After nearly nine years of war, tens of thousands of casualties—including 4,500 Americans dead—and more than $800 billion spent, the U.S. military on Thursday formally ended its mission in Iraq and prepared to leave the country.
For years, U.S. commanders in Iraq have handed off to their successors the top call sign, Lion 6, along with the American battle flag adorned with a Mesopotamian sphinx. But on Thursday, in a tradition-drenched ceremony with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta looking on, the current Lion 6—Army Gen. Lloyd Austin—pulled down the colors and cased them for a return to the U.S.
"No words, no ceremony, can provide full tribute to the sacrifices that brought this day to pass," Mr. Panetta said.
In the coming days, the last of the 4,000 U.S. military personnel still in Iraq will follow the flag and head home—leaving fewer than 200 to serve as part of the diplomatic mission.
The military has largely shut its main base in eastern Baghdad, Camp Victory—a name that often had a bitterly ironic ring for many service members—and the final ceremony occurred at Baghdad International Airport, known to the more than a million soldiers who deployed to Iraq by its awkward acronym BIAP.
At Thursday's end-of-mission ceremony, Gen. Austin reflected on how, as an assistant division commander, he gave the order for the lead elements of the 3rd Infantry division to cross into Iraq eight years, eight months and 26 days earlier.
"As fate would have it, I now give the order to case the colors," Gen. Austin said, referring to a long-established military ritual in which regiments "uncase" their identifying colors when deployed, and "case" them when they pack up to leave.
The Iraq war has become a defining experience for a generation of officers, including all of the top generals in the Pentagon. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who previously served two tours in Iraq, called the war a "test of our character."
"Every day required us to balance conflict and compassion," Gen. Dempsey said. "Every step was a singular act of moral and physical courage."
At Thursday's ceremony, Mr. Panetta evoked the most important battles of the war in Fallujah, Ramadi and Sadr City. He returned to a theme he has struck all week while visiting troops in Djibouti, Afghanistan and Iraq: American service members have given Iraqis the opportunity to make their own future. The hardships and losses endured by America's military, he said, weren't in vain because they led to a free Iraq.
"You leave with great pride, lasting pride, secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people begin a new chapter in history," Mr. Panetta said.
The U.S. military has pledged to continue to help Iraq, a promise reiterated by officials Thursday. The U.S., Mr. Panetta said, would be a "committed friend and committed partner." But that help will come in the form of intermittent exercises and high-level consultations. With Thursday's ceremony, the day-to-day mentoring, regular advising and intense training that the U.S. has focused on in the last years of the war has come to an end.
The Iraq war has been a nine-year emotional roller-coaster ride for the American people and the military.
With the destruction of Saddam Hussein's military and advance on Baghdad accomplished within weeks, it at first appeared to be a quick victory for America and the world's most technically advanced army.
But within months of the taking of Baghdad, a growing insurgency emerged and turned the quick victory into a long slog. The advanced U.S. military was brought low by primitive weapons: homemade bombs made from fertilizer or discarded artillery shells. To many, including some in the military, the war seemed lost after the February 2006 bombing of Samara's Golden Mosque touched off sectarian killings around the Iraq. Nightly murders by Shiite death squads filled Baghdad's morgues.
Led by Army Gen. David Petraeus, another Lion 6, the military rewrote its doctrine and overhauled its strategy, initiating a surge in the number of troops and pushing soldiers and Marines into tiny outposts to try to put a halt to the violence. The surge, deeply controversial in the U.S., began to tamp down that violence in the summer of 2007, eventually restoring a measure of calm on a country that had descended into chaos.
The U.S. force numbered more than 170,000 at the height of the surge—a mobilization that required grueling 15-month tours for many in the Army and constant trips to the war zone for a generation of Marines. By last year it had dwindled to 50,000, and since President Barack Obama announced in October the U.S. would leave by year-end the military has been engaged in a massive logistics effort, sending home thousands of troops a week, shuttering dozens of U.S. bases and moving millions of pieces of equipment.
In recent weeks, U.S. troops have finished handing over hundreds of bases, sending thousands of truckloads of equipment out of the country. Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said the withdrawal convoys were a "deliberate operation" that required intense military planning.
"These convoys aren't a bunch of guys driving down the road like the Beverly Hillbillies," he said. Insurgent groups have targeted some of the ground convoys with roadside bombs.
Mr. Obama rose to prominence in part with his criticism of the Iraq war. He argued that it was a "dumb war" that never should have been fought—a stance that helped him win the Democratic nomination. Bringing home the troops fulfills one of his major campaign promises.
Iraqi officials say it also makes good on a pledge by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who won a second term by securing the support of parliamentarians who were dead-set against any extension of the U.S. troop presence.
The end of the Iraq war leaves many in the military in a reflective mood. The war has transformed the U.S. military, offering it a costly lesson: Even a superpower cannot fight the war it might want; it must fight the war it's presented with. Iraq forced the military to get heavier, hanging thick armor on its trucks, transports and its soldiers.
The military that invaded Iraq prided itself on its quickness. The military that is leaving prides itself on its patience. Soldiers, Marines and airmen have all developed the ability to drink endless cups of teas as they look for ways to talk, rather than fight, their way out of conflicts.
Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Jerry Delebreau said this week he learned much about drinking tea before getting down to business and about how relationships matter as much as bombs. The Iraq war, he said, made everyone in the military think differently about how wars are fought and won.
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