“Let me say this as plainly as I can - by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end.”
From The Guardian:
Almost six years after the invasion of Iraq, the end is finally in sight for America’s involvement in its longest and bloodiest conflict since Vietnam. Barack Obama yesterday set out a timetable that will see all US combat units out by summer next year and the remainder by the end of 2011.
Obama said yesterday that “by any measure, this has already been a long war”. It had cost the US 4,425 dead, divided the country and cost it friends abroad. For Iraq, the death toll is unknown, in the tens of thousands, victims of the war, a nationalist uprising, sectarian in-fighting and jihadists attracted by the US presence.
From the BBC:
US Republicans have broadly welcomed President Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw most troops from Iraq by 2010.
However, they suggested he should give credit to his predecessor for stability brought by the “surge” strategy of pouring extra troops into Iraq.
House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner described the plan as responsible while remaining flexible.
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki said his forces were capable of controlling security in Iraq after US troops leave.
President Obama announced that the US “combat mission” would officially end by August 2010.
From Ireland’s Independent:
President Obama announced the withdrawal of over 90,000 US combat troops from Iraq by August of next year yesterday.
However, his decision to keep a force of up to 50,000 was attacked by leaders of his own party as a betrayal of his promise to end the war.
Mr Obama’s steady drawdown plan was even embraced by Republicans — including John McCain, his election opponent last year — but was sharply criticised by anti-war liberals.
It was the latest of several moves by the president that has disappointed the Left, who had convinced themselves that he would end the US presence in Iraq at a stroke.
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