Michael O’Hanlon, the Brookings Institution wonk who once famously posed as a harsh critic of the adventure in Iraq in order to highlight his devotion to The Surge, has another (but mercifully more brief) op-ed on the subject in the New York Times.

In this one, he says that “the greatest American military comeback late in a war since Sherman’s march to the sea in 1864″ has improved conditions dramatically—yea, unto the point that Iraq is now “a weakly governed and very violent place where sectarian reconciliation is starkly absent”— and that we must be alert to the fact that “American troop reductions will have to be slow and careful if the progress is to continue” once The Surge can no longer be sustained.

To put it in slightly different terms, we’re at the tail end of a war in which we constitute one side and are arming and training at least two of the other sides (the Iraqi government and some insurgents), the country is a wreck and almost everyone in it holds us responsible but we can’t leave because if we do, all that we’ve accomplished—nuturing those fragile sectarian relationships to the point where they’re starkly absent instead of whatever alternative is worse—could be lost.

No wonder the guy commands bipartisan respect. And his words carry weight, too; even before his column appeared, the administration announced that we’re not going anywhere.

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