President Barack Obama declares the end of combat operations in Iraq, saying a major troop drawdown would be in effect by August 31, 2010.
Obama's withdrawal proclamation at Marine Corps base at Camp LeJeune comes after weeks of discussions with top military commanders. He also named veteran diplomat, Christopher Hill as the new US ambassador to Iraq.
Explaining his policy thrust toward the Middle East, Obama said he is, "Going forward, the United States will pursue principled and sustained engagement with all of the nations in the region, and that will include Iran and Syria."
Some Democrats are concerned that the date falls short of his election pledges, which is the biggest limitation Obama faces on Iraq. The agreement between Baghdad and Washington signed before he took office, requires that all US forces depart the country by the end of 2011.
Obama also said 35,000 to 50,000 of the 142,000 troops now in Iraq would stay after that date to advise Iraqi forces, target terror potentials and to protect US interests. No mention was made of how long this force would remain in place.
He praised the progress made but said, "Iraq is not yet secure, and there will be difficult days ahead."
Obama had phoned the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to brief him on his newly announced Iraq troop pullout plan, the White House said but gave no details of the conversation.
Deeply unpopular former president George W. Bush still maintains the invasion was the right decision, and said that opinion polls are indecisive, that history will excuse him if Iraq emerges as a possible pro-Western democratic state.
But, for now, surveys show the US public fiercely rejects the war six years after it began, with 60 percent saying it was 'not worth it,' according to an ABC television poll released last week. In March 19, 2003, public opinion was just the opposite, with two-out-of-three Americans favoring Bush's war to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Up to now, the United States has spent USD 687b on the war in Iraq, and another USD 184b in Afghanistan, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank in Washington. Some outside calculations say the Iraq conflict has cost more than one trillion dollars.
The war has had other, less solid, but potentially painful costs: the decline of Americans' trust in government bodies and the support of the United States among traditional allies and sharp decline in respect across the Muslim world.
Hence the Obama pullout plan is imperative for the new administration.View
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