PRESIDENT Obama’s statement that the US military operations in Iraq have ceased is a lie – though the fact that the bulk of the war criminals are leaving is certainly good news.

The US will leave behind them the largest embassy on earth, only slightly smaller than the Vatican City State, with 10,000 state department staff, protected by a 6,000-strong private US army.

Iraq will still enjoy the privilege of US drone surveillance and assassination, as do so many other countries, and is certain to be occupied again when the US finds a new excuse to violate Iran (the WMD thing is wearing a bit thin).

So ends (officially) 21 years of conscienceless slaughter, which reduced Iraq from a First to a Third-World country, cost the lives of more than 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, (more than half of them children), left a legacy of cancer and birth deformity through the use of depleted uranium and other illegal weapons, and has shamed the citizens of every country that followed blindly in the footsteps of the most evil regime on earth.

R Westmoreland, The Oval, Pocklington.