SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT YOU WON:

For too many in the United States, Iraq is a political football. Democrats see it as original sin and calculate that if it descends into hell, that they can blame its failure on President George W. Bush's initial decision to invade and oust Saddam Hussein.

Republicans, on the other hand, readily blame Iraqi failures on President Barack Obama's fulfillment of his campaign promise to withdraw completely from Iraq.

Many military officers who served at the height of the surge as well as the aides and advisers who accompanied them, meanwhile, have their conception of Iraq frozen in 2006 and 2007, and ignore the political evolution both of Iraqi politicians and the militias upon which they too often rely.

They do not see that not only Kurdistan but also southern Iraq is secure, and southern Iraq's economy is booming. Iraq 2015 is not Iraq 2005. Rather, it is a country on a precipice, able to see hope and desperate for re-engagement.

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