Political exuberance won’t hide the price of military miscalculationWhen asked whether American troops would be in Iraq when President George W. Bush leaves office in 2009, Sen. Gordon Smith said he doesn’t think so. Sen. Smith’s response was not mere optimism. Like most men in his business, Smith refracted reality through a political lens.

Politics is a component of all military decisions, but the Iraq War has been especially driven by political ambition rather than military sobriety. We could also say that this war was born of a lie.

The news out of Iraq over the past 10 days is especially sobering. The succession of bombings and the discovery of mass executions is a reminder that war does not obey political timetables. It is also a reminder that an outside power cannot impose order on a culture that doesn’t have the means or the will to seek political compromise, which is the mother to stability.

The Bush administration excels at bending reality to suit its political needs. The ultimate conceit was President Bush’s press stunt on an aircraft carrier, declaring that our military mission in Iraq was accomplished. That was two years ago.

A compliant Congress has been afraid or incompetent to raise the simplest of questions: Do these guys in the White House and the Pentagon know what they are doing? The two-year gap between Mission Accomplished and today indicates President Bush and his top aides had no idea what might go wrong. The price of that miscalculation is 1,620 dead and thousands wounded and a generous reconstruction appropriation that effectively makes Iraq our 51st state.

The Senate contains no one of the intellect and tenacity of Oregon’s late Sen. Wayne Morse, who had the foresight to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was President Lyndon Johnson’s blank check to run the Vietnam War. Morse spoke unrelentingly against that war.

Whenever someone is hell-bent on making war, there is a simple question that cooler heads must ask. “At what cost?”

One cost of this war is already becoming apparent to military strategists. Because of the war’s unplanned length and because recruiting goals are not being met, our armed forces are stretched thin. At a time when Iran and South Korea are emerging as trouble spots with nuclear weapons, the price of President Bush’s intemperance is already clear.

How many lives is America willing to spend on an attempt to bring political stability and democracy to Iraq? How much money are we willing to spend? Even Mr. Bush’s most fervent admirers must deal with those two questions.