Videos for the Classroom: Last US Combat Brigade leaves Iraq

In all the hoopla over oil spills, a mosque in downtown Manhattan, and the upcoming midterm elections, a moment in in history quietly occurred yesterday with little fanfare.

The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last combat brigade left in Iraq, crossed the border into Kuwait yesterday, marking the official end of “combat” in the Iraqi theater.  This does not mean we won’t have troops there, but the mission is changed to a development/stabilization stage.  The actual “fighting”, at least in the eyes of the Pentagon, appears to be over.

All troops are, according to President Obama, supposed to out of Iraq by 2011.  We’ll see if that happens.  In the meantime, here’s the Associated Press video of last nights’ events.  You may want to use it in your classroom to compare it to the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.  What were the circumstances behind each withdrawal?  What was the end result?   What do you think the end result will be in Iraq?