Our Hollow 'Victory' In Iraq

America’s commitment to Iraq has come to an end -- not with a bang or even a whimper, but with a retreat greased by Joe Biden’s blather and bull. If you pray, now would be a good time.

The vice president spent three days in Iraq last week, attending a farewell ceremony and trying to put a smiley face on the withdrawal of the last 15,000 American troops.

As usual, his comments had a just-back-from-Mars quality, especially his claim that “oil’s the glue that’s going to hold this country together.” This from the guy whose answer to the relentless violence in 2006 was a call to partition Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions.

Instead, President George W. Bush opted for a troop surge, a bold move that helped turn the tide and make Iraq governable.
So Biden was wrong in 2006, and there is every reason to believe the Obama administration is wrong now to think Iran won’t fill the vacuum our departure creates. Biden’s words on Iran only add to the concern.

“There is no possibility of them having the capacity without the world reaction,’’ he told NBC News. “Not just the United States, [but] the world reacting if all of a sudden Iran was to move across its border and invade any of the countries in the region.’’

Ah, yes, world reaction, the comfort food of dizzy Utopians. It’s a particularly false hope now because Iran has been helping to kill American soldiers for years. Last June alone, 13 were killed by Iranian-trained and -armed Iraqi militia, military officials say.
There was no “world reaction” and the United States responds by leaving.

Finally, Biden used the “V” word in a backhanded way.

“It’s not an American victory,” he said. “It will be an Iraqi victory that we should be proud of.”

So that’s it. The war cost nearly 4,500 American deaths, 32,000 injuries and $800 billion, and we leave without victory, but with a dreamy hope it will all work out somehow.

Michael Goodwin is a Fox News contributor and a New York Post columnist. To continue reading his column on additional topics including New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and taxes, click here.