12/15/11 THE OFFICIAL END OF IRAQ WAR w/o FANFARE: "...America's colors have been cased in Iraq — the flag was just symbolically put away at a ceremony marking the end of a war that lasted nearly nine years . At the Baghdad airport a short time ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials were there to mark the occasion, NPR's Kelly McEvers reports. It was, she said on Morning Edition, a "quiet, small ceremony.""The U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was furled — or wrapped — around a flagpole and covered in camouflage," The Associated Press says. "It will be brought back to the United States." Panetta told those gathered that "challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there ..." http://m.npr.org/story/143753891?url=/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/15/143753891/as-flag-is-put-away-americas-mission-in-iraq-symbolically-ends&ft=1&f=1004

12/15/11 THE OFFICIAL END OF IRAQ WAR w/o FANFARE: "...America's colors have been cased in Iraq — the flag was just symbolically put away at a ceremony marking the end of a war that lasted nearly nine years . At the Baghdad airport a short time ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other officials were there to mark the occasion, NPR's Kelly McEvers reports. It was, she said on Morning Edition, a "quiet, small ceremony.""The U.S. Forces-Iraq flag was furled — or wrapped — around a flagpole and covered in camouflage," The Associated Press says. "It will be brought back to the United States." Panetta told those gathered that "challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there ..."
http://m.npr.org/story/143753891?url=/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/12/15/143753891/as-flag-is-put-away-americas-mission-in-iraq-symbolically-ends&ft=1&f=1004