So far this week in Iraq, 25 U.S. soldiers have died in combat; 48 have been killed since July 24. An estimated 1,825 U.S. soldiers have died since the 2003 invasion began. More than 13,000 troops have been injured. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost more than $700 billion for the first 10 years, which exceeds the cost of the Vietnam War (in current dollars).

If the insurgency were indeed in its “last throes,” as Vice President Dick Cheney claimed in late March, these numbers, though depressing, could be spun into a hopeful context. After all, more than 58,000 U.S. soldiers died in Vietnam.

But as this week has shown, the end doesn’t appear to be anywhere near. Cities and towns brought under control by the U.S. military quickly slide back into mayhem once the troops move on. When troops return, the insurgents have bigger bombs and better weapons.

Marine Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder recently told his parents how frustrated he was with this reality. “He said the closer they got to the time to come home, the less it was worth it,” his mother said. On Wednesday, Schroeder was among the 14 Marines killed when a roadside bomb ripped through a transport vehicle.

The U.S. government trumpets the progress being made in Iraq, noting the training of Iraqi forces, the elections and the writing of a governing constitution, but the death and destruction haven’t abated.

A majority of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the war. Many are clamoring for an immediate drawdown of troops.

President Bush is right when he says establishing a firm exit deadline would be strategically foolhardy. He’s also right that we have a responsibility to the Iraqi people.

But many of his public pronouncements seem aimed at justifying the war to Americans rather than winning over Muslims abroad.

He tirelessly repeats that Muslim extremists “hate our freedoms” and that we are “defeating the terrorists in a place like Iraq so we don’t have to face them here at home.” If the lethal bombings in Madrid didn’t expose the folly of that logic, the explosions in London should have.

And the “hate our freedoms” mantra has been challenged by the 9/11 Commission and the Defense Science Board, an advisory committee made up of military, science and technology experts that reports to the Department of Defense.

The DSB issued a report last year that was highly critical of the administration’s approach, noting “Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies,” specifically America’s approach to the Palestinian issue and its support for what many Muslims see as tyrannical rule in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states.

By 2008, or shortly thereafter, it’s likely that most U.S. troops will be removed from Iraq. No politician can sustain support for this ill-conceived war and hope to get elected president. How we leave will have important ramifications for America’s image and for global security, but all of the best exits will remain blocked if we continue to embrace the philosophy that landed us there in the first place.