“We should just declare victory and get out.” Those are not recent words. The quote is from Sen. George Aiken of South Carolina. The year was 1966. The senator was advising President Lyndon Johnson about his options in Vietnam. And by the way, Sen. Aiken was a Republican.

We ought to take Aiken’s advice in Iraq. The way is clear. The Iraqi people are as close as they’re ever going to get to tending to their own affairs, whether they choose democracy, theocracy, oligarchy, anarchy or another form of social governance. It is time to recognize that the ball is in their court, and whichever way they hit it — even into the net — we’re declaring that they’ve won. And good for them.

Then we should bring our troops home and make sure we do it right. We should take the same “Mission Accomplished” banner that “W” used in his ludicrous photo-op aboard the Abe Lincoln seven (yes, seven) years ago from Saturday and hang it across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Here’s why. When more than 200,000 American soldiers came home from Vietnam all those years ago, myself included, we snuck back into this country one by one, separated from our colleagues: a solitary Sergeant at a train station, a lone Marine crossing an airport concourse, a single sailor hefting his seabag into a taxi — all alone.

The separation wasn’t just physical, but spiritual. There was a wall of shame we felt at having lost something no other generation of American troopers ever had: We’d lost a war.

There were no banners then. No signs in airports. No pats on the back from grateful citizens in any kind of organized way. Oh, there were relieved parents, greetings from neighbors and friends with welcome back messages, but no mentions of Vietnam and its descent into chaos.

And no parades. Americans love parades. We hold parades on red-letter occasions, saint’s days, national days of recognition and when the troops come home. There were no parades for Vietnam vets.

We should pull those men and women out of Iraq, bring them home en masse, ply them with awards for a job well done — because it is a job superbly done. Then we should hang that banner across Pennsylvania Avenue, and march them, division by proud division, under it.

We should invite everyone to come, including those who got us into the Iraq War, however misinformed and misguided they were, and those who opposed it, too. We should make it a national day of celebration — of the pride we feel for those men and women and the job they’ve done, of the families at home who supported them, even of the Iraqis who must recognize the opportunity they’ve been given.

There will be many veterans of Iraq who will need more than discharge papers, awards and a plane ticket home. Many will need years of counseling and help. A parade is not a panacea. But the public recognition it represents can help us all share some closure to this long national nightmare. Bring them home from Iraq, and start the parade.