But at least in some cases, the pullback won't be far over the horizon. The 2nd Brigade, for instance, has relocated its forces only five to seven miles from their original bases, back to Camp Victory in southwest Baghdad.

And if Iraqi forces get in trouble, all they have to do is ask. The Americans' quick reaction forces are poised to provide many kinds of help, from bomb-sniffing dogs to unmanned aircraft surveillance to helicopter gunships.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared Sunday a national holiday. Iraqi TV stations have been running a countdown logo — "Two days till June 30" — on all programming.

Mushary Basem, 29, a private with the Iraqi National Police from Basra, might represent the new face of Iraq. He walked second on the Saturday night patrol, behind point man Staff Sgt. Mark Lancaster from Nashville, Tenn. Several times, Basem stepped forward and halted Baghdad's notoriously careless traffic so the patrol could cross a street.

After the patrol, he drank water from a canteen and smoked a cigarette in the 92-degree night.

"I am ready," he said. "We have been trained by the Americans — we have been trained by the best. Hopefully, Iraq and America are joined as one."

Then he added the key word on the lips of every Iraqi — and many Americans — as a new day dawns across Iraq: "Inshallah."

If God wills.