Last week was a bad week for the United States in Iraq.

The death toll of Americans serving there passed 1,500, with no promise of a reduction in the average monthly loss of 64 soldiers. Carnage among Iraqis either in the interim administration and the security forces or among people lined up to join them continued at a high rate amid the drumfire of insurgent attacks.

Five weeks after the Jan. 30 elections, Iraqis have still not been able to reach agreement on a government based on the results. Although individuals have been put forth for president and prime minister, the choices are not final. The disagreements preventing such accord seem largely based on differences between and among the Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis, Iraq's traditional cleavages.

The good news is that, even absent agreement on who gets what, the elected National Assembly has been convoked for March 16.

Probably the worst development last week was the tragic killing of Italian secret service officer Nicola Calipari, shot to death Friday by American troops in Baghdad as he accompanied Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from captivity by insurgents to freedom.

A state funeral in Rome attended by the Italian president and prime minister may have the result of putting an end to continued Italian participation with forces in the nearly defunct "coalition of the willing."

Ms. Sgrena, 56, considered to be leftist in her political orientation, has charged that U.S. forces fired deliberately, without warning, on the vehicle carrying Mr. Calipari and her after her release. The White House denied the claim yesterday. It is more likely that the killing was a tragic accident, but the dark cloud can be dispelled only by a rigorous investigation of what actually occurred, with allied Italian representation in the group carrying out the inquiry.

President Bush's current concentration on changing Social Security can be seen as a way to distract Americans' attention from the fact that the Iraq effort is going badly (another 18 Iraqis were killed yesterday in assorted attacks) and is unlikely to end well. It is the equivalent of a pet owner moving the dog's feeding dish to distract it from avid pursuit of the cat.

Whether there is a link between keeping Social Security on the front pages and keeping people's minds off Iraq, the U.S. presence there is no longer playing a positive role and it is time to declare a timetable for the withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. forces. There is no longer any valid reason to continue to pay the price in American lives to prolong this nearly two-year-old Bush enterprise.