If the Iranians pride themselves on playing chess while we play checkers, they never could have expected us to walk away from the board.

The Right has not taken kindly to President Obama’s announcement last Friday that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year. If you need a quick summary of conservatives’ main talking points, the National Review has helpfully penned an editorial calling the President’s decision “a bonanza for Tehran.” The editors write, “We are…handing the Iranians a goal they have sought for years--remove us from Iraq entirely so they can better influence the country for their ends.” Instead of Americans counting on Iraq as a strategic ally in the region, we will now see the country descend into anti-U.S. fervor and terrorist rule. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast’s Michael Ware suggests Obama is receiving undue credit for the troop withdrawal since the agreement to end the war was hammered out years ago by the Bush administration.