The Christian Science Monitor - The shrinking US military footprint here is particularly evident in this community south of Baghdad, where a few dozen American soldiers live among 1,000 Iraqi troops in an area crucial to Baghdad's security.
AFP - Iraq cannot yet sustain its army despite having managed to quell a violent insurgency, US and local commanders told AFP, raising the prospect that American troops will stay on beyond 2011.
Time.com - President Obama's Oval Office address indicated that the Iraq withdrawal would lead to more forces for Afghanistan. But Afghans only see an eventual withdrawal from their own troubled country
AP - Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.
Reuters - Vice President Joe Biden, in Baghdad to mark the end of U.S. combat operations, said on Wednesday he believed Iraq's political stalemate was nearly over and officials would form a government in "the next couple of months."
The Christian Science Monitor - The United States marked the official end of its combat role in the seven-year Iraq war today, acknowledging the immense sacrifices of a war that has divided Americans as well as Iraqis and pledging to help the country move forward.
Reuters - The Commerce Department said on Wednesday it will lead 15 U.S. companies, including Boeing, General Electric and Wamar International, on a trade mission in October to help rebuild Iraq.
AFP - Vice President Joe Biden launched a new American military mission in Iraq on Wednesday, opening up a fresh phase in a seven-year deployment that has cost the lives of more than 4,400 US troops.