The dancing in the streets of Baghdad that Vice President Dick Cheney predicted more that six years ago finally occurred last week, but not as he envisioned.

Cheney talked about Iraqis joyously greeting American troops over their liberation from the tyrant Saddam Hussein. Instead, the reaction was chaos, looting and an insurgency requiring an unvarnished U.S. occupation.

The dancing that finally broke out, accompanied by fireworks in Baghdad and other major cities, was in celebration of the official withdrawal of American combat troops, with an Iraqi sense of purging their country from now-unwanted oppressors.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's declaration of "victory," without much of thank-you to the Americans who ousted their dictator and have borne the brunt of the insurgent challenge, is a bit of a stretch. While the U.S. combat forces will be greatly reduced, the American presence will remain to train more Iraqi soldiers and police, and to put down expected insurgent brushfires, or worse.

The jury is still out on George W. Bush's pledge to remain in Iraq until a safe and stable nation was achieved. Although the violence had diminished by the time he left office, it has flared up again and is likely to continue as the American military is largely moved out.

Bush's war of choice, which started with the bang of shock and awe, may not be ending with a whimper. But there certainly is no dancing in the streets at home as marked the genuine victories over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

The truth is that the war in Iraq for a long time now has been written off by most Americans as a feckless misadventure conceived by the hubris of Bush's over-reachers in the post-Cold War era of a solitary superpower. The desire to get out of Iraq was a major element in candidate Barack Obama's call for change last year, and an albatross for loser John McCain.

Indeed, Obama's campaign pitch on ending the war has become a political headache for him. Liberal Democrats in Congress grumble about his cautious approach and disappointing decisions on dealing with war detainees. And he is bearing the ultimate insult in his party — that he is hewing to the Bush policies with this and other inheritances from his predecessor.

Obama's decision to raise the American presence in Afghanistan, the war he said was neglected in Bush's diversion to Iraq in 2003, is being mockingly referred to as a "surge" by Republican wordsmiths. They remember consistent Democratic taunts that the 2007 troop buildup in Iraq was not working and never would.

Crouching in the bushes is Cheney, repeating his warnings of the peril of pulling American combat forces out of occupied Iraq. He is ready with a barrage of I-told-you-sos for the next round of violence as the American withdrawal proceeds.

Now that the once single-minded U.S. commitment to the war in Iraq is waning, replaced by a tardy refocus on the war in Afghanistan that had to be fought, Americans may start to take stock on the price paid for the uncertain "victory" proclaimed by Maliki.

Beyond the dearest price of 4,320 American military deaths tallied by the Pentagon and tens of thousands of other casualties, there is the immense financial cost of building and maintaining a war machine that included numerous bases in Iraq over the last six-plus years.

For Americans, the whole of World War II lasted little more than three and a half years and entailed the defeat of two of the most formidable military powers in history. By comparison, the burden of a regional conflict against a stateless guerrilla force would seem well within the American capacity.

A glaring difference, however, has been the total lack of homefront mobilization that fully engaged the American public and resources in the great war against fascism. Bush's just-keep-shopping rallying cry robbed the Iraq war effort of genuine patriotic response. Instead, he offered mere fear-mongering, post-911 jingoism that characterized his brand of leadership.

Like the Vietnam War, this one will remain a permanent cause of contention among the American people for years to come, no matter the ultimate outcome.