http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125547.stm
US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
US troops will remain on stand-by to help Iraqi forces
US troops are withdrawing to base in Iraq, six years after the invasion, handing control of cities and towns to Iraq's new security forces.
Tuesday has been declared National Sovereignty Day, a public holiday, and the capital Baghdad threw a giant party on Monday evening.
US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010, with all troops gone from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Iraqi troops are on the alert for insurgent attacks during the handover.
Despite the pullback from cities and towns, due to be completed on Tuesday, US troops will still be embedded with Iraqi forces.
BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says that while the pullback is significant, the actual withdrawal of US combat troops next year will pose a greater challenge.
For that to go well is in the hands of Iraq's political leaders and their ability to tackle the country's many outstanding problems and tensions, he says.
Some 131,000 US troops remain in Iraq, including 12 combat brigades, and the total is not expected to drop below 128,000 until after the Iraqi national election next January.
'Now is the time'
Iraqi soldiers paraded through Baghdad's streets on Monday in vehicles decorated with flowers and Iraqi flags, while patriotic songs were played through loudspeakers at checkpoints.
US commanders have said security and stability is improving, despite a spate of recent attacks, and that Iraqi forces are now ready to take over security operations.
The US Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, said there would be no major reduction in forces until next year but the pull-back was a "milestone".
"Yes, we think Iraq is ready and Iraq thinks Iraq is ready," he said.
"We have spent a lot of time working very closely with Iraqi security services... and I think there is an understanding that now it is the time."
Mr Hill stressed that there would still be "a lot of US combat capabilities in Iraq for months to come".
"After June 30, with US combat forces out of cities and villages, localities, we'll still be in Iraq," he said.
"We will still have a very robust number of US troops in Iraq and, in fact, those troops will not begin to withdraw from Iraq until probably several months from now."
Finally: US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
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FBM
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Finally: US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
"A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it." ~ H. L. Mencken
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"We ain't a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion."
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Twoflower
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Re: Finally: US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
You have no idea how happy this makes me. 
I'm wild just like a rock, a stone, a tree
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
Re: Finally: US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
Interesting times ahead for the Iraqis ... /inadequate comment.
no fences
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Transgirlofnofaith
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Re: Finally: US soldiers leaving Iraq's cities
Hpoefully the car bombs will only be once in a while. And maybe there won't be much more ethnic cleansing and civil war. 
But woo-hoo! 
But woo-hoo! Under (re)construction
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