We Needed No Panel

To state the obvious.

President Bush's policy in Iraq "is not working," a high-level commission said bluntly on Wednesday, prodding the administration to embrace diplomacy to stabilize the country and allow withdrawal of most combat troops by early 2008.

After four years of war and the deaths of more than 2,900 U.S. troops, the situation is "grave and deteriorating," and the United States' ability "to influence events within Iraq is diminishing," the commission warned in an unsparing report.

It recommended the United States reduce "political, military or economic support" for Iraq if the government in Baghdad cannot make substantial progress toward providing for its own security.

What I don't get is how on earth the Iraqis are supposed to clean up this fiasco that we caused and are still inspiring. They didn't ask us to come in and unleash every extremist in the country and region. Regular people with regular families just want to live a regular life. They don't want to take up arms and battle insurgents - particularly those who are in another part of the country. We broke it. We bought it. We need to fix it or leave.