George W. Bush finally has been “shocked and awed” by the rising cost and casualties in Iraq, as well as the realization that efforts to rebuild the war-torn country will not be successful without assistance from the United Nations.

That was made clear in Sunday night’s nationally televised address from the White House. It was not so much what Bush said—though the speech lacked the swagger and bluster of some of his earlier comments—but what he proposed.

Let’s begin at the beginning. The major pretext for invading a country that had not attacked the United States was that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to Americans because of his ties to the Al Qaeda global terror network.

To this day, Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found. This has seriously undermined Bush’s credibility both at home and abroad. Even members of his administration now admit that Hussein’s ties to Al Qaeda were tenuous at best.

Bush’s greatest mistake was trying to go it alone in Iraq. When the United Nations refused to sanction military action in Iraq, the U.S. thumbed its nose at the U.N., dismissing it as being irrelevant.

Under the direction of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the United States launched it’s “shock-and-awe” attack on Iraq, unleashing a barrage of bombs on what they said were carefully selected targets.

On May 1, slightly more than a month later, Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier to announce: “Mission accomplished.”

In some ways, the mission was just beginning.

Not only was no effective plan in place to quell Iraqi violence and looting that followed, American soldiers became sitting ducks. So much so that the number of American casualties suffered after the war (149 as of this week) now exceeds the 138 combat deaths. That was shocking.

And lawmakers are in awe over how much money it is costing to attack and rebuild Iraq. In his address, Bush announced that he will ask Congress for $87 billion for the fiscal year that begins next month; about $75 billion of that is earmarked for Iraq. That’s in addition to the $79 billion Congress approved for the war. Further, administration officials say an additional $30 billion to $55 billion and 15,000 troops are needed from the international community.

By contrast, the cost of the 1991 Persian Gulf War was $82 billion in current U.S. dollars. Acting in concert with other nations, the United States paid only $9 billion of that amount. Looked at another way, if the money being spent on Iraq was used at home, we could more than double the amount the federal government allocates to education. Even more would be available if Bush’s $674 billion tax cut were repealed.

Rather than engage in more domestic spending, the administration will increase the federal deficit, which had been eliminated during the Clinton years, to $475 billion in 2004. It will go even higher, probably topping $600 billion before the rebuilding effort in Iraq is complete.

Bush’s mishandling of the war will undoubtedly be an issue in next year’s presidential election. Already, there are signs that his popularity, which was unusually high during the war, is plunging. A recent Time/CNN poll showed that 63 percent of Americans believe going to war was the right policy. Bush’s approval rating was 52 percent, about where it was before the war. However, a new poll by Zogby International put his approval rating at 45 percent and 54 percent negative.

Now, the United States must go before the United Nations, the same body that it dismissed as irrelevant at the onset of the war, to beg for help.

“…We cannot let past differences interfere with present duties,” Bush said Sunday night. “…Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity and the responsibility, to assume a broader role in assuring that Iraq becomes a free and democratic nation.”

Bush should have done more to enlist international cooperation prior to attacking Iraq. Many allies had wanted to assist in the mission but on a timetable established by the United Nations, not George W. Bush. And even while seeking U.N. help, the United States is still trying to dictate the terms, insisting that a U.N. force be headed by an American.

The tragedy is that this is a war we shouldn’t have started. And if the administration had wanted to persist, it should have acted in concert with the United Nations. Now, we’re paying the price, financially and in human casualties. We should not be shocked or awed to learn that we will pay an even higher price in the future for this lunacy.