IRAQ. Baghdad. 2010. Local Sheikhs arrive at the handover of a neighborhood from the Americans to the Iraqi Army.
The ceremony included the presentation of captured weaponry and a hand-to-hand combat
demonstration by Iraqi soldiers. The event was one of several marking the end of the American
combat mission in Iraq, and the transition from “Operation Iraqi Freedom” to “Operation New
Dawn.” The fifty thousand remaining soldiers were to advise the Iraqi Army. Although the
combat role was officially ending, day-to-day operations by American soldiers remained largely
unchanged. Still, their role had diminished substantially as violence decreased and the Iraqi
government exercised its sovereignty. The American government made little mention of the
transition, but American TV news briefly heralded it as the end of the war. In December 2011,
all American soldiers were withdrawn from Iraq after the Obama administration failed to make
a security agreement with the Iraqi government.