It is a popular joke among American soldiers. “What takes one night to get into, one year to get out of and is not a marriage?” The answer: Iraq.
Over the next 364 days the US military command in Baghdad will attempt one of the most complicated operations in its history — withdrawing all combat troops.
The mission may be less dangerous than most of the military operations since troops arrived in 2003 but, as a logistics feat, nothing similar has been tried since the Vietnam War.
Only US advisers, trainers and some support personnel will be left a year from now, in line with a bilateral agreement between Baghdad and Washington that sets a deadline for the end of the Iraqi occupation.
To comply, America will vacate 250 military bases across the country. As well as packing an array of military hardware, the US will close 20 Subway sandwich bars at some of the larger camps and an unknown number of Pizza Hut and Burger King restaurants.
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The bigger US bases house as many as 25,000 soldiers and have cinemas and car rental companies.
“You know, August of 2010 is going to be in front of us very quickly and there is much to do,” said Brigadier-General Heidi Brown, the most experienced American woman soldier, who is in charge of the withdrawal mission.
She was the first woman to head a combat brigade in wartime when she fought her way across southern Iraq six years ago, destroying Scud missiles and commanding Private Jessica Lynch, who was later ambushed and kidnapped, before being rescued.
Getting the 80,000 troops — and 55,000 civilian contractors who have cooked and cleaned for them — back across the Atlantic is the easy part. A more difficult task is the removal of 100,000 vehicles, including tanks.
The military is closing the main north-south highway to civilian traffic every night for the next year so that an uninterrupted column of vehicles can move to a logistics base in Kuwait. A total of 31 million pieces of kit will be transported in this way, including everything from ammunition cases to tables from the mess halls.
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After six years of heavy use, much of the US military’s equipment is in a bad state. Bases are littered with broken air-conditioners, leaking generators and discarded barbecues.
The military has budgeted at least $12 billion (£7.5 billion) for repairs, especially for vehicles used in deserts, before shipping them home. Smaller items may be bequeathed to the Iraqis, but only up to a value of $1.5 million per base.
The political pressure to complete the withdrawal on schedule and within budget is enormous. On September 1, 2010, President Obama is due to have one of his most high-profile campaign promises fulfilled.
For him the war is over; never mind that August 2009 has been the most violent month in Iraq in at least a year. The withdrawal must go on.
“None of this is negotiable,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tammie Pettit, the logistics plans chief, said. “This is a mission we cannot fail.”
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Earlier this year the President emphasised that point by making a surprise visit to the withdrawal staff office in the Al-Faw Palace near Baghdad airport. He posed for pictures, signed autographs and thanked themstaff for their efforts.
The economic impact of the military’s departure on Iraq will be substantial. The US has been spending billions of dollars every year, benefiting everyone from Iraqi construction companies to owners of properties used by the Americans. Military spending has become a mainstay of the Iraqi economy.
Today, however, General Brown’s most pressing mission is to remove 22,000 Marines from Anbar province. “In about six months or less, they will be gone,” she said.