MIT OPEN COURSEWARE: Israel: History, Politics, Culture, and Identity

As taught in: Spring 2011

An Israeli flag hangs from a window on the country's 60th birthday in 2008. (Image courtesy of Johnk85 on Flickr.)

Instructors:

Dr. Ehud Eiran

MIT Course Number:

17.565

Level:

Undergraduate

Course Features

• Selected lecture notes
• Assignments (no solutions)

Course Description

The course provides the students a basic understanding of modern Israeli history, politics, culture and identity through lectures, discussions and projects. Among the topics to be explored are: ideational, institutional and material foundations of the state of Israel; Israeli national identity, Israeli society, economy, and foreign and security policies.

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Seminar: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course. This course is appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Learning Goals

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Define and describe major events in the history of modern Israel
• Define and describe Israel's political system (political parties, municipal and regional administration, etc.)
• Define, describe and appraise the major analytical terms used in our course
• Integrate course data into a coherent narrative(s) of current Israeli identity(ies)

Grading

Grading criteria.

ASSIGNMENTS	PERCENTAGES
Research paper (5-7 pages)	40%
Four discussion papers (1-2 pages)/Cultural presentation	40%
Short presentation on current events	10%
Class participation	10%

 

Calendar

Course calendar.

SES #	TOPICS
1	Israel: An introduction
2	Zionism: Sources, variations
3	Zionist ideologies and the land of Israel
4	Nation building and immigrants
5	Settlements and the Zionist Project
6	The Arab-Israeli conflict
7	Israeli society: Cleavages
8	Israel in the West Bank and Gaza
9	Israeli identity revisited: The post Zionist challenge
10	Foreign and security policy
11	Israeli economy
12	Israeli culture
13	Israel: A comparative perspective

 

Readings and Lecture Slides

Required readings for graduate students are marked with a (G).

Course readings.

SES #	TOPICS	READINGS	LECTURE SLIDES
1	Israel: An introduction	Horowitz, D., and Moshe Lissak. Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel. State University of New York Press, 1989, pp. 1-31. ISBN: 9780791401149.
2	Zionism: Sources	Shimoni, G. The Zionist Ideology. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 1995, pp. 12-51. ISBN: 9780874518337. Dowty, A. The Jewish State: A Century Later. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 34-60. ISBN: 9780520229112. Recommended Reading Stanislawski, Michael. Zionism and the Fin de Siecle. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, pp. xiii-xxi, and 1-18. (G). ISBN: 9780520227880.	(PDF)
3	Zionist ideologies and the land of Israel	Shimoni, G. The Zionist Ideology. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 1995, pp. 333-388. ISBN: 9780874518337. Recommended Reading Strenhell, Z. The Founding Myths of Israel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999, pp. 3-46. (G). ISBN: 9780691009674. Laqueur, W. A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel. New York: Schoken Books, 2003, pp. 338-384. ISBN: 9780805211498. Aran, Gideon. "From Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion: The Roots of Gush Emunim." Doctoral Dissertation, Hebrew University, 1987.	(PDF)
4	Nation building and immigration	Kimmerling, B. The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society and the Military. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 56-89. ISBN: 9780520246720. Arian, A. Politics in Israel: The Second Republic. Washington DC: CQ Press, 2004, pp. 23-34. ISBN: 9781568029320. Recommended Reading Dowty, A. "Israel's First Decade: Building a Civic State." In Israel: The First Decade of Independence. Edited by S. Ilan Troen, and Noah Lucas. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, pp. 31-50. (G). ISBN: 9780791422601.	(PDF)
5	Settlements and the Zionist project	Troen, I. S. Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, pp. 3-14, and 62-84. ISBN: 9780300094831. Shafir, G. "Zionism and Colonialism: A Comparative Approach." In Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Edited by Michael N. Barnet. Albany: SUNY Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780791428320. Recommended Reading Yifatchel, O. Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 131-158. ISBN: 9780812239270. Ram, Uri. "The Colonization Perspective in Israeli Sociology: Internal and External Comparisons." Journal of Historical Sociology 6, no. 3 (2006): 327-350. (G) Aharonson, R. "Settlement in Eretz Israel, A Colonialist Enterprise? 'Critical' Scholarship and Historical Geography." Israel Studies 1, no. 2 (Fall 1996): 214-229. (G)	(PDF)
6	The Arab-Israeli conflict	Smith, C. D. Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Boston: St. Martin's, 2009, pp. 190-201, 264-282, 311-320, and 437-457. ISBN: 9780312535018. Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, 1948. The Palestinian National Charter, 1968. The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), 1988. Recommended Reading Bickerton, I. J. Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History. London: Reaktion Books, 2009, pp. 66-137. ISBN: 9781861895271. Rabinovich, I. Waging Peace: Israel and Arabs at the End of the Century. New-York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999, pp. 3-40. (G) ISBN: 9780374105761. Khalidi, R. The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007, pp. 105-139. (G). ISBN: 9780807003091.	(PDF)
7	Israeli society: Cleavages	Smooha, S. "Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel: A Deeply Divided Society." In Israeli Identity in Transition. Edited by Anita Shapria. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, pp. 31-69. ISBN: 9780275976606. Recommended Reading Horowitz, Dan, and Moshe Lissak. Trouble in Utopia: The Overburdened Polity of Israel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989, pp. 32-99. (G). ISBN: 9780791401149. Grossman, D. Sleeping on a Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993, pp. 80-100. ISBN: 9780312420970. Ghanem, A. The Palestinian-Arab Minority in Israel, 1948-2000: A Political Study. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001, pp. 11-27, and 36-38. (G). ISBN: 9780791449974. Cohen, Y., and Yitchak Haberfeld. "Second-Generation Jewish Immigrants in Israel: Have the Ethnic Gaps in Schooling d Earnings Declined?" Ethnic And Racial Studies 21, no. 3 (1998): 507-528. Gavison, R. "Jewish and Democratic? A Rejoinder to the 'Ethnic Democracy' Debate." Israel Studies 4, no. 1 (1999): 44-72.
8	Israel in the West Bank and Gaza	Gordon, N. Israel's Occupation. Routledge, 2003, pp. 23-46. ISBN: 9780520255319. Sharon, A. "Why is Israel's Control in the Territories Still Called Occupation?" JCPA, 2009. (PDF - 5.5MB) Recommended Reading Gazit, S. Trapped Fools: Thirty Years of Israeli Policy in the Territories. London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 241-288, and 333-341. (G). ISBN: 9780714683904. Troen, I. S. "Spearheads of the Zionist Frontier; Historical Perspectives on Post-1967 Settlement Planning in Judea and Samaria." Planning Perspectives 7 (January 1992): 81-100. (G)	(PDF)
9	Israel identity revisited: the post Zionist challenge	Silberstein, L. J. The Postzionism Debate: Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture. New York: Routledge, 1999, pp. 89-126. Recommended Reading Judt, T. "Israel: The Alternative." New York Review of Books 50, no. 16 (October 23): 2003. (G) Wurmser, M. "Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism?" The Middle East Quarterly 6, no 1. (1999): 3-13. Morris, B. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xii-xxii, and 473-492. ISBN: 9780521009676. Gelber, Y. Palestine 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001, pp. 1-15, and 298-302. (G). ISBN: 9781845190750.	(PDF)
10	Foreign and security policy	Inbar, E. "Israeli National Security 1973-1996." Annals of the American Academy of Political Science 555 (1998): 62-81. Neuman, D. "The Geographical and Territorial Imprint on the Security Discourse." In Security Concerns: Insights from the Israeli Experience. Edited by Daniel Bar-Tal, and D. Jacobson. Stanford: JAI Press, pp. 73-94. ISBN: 9780762304684. Freilich, C. D. "National Security Decision Making in Israel: Processes, Strengths and Pathologies." Middle East Journal 60, no. 4 (Autumn 2006): 635-663. Recommended Reading Bar Joseph, U. "Introduction. "In Israel's National Security Towards the 21st Century." London: Frank Cass, 2001, pp. 1-13. (G). ISBN: 9780714651699. Levite, E. Offense and Defense in Israeli Military Defense Doctrine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989. (G). ISBN: 9780813307206. Maoz, Z. Defending the Holy Land: A Critical Analysis of Israel's Security and Foreign Policy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006, pp. 3-46. ISBN: 9780472033416.
11	Israeli economy	Zilberfarb. B. "From Socialism to Free Market — The Israeli Economy, 1948-2003." Israel Affairs 11, no. 1 (January 2005): 12–22. Shalev, Michael. "Have Globalization and Liberalization 'Normalized' Israel's Political Economy?" In Israel: Dynamics of Change and Continuity. Edited by David Levi-Faur, Gabriel Sheffer, and David Vogel. London: Frank Cass: 1999, pp. 121-155. ISBN: 9780714680620. Recommended Reading Arian, A. Politics in Israel: The Second Republic. Washington DC: CQ, 2005, pp. 48-82. (G)
12	Israeli culture	Almog, Oz. The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew. Berkeley: California University Press, 2000, pp. 1-22. ISBN: 9780520216426. Recommended Reading Regev, M., and Edwin Seroussi. Popular Music and National Culture in Israel. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004, pp. 1-45. (G). ISBN: 9780520236547. Smooha, S. "Is Israel Western?" In Comparing Modernities: Pluralism Versus Homogeneity; Essays in Homage to Shmuel N. Eisenstadt. Edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, and Yitzak Sternberng. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. (G). ISBN: 9789004144071.
13	Israel: A comparative perspective	Barnett, M. "The Politics of Uniqueness: The Status of the Israeli Case." In Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom. Edited by Michael Barnett. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996, pp. 3-28. ISBN: 9780791428320. Troen, I. "Frontier Myths and Their Applications in America and Israel; A Trans-National Perspective." Journal of American History Perspective 86, no. 3 (1999): 1209-1230. Recommended Reading Lustick, I. Unsettled States: Disputed Land: Britain in Ireland, France in Algeria, and Israel in the West Bank and Gaza. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993, pp. 385-438. (G). ISBN: 9780801480881. Merom G. "Israel's National Security and the Myth of Exceptionalism." Political Science Quarterly 114, no. 3 (1999): 409-434. (PDF)

 

Assignments

Discussion Papers

Goal

1. The discussion papers are intended to engage you with the reading, an essential part of the learning experience.
2. Specifically, the papers will allow you to demonstrate in writing your command of the main arguments or data presented, your understanding of the analytical path used to substantiate them, an evaluation of arguments/data, and an ability to tie them to broader themes related to Israeli culture and history in, and outside, of the course.

Requirements

1. Each student will produce four discussion papers during the semester. Each of the papers will count towards 10% of your total grade.
2. Each discussion paper will be 1-2 pages, double spaced (font 12) and will be due at the class related to the readings discussed.
3. An ideal paper will include:
   1. An accurate and succinct summary of the argument or data presented in the paper.
   2. An awareness of the way in which the argument was made, or data was presented.
   3. An evaluation of the argument/data. This could achieved through highlighting weaknesses in the argument, inconstancies in the reading or when compared to other unit, and internal tensions; and, or:
   4. An ability to tie the reading to other Israel related matters such as current events or other units discussed in course.

Final Research Paper

Goal

The paper is intended to deepen your understanding regarding a specific facet of Israel, through an analytical framework.
I strongly recommend that you choose an issue you are truly interested in. For example, you can review, analyze, or explore a question you had in another field and try to apply it to the Israeli case.

Structure

A good paper will use an analytical framework (a puzzle, a comparison) to explain the phenomenon you are interested in and will reflect original thinking and accurate research. Structure matters.  State clearly what the paper's purpose is up front, and summarize at the end how you have achieved what you intended to do. Possible frameworks could be:

1. Identifying and answering a specific question you are interested in, such as, "Why does Israel have many international trade agreements?"; "Why does the Israeli economy grow mostly through expansion of its high tech sector?"
2. Comparing a specific facet of the Israeli experience to one in another country. Here, a good paper will to draw a conclusion (or explanation) for the variation. For example: a comparison of the Israeli immigration approach (laws, institutions) to the American approach.
3. Analyzing a current event: Here you will need to explore the background for the event, and reflect on it. For example: a paper that would analyze the US-Israeli crisis over the settlements should review the reasons for the Israeli-US alliance and the different approaches Israel and the US held over the years regarding this issue.

Here are a few guides about writing good papers in political science:

• Writing in Political Science: A Sampling of Advice from Faculty, Marquette University
• How to Research a Political Science Paper, Queens College
• Writing Political Science Papers: Some Useful Guidelines, Queens College

Procedural Issues
Papers are due at the end of our last meeting. They should be 5-7 pages long. Please use a citation system such as the Chicago Manual:
Chicago Documentation Style
You are most welcomed to submit an earlier memo (no more than one page) describing your project, and are encouraged to discuss any questions you may have during office hours. Note that style counts. Spelling mistakes, syntax and grammar issues usually make the analysis hard to understand and should be avoided.

 

Related Resources

Additional Recommended Bibliography

Books

• Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt, The Transformation of Israeli Society: An Essay in Interpretation (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1985)
• Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press,1997)
• Ilan Pappe (ed.), The Israel/Palestine Question (London and New York: Routledge, 1999)
• Derek J. Penslar, Israel in History: the Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (London & New York: Routledge, 2007)
• Anita Shapira (ed.), Israeli Identity in Transition (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2004)
• Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Steven J. Gold, The Israeli Diaspora (Routledge, 2002)
• Calvin Goldscheider, Israel's Changing Society: Population, Ethnicity, and Development (Boulder: Westview Press, 2002)
• Shelef, Nadav, Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925-2005 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010)

Scholarly Journals

• Israel Studies
• Israel Studies Review
• Israel Affairs
• Journal of Israeli History
• Journal of Palestine Studies
• Azure

Websites

• Haaretz
• The Jerusalem Post
• The Central Zionist Archive
• Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Israeli Knesset
• Israeli Supreme Court
• People Israel — A guide to Israeli Society
• Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
• Palestine Remembered
• PLO — Negotiation Affairs Department

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MIT NOTICE

 

Eiran, Ehud. 17.565 Israel: History, Politics, Culture, and Identity, Spring 2011. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu/ (Accessed 04 Jan, 2012). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

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POLITICS, TERRORISM AND WAR: Deadly Iraq war ends with exit of last U.S. troops

Sunday December 18, 2011

Gates close at the Iraq-Kuwait border

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: An officer speaks of his "elation" at what the U.S. accomplished
• About 500 U.S. soldiers cross into Kuwait, ending almost nine years of war in Iraq
• They are the last U.S. troops in the largest drawdown since the Vietnam War
• They make the journey south from Camp Adder, the U.S. base closest to Kuwaiti border

(CNN) -- Early Sunday, as the sun ascended to the winter sky, the very last American convoy made its way down the main highway that connects Iraq and Kuwait.
The military called it its final "tactical road march." A series of 110 heavily armored, hulking trucks and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles carrying about 500 soldiers streamed slowly but steadily out of the combat zone.
A few minutes before 8 a.m., the metal gate behind the last MRAP closed. With it came to an end a deadly and divisive war that lasted almost nine years, its enormous cost calculated in blood and billions.
Some rushed to touch the gate, forever a symbol now of an emotional, landmark day. Some cheered with the Army's ultimate expression of affirmation: "Hooah!"
"It's hard to put words to it right now," said Lt. Col. Jack Vantress.
"It's a feeling of elation," he said, "to see what we've accomplished in the last eight-and-a-half years and then to be part of the last movement out of Iraq."
Once, when hundreds of thousands of Americans were in Iraq, the main highway was better known as Main Supply Route Tampa and soldiers trekked north towards Baghdad and beyond, never knowing what danger lurked on their path.
On this monumental day, the Texas-based 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division's main concern was how to avoid a traffic jam on their final journey in Iraq.

Boot footprints are seen in front of U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in the nearly deserted Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, on December 16.

Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division bow their heads in prayer during a casing of the colors ceremony while preparing to depart from Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, near Nasiriyah, Iraq.

Soldiers rejoice in the convoy staging area before departing Camp Adder.

Soldiers (left to right) Peter Nemmers, Morgan Bright and Matthew Hildebrandt from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division laugh while preparing to depart from Iraq at Camp Adder.

Specialist Shunterika Lewis from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division laughs while preparing to depart in the last convoy from Iraq at Camp Adder.

Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division toss out trash while preparing to depart in the last convoy from Iraq.

U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles drive through Camp Adder before departing what is now known as Imam Ali Base on December 16.

Soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division board a C-17 transport plane to depart from Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, on December 17 near Nasiriyah, Iraq.

One of the first U.S. Humvees cross the Iraq-Kuwait border on December 18 to signify the "tactical road march" out of the combat zone.

A U.S. soldier gives a thumbs up from the roof of his brigade's Humvee while crossing the Iraq-Kuwait border.

U.S. and Iraqi troops line up as the final U.S. Army convoy crosses the border from Iraq into Kuwait.

A U.S. cargo trailer crosses the Iraq-Kuwait border for the final time.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders shake hands to mark the end of the United States' presence in the Iraq combat zone.

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

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Last U.S. troops leave Iraq

Gates close at the Iraq-Kuwait border

U.S. troops mission in Iraq ends

Traveling with troops leaving Iraq

Staff Sgt. Daniel Gaumer, 37, was on this road in August 2003. It was his first time at war. He was frightened.
There was not a lot of traffic at that time, he recalled. He remembered a lot of cheering by Iraqis, even though the situation was tense.
Sunday morning, the air was decidedly different.
"It's pretty historic," he said about the drive south, hoping he will not ever have to come back through this unforgiving terrain again.
Once there were bases sprinkled in the desolate desert between Nasiriya and Basra, American soldiers hidden from view behind walls of giant mesh Hesco bags filled with dirt and sand to stave off incoming fire.
On this day, the roads, the bases were in Iraqi hands, the sands in the bags returned to the earth.
Once, almost nine years ago in March 2003, U.S. tanks and armored personnel carriers had thundered north, with the drive and determination needed to decapitate a dictator.
On this day, heading south towards Khabari border crossing, the soldiers took stock of their sacrifice.
In another war, there had been little joy or even emotion as final jet transports lifted Americans from Vietnamese soil.
Sunday saw the end of the largest troop drawdown for the United States since Vietnam.
Those men and women who fought in Iraq may not feel they are leaving behind an unfinished war or returning home to a nation as deeply scarred as it was after years of Vietnam.

U.S. officer: "We got the job done"

US. officer: It's quite an accomplishment

'This is a big part of history'

Iraqi officer: It's an important day

But many crossed the border harboring mixed feelings and doubt about the future of Iraq.
"The biggest thing about going home is just that it's home," Gaumer said. "It's civilization as I know it -- the Western world, not sand and dust and the occasional rain here and there."
A month ago, Adder, the last U.S. base before the five-hour drive to the Kuwaiti border, housed 12,000 people. By Thursday, the day the United States formally ended its mission in Iraq with a flag-casing ceremony in Baghdad, under 1,000 people remained there.
The 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division officially transferred control of Camp Adder to the Iraqis on Friday, though it did not really change hands until the last American departed early Sunday morning.
At its height, Adder housed thousands of troops and had a large PX, fast-food outlets, coffee shops and even an Italian restaurant. Now a ghost town, the United States gave 110,000 items left at Adder to the Iraqis, a loot worth $76 million, according to the military.
In her last days working in a guard tower in Iraq, Sgt. Ashley Vorhees, 29, dreamed of seeing her three children and eating crispy chicken tacos at Rosa's Mexican restaurant in Killeen, Texas. She also looked forward to not having to carry her gun with her to the bathroom.
Vorhees, a combat medic, spent her first tour of Iraq with her husband, also a soldier.
"When Osama bin Laden was captured and killed, my mom was like 'Does that mean that everybody is coming home now?'" Vorhees said.
"We actually had it a lot better than the people did who did the initial invasion," she said. "We're just thankful that we're not getting attacked every day."
When the war was at its worst in 2006, America had 239,000 men and women in uniform stationed in more than 500 bases sprinkled throughout Iraq. Another 135,000 contractors were working in Iraq.
The United States will still maintain a presence in Iraq: hundreds of nonmilitary personnel, including 1,700 diplomats, law enforcement officers, and economic, agricultural and other experts, according to the State Department. In addition, 5,000 security contractors will protect Americans and another 4,500 contractors will serve in other roles.
The quiet U.S. exit, shrouded in secrecy until it occurred, closes a war that was contentious from the start and cost the nation more than $800 billion.
President Barack Obama, who had made a campaign promise to bring home American troops, reflected on a greater cost as Sunday's exit made good on his word.
According to the defense department, 4,487 service members were killed in the war. More than 30,000 were wounded. In all, 1.5 million Americans served their nation at war.
"All of them -- our troops, veterans, and their families -- will always have the thanks of a grateful nation," Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday.
It's impossible to know with certainty the number of Iraqis who have died in Iraq since 2003. But the independent public database Iraq Body Count has compiled reports of more than 150,000 between the invasion and October 2010, with four out of five dead being civilians.
And the question of how Iraq will fare in the months ahead, without U.S. troops, is also impossible to answer.
Even before the last soldiers had left, political crisis was erupting in Baghdad.
The powerful political bloc Iraqiya said it was suspending its participation in parliament, which would threaten Iraq's fragile power-sharing arrangement. Iraqiya accuses Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of amassing power.
But for the last U.S. troops out, the message was clear.
Col. Doug Crissman, their commander, spent the past few weeks speaking to the soldiers in each of his companies.
He told them he was proud of his troops and they should be proud of what they had accomplished. And, he wanted his soldiers to take care of themselves back home as much as they did in Iraq.
In the months before the brigade deployed in February, it lost 13 soldiers to accidents, some because of driving under the influence of alcohol. At least one death was a suicide.
"Quite frankly we lost more soldiers in peacetime in the nine or 10 months before this brigade deployed due to accidents and risky behavior ... than we lost here in combat," Crissman said. "We want every soldier that survived this combat deployment to survive redeployment and reintegration."
Capt. Mark Askew, 28, said he was worried about the well-being of his soldiers, many of whom have done multiple tours of Iraq and felt the stress and sting of war.
Was the loss, the grief, worth it?
For Askew, it will all depend on how Iraq's future unfolds -- whether democracy and human rights will take root, whether Iraq will be a steadfast U.S. ally.
It will depend, he said, on how Iraq shapes its own destiny.

CNN's Ingrid Formanek reported from the Iraq-Kuwait border, Jomana Karadsheh from Baghdad and Moni Basu from Atlanta.