L.A. Times Doesn't Realize What We're Up Against In Iraq

Michael Kinsley is gone, but the L.A. Times editorial pages are just as unrealistic as ever on the subject of the war in Iraq.

Again, Friday, in its editorial, "War of Attrition," the Times fails to recognize the stakes in the war, and the very severe consequences should the U.S. try to withdraw troops while the present insurgency rages on.

President Bush, on the other hand, is telling nothing but the truth when he warns that a victory in Iraq for the insurgency and the Sunnis could spell the end of other moderate regimes in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt. If these countries do not satisfy us, we need to ask ourselves how we would like it if the terrorists take them over, and what the price of oil would be in that event.

As new terrorist warnings are issued for the New York subways and of a further stepup in military action in Iraq, the bitter truth is that we have little choice but to carry on our side of the war, and to side to some extent with the Shiites and Kurds on the ground in Iraq.

War is frequently a series of disappointments. It frequently goes on too long. But so much is now dependent on a favorable course to our intervention in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, that we can't contemplate withdrawal now. The stakes are much higher than they ever were in Vietnam.

There is a natural tendency not to want to confront this, but the press and American people must be patient. Hard days may lie ahead, but worse ones will arise unless we are successful.

Times editorials of the kind that appeared today are not a help.