While the west is only just beginning to reduce troop numbers in Afghanistan - in IRAQ, the process is almost over. Today the US will lower its flag in Baghdad -- more than eight and a half years after it invaded and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Almost 4,500 American troops were killed in the conflict -- and unofficial estimates say over 100-thousand Iraqi civilians lost their lives. But at a ceremony on Wednesday US President Barack Obama said Iraq was now "stable" -- and American forces were leaving with their "heads held high".