us to go. things aren t drastically better than they were this month or the month before or the month after that. september 1st isn t the day bombs will magically stop exploding in iraq. we re going because we said we would go. that is the way the affection war will probably end as well unless our politics in the war get less coherent than they are now. looming over the ends to these wars is the recognition that, at least as the iraq war ends, so too ends the narrative that an elective war could be constructive, an elected war could turn things around and make a broken place better. what s different now than it was before is an acknowledgement of the united states is the success and future of these countries where we have been fighting, that success, the future of these countries, is not up to us. we have to allow iraq to do that. we can t do that for them. what we ve done is set the conditions now that allows them to do that. that s what i think we should be proud about, at least fr