DAN K. THOMASSON Retreat from Iraq? Now isn't the time

WASHINGTON -- A longtime friend and professional colleague who has been consistently opposed to the war in Iraq and, for that matter, the Bush administration's foreign policy generally could hardly contain his rage on the phone the other day after viewing the horrible events in Fallujah.
"We should carpet-bomb that place out of existence," he shouted, voice trembling with emotion. "Burn them all, and hang them from bridges."
It was a reaction heard over and over again following the most disturbing images to come out of the war so far -- mutilated bodies of American civilians being burned and strung up and pulled around by grinning Iraqis, some of whom even took off their shoes to pound the charred corpses, a sign of disrespect and contempt in the Arab world. It was so atrocious that it was difficult to keep the bile from rising in one's throat and it was enough to cause even the most dedicated pacifist to beat his plowshare into a sword and seek violent revenge.
Difficult scenes
For most Americans it recalled the infuriating, horrifying pictures of the bodies of U.S. soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by mobs of cheering, jeering Somali thugs, an event that caused us to leave that country and set the stage for other atrocities designed to test the national will to hang in there when the body bags begin to collect. But rather than rattle our determination to stay the course, it may have served to strengthen our resolve to install at least a semblance of democracy in Iraq.
At least we can hope so. Americans are never used to war, but they understand that there will be death and that it won't often be in a noble fashion and that innocent people will be killed in the process. Nothing, however, will bring them together like the unholy disrespect displayed by this relatively small mob, evidence once again that man's inhumanity to man really knows few bounds. Coalition authorities have pledged to seek out the culprits, including those who engineered the ambush and those who grinned into cameras while defiling the bodies.
That is as it should be, but we should understand that most of the residents of this difficult city with its Sunni population had nothing to do with what occurred. Committing one atrocity on top of another is not the solution if we are to even come close to restoring order and turning Iraq over to the Iraqis as soon as possible. The date set for reinstalling an Iraqi government is now only three months away and there seems to be no sign that Iraqi security forces, including the army and new police force, are anywhere near ready, even with continued support of coalition troops.
Need for hope
There must be some hope among insurgents, if they can think beyond the next day's murder plot, that these acts will persuade American voters to get rid of President Bush at the polls this fall and install John Kerry, who would be more ready to end U.S. responsibilities in Iraq. That would be utterly foolish on their part, either in believing that their actions would contribute to a Bush defeat or that, if it should occur, that Kerry would back down from the nation's obligations. Much of the rest of the world doesn't realize that while the transition from one president to another is not entirely seamless, when it comes to matters of war and national security there is a large measure of continuity.
If there has been a failure in the Iraqi expedition, it has been the miscalculation that exiles and dissident groups in that country were an indication of how welcome this "liberation" would be. There was never much of a plan past unseating Saddam Hussein quickly and, therefore, the support apparatus for pacification and reconstruction was not ready, nor was the military force large enough to keep things stable in a nation of 36 million while that work went on. Adding to the problem, the war seems to be attracting new insurgent groups from both in and out of the country.
We are now paying for these failures with the increasing number of deaths among our own civilian contractors, like the four from a North Carolina security company who were ambushed in Fallujah.
XThomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard.