Editorial: War a failure by any name

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006 | 7:19 a.m.

Thousands of American troops have died or been wounded in an ever-escalating Iraqi conflict that is now being called a "civil war" and that Iraqi forces still are incapable of handling on their own.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Sunday criticized the training and use of Iraqi forces, saying that Iraqi army battalions serving in peaceful provinces should be moved into combat areas.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who likely will become chairman of the Armed Services Committee when Congress reconvenes in January, and retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing also questioned the effectiveness of the U.S.-trained Iraqi police force. Downing, who once headed the Army's Special Operations Command, said that the United States has "reconstituted the Iraqi police pretty much in their old image," as a force that is "corrupt" and "feared by the people."

The lawmakers and former military officials made their comments Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." NBC News and the Los Angeles Times are both now saying the Iraq conflict is a "civil war" - a term that has drawn White House criticism and one that is certain to solidify the public's negative view of the Bush administration's war campaign.

No matter what its title, this war - pitifully orchestrated by President Bush - has cost thousands of Americans' lives and billions in taxpayers' dollars. It also has failed to create the competent, cohesive fighting Iraqi forces that Bush promised.

The Washington Post reports that Anthony Cordesman - a Reagan-era Pentagon Middle East specialist who just returned from Iraq - says the Defense Department's public statements "severely distorted the true nature of the Iraqi force development" in ways that "grossly exaggerate" Iraq's abilities to replace U.S. troops. It is a bureaucratic way of saying that the Bush administration lied - again.

And now what we feared would happen if the United States pulled out already is occurring. Iraq is fighting a full-blown civil war and U.S. troops are caught in the middle.