:INFO 4,500 Dead, $2 Trillion Spent: America Leaves Iraq Today, September 30, 2026, the last US military personnel depart their final bases in Iraq, ending a military presence that began on March 20, 2003. Twenty-three years and seven months. The withdrawal was agreed in 2024 by President Biden and completed by President Trump even as the United States wages war against neighboring Iran. This is not the first time America said goodbye to Iraq. US forces left in December 2011 after the first war. They came back less than three years later, in June 2014, when the Islamic State seized Mosul and carved out a territory the size of the United Kingdom. That second mission, Operation Inherent Resolve, is what ends today. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi put it plainly: "October 1 will mark a new day in the trajectory of the Iraqi state." :IMAGE :INFO Credit: U.S. Army Europe / Public Domain. US soldiers in Tal Afar, Iraq (2006). The city was one of the first recaptured from al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group that would later become ISIS. :LINK https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/09/29/us-forces-exiting-iraq-after-2-decades-leaving-opening-for-iran/ Military Times: "US forces exiting Iraq after 2 decades, leaving opening for Iran" (September 29, 2026) :INFO The Bill, in Full The Defense Department tallied $728 billion in direct war spending between fiscal 2003 and 2012 alone. Brown University's Costs of War project puts the full long-term figure, including veterans' care and interest on war debt, at approximately $2 trillion. For context: that is more than the entire GDP of Italy in 2026. The human cost is harder to summarise. The US military lost 4,492 service members killed and 32,292 wounded in action. Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at around 200,000, though methodologies vary widely. The broader post-September 11 conflict zone, covering Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan, is estimated to have caused at least 940,000 violent deaths. The war was launched on the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. None were found. By the time the US leaves today, 60% of Iraq's population was born after the invasion began. :STATS [icon:CHART] US military killed in action (2003 to 2026) | 4,500+ [icon:CHART] US service members wounded in action | 32,292+ [icon:CHART] Peak US troop level (November 2007) | 170,300 [icon:CHART] US troops at 2011 withdrawal | ~45,000 [icon:CHART] US troops at today's final withdrawal | under 2,500 [icon:CHART] Direct DoD war spending (fiscal 2003 to 2012) | $728 billion [icon:CHART] Full long-term cost estimate (Brown University) | ~$2 trillion [icon:CHART] Iraqi civilian deaths estimated | ~200,000 [icon:CHART] US service member deaths in Iraq in 2026 | 7 :QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi on September 29 2026] Iraq will then have no foreign military presence on its territory and will be responsible for protecting its own security and stability. :INFO Iran Wins the Room Not everyone in Baghdad is celebrating. Sunni tribal leader Abdulrahman al-Zobaie called the departure premature: "I believe that leaving in this way and creating a vacuum is what all Iraqis fear." Iran-backed groups have no such reservations. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its aligned Iraqi militias have described the withdrawal as a "historic victory." Jasim al-Bahadli, an Iraqi security analyst, noted that "Iran stands to benefit strategically because it removes a military presence that acted as a counterweight to Tehran's influence." With US forces already fighting Iran next door, the removal of American troops from Iraqi soil removes one more pressure point. :INFO ISIS Is Watching the Clock Too Iraqi security officials say ISIS sleeper cells have been mobilizing ahead of the September 30 deadline, with at least one suspected cell planning attacks timed to coincide with the final departure. The US has conducted more than 40,000 airstrikes against ISIS since 2014. Those strikes end today. The Kurdish exception is worth noting: the formal withdrawal covers central and southern Iraq. The US military retains a presence at Harir Air Base in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, at the request of the Kurdish Regional Government. The war against ISIS in Syria is ongoing; that fight is not over, even if the Iraq chapter formally is. :LINK https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-09-29/us-forces-exit-iraq-after-two-decades-leaving-opening-for-iran US News: "US Forces Exit Iraq After Two Decades, Leaving Opening for Iran" (September 29, 2026) :INFO What Twenty-Three Years Changed Iraq in 2026 is a different country to Iraq in 2003. It holds regular elections. It produces more oil than at any point in its modern history (currently around 4.5 million barrels a day, up from 2.5 million in 2003). Its GDP per capita has nearly tripled. It is also a country where political power is divided along sect and ethnicity lines that the 2003 invasion hardened rather than dissolved, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line, and where the government in Baghdad remains deeply tied to both Washington and Tehran at the same time. The generation that fought ISIS, rebuilt Mosul, and organised the 2019 Tishreen protest movement did so while American soldiers were still on their soil. That generation inherits the country as of tomorrow. Whether the US leaves a stable Iraq or a vulnerable one will not be answered today. It will be answered over the next ten years.