[Updated at 1:13 p.m. ET] U.S. President Barack Obama, announcing Friday that "the rest of our troops will come home by the end of the year," said: "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."
The new partnership with Iraq will be "strong and enduring" after U.S. troops leave the country, Obama said in the White House briefing room. The United States will continue its interest in a strong, stable Iraq after U.S. troops leave, the president said.
"Today I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays," Obama said.
About 39,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, and the U.S. had wanted to keep from 3,000 to 5,000 troops in Iraq past 2011 to aid in training and security. But the current Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq dictates the U.S. troops leave by year's end, and the United States and Iraq had been unable to come to an agreement on key issues regarding legal immunity for U.S. troops who would remain in Iraq, effectively ending discussion of maintaining a significant American force presence beyond 2011.
Of the 39,000 troops in Iraq, only about 150, a negligible force, will remain to assist in arms sales.
The negotiations were strained following WikiLeaks' release of a diplomatic cable that alleged Iraqi civilians, including children, were killed in a 2006 raid by American troops rather than in an airstrike as initially reported by the U.S. military.
U.S. troops have already started the drawdown - a brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, that was originally scheduled to be among the very last to leave Iraq was being pulled out of the country months ahead of its planned departure, military officials told CNN last week.
[Updated at 12:47 p.m. ET] The scheduled departure of virtually all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year will allow the United States to "say definitively that the Iraq war is over," a White House official said Friday.
[Initial post] Virtually all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year as the current Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq dictates, a U.S. official told CNN Friday.
A small number of U.S. troops will be attached to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
This month, the United States and Iraq had been unable to come to an agreement on key issues regarding legal immunity for U.S. troops who would remain in Iraq after the end of the year, effectively ending discussion of maintaining a significant American force presence beyond 2011.
About 39,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, and the U.S. wanted to keep from 3,000 to 5,000 troops in Iraq past 2011.
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to make a statement about Iraq around 12:45 p.m. Friday, according to a White House official.
FULL STORY
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Criticisms from Republicans to begin in 3... 2... 1....
I was just about to post the same thing but looks like you beat me to it!!!!!
LOL.....no kidding!!!!
AND GO!!!!....... here come the comments
ANOTHER SCREWUP oBAMA WILL CREATE
LOL that was funny
thats a given...just might have to watch Fox news to see what they have to say. All i have to say is it's about time we bring our troops home!
Pathetic, you honestly believe that people WANT war based on how you register to vote? I'm not understanding the pointless childish remarks.
jOE = Idiot
Doesn't even know how to operate the 'Caps Lock'....an obvious 'all-arounf loser......
Cue the Dems to start the Bush bashing. 3... 2... 1... Interesting that this comes at a time when Obama's popularity is at an all time low and many polls show he may well end up a 1 term President.
GOP critical comments please...
America's war? I don't think so. It was Bush's War.
bUSH kICKED ASS AND oBAMA IS ONLY WITHDRAWING TO WIN VOTES
Actually, it was Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield/Wolfowitz.....
jOE = Idiot
Doesn't even know how to operate the 'Caps Lock' (SMH).
jOE – bUSH kICKED ASS AND oBAMA IS ONLY WITHDRAWING TO WIN VOTES...someone on your side said that Obama is only following the plan he was handed by Bush...wHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?
jOE exactly whose butt did Bush kick besides all the dead US soldiers that died looking for Bin Laden in a country that had nothing to do with 911?
One down, one to go.
Thank God for you President Obama. The Lord will continue to vindicate you...
wow ur delusional
So will my vote!
GO OBAMA BRING THE TROOPS HOME!!!!! not to mention succeed where the last moronic president utterly and pathetically FAILED! The red tide of the bush administration is finally beginning to wash away.
Really? The economy is in markedly worse shape than when Bush was president....and it's not close. I understand Bush stunk but Obama has done nothing he said he was going to do. Nothing. Don't be a party parrot. Just use your head. That goes for both sides.
Actually Mike, Obama has done almost everything he said he was going to do, which is why the economy is in the toilet. He passed Obamacare, bailed out the banks, and for two years had a blank check from the Democratic congress who gave him nearly everything he wantted, including the failed stimulus plan(s). The problem is not that he didn't do what he promised. The problem is he did.
Mike, let me see, how should I say this? You are a liar! There, that fits!
Read a book and stop listening to FOX Mike. You look like a moron when you blame a decades of overspending on the guy that has only been there three years.
Bill C, Obama wanted nationalized healthcare and we ended up with Liebermancare thanks to the GOP filibuster. Just be honest, for once!
I love when people blame the current economy on Obama. They forget that the first round of bailouts, the ones that went out with no oversight what so ever went out while Bush was president. The bailouts that companies used to buy jets and remodel offices they own in other countries. I am not saying it is all Bush's fault either but when we were already in a recession when Obama took over its a little hard to blame him for it.
So many people wanted to say these words, but Obama said it.
Did any one notes, where President didn't have to deal with the Republicans, he did SUPER WELL?
Obama 2012!
Is this English?
You went to public school, didn't you?
Good! We need to pull all of them out of there... as well as Aphganistan... I have always thought that builiding a "Little America" in the Middle East wouldn't work. A theocracy and a democracy just don't work well together.
Good job staying the course that was set for you before you came into office!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-what a moronic statement...Obama is anything but Bush on foreign policy...
Stop kidding yourself! You need to read more for yourself and stop digesting the fabrication from Fox and the likes. What a fool!
About freakin' time!!!!!
Never should've been there to begin with!
Another very positive milestone for President Obama.
bIG mISTAKE AS EVERYTHING ELSE OBAMA DID
OK genius.....so how...EXACTLY...is leaving Iraq a mistake?
(This oughta be good...)
Obama in 2016
"So this is Christmas...and a Happy New Year...War is over...War is over".
Finally we end this stupid Bush-fiasco war-for-profit !!
.
Now we will see some deficits going down! Time to leave Afghanistan and every other waste of taxpayer dollars that Bush got us into. If we could get rid of the 390 billion a year in contractors which includes 240 billion in just Iraq and Afghanistan we can reduce our deficit by a trillion every 2.5 years.