Leading them is the senior American officer who will orchestrate the military withdrawal, a man who claims he has one of the highest job satisfaction levels in the country.
"I have the best job in Iraq right now," says Brigadier General Paul Wentz, of the US military's 13th Sustainment Command. "There is no question about it."
Whether that assessment is a reflection of the fraught earlier years of the occupation, or the imminent end of an increasingly unpopular war, or the fact that his staff have prepared so well that they can't fail, is open to conjecture. Either way, the men and women of the 13th Sustainment Command are raring to begin the biggest movement of troops and machines anywhere in the world since Vietnam, more than 40 years ago.
Occupation? I think not. We helped support the liberated Iraqis build their country in the face of vicious enemy attacks.
End of an increasingly unpopular war? Americans don't pay much attention to the war since we beat our enemies on the battlefield. I don't even know if our media bother to poll on American support for our actions and presence in Iraq.
Just doing their job well? Sure, in part, but were Brits happy in 1940 over a well executed Dunkirk?
Vietnam comparison? Check. Though I imagine our most recent "biggest" withdrawal would have to be the post-Persian Gulf War movement in 1991. But we won that war so it obviously can't be a Guardian point of comparison.
Let me suggest a reason that BG Wentz is happy: we won on the battlefield and are coming home as victors.
You know, as long as we're conjecturing here.
