JB

The New York Times reports that members of the Bush Administration, realizing they badly underestimated the costs of securing the peace, are now reaching out to the U.N. for assistance in stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq.

With the costs of stabilizing Iraq hovering at $4 billion a month and with American troops being killed at a steady rate, administration officials acknowledge that they are rethinking their strategy and may seek a United Nations resolution for help that would placate other nations, like India, France and Germany.

Administration officials contend that they are being practical, but within their ranks are policy makers sharply critical of the United Nations and those who would consider it humiliating to seek its mantle after risking American lives in the invasion that ousted Mr. Hussein. . . .

The discussions reflect a growing sense that the reconstruction of Iraq will require a new international alliance. For all their rapid success in the military phase, the American-led forces are struggling to establish stability and normalcy in Iraq. A Pentagon advisory panel that just returned from Iraq reported a pressing need for international assistance.

Even supporters of the administration's policy say its efforts are in jeopardy, and minute military planning gave way to disarray once the major combat ended.

"It's increasingly clear there was really some underestimation of the number of people who would be required after the regime fell, and the length of time required to stay there," said Paul Saunders, director of the Nixon Center, a nonpartisan research organization whose honorary chairman is Henry A. Kissinger.

Why didn't the Administration listen? It is a combination of hubris and arrogance on the one hand, and on the other, an almost visceral hatred and contempt for international organizations like the United Nations, which were seen as hindering American ambitions and undermining American sovereignty.

It is time to put those prejudices aside. Having taken over Iraq, we cannot now abandon it. We must do what it takes to secure a stable regime that will not become a hot bed of terrorism or a continuing rebuke to American foreign policy. The war on Iraq did not make America safer, but having started the war, we must now make the best of it. We will need the U.N.'s help.