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NC soldier, 23, was last US troop killed in Iraq
Spc. David E. Hickman, 23, of Greensboro, N.C., died Nov. 14, in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered after encountering an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Last US troops withdraw from Iraq
18 December 2011
The last convoy of US troops to leave Iraq has entered Kuwait, nearly nine years after the invasion
that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The final column of about 100 armoured vehicles carrying 500 soldiers crossed the southern Iraqi desert overnight.
At the peak of the operation there were 170,000 US troops and more than 500 bases in Iraq.
Nearly 4,500 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the US-led campaign began in 2003.
The operation has cost Washington nearly $1 trillion (£643bn).
But security has to be rooted in political stability, and that’s only one of many challenges immediately facing Iraq.
Even as the final US troops were heading for the border, a political crisis was erupting in Baghdad, with deputies from Ayyad Allawi’s Iraqiyya block pulling out of parliament.
There is turmoil in two mainly Sunni provinces, which want to declare themselves autonomous regions like the Kurds in the north. There’s also a widespread conviction that with the Americans gone, Iranian influence will spread.
While most Iraqis believe it was high time for the Americans to go, many are deeply worried about the challenges that lie ahead.
US forces ended combat missions in Iraq in 2010 and had already handed over much of their security role.
“(It’s) a good feeling… knowing this is going to be the last mission out of here,” said Private First Class Martin Lamb, part of the final “tactical road march” out of Iraq.
“Part of history, you know – we’re the last ones out.”
As the last of the armoured vehicles crossed the border, a gate was closed behind them and US and Kuwaiti soldiers gathered there to shake hands and pose for pictures.
The only US military presence left in Iraq now is 157 soldiers responsible for training at the US embassy, as well as a small contingent of marines protecting the diplomatic mission.
The low-key US exit was in stark contact to the blaze of aerial bombardment Washington unleashed against Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Tribute
US President Barack Obama marked the end of the war earlier in the week, meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
He announced in October that all US troops would leave Iraq by the end of 2011, a date previously agreed by former President George W Bush in 2008.
The US troops left Iraq for the last time, crossing into Kuwait
In a recent speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, President Obama paid tribute to the soldiers who had served in Iraq.
He acknowledged that the war had been controversial, but told returning troops they were leaving behind “a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq”.
However, correspondents say there are concerns in Washington that Iraq lacks robust political structures or an ability to defend its borders.
There are also fears that Iraq could be plunged back into sectarian bloodletting, or be unduly influenced by Iran.
Washington had wanted to keep a small training and counter-terrorism presence in Iraq, but US officials were unable to strike a deal with Baghdad on legal issues including immunity for troops.
US to lower flag to end Iraq war
Obama, Maliki Chart Next Steps
Obama, Maliki Chart Next Steps
the puppet and the wimp
This is what America gets after 10 years of war and over 4500 lives lost and countless thousands wounded ?
A surrender to Iran and a cowering over Syria ?
We need strong positive leadership ; better than Obama , better than Bush
This is what happens when we put an affirmative action community organizer in the position of commander and chief .
The next time you vote THINK FIRST !
Iraq: Bomb blasts in Baghdad kill at least 15
Marines to wind down Afghan combat in 2012
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines will march out of Afghanistan by the thousands next year, winding down combat in the Taliban heartland and testing the U.S. view that Afghan forces are capable of leading the fight against a battered but not yet beaten insurgency in the country’s southwestern reaches, American military officers say.
At the same time, U.S. reinforcements will go to eastern Afghanistan in a bid to reverse recent gains by insurgents targeting Kabul, the capital.
Losing the peace in Iraq?
Losing the peace in Iraq?
President Obama tells reporters that all US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011.
BY NEW YEAR’S DAY, the US military presence in Iraq will be history. President Obama has made it official, announcing last week the fulfillment of his campaign pledge to end the Iraq war and bring the troops home. Senior American commanders in Iraq had recommended keeping up to 18,000 servicemen there, and even Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wanted around 4,000 to remain. But Obama, whose meteoric rise to power was fueled by opposition to the war, overruled them. “The rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year,” he told reporters.
“After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.”
And what happens then?
