The last official “combat troops” are heading home from Iraq ending almost nine years of a deadly and divisive war.
After nearly nine years, $800 billion, 4,500 American dead and an estimated 100,000 Iraqi dead, the war in Iraq is over — at least for the U.S. military. At just after XX a.m. local, the last U.S. combat troops crossed from Iraq into Kuwait along the same roads the United States used to invade the country in 2003.
One and a half million American men and women served in Iraq since that first force arrived, back when the campaign was expected to be quick and greeted warmly. But even today, the legacy of the war is in many ways still unknown: The United States is leaving an Iraq where sectarian, regional, and political groups still show willingness — and sometimes a desire — to resolve their differences violently, and where many of the vital issues created by the invasion are still unsettled.
Welcome home and may peace be upon you all
