As I listened to President Bush's address announcing that more troops would be sent to Iraq, I thought of the wise words a soldier told me during one of my visits to this war-torn place.

He said, "We can stand up an Iraqi army, but we cannot create a country for the army to defend."

This simple truth exposes the flaw in the president's plan. Without the commitment between the warring parties in Iraq to stop the killing and create the political agreements upon which a national government can exist, 20,000 more U.S. soldiers are not likely to bring about a lasting peace.

I have had the opportunity to visit our soldiers in Iraq, and I will never forget their courage and selfless commitment as they have carried out orders under the most challenging conditions imaginable. They are disciplined and determined, and they have superbly performed what has been asked of them.

However, the United States can’t create a democracy in Iraq. Only the Iraqi people can achieve that. The deadly civil war now under way is daily tragic evidence that progress on this worthy goal has come to a stop.Â

A broad, bipartisan group of experts - including the Iraq Study Group members, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the senior military commander in the region, Gen. John Abizaid - have all rejected the strategy of escalating U.S. troop numbers as a means to bring the factions of Iraq together.

So what do we do? We need to focus our efforts on getting the warring sides to find a political solution that ends sectarian killing and brings hope for a peaceful coexistence going forward.

During my most recent trip to Iraq, I concluded that the longer the United States continues to provide policing and security for Iraq, the less likely it becomes that the Iraqis themselves will take steps to end the violence.

While prospects for success are remote, the costs are immediate and real: more frequent and longer National Guard deployments and shorter time back home for active duty soldiers - many who are now on their third deployment. The toll on equipment will deepen the problems already existing in military infrastructure, and the overall cost of the war will jump, pushing total expenditures past $400 billion.Â

Four years ago, when the president sat across the table and asked for my vote in support of the resolution to authorize this war, I supported him because the information he provided led to the conclusion that Iraq was an imminent threat to our nation's security.

Since that time, I have made every possible effort to assess the situation on the ground with fresh eyes as our nation has worked through this war.

These efforts have now led me to the inescapable conclusion that the president’s plan for more troops will not bring us closer to achieving our goal of a peaceful, stable Iraq.Â

In fact, it will only lead to further bloodshed and chaos while postponing the inevitable day of reckoning the warring factions must face.

Only when Iraqi leaders face this day of reckoning will they find out, as that soldier observed, if they can create a country for their army to defend.

(Pomeroy, a Democrat, is in his eighth term representing North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives. - Editor)

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