Let’s hope Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki didn’t make himself a hostage to fortune today by announcing an upcoming “final war” on al Qaeda in Iraq. The recent smattering of suicide bombings in Mosul do demand decisive military action, and there’s plenty of reason to expect success once Iraqi forces take the fight north to this AQI stronghold. But those two unfortunate words could wind up in the same soundbite chamber as “mission accomplished” and “final throes.”

Hubris aside, al-Maliki’s further words were heartening: “Now we have a real army. The days when the militants could do anything in front of our armed forces are gone,” he said. For this, we can thank the tireless training and recruitment efforts of both U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The most useless trope in recent discussions about Iraq is the one about how military success means nothing without political progress. Political progress is an impossibility without the security furnished by ongoing military success. (Below, Peter Wehner has highlighted Iraq’s emerging political reconciliation and the operational progress that’s made it possible.) The battle for Mosul will be Iraqi-led. This is critical in showing Iraqis that the state’s military is now an effective instrument employed for the good of the country. Political reconciliation is predicated on this kind of reassurance.

“Final war” or not, the prospect of eradicating AQI, in what appears to be its final refuge, points both to past U.S. military success and to further political progress in Iraq.