The Iraq War is finally over. It did some good.

A U.S. Marine drapes an American flag over the face of a statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on April 9, 2003, shortly before the statue was pulled down. | REUTERS

Oct 5, 2026

While most Americans may think the Iraq War is long over, it wasn’t until last week that the last U.S. troops departed, ending a long and painful experience for both nations that began with the U.S. invasion in 2003.

The residual force of around 2,500 had been in Iraq to help fight the Islamic State terrorist group for the past dozen years — a tiny fraction of what was once an occupation force of nearly 200,000 U.S. and coalition troops. There was a break in the U.S. presence from 2011 until the rise of ISIS in 2014 made a return necessary, but this time feels final.

About 4,500 Americans died in Iraq since 2003, around 3,500 in combat, and more than 30,000 were wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed and wounded. The cost to the U.S. is estimated at around $1.7 trillion. A lot of blood and treasure. Most historians and military analysts consider the conflict a disaster, calling it a “war of choice” and placing it alongside obvious failures such as Vietnam and Afghanistan.

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