U.S. concludes military withdrawal from Iraq

• The United States has concluded unheralded, its military withdrawal from Iraq after nearly nine years of occupation
• At the peak of the invasion, around 170,000 U.S. troops were manning the tight-fisted occupation that was being conducted from more than 500 bases around Iraq.
  
• The occupation killed anywhere between a 100,000 to a million Iraqis. Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops also died-- victims mainly of a hardy resistance that had been mounted across most of the country. During this period, the low-tech roadside bomb became a fierce symbol of resistance, claiming hundreds of American lives in a vast area, ranging from the strongholds of former President Saddam Hussein in Fallujah and Ramadi to the Shia bastions of Najaf and Basra in the south.
  
• In terms of treasure, the war cost Washington around one trillion dollars.
• After the overnight withdrawal, only 157 troops will stay behind, mainly to train Iraqi forces. A handful would also remain to guard the monstrous U.S. embassy, the largest American diplomatic facility anywhere in the world.