THE alligator-filled bayous and shrimp shacks of Houma are a long way from Iraq, but the war has become horribly real in this small Louisiana fishing town.

January 6 was Houma’s darkest day. In one instant, a roadside bomb killed six soldiers from the town’s National Guard unit as they patrolled in their Bradley Fighting Vehicle outside Baghdad. Two more were killed several days later.

It was a shattering blow for such a close-knit community. Few other small American towns have lost so many sons and husbands in Iraq.

None has buried so many in one week. The deaths represented the biggest single loss by a National Guard unit in Iraq.

In a week when polls show public support for the Iraq war, and President Bush, at their lowest point, one would think that the people of Houma would be in the vanguard of that dissent, clamouring for a quick withdrawal.

But in Houma, support for the war has never been so fervent. Question the Iraq campaign and you would probably be run out of town, past the Stars and Stripes fluttering along Main Street, by a community where most of those killed grew up playing football together, or fishing in the swamps.

Lolly Fassbender, whose grandson, Sergeant Huey Fassbender, 24, was one of the victims, said: “We have to stay. For them to come out now, I would be angry. Huey’s death would be in vain.”

In Houma, the growing paradox of Iraq is on vivid display. The United States as a whole has never been so negative about the war. But in many of the small communities where the sacrifice has been the greatest, support for the campaign only intensifies with each loss of life.

With sliding polls and mounting concern in Congress, Mr Bush is to launch a big political offensive on Iraq, starting this month with a landmark visit to Washington by the Iraqi Prime Minister.

More than 100 American troops have died since the beginning of May, bringing the total US death toll to 1,713. Now 58 per cent of Americans disapprove of Mr Bush’s handling of Iraq. Six out of ten want some or all troops withdrawn.

According to another poll for The New York Times and CBS News yesterday, Mr Bush’s approval rating is 42 per cent, one of the lowest of his presidency. On Capitol Hill, some Republicans have joined Democrats in calling for a withdrawal timetable.

Questions are growing about the “Downing Street memo”, which came to light last month and suggested that some British officials believed that the White House was manipulating information before the war to justify its argument to invade Iraq.

Its publication triggered accusations that the Bush Administration fixed intelligence to gather support for the invasion.

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