Last Full U.S. Combat Brigade Leaves Iraq

50,000 American troops remain

Video

Leaving Iraq wiser, deadlier (MSNBC, Aug. 18, 2010) — Rachel Maddow interviews NBC’s Richard Engel as the last U.S. combat brigade leaves Iraq on lessons of the war and its effect on the U.S. military. (03:54)

MSNBC.com and NBC News
Aug. 19, 2010

IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER — The last U.S. combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait on Thursday morning, bringing to a close the active combat phase of a 7½-year war that overthrew the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, forever defined the presidency of George W. Bush and left more than 4,400 American service members and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead. …

The White House website first trumpeted the “End of Combat in Iraq” before backtracking to note that the official end of combat operations is Aug. 31. …

The timing of the final departure was a closely held secret, and the end came in dramatic fashion two weeks ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline President Barack Obama had set to withdraw combat forces and close Operation Iraqi Freedom, which the U.S.-led multinational coalition began March 20, 2003, in the belief that Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that threatened the West. …

In those 7½ years, 4,415 U.S. service members lost their lives.

Estimates of the number of Iraqis who were killed are more problematic, complicated by difficulties in determining which combatants were from Iraq or were sympathizers from other countries in the region, by deciding whether to include victims of bombings and other attacks by anti-coalition elements, and by the biases of who is doing the reporting.

Iraq Body Count, a non-governmental organization based in Germany whose tallies are commonly reported by Western news agencies, puts the current toll at 97,000 to 106,000. By contrast, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Al Mustansirya University in Baghdad said in a report heavily criticized by U.S. officials that more than 650,000 Iraqis were killed in “war-related activities” just in the period from 2003 through 2006. …

Full story

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — August 19, 2009

Bomb Blasts Across Baghdad

Firefighters respond to a bombing near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. (Photo credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP)

One year ago today, I reported the deadliest attack in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew from urban centers at the end of June 2009 — and one of the deadliest of the war — with a wave of bombings and mortar attacks in Baghdad killing nearly 100 and wounded approximately 1,000.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — August 19, 2008

On the Campaign Trail: Day 36

Two years ago today, on the 36th day of my 2008 campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I issued an explanation to prospective voters regarding Minnesota’s open primary election, in which citizens may vote in the party primary of their choice — irrespective of whether they consider themselves Republican, Democrat, or independent.