Dallas Morning News: What Has been Won, lost, and can Iraq find its way?

Hiding in a secure and fortified concrete at the Baghdad airport, helicopters hovering above, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta marked the occasion of our troop withdrawal from Iraq with an upbeat speech: "Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead, by terrorism, and by those who seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the of demands of democracy itself," Panetta said. "Challenges remain, but the US will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges, to build a stronger and more prosperous nation." For Americans, the ceremony marked an uneasy moment of closure, with no clear sense of what has been won and lost. The war had claimed 4,487 US lives, with 32,226 more Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics. More than 100,000 Iraqis were killed, most of them civilians, according to the Iraq Body Count website. "To be sure, the cost was high, in blood and treasure of the United States and also the Iraqi people," Panetta told the roughly 200 troops and others in attendance. "Those lives have not been lost in vain. They gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq." But gnawing questions remain: Will Iraqis be able to forge their new government amid continuing sectarian clashes? And will Iraq be able to defend itself in a region fraught with turmoil and steeped in insurgent threats?