One year ago today, President Bush famously landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared "mission accomplished." If we accomplished what we set out to do, then why are we still in Iraq?

More than a year after the start of the war, life is better for Iraqis. But is this why we fight wars, to make life better for other people?

Wars aren't social programs. People die. The reasons for going to war should be strong and not based on some Pentagon scribbler's elaborate plan to remake whole nations in America's image.

We know now that Hussein's Iraq had no real nuclear weapons program. The menacing chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction haven't been found. Connections to al Qaeda proved more fantasy than reality. In other words, the stated reasons for going to war have proven false.

Worse, more Americans have died in Iraq since the President declared "mission accomplished" than in the actual war itself. With 136 American deaths, this past month was the war's bloodiest. Americans elsewhere in the region, as today's events remind us, are increasingly viewed as targets.

President Bush says he stands by his "mission accomplished" speech. If the job is done, bring the boys home. If it's not, please inform us what our mission in Iraq is now that Saddam is gone, WMDs proved chimerical, and the Iraqi people's capacity for self-government seems less than advertised.