Testimony before Congress by Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker on the situation in Iraq has pointed up once again the contrast between the reality on the ground and the fantasy-infested assessments of administration officials.

For perspective, consider what the situation was like in Germany and Japan five years after World War II ended in 1945. Both countries were relatively peaceful in 1950 and well on the road to economic recovery and political democracy.

In Iraq today -- five years after the Bush administration declared mission accomplished and five years after the fall of Baghdad -- the country is not under the control of the United States or the government of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki. The Green Zone, U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters in Baghdad, is a dangerous place, under regular mortar attack from outside its walls. Three Americans were killed and another 31 wounded there this past weekend.

In Basra, the Iraqi troops that the United States has been training for years, engaged in intra-Shiite warfare against the Mahdi Army forces of Mr. al-Maliki's rival, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and did not succeed in taking control of the country's oil center from his and other Shiite militias. Many of the Iraqi government troops even took off their uniforms and deserted to the Mahdi Army.

Iraq's economy remains in shambles, and there has been much reporting from there of Iraqi corruption as well as nonperformance or malfeasance by American contractors, drawn to the money-rich environment of a war zone swallowing at least $2 billion a week in U.S. taxpayer money.

Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker obviously had no choice but to present Congress and the American people the most upbeat picture of Iraq that they could manage without sacrificing their credibility. For one thing, there is speculation that the general is being considered as a vice-presidential running mate for the putative Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Given the administration's and Mr. McCain's position that the war must continue, there is little reason to believe that either the general or the ambassador, in their testimony, would be anything other than hopeful about prospects in Iraq.

Their analysis, and the media coverage it receives, make it even more important that Americans retain a clear picture of what is actually happening in Iraq to be able to vote from an informed point of view in November.