I knew damn well what the words "major combat operations" meant that day, and what the banner meant, too. So did the military personnel, and every other rational person.

I knew that it meant that we weren't going to be dropping bunker busters any more, rolling lines of tanks through fields and cities, or flying hundreds of attack missions a day. That the aircraft carriers were going to be leaving, and the B-2s were going home, and that the cruise missiles weren't going to be flying any more.

I knew the banner meant that this aircraft carrier, and her crew, were coming home after finishing the job the aircraft carrier had been sent to do: destroy the military capacity of Iraq.*

I also knew damn well that the rats were going to go to ground and take pot shots at us for a long time, and at free Iraqis after we were gone.

One of the worst mistakes one can make in an argument here, especially with some people, is accepting their premises.

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*It's really amusing to see how this has been rewritten. Before the war started, the mighty Iraqi army was going to tie us down for years with street fighting, nerve gas, and armies pouring in from Syria and other neighboring nations. We would be seeing American dead coming home by the thousands.

Now to listen to the Left, you'd think we went in and broke up an old ladies' knitting circle. And of course, they knew this all along.