U.S. Closes Its Mission on Uncertain Note

By JULIAN E. BARNES and NATHAN HODGE

The U.S. flag was lowered Thursday in Baghdad at a ceremony to mark the formal closure of the American military headquarters and end of the Iraq mission. Video courtesy of Newscore.

BAGHDAD—After nearly nine years of war, tens of thousands of Iraqi and American casualties—including 4,487 Americans dead—and more than $800 billion spent, the U.S. military formally ended its mission and prepared to leave the country.

WSJ's Julian Barnes spoke with military members who will be among the last to leave Iraq as the U.S. ends its mission there.

Many Iraqis seemed either unaware of Thursday's official closing ceremony, or didn't fully believe the Americans were leaving.

Nonetheless, U.S. military and defense officials marked the end of their mission in a tradition-steeped observance held in a protected area within Baghdad International Airport, as Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, took down the flag that symbolized the American mission and soldiers prepared it for a journey home.

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A masked Iraqi Shiite militiaman dashed across a street in the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City on Aug. 7, 2004.

War in Iraq Officially Over

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Soldiers carried flags before a ceremony where the American battle flag adorned with a Mesopotamian sphinx was cased for a return to the U.S.

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"No words, no ceremony, can provide full tribute to the sacrifices that brought this day to pass," Leon Panetta, the defense secretary, 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.

But as the last U.S. units were departing, tensions flared up among Iraqis, and unresolved issues—over regional efforts for greater autonomy, dividing the country's oil wealth and establishing an impartial judicial system among them—remained apparent.

The dual-dynamic underscored the uncertainty and anxiety about the U.S. pullout in both countries and pointed to the array of political and security challenges that now confront Iraq's leaders.

The job of assisting them will be left to a U.S. diplomatic mission that is the biggest in the world and includes thousands of private security contractors and other support personnel.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office issued a terse statement announcing his return to Baghdad from Washington on Thursday amid an intensifying crisis over a proposed move by some predominantly Sunni provinces to become semiautonomous regions.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, newly arrived in Baghdad for Thursday's ceremonies, with Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq

Sunni-Shiite divisions were evident in reactions to the official end of the U.S. mission. In the Sunni bastion of Adhamiya on Baghdad's northwestern side, residents complained about excessive checkpoints and protective walls, relics of the U.S. troop surge in 2008.

Others spoke about the frequent nightly raids by Iraqi security forces in Adhamiya, which residents said suffers from a reputation as a onetime haven for former Sunni regime loyalists and insurgents. A recently released detainee with visible marks of beating on his face declined to be interviewed.

"I think the withdrawal is a lie and the Americans are still present, their concrete walls are still here and so are their towers and communications wires," said Tariq Adnan, 27, owner of a hardware store in Adhamiya.

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Mario Tama/Getty Images

The United States Forces-Iraq flag displayed before being retired during Thursday's casing ceremony, signifying the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.

In Fallujah, the predominantly Sunni Arab city west of Baghdad where U.S. soldiers and Marines fought some of the bloodiest battles of the war, people gathered for a memorial Thursday at a football stadium turned into a cemetery for hundreds of residents who perished in the war.

The mood was different in Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite district of Baghdad renamed after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 in honor of a revered clerical family that includes the father of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Most shopkeepers in Sadr City were busy watching a soccer match Thursday and paid scant attention to the U.S. ceremony.

"We started to know Sunni and Shiite only after the arrival of the Americans in our country," said Ali Mohammed, 23, a cellphone shop owner. "We want to prove to the world that we are one—and especially Iran, because it's trying directly to destabilize Iraq."

There was no reaction from Mr. Sadr, one of the fiercest opponents to the U.S. presence in Iraq. His movement's website posted a statement from Mr. Sadr dated Monday lambasting Mr. Maliki for his visit to the U.S. and meeting with President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials earlier in the week.

"It's contrary to the blood that was spilled on the homeland's soil because of the occupation and its soldiers," wrote Mr. Sadr.

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U.S. Army soldiers, among the last remaining in Iraq, prepared to fly home to Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday.

The military has largely shut its main base in western Baghdad, Camp Victory—a name that often had a bitterly ironic ring for many service members—and held the final ceremony at Baghdad International Airport.

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 arriving for deployments, and "case" them when they pack up to leave.

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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. 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.