Editorial
A war not sold, cannot be abandoned

	WATHIQ KHUZAIE / GETTY IMAGES Supporters of Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (pictured) rally on Monday.
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The past week has been an especially ugly and violent period in Iraq.

The brutal killing and dismemberment of four American contract workers in Fallujah, the deaths of dozens of American soldiers, the escalating uprisings of Shiite Muslims as well as Sunnis — it all adds up to a profoundly unsettling picture. Iraq, it appears, has moved a giant step toward chaos.

The danger and uncertainty are splitting Americans down the middle at a time when American resolve to finish the job is more critical than ever. Only half of those surveyed last weekend by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press believe the U.S. should keep troops in Iraq until a stable government is established.

It's no wonder Americans are conflicted. This was not the war they were sold.

It's time for President Bush to level with the country: These are not isolated incidents of violence by a handful of people. Iraq is a powder keg. Stabilizing the country — not just for the largely ceremonial June 30 transfer of power, but for the long haul — will take more soldiers, more money and more time than the administration has indicated.

Americans deserve the truth about the complexity of the task and the sacrifices that come with it.

War is unpredictable. But the face of this conflict looks joltingly different than the one presented to Americans before the first strike. In place of cheering Iraqis, there are jeering Iraqis with bombs, guns and a hatred of Americans so deep that foreign soldiers and workers face grave danger just being there. Even some Shiites, who were supposed to be America's friends, have taken up arms against Americans.

It seems inconceivable the administration did not fully grasp the true consequences of an Iraq invasion. Yet increasingly, that appears to be the case. There is little evidence of a realistic plan to put the country back together and pull out once the war was done.

President Bush faces a pivotal moment — in the war and in his presidency.

More than 600 Americans have already lost their lives in Iraq. More than 130,000 are there now. The president's top concern should be stabilizing the country for their safety and for Iraq's future.

Bringing in United Nations and even NATO forces should be an obvious next step. As Sen. Joseph Biden and others have said, the U.S. needs to take an "American face" off the occupation.

Abandoning Iraq in the midst of this trouble is unthinkable. The U.S. has no choice but to complete what it has begun. The consequences of leaving would ripple far beyond the region. The tattered remnants of an Iraq overtaken by Americans then ripped apart by internal strife, and possibly civil war, would surely become the newest breeding ground for a generation of terrorists in search of American blood.

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