I’ve been meaning to note Clifford May’s brief history of the end of the war in Iraq:

The news is not that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities. The news is that American combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in victory – rather than in defeat.
Two years ago at this time, few in the foreign-policy establishment considered that outcome possible. Some did not even see it as desirable. There were those who believed that the conflict in Iraq was “unwinnable,” that America had met its match on the hot and dusty streets of 21st-century Mesopotamia. Others thought Americans needed a Vietnam-like refresher course about the futility of the use of U.S. military force anywhere in the world.

Interesting how this war from which we just had to retreat — right up until the outcome of the latest presidential election — has quietly faded into the annals of American victories. Unless the culture, and especially the media culture, changes in the coming decades, it’s easy to imagine the whole thing’s being presented as little more than a minor military excursion, not at all like that War in Vietnam, which (being a war) we lost.