Nearly eight years after he denounced what he called a "dumb war" in Iraq and nearly two years after he won the White House promising to end it, President Obama on Monday plans to mark the formal end of the combat mission there.

While most public attention these past months has focused on Mr. Obama's expansive and hotly disputed domestic agenda, the military has quietly been making progress toward the goal that first animated his campaign for the presidency: pulling out of Iraq.

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