The last U.S. combat troops in Iraq have left the country...now what? What is the legacy of the Iraq War, and what comes next? That and this morning's headlines.

The last convoy of U.S. combat troops left Iraq last night under cover of darkness. 440 troops of the 4/2 Stryker Brigade crossed into Kuwait, leaving behind another 56,000 U.S. service members in support and training roles. 6,000 are scheduled to withdraw by September 1st; another 50,000 will remain behind into 2011. 

Ambassador Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, led a team of UN inspectors into Iraq before the 2003 invasion, searching for weapons of mass destruction. They found none, but the invasion went ahead as planned. 

Read a full transcript.

The last convoy of U.S. combat troops left Iraq overnight, moving into Kuwait under cover of darkness. Today, how are Iraqis feeling about the war? Is it over? Are they relieved, or worried about combat troops leaving when the country remains in politicial turmoil? We're joined by Lubna Naji, a 24-year-old medicine studies graduate from Baghdad, who tells us about her own feelings on the current situation there. She says, "They had a good strategy for war. they did not have a strategy for what's going to happen after the war."

Going back to school for a masters or doctorate degree may seem like a smart move in this economy. And universities are happy to get grad students, upon whom they rely for inexpensive, labor-intensive research and to teach undergraduates. But while getting a PhD might stave off the job search for five to seven years, the prospects for getting a teaching job at a university afterwards are slim. The long-term professional positions will be few and far between. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that while academic positions are expected to increase by 15 percent over the next ten years, most of those positions will be for graduate assistants and non-tenured instructors. Is it a "social trap", with academic hopefuls getting the short end of the stick? 

The last U.S. combat brigade rolled out of Iraq and into Kuwait last night. 50,000 training and support troops remain, but they, too, are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of 2011 when the State Department will assume responsibility for training Iraqi police. The U.S. has already begun to transfer control of security operations to Iraqi civilians, but several military experts predict thousands of additional troops will still be required after 2011 to ease the transition.

According to White House officials, combat in Iraq ends on August 31, 2010, yet Brian Stelter, media reporter for The New York Times, wouldn't blame you if you thought that yesterday was the official end to Operation Iraqi Freedom. All the news channels, led by MSNBC, reported that the last U.S. combat brigade left Iraq yesterday. We'll take a look, along with Brian, at the media's coverage of yesterday's historic event.

We're looking at whether adulthood is arriving later in life, while adolescence gets longer. The New York Times Magazine looks at the issue this weekend. And we're asking: When did adulthood arrive for you? Complete this sentence: You know you're an adult when... Maybe it's graduating college? Moving out from your parents' house? Getting married? Let us know what it was for you.

The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq early this morning. 50,000 non-combat forces will remain. What else will we leave behind, and what is the continuing legacy of the war? We're joined by Christian Science Monitor correspondent Jane Arraf. That and this morning's headlines.

The last combat brigadee left Iraq, yesterday, marking the end of the active combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 50,000 troops still remain, but are tasked to non-combat operations. The Obama administration has pledged to withdraw all troops from Iraq by October 2011, at which point security operations are to be transferred to Iraqi forces. In a statement, President Barack Obama called this a "milestone in the Iraq war," and State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley labeled it "an historic moment."

But is it premature – yet again – to say, "mission accomplished?"

The space shuttle program will come to a close as of 2011, and NASA is preparing to retire the three remaining orbiters and find them new homes. Retiring each orbiter is an involved process that will cost $28.8 million. Twenty-one institutions across the country are competing for the rare honor of housing an orbiter. Plans are already in the works for Discovery to go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where Enterprise (a test shuttle) currently lives. Enterprise will likely be made available to another institution, along with Atlantis and Endeavour.

We're following a new development about research into Alzheimer's treatment and prevention. On Tuesday, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly stopped two late-stage clinical trials of a treatment after researchers found an experimental drug was actually making Alzheimer’s symptoms worse. The news is just one more setback in a long series of setbacks for attempts to cure or prevent the deadly disease. 

However, there was some good news recently: determining who will get Alzheimer's. Researchers reported a few weeks ago that a spinal test can predict — with 100 percent accuracy — whether people who are experiencing severe memory loss will get the disease. However, there is nothing medically that can be done, even if you know it's coming.

We’re asking, is it better to know if you're going to get Alzheimer's, or is it easier to stay in the dark? Do you have a relative with Alzheimer's? What would you have done differently if you'd had known it was coming?

On Wednesday, General Motors filed for a public stock offering that would enable the federal government to start selling its stake in GM. Currently, the federal government holds 61 percent of the car company. A year ago, the car-making giant was looking at bankruptcy... in the second quarter of this year, they announced a $1.3 billion proffit. Has the government succesfully turned GM around?

For wives of the 4^th Stryker Brigade, the waiting game is over – their husbands are coming home. But there are still 50,000 troops left in Iraq. With the troops and equipment tasked to combat gone, the future of the troops who stay behind will rely heavily on local Iraqi forces.

How do you hand over a country from military combat occupation back to relative soverignty? That's a question for someone like Naveed Ali Shah, who most recently served as a public affairs specialist in the U.S. Army as part of the 13th sustainment command expeditionary unit. Shah's unit was tasked with getting Iraqis ready for a handover, training iraqi troops and getting U.S. troops out.  

We've been asking, what will be the legacy of America's war in Iraq? Today on the show, guest Hans Blix responded, and you've been calling in and sending your own thoughts as well.

Moises Arango wrote the following on our Facebook page:

"Honestly, we might not know the answer to that for another 100 years. If we look back at history, empires have risen and faded away, and many times the wars they fought ultimately only resulted as one or two sentences in our modern day history books."