March 20, 2003. Helicopter blades spun while boots thudded across the sand as American troops pushed into Iraq. Special operation teams flew in from Jordan while ground forces crossed the border from Kuwait.
On September 30, 2026, everything ended. The U.S. military announced that the few troops that remain would depart, closing a 12-year long mission against Islamic groups, and with it, the longest stretch of American military presence in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The final departure came from Erbil Air Base in the Kurdish north. In Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, security officers drove a victory convoy through the streets. Rear Adm. Liam Hulin, who ran the joint task force remarked, “The coalition successfully completed its organized withdrawal operation from Erbil.”
Roughly 2,500 US and coalition troops were in Iraq before the U.S.announced the pullout. Most began leaving in October of 2025 but as the clock ticked, the numbers became fewer, until none remained. Joe Biden and Iraq’s then-prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, negotiated this deal in 2025. President Trump’s administration kept it going. This deal ran in two different phases. The first of which had major combat operations inside Iraq to come to a halt by September 2025 and then a smaller group which would stay there through September 2026.
Iraq’s government gave the entire country four days off. This rejoice of victory lasted from September 30 to October 3. The government branded them as “Sovereignty Days.” Though Al-Zaidi frames it as Iraq gaining full sovereignty with no foreign military presence in the region, Turkey still keeps troops in northern Iraq. Iran-backed armed groups also celebrate the U.S. troops’ departure. A key militia figure Abu Mujahid al-Assif called it “The expulsion of the occupation forces, defeated, from the land of Iraq.” Later in the speech he also added a warning for Baghdad claiming that if the government doesn’t work for the benefit of the Iraqi citizens, they will be overthrown by all means.
Though the war has come to an end, more than 4,500 Americans died in Iraq over these past two decades. Iraqi civilian deaths aren’t any better, estimated in the hundreds of thousands. The mission inside Iraq is finally over, but the fight against ISIS isn’t. U.S. counter ISIS efforts will be continued from outside the country. Their major headquarters are located in Jordan. For now, the deployment is over; the problems that this war was meant to solve are yet to be remedied.
Be First to Comment