Our military mission in Iraq is drawing to a close, we learned last week from President Barack Obama. After eight and a half years in the Mesopotamian desert, our military men and women who have served there hopefully will be home by Christmas. For their service, we thank them. And for completing the withdrawal, we thank Obama’s administration (even though George W. Bush claimed “Mission Accomplished” back in May 2003).

The war in Iraq has been one of our longest conflicts, and holds second place only to Vietnam as the most divisive foreign conflict in our history. Think about what you were doing eight years ago. Think about the highlights of your day. Many, if not most, of you were still in middle school. The withdrawal marks the end of a chapter in American history and culture brought on by the attacks of Sept. 11.

No candidate can campaign on the issue of Iraq during this election cycle. In 2004, the Democratic candidates slammed President Bush time and again for getting us into what was then seen as a quagmire. In 2008, the Democratic candidates did it again, and Sen. John McCain had a difficult time shaking the accusation that his presidency would simply be a repeat of Bush’s policies.

It may be about time that our military involvement in Iraq comes to a close, but we cannot forget our continued mission there. We cannot forget that country we established, that political system, in coping with our own woes. Eliminating a regional power broker is no easy task, but restoring it to that position is also a difficult one, and the Middle East is far too volatile a place to be left to its own devices.

Answering the “What if?”s of history is not our goal, but imagine what would have happened if, having won the Second World War, we abandoned Germany and Japan to the rest of the international community’s designs. To keep Iraq in perspective, remember that we have tens of thousands of soldiers still stationed in Germany and Japan.

Perhaps, like Great Britain a century ago, we should seek to ensure both our own power and world stability by influencing key areas of the world. Britain controlled the Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope. Maybe America should support stable democratic systems such as Germany, Japan, Israel and Iraq as alternatives to countries dominated by violent factions or terrorist groups.

That support, though, does not need to be martial. Other methods exist, and we should take the withdrawal’s offer of an opportunity to learn about them.