Friday, Aug. 19, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.
"The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous," President Bush said in June. "Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real. Amid all this violence, I know Americans ask the question: 'Is the sacrifice worth it?' It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country."
Roughly two weeks after the president offered that assessment, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made a pilgrimage to Iran, where he laid a wreath at a shrine to the late, unlamented Ayatollah Khomeini, the revolutionary theocrat responsible for the abduction and imprisonment of U.S. citizens for 444 days in the late 1970s.
Roughly 1,850 American military personnel have died to date in Iraq. Thousands of others have been wounded, many of them left invalids. And in exchange we see that Iraq, rather than becoming a free, pro-Western society, is falling into the hands of a radical Muslim government aligned with Iran, a terrorist state hostile to the United States.
"Worth it?" To Iran, obviously. Americans who have lost loved ones in Iraq will likely differ with the president's accounting.
FRANK M. PELTESON
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