Iraq does not need "direct and military support, and support on the ground" from the United States, new Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said in an interview last week before his visit to Washington. His country might want U.S. "cooperation and assistance" at different levels in the future, Al-Kadhimi allowed, depending on "the changing nature of terrorism's threat." But the support he mentioned—military training and arms provision—would be a marked drawdown from the current U.S. role in Iraq.

American policymakers should take notice. After seventeen years of fighting, the war in Iraq is a demonstrable failure—and yet a failure with no end in sight.