Democrats tell Iraq that the gravy train is coming to an end.

A delegation of congressional Democrats that included rising star Senator Barack Obama of Illinois had a blunt assessment yesterday for Iraq's political leaders: Shape up, or America will ship out.

The continued US commitment to Iraq is becoming a tougher sell back home, the four lawmakers said, and unless Iraqis can start showing visible signs of progress by creating a broad-based government and security forces inclusive of all of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups, Americans will lose patience, they said.

''It's going to be hard to convince American taxpayers to pour water into a leaky bucket," said Obama.

Here! Here! This is exactly what needs to be conveyed to the Iraqi's in no-nonsense language. We cannot afford this conflict anymore and I would argue that we never could afford it. It is past time to bring this thing to an end.