Obama: We leave Iraq with "heads held high"
Updated 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time
President Obama marked the end of the United States' almost nine-year war in Iraq on Monday, saying at an appearance with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the final U.S. troops leave Iraq this year "with their heads held high."
Mr. Obama is taking something of a victory lap this week for fulfilling his campaign promise to end the war, which will effectively end when the several thousand remaining troops exit the country by December 31. On Saturday, he thanked service members at the annual Army-Navy football game; on Wednesday, he and first lady Michele Obama will visit Fort Bragg in North Carolina to speak to troops about the war.
"This is a season of homecomings," Mr. Obama said Monday at the White House, flanked by al-Maliki. "Military families across America are being reunited for the holidays."
Obama: Iraq's response to Syria not influenced by IranObama: "History will judge" if Iraq was a "dumb" war
Mr. Obama's decision to end the war - in keeping with a timetable first put in place under former President George W. Bush - has been popular with the American people, with even one in two Republicans saying they approve of his handling of the issue.
Obama and al-Maliki met Monday to discuss the strategic relationship between the countries, which Mr. Obama described as an "equal partnership based on mutual interest and mutual respect." He described Iraq as "sovereign, self-reliant, and Democratic," telling the Iraqi leader, "You have a strong, enduring partner in the United States of America."
Despite the positive rhetoric from Mr. Obama, the U.S. troop withdrawal comes at a time when it is far from clear that Iraq will be able to maintain its security and a health political system - and with Iran seeking to expand its influence in Iraq and in the region as a whole. Both Iran and Iraq are majority Shiite, and there are ties between the two countries' political establishments; it is not clear whether Iraq will become a safe haven for America's enemies once the United States fully leaves the country.
Mr. Obama said Monday that "Iraq faces great challenges, but today reflects the impressive progress that Iraqis have made." He said Iraqis are "working" to build "efficient and independent and transparent" institutions.
He said "our goal is simply to make sure that Iraq succeeds," telling reporters that a successful Iraq - one that unites various ethnic groups under one government - can be a model for the entire region.
Asked if he still agrees with his onetime characterization of the Iraq war as a "dumb war," Mr. Obama responded, "History will judge the original decision to go into Iraq, but what's absolutely clear is that...what we have now achieved is an Iraq that is self-governing, that is inclusive, and that has enormous potential."
"I have no doubt that Iraq can succeed," he said, arguing the United States is leaving Iraq "responsibly."
Al-Maliki, speaking through a translator, said Iraq had established a democratic political process and "is following a foreign policy in which it does not interfere in the affairs of others and does not allow the others to intervene in its own affairs."
Though its troops are leaving the country, the United States has its largest embassy in the world in Baghdad, with more than 15,000 people stationed there - an issue the two leaders were asked about Monday. Al-Maliki said he is in discussions about the size of the U.S. embassy presence, which is a strategic resource for the United States in the region.
"We don't want to create big footprints in Iraq," Mr. Obama said - but he added that the United States wants to maintain a "very active" relationship between the two nations' militaries in terms of training and assistance.
He said the "actual size of our embassy with respect to diplomats is going to be comparable" to similar countries, but that "special security needs inside of Iraq" mean there are a larger number of people stationed at the embassy overall.
"We're only a few years removed from an active war inside of Iraq," he said, before adding of those stationed at the embassy, "I want to make sure that they come home, because they are not soldiers."
According to Businessweek, the United States has 8,000 military personnel and 5,000 contractors remaining in Iraq, all of whom are set to depart. There were approximately 300,000 Americans in the country in 2007, nearly half of whom were contractors.
"A war is ending," Mr. Obama added. "A new day is upon us. And let us never forget those who gave us this chance: the untold number of Iraqis who've given their lives; more than 1 million Americans, military and civilian, who have served in Iraq; nearly 4,500 fallen Americans who gave their last full measure of devotion; tens of thousands of wounded warriors and so many inspiring military families. They are the reason that we can stand here today. And we owe it to every single one of them, we have a moral obligation to all of them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice."
Video: Americans handing off bases to Iraqi troops
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It appears that this ceremony was an affair (for internal consumption more than a page in the future history-story books, illustrated in glorious technicolor and surround sound, Dolby system) to remember.
Strange it is, I have already forgotten the fact that original aggressive war, started by George H W Bush and recalibrated, retooled and refurbished by his son, George W Bush was, NOT for the setting up Iraq as a democracy, American style but for America's thirst for (petroleum) oil.
Let us look at the numbers, not mentioned in the White House Press releases, neither acknowledged by the major (American) media.
Source Casualties Time period
Iraq Family Health Survey
151,000 deaths March 2003 to June 2006
Lancet survey
601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths
March 2003 to June 2006
Opinion Research Business survey
1,033,000 deaths as a result of the conflict
March 2003 to August 2007
Associated Press
110,600 deaths March 2003 to April 2009
Iraq Body Count project
104,035 — 113,680 civilian deaths recorded as a result of the conflict[1] and 15,114 new deaths added from the Iraq War Logs. Over 155,470 civilian and combatant deaths.
March 2003 to October 2011
WikiLeaks. Classified Iraq war logs
104,111 recorded deaths, including 3,884 U.S. and 224 allied forces. Number also includes 92,003 (or 66,081) civilian deaths.
January 2004 to December 2009
...and I am Sid Harth@arabuhuru.org
A war based on lies and deception, promoted by the Top 1%, using money from the 99% to provide monumental profits for the giant corporations of America.
Obama is above saying the truth of what happened but I am not.
What this "we" stuff, Kemo Sabe?
Obama has done nothing to assist these troops and took three years to make good on his campaign promise of leaving Iraq, now to send them off to Afghanistan.
I'm sure he suffers with each American soldier that did his duty in Iraq - everytime he is seen eating a sno-cone or taking in a round of golf.
Obama has no business being President, he was swept in under a wave of anti-Republican sentiment, not on his own merits (which are few).
Mr. President, there is no honor in taking other people's lives. We can try to justify those acts by saying, "but this person was doing such and such" but it still doesn't make it right. I hang my head in shame that I have to be a citizen of a country that is trying to dictate a set of morals to the rest of the world yet is run by corruption and refuses to clean its own house. Whether a person is Christian or not there are many passages of scripture that I feel can easily apply to everyone as just good moral sense, one of which is "He who is without sin cast the first stone." We can clean up another's corrupt government but turn a blind eye to our own. We can give out billions of dollars in foreign aid to help other countries yet our own poor live in squalor. This is not how it should be.
by TistheSeason December 12, 2011 9:25 PM EST
AIG, Blackbird is one of the supposedly hyper-"Christian" people I talk about who really act the opposite of Christ's example.
Hopefully, his illustration of hate and hostility will explain to you some of my past comments about fake Christians like him.
Aig, all you ever do is insult and attack people instead of pointing out you side. You wouldn't know a Christian if you saw one.
Just because someone doesn't let you belittle them they are not a Christian. Learn some manners boy or I will teach you some and give you a taste of your own medicine everytime you mouth off.
How in the hell you haven't gotten kick off of here is a mystery. You must work for CBS.
No wonder you're pals with Tis.
Now, it is for the Iraqi's to decide if they want to slide into the dark of Islamic extremism or stay in the slight of secular government.
Obama, I have more time in a AH-46 from Al Assad to Fallujah in the middle of the night, than any combat that you or Bidden has ever dreamed about, no that may be wrong, I'm sure that you both has Dreamed an Dreamed an believe that, I Have A Dream!!
If Clinton wasn't getting hummers in the White House Hallways, then Swearing that he Didn't on Prime Time TV, he would have invaded Iraq like All of his, then Bush's Advisers was trying to do, then Clinton would have been the one to be blamed!!