As the last American combat soldiers crossed the Iraq border into Kuwait, one young soldier said what everyone involved with this hard business wanted to be true: "We won. It's over, America. We brought democracy to Iraq."

And it is true. US forces mopped the floor with Saddam Hussein's vaunted Republican Guard and ultimately put down the insurgency that followed -- at least to a level where Iraq won't turn into Somalia overnight..They did bring democracy to Iraq, fragile and deadlocked as this system seems to be in a country bereft of liberal traditions. And for America, this chapter is indeed over.

For Iraqis on the eve of this pullout, victory is bittersweet.

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