It is the day after Christmas and America still mourns the death of at least 22 soldiers and civilians in Iraq last week, apparently at the hands of a suicide bomber, which, as it turns out, was one of the worst weeks of this dreadful war.

As of Christmas Eve, more than 1,300 American soldiers had been killed in the 18 months of fighting.

Dozens of those men and women came from California active and reserve units, several of them our own young men and women.

Wars kill people, by nature and by inclination. When a country goes to war, its citizens expect to hear about battlefield casualties.

It is a situation imbedded in us by fact and fiction for generations.

But there is something entirely unsettling about the war in Iraq. It started well enough, with U.S. troops sweeping across the country in a matter of weeks, routing an enemy that was ill-equipped to fight.

But it/s pretty much been all downhill since that first, dramatic push, in which our troops performed almost perfectly.

Now we have a military that/s stretched pathetically thin, that our leaders are telling to make do with what you have. Perhaps going to war was a shameful display of hubris to begin with, but now this quagmire 7 and yes, that/s exactly what it has become 7 threatens not only political stability in that region, but also the political and economic equilibrium here at home.

How can the Bush administration continue its chant for tax cuts and social reform when the war is piling debt on top of debt? How can it expect a military in the field that is probably half the size it should be to keep up with 7 or stay safe from 7 a growing tide of insurgency that strikes when and where it wants? Last Tuesday/s mess tent bombing in Mosul occurred in the midst of tight security, guards, perimeter safety measures, the whole works. Yet a man with explosives strapped to his body walked into the soldiers/ midst and all hell broke loose.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mentioned almost casually last week that he expects U.S. forces will need to occupy Iraq for another four years. Those aren/t likely to be easy or safe years.

Even though the Bush administration is touting the end-of-January elections in Iraq as the last step toward democracy, it would be naive to expect those who disagree with U.S. policy to lay down their arms and bombs soon after the vote is counted.

Not long ago we wondered about the efficacy of moving ahead with the elections. Iraq doesn/t seem nearly ready to take that step.

There were to be a quarter-million Iraqi security workers trained by now to ensure the safety of voters. Fewer than half that many are ready.

And it didn/t help last week when three Iraqi elections officials were dragged from their car and murdered by masked insurgents. That will have a chilling effect on the vote.

But at this point, the Bush administration has no choice.

It must press on with the vote because doing otherwise would be an enormous victory for the insurgents.

This situation is, by definition then, a quagmire.

It is clear now that America needs a bigger, better-equipped military force in Iraq. It also is evident that America probably can/t cobble together the forces it needs to get the job done, so President Bush should swallow his pride and ask our NATO partners for help, if for no other purpose than to help train Iraqi police while our soldiers carry on their struggle against insurgents. We need help.

It also is crystal clear that there is no easy way out of this mess.

If Rumsfeld/s assessment of the war/s duration is correct, all Americans must accept the reality of their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers not coming home. At the very least, the president and Rumsfeld, the chief architect of this war, need to be more truthful about what/s going on in Iraq.

A war that had overwhelming support among Americans just a year ago is now widely unpopular. A majority of those surveyed think it was a mistake, and that number is growing with each casualty report.

No, there isn/t an easy way out. This is going to be very painful, for a long time.

Dec. 26, 2004