And then there was one.

Today the Multinational Force-Iraq was formally disbanded, making way for the U.S. Force-Iraq. In other words, no more "coalition of the willing." No more writing "U.S.-led forces" in news stories. It's an all-American war effort now, which is what many Iraqis thought all along.

A couple days ago I spent an afternoon interviewing Iraqis about the end of the coalition and came across two funny, sweet young men in a Baghdad kebob joint that was decorated with a big painting of the Last Supper. I asked the two restaurant workers -- one Christian, one Muslim -- whether the name change was a big deal. Here's what they said:

“The change doesn’t mean anything,” said Ausi Arlya, 17, taking a break from washing dishes.

“Yes, there is a difference,” argued his friend Hazem Abboud, 21, a waiter and aspiring artist. “Under the old name of multinational forces, you’d get confused. From now on, any problem that happens, we understand, ‘OK, it’s the Americans.’”

“It wasn’t just Americans in the streets,” Arlya said.

“We called them occupying forces. Very few people said ‘coalition,’” Abboud said. “Only the politicians who live inside the Green Zone said ‘Multinational Forces.’ The rest of us say ‘occupying forces.’”

They laughed.

 “I still prefer the American troops over our own Iraqi ones,” Abboud said. “The Iraqi forces we have are untrained, uncultured, and they went from tending cows to protecting the homeland. Now they’re saying music is forbidden? If that’s the way it’s going to be, I’d prefer the Americans.”