On 15 December 2011, in a fortified compound at Baghdad International Airport, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta oversaw the formal end of America's military presence in Iraq. The event marked the final departure of US troops, eight years and nine months after the invasion. Panetta's farewell speech was sober and downbeat. He placed a great deal of emphasis on the sacrifices that Iraqis and Americans had made. However, given that the George W. Bush administration had placed the political and economic transformation of Iraq at the centre of its war aims, Panetta's description of what the mission had ultimately achieved was decidedly modest. Iraq, he said, could now
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