A byproduct of Israeli fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinians in Gaza in recent days is that people may have lost sight of what has become for the moment the "other" Middle East war, the conflict in Iraq.

It is important that Americans not be distracted. The United States lost 61 there in June alone, the U.S. death toll now stands at more than 2,500 and the war continues to cost more than $200 million a day. The 134,000 American troops committed there serve as a major constraint on what the United States might do as part of an international peacekeeping effort to end the fighting and nail down an accord between Israel and Lebanon, not to mention an overall Middle East peace agreement.

In fact, the situation in Iraq continues to worsen in terms of peace and stability. The Iraqis now stand in what could be described as armed polarization, with the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds divided and represented by heavily armed forces, enforcing what has become increasingly ethnically cleansed segregation of the different groups.

In that context, killing has increased. It is reported that the insurgents may now feel strong enough to wrest control of at least parts of Baghdad, the capital, from the control of the occupation-installed Iraqi government and U.S. troops. The U.S.-trained, so-called national Iraqi security forces are as divided into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups as the country itself and so are ill-suited to deal with the internal fighting.

A senior American general said the United States needs more, rather than fewer, forces in Iraq to deal with the growing insecurity. In the meantime, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has attacked what he called "Israeli aggression" in Lebanon, consistent with a unanimous vote of the Iraqi parliament, thus publicly biting sharply the hand of the ally of those who feed him. Mr. al-Maliki's position is certainly consistent with the sympathies of Iraq's 60-percent-Shiite majority, who identify with Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon.

As the Israel-Lebanon-Gaza war heats up, another reason is added to others for the United States to phase down its involvement in Iraq. If America is to have the resources to play a constructive role in peacemaking and peacekeeping in the Middle East, it has to free some of them from the quicksand that Iraq has become.