Californians are preoccupied with a recall election. Most Americans seem fixated on finding or keeping their jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the fighting goes on in Iraq.

Although the six weeks of intense combat ended months ago, and President Bush declared the war won, U.S. soldiers continue to lose their lives or be injured by hostile Iraqis who want the Yankees to go home. That probably will not be anytime soon.

U.S. military officials made public this week plans to keep each soldier on a one-year duty rotation in Iraq. That announcement caught some of the nearly 150,000 American GIs by surprise. Many soldiers said they'd never been told how long a tour of duty to expect.

Duration of duty isn't the only vague bit of information coming out of this continuing war. There are conflicting views on its cost.

Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of occupied Iraq, hinted last week that post-war reconstruction could take three years and cost about $100 billion. That doesn't count the cost of military operations, which Pentagon officials put at just less than $4 billion a month.

Many private war analysts see the financial picture much differently. A Brookings Institute study of the war and its aftermath place the cost of reconstruction at up to $450 billion. Taxpayers for Common Sense reckons U.S. involvement will go on for a decade or more, and cost up to $465 billion. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences predict America's total 10-year expense will be at least $615 billion.

The Bush administration, as has been its habit on this issue, is saying relatively little about timing or cost. Instead, President Bush seems content to make statements such as this nation will do whatever is "necessary to achieve an overall strategy and whatever it takes to achieve the strategy Š"

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That line of reasoning might be acceptable - if Bush could clarify exactly what the U.S. strategy is in the Iraq campaign. The Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction issues seem to have been resolved. The American people need to know the continuing purpose of this nation's occupation of Iraq.

President Bush needs to set a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. If he won't do that, he must explain to Americans why their sons and daughters remain in harm's way. America's taxpayers also deserve more information on how much we're going to spend reconstructing Iraq, especially in the face of a weak economy and a federal budget deficit approaching a half-trillion dollars.

More and more we're coming to believe this military operation in Iraq to be a waste of money and American lives.

Aug. 14, 2003