From Huffington Post:

“NBC News had exclusive access as last US combat troop left Iraq.

NBC News owned the exclusive on Wednesday night’s withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq, with the network’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel embedded and broadcasting live as the last combat troops entered Kuwait.

“Richard, I understand your reporting of this at this hour tonight constitutes the official Pentagon announcement,” anchor Brian Williams said on “NBC Nightly News.”

“Yes, it is,” Engel responded. “Right now we are with the last American combat troops who–and they are in the process of leaving this country right now. We are with the 4-2 Stryker Brigade. I’m broadcasting right now live from the top of a Stryker fighting vehicle. There are 440 American troops in this convoy…as soon as they cross the border into Kuwait. And it is not far to the border, just about 30 miles from here. As soon as all these soldiers leave Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the combat mission in Iraq, will be over.”

This post is dedicated to my friend Joe Mangus.  He served in the Middle East on three tours, and died a few years ago.

I have long thought that the War was over on June 30th, 2004  and that these past six years have simply been cleanup operations while the Iraqi People chose their founders to write a Constitution and set up a representative republic with open elections, free speech, and freedom of the Press.

But the Visual of the Combat Troops leaving the region is a great reminder of Progress in the Country.  I look forward to the day when Afghanistan is stable enough for us to leave that country as well.

U.S. President George W. Bush received this note from his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, at the NATO Summit in Istanbul, June 28 2004, notifying him that the sovereignty in Iraq had been handed over from the U.S. administration to the Iraqi provisional government. “Let Freedom Reign!” he wrote on it.

Inscription:

“Mr President, Iraq is sovereign.”

Letter was passed from Bremer at 10:26 AM Iraq Time – Condi”

On the letter in George W. Bush‘s handwriting: Let Freedom Reign!

May those liars and frauds in the press and political world who told bold untruths about this war from day one and continue on today, burn in hell for the lives ruined during the fight.  And if President Obama and VP Biden think they can fool the American People into believing that the success in Iraq was due to anything the Obama Administration has done they have another thing coming.

Jenny Hatch

More Here From Wiki:

“After major combat operations ended, US President George W. Bush set up the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and led by United States civilian administrator Paul Bremer. On July 22, 2003, the CPA formed the Iraqi Governing Council. The council created a provisional constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion but also forbidding any law to be created that violates the principles of Islam.

The multinational forces set June 30 as the deadline for transferring power back to the Iraqis. As the deadline loomed, fighting increased, with various local insurgents trying to grab power away from the national council and (presumably) prevent Iraq from becoming a sovereign republic. Instability, resentment, and a vacuum of legitimate power resulting from the occupation encouraged some militants from neighboring countries to join in the fight. Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough wrote, “Foreign fighters from Syria have become a major stumbling block to stabilizing Iraq and turning over sovereignty by June 30″. [1] On 8 June 2004, the United Nations Security Council resolution 1546 was adopted unanimously and the transfer took place a day or two ahead of schedule.”