article_snippet.sent: But it is how Washington wants this to be.
article_snippet.sent: I'm optimistic though; much of this didn't exist in November.
article_snippet.sent: Years ago, the threat would have mostly been from insurgents taking potshots at an American base.
article_snippet.sent: Now we are far from the threat, but another has taken another place.
article_snippet.sent: It is a strange experience to be protected from those who America seeks to hand America over to.
article_snippet.sent: But this is how this war ended.
article_snippet.sent: Not with ideological victories, or dramatic withdrawals, just the slow and deliberate stepping to one side.