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The war in Iraq has been "mostly over" ever since it began. If Bush had told us the truth before invading with out U.N. approval, all would have realized the Iraq war is not "winnable" in the conventional sense. Accordingly, all that now remains to be determined is when the U.S. will withdraw, and on what terms.

Simply abandoning equipment or handing it over to the Iraqis, as was done in Vietnam, is not an option. And even if it were, the new Iraqi army is by all accounts much weaker, less skilled, less cohesive and less loyal to its government than even the South Vietnamese army was. For all intents and purposes, Washington might just as well hand over its weapons directly to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Clearly, then, the thing to do is to forget about face-saving and conduct a classic withdrawal.

A withdrawal probably will require several months and incur a sizable number of casualties. As the pullout proceeds, Iraq almost certainly will sink into an all-out civil war from which it will take the country a long time to emerge — if, indeed, it can do so at all. All this is inevitable and will take place whether George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice like it or not.

For misleading the American people, and for launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C. sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be removed from office and put on trial along with Scooter Libby.