September 1st, 2010
In his live televised Oval Office address Tuesday night, President Obama dealt out a therapeutic, paternal sense of closure: The war in Iraq is over, in the sense that America is no longer officially fighting it. Our sacrifices have been made and honored. A trillion-dollar investment, on which we are now closing the books. Which is not the same as closure, so much as transferring the balance. As Obama noted near the end of his 18-minute address (only his second from that location since taking office in 2009), the whole concept of war now is that it doesn't end per se, at least not in a
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