Focusing on a few "Iraqi trees," one could make the argument that the war is ongoing and perilous. But to step back and look at "the forest," one cannot escape the fact that Iraq's long winter is over, and the branches are budding.
With all due respect, we could have argued we won the war in Vietnam in 1973 when our last troops left, with the Viet Cong destroyed. The fact that a North Vietnamese conventional invasion and not a Viet Cong uprising destroyed the Saigon government made the loss of South Vietnam no less real and our loss no less real. We still feel the impact of that defeat today, with the idiotic chants of "what's our exit strategy?" as if that is deep strategic thinking.
The trees in Iraq are clearing budding. But there are bulldozers sitting across the border in Iran and Syria, with others parked around Iraq idling with Sadrists and unknowns ready to roll. We are winning in Iraq. Iraq is not yet won and we need to persist for many more years in nailing this down.
We get no credit if only a decent interval separates our victory over our enemy from our enemy's victory over our ally.
