Though both Iraq and the U.S. paid a stiff price for the pullout of American troops in 2011, the Obama administration didn’t have much choice. Barack Obama tried to negotiate a deal to keep a contingent of American soldiers there, but Baghdad refused. Opinions vary on whether Obama might have tried harder. But the country’s parliament balked at giving U.S. troops legal protection from Iraqi courts, a condition Obama was right not to accept. Obama was late, however, in realizing the gravity of the Islamic State threat, at one point shrugging off the terror group as “junior varsity.” He later changed course.