This seems important

I'm no Iraq expert. I mean I know the important stuff: blame Bush, bitch about it not making us safer, "RUMSFELD!!!!", cryptically allude to oil prices, "it had nothing to do with 9/11", and casually joke about the kind of chaos that will reign when we leave. But other than that I'm of no particular genius about the situation. So, uh, doesn't US troops officially withdrawing from every city seem like something that should have been mentioned once or twice by our government? No aircraft carrierlandings, maybe just a post-it note on the communal fridge. It seems fairly important.

Iraqi forces assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities Tuesday after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a defining step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the midnight deadline passed for U.S. combat troops to finish their pullback to bases outside cities.

"The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "We are now celebrating the restoration of sovereignty."

The Pentagon did not offer any comment to mark the passing of the deadline.

This was a big day for Iraqi's, filled with many celebrations and bitchy comments about how mean we are. I say celebrations, but the only people who celebrated were those who weren't afraid to go outside because they feared large scale violence. Hell there was even a ceremony where we handed over keys to the Defense Ministry. I'm not sure if they were the real keys or ceremonial keys, but there could be awkwardness if the Iraqis lose the keys and we have to make them copies from the set we secretly kept. At least we didn't hand them a crowbar and handwritten instructions from a private on how to jimmy the door open. We even threw a military parade to celebrate....so people were told. It was in the Green Zone, inaccessible to citizens, and media was essentially barred from covering it, but it was alleged to have happened.

So congratulations Iraq on your kinda sorta "sovereignty". Sure we're just over the hill watching you, you don't really control anything, and we'll take it all back if we deem you unable to properly run things, but enjoy it. Sure we barely even remember we're still in Iraq, but I'm sure this might have been an important day for you that we totally would have covered if not for a musician dying.