Obama's Iraq address | Michael Tomasky

Wait. Didn't this war end once before? It did, at least rhetorically. Can you guess the date on which President George W. Bush, crotch protruding before the eyes of the world, declared the end of major combat operations in Iraq?

It was well before they ended, which was today in fact. But I invoke the image not only to chide Bush but to make a point.

Presidents like to announce the ends of wars that can be put, as we say in America, in the W column. But Tuesday night in his prime-time Oval...