Editorial: Dark picture from Iraq

Monday, Aug. 27, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

As it is on most days, the news from Iraq on Thursday was grim. A village leader in a Sunni community who had organized a successful uprising against al-Qaida was killed when his house was bombed and raked with gunfire.

The message from the attackers was clear: Neither the Americans nor the Iraqi security forces can protect those who resist us.

The grisly incident occurred on the same day that a joint report from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies was released. The killing of the Sunni leader served to exemplify in graphic form what the intelligence agencies were actually saying.

"The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months," the report stated. "Broadly accepted political compromises required for sustained security, long-term political progress and economic developments are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift."

In plain language, that means Iraq is a killing field whose weak and ineffectual government cannot bring about stability.

It also means that Iraq will remain this way for who knows how long, as President Bush, whose uninformed impulsiveness led the U.S. into this tragic mess, continues to support Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose secular partisanship is only adding to Iraq's misery.

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, is to deliver a definitive assessment of Iraq by mid-September. Nothing will be better by then, but we see no hope of Bush doing anything but sticking with his open-ended U.S. commitment.

His view is contested by congressional Democrats and a growing number of Republicans, who think al-Maliki will keep dithering unless the U.S. sends a strong message that its patience is wearing thin. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a combat veteran and former Navy secretary, recently returned from Iraq and Thursday called on Bush to announce by Sept. 15 a plan to start withdrawing some troops.

Bush instantly rejected this sound advice, guaranteeing the unending flow of grim news from Iraq.