1. N. KOREA DICTATOR
KIM JONG IL
B5 DIES. B1
IRAQ
WE’RE
Good OUT
to go? As last American
troops exit, war that
began with ‘shock
and awe’ comes to a
subdued end
Good question. BY REBECCA SANTANA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A banged-up AT THE IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER —
Outside it was pitch dark.
Roethlisberger may The six American soldiers
couldn’t see much of the
or may not be under desert landscape stream-
ing by outside the small
center in tonight’s Steelers windows of their armored
vehicle. They were hushed
game in San Francisco. and exhausted from an all-
night drive — part of the
D1 last convoy of U.S. troops to
leave Iraq during the final
moment of a nearly nine-
year war.
As dawn broke Sunday,
a small cluster of Iraqi sol-
diers along the highway
waved goodbye to the de-
parting American troops.
“My heart goes out to the
Iraqis,” said Warrant Officer
John Jewell. “The innocent
always pay the bill.”
When they finally crossed
the sand berm that sepa-
rates Iraq from Kuwait, illu-
minated by floodlights and
crisscrossed with barbed
wire, the mood inside
Jewell’s vehicle was sub-
dued. No cheers. No hugs.
B E AV E R C O U N T Y Mostly just relief.
His comrade, Sgt. Ashley
MONDAY ♦ DECEMBER 19, 2011 ♦ 75 cents Vorhees, mustered a bit
more excitement.
“I’m out of Iraq,” she said.
“It’s all smooth sailing from
here.”
The final withdrawal was
the starkest of contrasts to
the start of the war, which
AP images; photo illustration by The Times’ Christopher Ream began before dawn on
March 20, 2003. That morn-
ing, an airstrike in southern
Baghdad, where Saddam
Hussein was believed to be
hiding, marked the opening
LIVE NATIVITY AT COURTHOUSE shot of the famed “shock and
awe” bombardment. U.S.
and allied ground forces
Display attracts a crowd, little commotion
then stormed from Kuwait
toward the capital, hurtling
north across southern Iraq’s
featureless deserts.
The last convoy of heavily
BY MICHAEL POUND armored personnel carri-
MPOUND@TIMESONLINE.COM ers, known as MRAPS, left
the staging base at Camp
BEAVER — Lamb, a decade- Adder in southern Iraq in
old sheep who was part of Sunday’s early hours. They
the Nativity display put slipped out under cover of
on Sunday at the Beaver darkness and strict secrecy
County Courthouse, didn’t to prevent any final attacks.
seem to mind that the reli- The 500 soldiers didn’t even
gious display was organized tell their Iraqi comrades on
by a tea party group.
Not many others seemed IRAQ, PAGE A6
to care as well.
For about two hours
Sunday afternoon, mem-
bers of the Steel Valley
Patriots group set up in TODAY’S
front of the courthouse
with members portraying TIMES
the birth of Jesus, com-
plete with Lamb, a donkey, Classified C1
a goat, a llama and an al- Crossword C5
paca. The display, which
was approved — but not
Dear Abby B6
endorsed — by the Beaver Funnies C4
County commissioners, at- Movies B6
tracted a steady crowd all
afternoon; it did not attract Sports D1
much dissent.
“There really has been
just one person here all
afternoon,” said organizer
Cindy Frey. “We certainly Photo by The Times’ Lucy Schaly
A group called the Steel Valley Patriots hosted a live Nativity in front of the Beaver County Courthouse in Beaver for two hours
NATIVITY, PAGE A8 Sunday afternoon. Two girls giggle as they look over at an alpaca, owned by the Berg family from New Sewickley Township. © 2011 Beaver Newspapers Inc.
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