Ambitions for victory

PRESIDENT BUSH, less confrontational toward his critics than usual, defended the war in Iraq Sunday night as essential to victory in the struggle against terror. The Iraq campaign is far from won, yet in Baghdad, Vice President Cheney suggested that American troops would be pulled back into a few locations next year. The American people deserve to know whether the object in Iraq is total victory or a gradual withdrawal to allow the Iraqis to determine their own destiny.

''To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor, and I will not allow it," Bush said Sunday night. He was even more emphatic in a speech last Wednesday. ''Their [the terrorists'] stated objective is to drive the United States and coalition forces out of the Middle East so they can gain control of Iraq and use that country as a base from which to launch attacks against America, overthrow moderate governments in the Middle East, and establish a totalitarian Islamic empire that stretches from Spain to Indonesia," he said.

The US force level in Iraq is inadequate to prevail against a foe of this magnitude. If the stakes were really this high, Bush would be justified in reinforcing the 160,000 troops there and fighting until the terrorists are vanquished, just as the United States did against Japan and Germany in World War II.

The situation in Iraq is not as apocalyptic as the president portrays it. The conflict is more like an incipient, three-sided civil war, with the United States as a barely tolerated intruder.

Perhaps the Iraqis will sort it out for themselves. The relative peace with which elections were conducted last week offers hope, as Bush pointed out Sunday night. But it will take much bargaining and major concessions for the Iraqis to form a durable government that can defeat the insurgents.

Bush's speeches and his press conference yesterday are part of a public relations campaign to blunt the calls of some Democrats, notably Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, for a quick troop pullout. The administration considers that defeatist, but there is a sense in Washington that Bush has a sub rosa plan to draw down troop levels over the next year. ''As these achievements [by Iraqis] come, it should require fewer American troops to accomplish our mission," Bush said Sunday night.

In a rare Clinton-esque moment, Bush had empathetic words for domestic opponents of the war. ''Yet," he added, ''now there are only two options before our country: victory or defeat." Bush prefers moral clarity, something history does not always provide. The challenge for Bush is to manage a gradual withdrawal from Iraq even if the outcome there is uncertain.