BAGHDAD — The Iraq war is set to officially end Thursday, with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta flying into Baghdad to attend a ceremony formally wrapping up the U.S. military’s 81 / 2-year mission in Iraq.
The ceremony effectively ends the war two weeks earlier than was necessary under the terms of the security agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraqi governments in 2008, which stipulated that the troops must be gone by Dec. 31.
But commanders decided there was no need to keep troops in Iraq through the Christmas holidays given that talks on maintaining a U.S. presence beyond the deadline had failed. The date of the final ceremony had been kept secret for weeks, so as not to give insurgents or militias an opportunity to stage attacks.
Panetta will be the guest of honor at the simple ceremony.
After speeches by the dignitaries, the flag of United States Force-Iraq will be folded away, and the U.S. military’s mission will be declared over, eight years, eight months and 25 days after it began.
The last commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, will then fly out of Iraq with the last few members of his staff. It will then only remain for the last few troops guarding the ceremony to make their way out of the country.
Many Iraqis still find it hard to believe that the U.S. troops are actually leaving, after a war in which 4,487 Americans were killed, more than 100,000 Iraqi lives were lost and more than $800 billion was spent by U.S. taxpayers on the military effort and reconstruction. At the war’s peak in 2007, there were 170,000 U.S soldiers in Iraq, although that number had dwindled to 50,000 over the past year
The withdrawal will have little immediate impact on the lives of most Iraqis. U.S. troops pulled out of the cities in 2009 and halted combat operations a year later. For more than a year, they have been training the Iraqi security forces on military bases, largely out of public sight, although Special Forces have continued to conduct counterterrorism operations.
Many Iraqis were unaware that the departure was imminent, although in recent days, the domestic press has been speculating that it might take place sooner than anticipated.
On Wednesday, thousands of people in the mostly Sunni town of Fallujah, where Marines fought the biggest battle of the war in 2004, took to the streets to celebrate. They burned American and Israeli flags, and carried a banner declaring Fallujah to be “the city of resistance.”
Some residents, nevertheless, expressed misgivings, even as they said they were glad to see the Americans go. Bashar al-Nadeq, 32, said he could not help but be happy because he spent two years in the Camp Bucca prison camp after a cousin to whom he owed money told the U.S. military that he was a terrorist.
But he fears simmering sectarian tensions could erupt in violence once again, and he does not plan to celebrate.
“What’s the point of lighting a candle at the beginning of a tunnel when you know you will be walking in darkness?” he said at his car wash near the center of the battle-scarred town. “I am happy they are going, but I know my happiness won’t last for long.”
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