It's over. The “dumb war,” as described by Illinois State Senator Barack Obama and continued by Nobel peace laureate Obama, was ended by President Obama two weeks ahead of its scheduled termination on Dec. 31, 2011.

The end came some nine years after the administration of President George W. Bush began an invasion designed to create “shock and awe” in Iraq. The war, as well as domestic violence, was heavy in casualties: Over 100,000 Iraqis and some 4,500 U.S. troops dead and 33,000 U.S. troops injured. (The website Iraq Body Count puts Iraqi civilian deaths at between 104,080 and 113,728.)

The war cost the U.S. at least $1 trillion. The renowned economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz estimates that the actual figure is much higher: $3 trillion or more. These expenditures are believed to have contributed to the recession from which the country is only now emerging.

A brief ceremony at the highly secured Baghdad international airport marked the war’s end. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta officiated, as American troops lowered the U.S. flag and prepared it for transport home. Panetta assured the assembled military personnel, universally known as war veterans or “vets,” that they could take pride in “knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside.”

Panetta was reported to have said in Afghanistan on his way to Baghdad: “We spilled a lot of blood there (i.e. in Iraq). But all of that has not been in vain. It’s been to achieve a mission making that country sovereign and independent and able to govern and secure itself” (Iraq got its independence from the U.K. in 1932 and was admitted to the League of Nations in the same year. Iraq was one of the 51 “sovereign and independent2 founding members of the U.N.)

As U.S. troops began their final withdrawal, Iraqis were divided on the impact of the war’s end on their lives. Some welcomed the departure of foreign troops; others were fearful that sectarian violence would erupt when Iraqis were left to themselves.

Back at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in the U.S., President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama welcomed returning troops with mellow words that honored the dead and sought to strengthen the spirit of the living. They were greeted with many rounds of “hooah,” the military form of applause.