Flying Blind With No End In Sight

Herbert - There were 4,000 marines stationed near Falluja when Wednesday's gruesome attack occurred. But Marine commanders, as The Times's Jeffrey Gettleman reports, decided they would not intervene to stop the mutilation of the bodies. The atrocity unfolded without interference.

On that same day five soldiers were killed when their convoy rolled over a bomb buried in the road in a town 15 miles west of Falluja. A major trade show in Baghdad that was supposed to be held next week to showcase investment opportunities in the new Iraq had to be postponed yesterday because of security concerns.

We are mired in a savage mess in Iraq, and no one knows how to get out of it. More than 600 U.S. troops are already dead. The rest of the world has decided that this is an American show, so we're not getting much in the way of help. (Even the Saudis have been sticking their fingers in Uncle Sam's eye, leading the effort by OPEC to cut oil production.) President Bush won't come clean about the financial costs of the war. His mantra remains: tax cuts, tax cuts.

We're flying blind. There's no evidence that the president or anyone in his administration knows what the next act of this great tragedy will be.