The important exceptions to this pattern of flight have been kept unpublicized, apparently for operational reasons. The 36th Battalion of the Iraqi Army, fighting under U.S. command, has performed well in Fallujah.

Tell that to the Marines, who have suffered heavy casualties as they moved to establish control in Fallujah after taking over from more static U.S. Army units a few weeks ago. Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. theater commander, may have other views on the future. He met on Tuesday with Iraqi political leaders who have contributed troops to the 36th Battalion.

[Bremer] is a skilled, smart and experienced senior civil servant, a breed trained never to acknowledge in a crisis that you don't have a plan -- above all if you don't. His evasion cleared the way for U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to announce in Baghdad yesterday that a "caretaker" government he will design should take over on June 30. (Brahimi also denounced the siege of Fallujah as "collective punishment.") Even with time short, the American mission in Iraq can succeed if it is a matter of correcting well-intended but faulty theories of governance. A hidden agenda to keep real power away from Iraqis and in American hands -- even if blessed by U.N. civil servants -- cannot remain long hidden, nor would it long survive. It would only bring new and irrevocable disaster.