Eight years into a grueling, dispiriting conflict that has torn a nation asunder, with countrymen attacking countrymen as traitors, the end seems almost incomprehensible. War used to be so much simpler in American politics. Back in 2004, there were the good guys (i.e. Republicans who wanted to invade Iraq, aided at first by cowering Democrats who would go on to make it their signature electoral issue) and then the bad guys (anyone who opposed the Iraq war.) But when President Obama announced Friday that all U.S. troops would come home from Iraq by the holidays, Republicans were not sure where to stand.

Mitt Romney the leading "serious" Republican candidate for the nomination blasted the decision. He condemned Obama's announcement that all troops in Iraq would be home for the holidays this year, calling it either "naked political calculation or simple sheer ineptitude." His fierce press release continues, "President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women." Of course, just last June, he was running on a peace platform, saying in a debate, "Our troops shouldn't go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation." Of course, that was about Afghanistan, which was the good war, until it became the bad war when it looked like we weren't winning.