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The U.S. will make few changes in its diplomatic policy after the midterm elections handed both houses of Congress to the opposition Democrats, Washington says. Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a briefing Thursday, “Obviously Iraq is an issue where people have a lot of different thoughts. The president has made it clear that he’s willing to listen.” But he added, “I don’t anticipate any major changes in policy, any major course corrections. We believe that on the topics that are in the headlines, whether it’s North Korea or Iran or the Middle East, that we have in place the right approaches to deal with those issues.”

White House spokesman Tony Snow also hinted in a briefing there will be no substantial change of course in Iraq. “The strategy is clear,” he said. The president will only consider “any and all ideas that are going to lead us toward that independent, free-standing Iraq. What the president is interested in is a free, democratic and stable Iraq that is able to be an ally in the war on terror.”

Meanwhile, former defense minister Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned on Wednesday, admitted for the first time that operations in Iraq are less than satisfactory. In a lecture at Kansas State University, he said, “It is very clear that major combat operations were an enormous success. It is clear that Phase II of this has not been going well enough or fast enough.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )