LONDON -- Our leaders would do well to reread "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll. If they can suppress their vanity for a moment, they should recognize that they have much in common with the White Queen. When Alice declares that "one can't believe impossible things," the queen retorts that "sometimes I have believed six impossible things before breakfast." Politicians either believe impossible things or shut their eyes to unpleasant facts.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair say that the situation in Iraq is improving and assert that Iraq is on course toward establishing a stable democracy. Military commanders and their diplomatic representatives tell them this is not the case. Rather the situation in Iraq is akin to civil war. Every day scores of Iraqi civilians are killed or wounded, and to walk in the streets of Baghdad is extremely hazardous. The American commanders call for more troops on the ground, but Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, has only recently agreed to increase the number of U.S. forces in Iraq despite numerous earlier requests. He thought he knew better than his generals!

Bush and Blair assert that the fight against terrorism calls for the pacification of Afghanistan. This may be true, but it is now five years since American forces overthrew the Taliban and 20 British soldiers have been killed in the last few weeks in fierce fighting in southern Afghanistan. The British failed to pacify Afghanistan while they ruled India and suffered huge casualties in this lawless country. The Russians with all their arms and ruthlessness were equally unsuccessful. The wild mountains of the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan provide a haven for al-Qaida. Yet the British minister of defense at first alleged that the British forces were going to the Helmand province to help with development.