Amir Taheri: America's Iraq Achievements

Amir Taheri is an Iranian-born conservative author based in Europe.

The last American troops in Iraq will fly home by month’s end; whatever the shape of future relations between the two nations, the US withdrawal marks the end of a chapter, if not a whole volume.

In one of those ironies that add spice to history, the end of the American military presence, negotiated under President George W. Bush, is happening under Barack Obama, who built his presidential campaign on opposition to the liberation of Iraq.

Was the war worth fighting? What kind of Iraq do the Americans leave behind? These questions still divide those interested in the Mideast’s complex politics.

A speech by Vice President Joe Biden in Baghdad earlier this month pretended that the war was not worth the cost and the effort, making much of the administration’s desire to end "physical and financial bleeding." He sounded as if he was ending a war started not by America but by some other, unnamed, country.

Biden also insisted that he and Obama aren’t claiming victory. But was Iraq a defeat for the United States? A draw? In any case, who is the other side?

Apart from the bitter divisions of US politics (of which Biden is a sad specimen), the intervention in Iraq achieved its major goals and must be considered a victory...