Friday, October 21, 2011

Obama declares war over, orders final pullout of US troops from Iraq

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end.

The president made the announcement at a White House briefing following a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

“As promised the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, the war in Iraq will be over,” Obama said.

"Today I can say that troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays," Obama said.

More than 4,400 American military members have been killed, and another 2,000 wounded since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003.
Read the rest here.

3 comments:

Matthew M said...

Even a broke clock gets it right twice a day and so the Prez gets this one right. Too bad the economy still sucks and unemployment is as high as ever (actually it is higher than the government pretends it is).

John (Ad Orientem) said...

Can I have an "Amen!" please.

Anonymous said...

Well, I am pleased we will be out of Iraq at last, though I fear for the remaining and seriously endangered Christians of that country.

Anyway, perhaps I am confused or missed something over the last nine years, but I thought the conflict with Iraq wasn't a "war"... since that would have required a declaration by Congress. And I distinctly recall being told by our government that it was denying POW status to the "detainees" at Gitmo and other select international resorts explicitly on the grounds that there is no declared war, so they are not really prisoners of war. So, now that the whatever it was is over, will all the whatever they ares be released? I didn't see any mention of that in the article.

I am curious, too, why it will take four to five thousand "contractors" to protect the American Embassy and Consulates? What kind of "contractors"? Sounds like a euphemism to me.