Officials: Complete Withdrawal of American Troops From Iraq By December 2011

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama plans to order that all U.S. combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by August 2010, administration officials said Tuesday, ending the war that defined his upstart presidential campaign three months later than he had promised.

Obama's plan would pull out all combat troops 19 months after his inauguration, although he had promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that he would withdraw them 16 months after taking office. That schedule, based on removing roughly one brigade a month, was predicated on commanders determining that it would not endanger U.S. troops left behind or Iraq's fragile security.

Pledging to end the war in 16 months helped to build enormous grass-roots support for Obama's White House bid. The withdrawal plan — an announcement could come as early as this week — calls for leaving a large contingent of troops behind, between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to protect U.S. interests.

Also staying beyond the 19 months would be intelligence and surveillance specialists and their equipment, including unmanned aircraft, according to two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.

The complete withdrawal of American forces will take place by December 2011, the period by which the U.S. agreed with Iraq to remove all troops. A senior White House official said Tuesday that Obama is at least a day away from making a final decision. He further said an announcement on Wednesday was unlikely, but he said that Obama could discuss Iraq during a trip to North Carolina on Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090224/ap_on_go_pr_wh/iraq_withdrawal_15

[MadBadger]

1. All combat troops to be out by August 2010

[babylonsister]

2. Hey, I'll give him those 3 months. I've been waiting years

to hear this! Now on to getting out of Afghanistan, too.

[Bluebear]

4. We don't need a timetable!!!!!1

Oh wait, yes we do. Thank goodness there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

[babylonsister]

5. Gawd, I had just about forgotten about that quote.

Yes, let there be light!

[NeedleCast]

3. Works For Me

Seems like a reasonable time table.

[Winterblues]

6. Squawk "cut n run" squawk squawk The Surge squawk

I will believe it when I see it but I can't imagine any scenario that would change things. Iraq is not now, nor was it ever, a threat to the USA. Neither is Afghanistan. We have far more to fear from Street Thugs in the USA than we do from a bunch of raggedy disillusioned old men that live in caves on the other side of the world with zero resources. Hell in fact I believe my odds of getting struck by lightening are far greater than being involved in a terror attack..or being attacked by Iraq. America has to come back to reality on this issue.

[Political Heretic]

7. It's not fast enough but god dammit I'll take whatever I can get.

[MadHound]

8. Seems like more weasling by Obama

It's not the extra three months that bother me, it's the 30-50,000 troops that will be staying behind, along with intelligence and surveillance specialists. Seems like a fairly large force that we'll be leaving there.

Pack them all up and bring them all home.

[tyne]

9. He NEVER said this....

"Obama's plan would pull out all combat troops 19 months after his inauguration, although he had promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that he would withdraw them 16 months after taking office."

Ever.

From his campaign website:

"A Responsible, Phased Withdrawal
Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. Immediately upon taking office, Obama will give his Secretary of Defense and military commanders a new mission in Iraq: ending the war. The removal of our troops will be responsible and phased, directed by military commanders on the ground and done in consultation with the Iraqi government. Military experts believe we can safely redeploy combat brigades from Iraq at a pace of 1 to 2 brigades a month that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 – more than 7 years after the war began.

Under the Obama-Biden plan, a residual force will remain in Iraq and in the region to conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions against al Qaeda in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. They will not build permanent bases in Iraq, but will continue efforts to train and support the Iraqi security forces as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism."

The summer of 2010 would be August

[babylonsister]

10. Thanks for setting the record straight before it went off track.

:thumbsup: