Rather than discussing how good or bad a speech President Obama gave Tuesday night on Iraq – since Obama has proven that good oratory doesn’t do a damn thing for the country – let’s ask the key question about the central statement of the speech itself, which was:

“Operation Iraqi Freedom is over.”

All right, then. Why is Operation Iraqi Freedom over? Is it:

• Because it succeeded?
• Because it failed?
• Because it’s not worth the effort?
• Because it’s too dangerous?
• Because the enemy gave up?
• Because the Iraqis told us to get out?

You don’t end a seven-year military operation, whose goal was nothing less than the liberation of an entire country, without a pretty clear and pivotal reason. And you don’t address the nation from the Oval Office unless your purpose is to explain to the nation why you have done whatever it is you’re announcing.

And yet that’s exactly what Obama did.

Not only does he refuse to declare victory, but he had his people make clear before the speech that he saw great virtue in refusing to do so, as they announced with pride that the speech would “not be some victory lap.”

He thanked the troops for their sacrifice and valor, but doesn’t credit them with achieving anything worthwhile. He talks about the chance Iraq has to build a positive future, but at no point does he give any indication he thinks this is worth celebrating.

Did we win? Did we lose? Why are we leaving? Why is it over?

Obama offers only one explanation, and it’s classic Obama: It’s all about him:

This was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq’s security forces and support its government and people. That is what we have done.

Since Obama said he would end the war, Obama is ending the war. Obama always keeps his promises, don’t you know? Well, except on middle class taxes. And letting you keep your health plan. And doing something about the deficit. See, as George Stephanopolous once explained in defense of Bill Clinton, “He kept every promise he intended to keep.”

You may be glad the Iraq War is over. I’m glad for what we achieved there, and it’s clear to me that we did indeed win the war. Enemy forces could still rise up and snatch Iraq’s freedom away, but the U.S. and its allies freed Iraq, put down the insurgency and set the stage for a free, democratic, prosperous country.

But that isn’t clear to Obama. Or if it is, he would rather not say so, and it’s not the reason he’s ending our combat mission.

The only reason Obama made this decision is the one you have to infer from the statement “it’s time to turn the page,” which is that he’s just tired of Iraq and doesn’t want to worry about it anymore.

But even that doesn’t go far enough in explaining Obama’s thinking. The truth is, as he said in 2002 when he was still an Illinois state legislator, he thinks it was a “dumb war” and figures it would have been perfectly fine had we simply left Saddam Hussein in power – a notion Daniel Henninger destroyed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.

That means that for 21 months, Obama has been the commander-in-chief of an operation whose success he did not give a rip about. He decided a long time ago that he was going to end the fighting in August 2010, and damn it, that’s what he did.

Obama can be pretty determined when he actually cares about something. We don’t see that sort of determination from him very often on the international front, but it tends to show up when it concerns the abandonment of our allies. When it came to the missile shield we had committed to install in Eastern Europe, Obama pulled the plug without regard to our relations with Poland and the Czechs, or to the security of Europe in general. The man has a spine of steel.

And so it goes with Iraq. He made up his mind that he didn’t care about this, so he’s ending it. Not because we won. Just because “it’s time to turn the page.” And what strategic development determines that it’s time? Nothing that has to do with Iraq, or with U.S. national security, but the simple fact that it doesn’t help Obama achieve the goals he actually cares about, all of which concern the massive expansion of the federal government’s reach into every aspect of American life.

Besides, it’s awfully damn inconvenient for the left to keep denying what a lot of people can remember if they try hard enough, like the fact that Iraqis did indeed greet us as liberators, if we’re still there helping them to win the battle.

It’s a good thing George W. Bush ordered the troop surge in 2007, putting down the insurgency and making it possible for him to negotiate the status of forces agreement that now gives Iraq a pretty darn good chance to make it as a free nation.

We succeeded in Iraq just in the nick of time – before our disinterested new president had the chance to abandon the mission and “turn the page,” all the while denying that we ever achieved a thing.

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