Posted on: Sunday, September 26, 2004

EDITORIAL
Iraq is clearly not a Rose Garden paradise

It seems clear that no matter how faulty our reasons for getting into a war in Iraq might have been, we have no choice now but to see this endeavor through.

But seeing it through requires cold-blooded realistic thinking, rather than the insensible positive rhetoric we have been hearing recently.

The most recent example are the upbeat comments served up by Iyad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, and his patron, President George Bush.

In a Rose Garden ceremony this week, both Bush and Allawi insisted that peace, democracy and a bright future are just around the corner in Iraq.

We share that hope. It's just that we cannot see that reality.

Over the past several days we have had stories of beheadings of foreigners, suicide attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi police forces and the gradual withdrawal of American security presence from substantial portions of the country.

And now, the New York Times reports that the most respected religious leader in Iraq, the Grand Ayatolla Ali Sistani, is insisting that unless the Shiites he represents are not given a greater role in the upcoming elections, he might decide to boycott.

That would be a disaster. The message here is that hopes, important as they might be, are not enough to achieve success in Iraq.

What we need now is a dose of realism.