“Maybe he’s entitled to the partial victory lap, but this is not the right moment for it”

“Maybe he’s entitled to the partial victory lap, but this is not the right moment for it,” said analyst Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, who has been critical of both Democratic and Republican approaches to the war. “If I were him, I’d wait until we have an Iraqi government, and do it with the Iraqis together.”

O’Hanlon said he was “confused about the planned Oval Office speech.” It could raise unrealistic expectations among the public about the chances for calm in Iraq, he said. And the timing of the pullout of combat troops may be seen as having more to do with the president’s political needs than with real signs of progress on the ground…

“If the war is ‘over,’ what happens if a Black Hawk goes down next week, God forbid?” asked Paul Rieckhoff, a veterans advocate. While combat troops have departed, the tens of thousands of troops still in Iraq are expected to engage in defensive military action when necessary, and Special Forces troops will continue to conduct counterterrorism missions.