Editorial: Public can handle the truth

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006 | 7:25 a.m.

Body counts are mounting by the day in Iraq. Mass shootings, usually following mass torture, and other forms of deadly violence are the work of roving assassination teams, suicide bombers, rogue Iraqi security forces, insurgents, sectarian militias, foreign jihadists and assorted other terrorists and common criminals.

Sadly, daily bloodletting has been a staple of Iraqi life since President Bush ordered the war three and a half years ago. We've been hearing more about it in recent weeks only because this war-related violence among Iraqis has been on the rise.

The truth is that, even though more than 2,687 of our troops have died while trying to bring stability to Iraq, and thousands more have lost limbs and sustained other life-changing injuries, there has never been a letup in the violence, and the outlook for any letup in the foreseeable future is grim.

Yet less than a month ago Iraq's military commander, U.S. Army Gen. George Casey, predicted that "Iraqi security forces are progressing to a point where they can take on the security responsibilities for the country, with very little coalition support, within 12 to 18 months."

We faulted Casey then for presenting such an optimistic picture, when there was nothing to support it.

A more realistic assessment was provided Tuesday by Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces throughout the Middle East. Even though by the Pentagon's count we now have 147,000 troops in Iraq, up from 131,600 in February, Abizaid said any consideration of reducing that number will not take place until mid-2007. Absent was any expression of confidence in Iraqi security forces. And he also said the number of U.S. troops might be increased.

"If we have to call in more forces because it's our military judgment that we need more forces, we'll do it," Abizaid said.

We were hoping that Abizaid's remarks were the beginning of a new trend, that of the government issuing realistic assessments of the situation in Iraq. Our hopes faded, however, later Tuesday when President Bush said, "A bright future is starting to take root in the Middle East."