ISSUE: Five years of war in Iraq

OUR VIEW: Bipartisan plan for ending war is needed in 2008

Americans get conflicting signals about the war in Iraq. Republicans via President Bush and the presumptive 2008 presidential nominee Sen. John McCain say the nation must stay the course in Iraq to stabilize that country, taking away a safe haven for terrorists. Democrats Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton counter that it is time for the United States to exit Iraq in an orderly fashion, leaving that nation's security to the Iraqis.

Neither course makes most Americans comfortable. No one wants to have spilled so much American blood only to pull out and have the result be catastrophic for future U.S. security. But very few Americans see following a course that k.jpg U.S. forces fighting in Iraq indefinitely.

On today's fifth anniversary of the start of the war, some observations are pertinent in making a decision:

* The cost to the American economy has reached a projected $1.3 trillion ($16,500 per family of four) and in the end will likely rise to $3 trillion ($35,000 per family of four).

* The Iraqi government has failed to function in a way that can end sectarian violence and ensure the country will not be broken into religious and ethnic states.

* Civilian casualties in Iraq number in the hundreds of thousands.

* Al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein were not working in cooperation before the U.S. invasion. The terror organization responsible for the attacks of Sept. 1, 2001, is now a force in Iraq.

The troop surge of 2007 has served to reduce violence, as has a strategy of turning Iraqis against outside terror agents trying to further destabilize the country and promote violence between religious factions. But the effort is not sustainable.

The commitment to Iraq -- on top of the mission in Afghanistan -- has stretched the U.S. military. Top leaders have warned the nation is not prepared to wage war on another front.

As recently as Feb. 26, Army Chief of Staff George Casey told Reuters: "The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance, consumed by the current fight and unable to do the things we know we need to do to properly sustain our all-volunteer force and restore our flexibility for an uncertain future."

America has been in Iraq longer than it was in World War II. It has been 60 months since military operations in Iraq began. As of March 19, American troops have been in Iraq for 1,827 days, 261 weeks.

American troop levels in Iraq today are where they were when Bush declared the mission accomplished. There were 150,000 American troops in Iraq in April 2003. Today there are 155,000.

There is no end in sight -- and the toll grows. Last year was the deadliest yet for American troops in Iraq, with 901 Americans being killed. The U.S. death toll in Iraq is approaching 4,000. Couple that with thousands upon thousands of injuries.

Americans tell pollsters the economy is the big issue of the 2008 election. Indeed economic conditions are a major concern, but the continuing war in Iraq and what the nation's new leadership will do about it cannot be ignored. The war is impacting security, the economy, the very future.

There may be disagreement on specifics of how to proceed, but we believe Americans are not prepared to see nearly another 1,000 casualties a year in Iraq as the war drags on. Whether it's McCain or Obama or Clinton, the war effort cannot end immediately. A wholesale exit could serve to endanger more Americans and destabilize Iraq further, but the objective must be to end the war as resolutely and expediently with bipartisan support an essential objective of the strategy.

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