keeps saying wait until September. Some generals prefer November. But in August the public will speak once more, when their representatives come home to campaign for next year’s elections.

The last time the public spoke, it was in the midterm elections last November, when they voted out of office some of the leading hard-line backers of the war and scared some others into raising questions about the management of the seemingly endless war. Washington listened, but not closely enough.

In August, the legislators will hear again from the relatives and friends of the young men and women in the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and National Guard who have been risking their lives on repeated tours of duty that took then from their families and their jobs and have left many of them dead or seriously injured in body and mind.

They will hear from some of those soldiers themselves. Many are still gung ho believers in the nobility of an effort to end tyranny and bring peace and democracy to the entire Middle East. But they probably will also hear a growing restlessness and skepticism among the armed forces about the origin and management of a war that is well into its fifth year.

They will hear, too, from hardheaded business leaders and bankers, many of whom are deeply concerned over the $12 billion a month that the war is costing and want to bring it to a quick end.

And they will hear from ordinary citizens who increasingly worry about their country’s waning reputation in the world and about the diversion of manpower and resources from needs of schools, health programs and other domestic requirements that go on whether in time of war or peace.

Some Republican lawmakers, as well as the Democratic faction that continues to support the Bush administration’s war policy, will be on the spot in these August encounters with the voters. And Republicans in other states may wish that their senators had joined with the four, including Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who voted to break the Republican filibuster that prevented a vote on scheduling an exit strategy.

August presents an opportunity for voters to express themselves to their elected representatives and for the lawmakers to listen. Much depends on this interaction between the elected and the people they represent, who should demonstrate again that they are far ahead of Washington on the Iraq war issue.