"We've won everything we've tried to do, including Fallujah," Biden told ABC's "This Week." "But then we've lacked the resources to secure what we've won. And we're still paying an awesome price for the initial failures on policy of this administration, of going in with too little power and too little legitimacy."

Biden had just returned from a trip to Iraq with his Senate Foreign Relations Committee colleague Chuck Hagel, who told reporters on Thursday, "I did not find one commander who said to me, 'We're winning.'"

Biden said he agreed with that assessment, telling "This Week," "That's clearly my impression."

On the prospects for a successful Iraqi election in January, the Delaware Democrat was equally pessimistic, saying: "Success is still possible, but it is receding rapidly. It is being made much more difficult. And anybody who tells you - like we were told just prior to the November election - that Iraq is more secure, that is simply not true. Not true."

He predicted that American forces would continue to take an increasing number of casualties in Iraq, saying: "We have to level with the American people. This is going to be incredibly painful."

Biden's assessment, however, was contradicted by Pentagon officials, who said last week that attacks against U.S. forces had actually plummeted sharply in the wake of the Fallujah victory.

"Military officials report that attacks across all of Iraq have dropped from 130 to 50 per day," NBC's Pentagon correspondent, Jim Miklaszewski, reported on Monday.

The Delaware Democrat's pessimistic view also didn't jibe with comments from enemy leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who candidly admitted two weeks ago in an audiotaped message posted to an Islamic Web site that his forces were on the ropes after suffering a devastating defeat in Fallujah.

"Hundreds of thousands of the nation's sons are being slaughtered at the hands of the infidels," an alarmed Zarqawi announced.

Blaming Sunni clerics for not supporting his reign of terror, the enemy leader complained that U.S. forces were "inflicting the worst suffering, cutting the throats of the holy warriors."

"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos opted not to ask Sen. Biden about either the declining attack numbers or Zarqawi's admission of defeat.

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