Obama Makes Surprise Visit To Iraq

President Visits With Troops And Generals, Calls For Iraqis To Take Control Of Their Country On Unannounced Trip

(CBS/ AP)  Flying unannounced into a still-dangerous war zone, President Barack Obama told U.S. troops and Iraqi officials alike Tuesday it is time to phase out America's combat role in a conflict he opposed as a candidate and has vowed to end as commander in chief.

Iraqis "need to take responsibility for their own country," Mr. Obama told hundreds of cheering soldiers gathered in an ornate, marble palace near Saddam Hussein's former seat of power.

"You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country. That is an extraordinary achievement," he told the troops, saluting their efforts during six years of American fighting and losses.

Just hours before he arrived, a deadly car bomb exploded in Baghdad, underscoring the continuing peril despite a recent decline in violence. But the mood was festive as Mr. Obama spoke to troops gathered inside an ornate, marble palace.

"We love you," someone yelled out.

"I love you back," responded the president, repeating a sequence that played out at hundreds of campaign stops on his successful run for the White House last year. (Read the president's full remarks here.)

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Audio: Obama Addresses The Troops

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Obama met with top U.S. commanders as well as senior Iraqi leaders on a visit of a little more than four hours that was confined to Camp Victory, the largest U.S. military base in a war that began in 2003 and has cost the lives of 4,265 members of the U.S. military. Many thousands more Iraqis have perished.

The president said he had come "to say thanks to the troops." He added that the troops' stories "keep you going. They'll motivate you."

A helicopter flight to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles distant was scrapped, but White House aides attributed the change in travel plans to poor weather rather than security concerns.

The president's official schedule had said he would be flying directly to Washington D.C. from Istanbul on Tuesday and made no mention of an Iraq visit. Reporters did some sense that an unannounced trip was a strong possibility, however, as CBS News Producer Robert Hendin points out in a behind-the-scenes dispatch.

"It doesn’t take one more than a second to look at a map of the Middle East to see that Turkey is pretty close to Iraq and Afghanistan," he notes. (Read more.)

After a session with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Mr. Obama said he had "strongly encouraged" Iraqis to take political steps that would unite political factions, including integrating minority Sunnis into the government and security forces.

Al-Maliki told reporters, "We assured the president that all the progress that has been made in the security area will continue."

Mr. Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, made four unannounced trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan during his presidency, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller. (Read more.)

American commanders told the president the country is experiencing a relatively low level of violence, although the car bomb explosion in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad was evidence of a recent resurgence. Mr. Obama flew from Turkey, the next-to-last stop on an eight-day itinerary that also included Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Aides said the president chose to visit Iraq rather than Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are also in combat, in part because it was close to Turkey and in part because of upcoming Iraqi elections.

In his remarks to the troops, Mr. Obama made no mention of the Afghanistan conflict - where he has decided to commit 21,000 additional troops - and it was not known whether it came up in his meeting with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander, and other officers.

Mr. Obama announced plans in February to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on a 19-month timetable, although a force as large as 50,000 could remain at the end of that period to provide counterterrorism duties.

He said that for the next year and a half, the United States will be a "stalwart partner" to the Iraqis. And yet, he said, "they have got to make political accommodations. They're going to have to decide that they want to resolve their differences through constitutional means and legal means. They are going to have to focus on providing government services that encourage confidence among their citizens."

"All those things they have to do," said the president. "We can't do it for them."

By contrast, little more than a week ago, the president announced a revamped Afghanistan strategy that calls for stamping out the Taliban and al Qaeda and broadening the mission to include pressure on neighboring Pakistan to root out terrorist camps in its lawless border regions.

"We spend a lot of time trying to get Afghanistan right, but I think it is important for people to know that there is still a lot of work to do here," Mr. Obama said before Air Force One touched down in the Iraqi capital.

Even earlier, before departing Istanbul, the president told students, "Moving the ship of state takes time." Referring to his long-standing opposition to the war, he said, "Now that we're there," the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."

The military is in the process of thinning out its presence ahead of a June 30 deadline under a U.S.-Iraq agreement negotiated last year that requires all American combat troops to leave Iraq's cities. As that process moves forward, the increase in bombings and other incidents is creating concern that extremists may be regrouping.

While Mr. Obama spent much of the past week overseas grappling with the worldwide economic crisis and the war in Afghanistan, a constant theme of the trip was his determination to turn a new page in U.S. relationships abroad after eight years of the Bush administration.

Nowhere was that intention more evident than in Iraq, where a Bush-ordered invasion in 2003 began as a quick rout of forces loyal to Saddam Hussein before gradually turning into a murderous environment for U.S. troops.

Mr. Obama said American forces had "performed brilliantly ... under enormous strain."

"It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis," he said as an estimated 600 troops cheered. "They need to take responsibility for their country."

In Europe, he and other world leaders pledged cooperation to combat a global recession, and he appealed with limited success for additional assistance in Afghanistan, a war he has promised to intensify. The new president drew large crowds as he offered repeated assurances that the United States would not seek to dictate to other countries.

"I am personally committed to a new chapter of American engagement. We can't afford to talk past one another, to focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us," Mr. Obama said before leaving Turkey. The visit to a nation that straddles Europe and Asia was designed to signal a new era. He had pledged as a candidate to visit a majority-Muslim nation in his first 100 days in office.

President Bush paid several trips to Iraq while in office, and on his last, in December, he had to duck shoes hurled in his direction at a news conference by an Iraqi journalist. By coincidence, the Iraqi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday for the man, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, now sentenced to one year in jail rather than three.

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Audio: Obama Addresses The Troops

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[kansas1946]

There was much ado about Obama's overseas trip and his visit to Iraq. There was no mention of the visit to Cuba by the Black Caucus of the US congress. Why was the press so quiet about this visit to a pair of murderers running Cuba?
Posted by happygael at 2:42 PM : Apr 8, 2009
+ report abuse + permalink
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I don't know. I hear quite a bit about it on the news. Other that a few Floridians, most people are thrilled with the increase in relations with Cuba and the reduction of restrictions.

[kansas1946]

Hmmmm....looks like our military really hates President Obama, not. They are probably thrilled that they finally have a commander in chief with a brain AND a heart.

[happygael]

There was much ado about Obama's overseas trip and his visit to Iraq. There was no mention of the visit to Cuba by the Black Caucus of the US congress. Why was the press so quiet about this visit to a pair of murderers running Cuba?

[fedup12]

"It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country.
President Obama"

This Kenyan-In-Chief doesnt have a clue. IRAN will take control of Iraq not Iraqis. IRAN will take responsibility of Iraq like they do with GAZA and South Lebanon and South Afghanistan.
Posted by _BaghdadsHere_ at 11:04 PM : Apr 7, 2009

Hmmm seems like this post was signed by an Iraqi welfare recipient.

Sorry the trough at the end of the American Taxpayer is coming to an end. C U L8tr

[motown67usa]

Obama's message to Iraq is an important departure from the past. The Bush White House gave the Iraqis a blank check. They never pressured them, and never set benchmarks. The idea was that Iraq would reform itself when violence went down. That didn't happen. The Bush White House also wanted to keep troops in Iraq until Iraq had fixed all of its problems from spending it budget, to fighting corruption, to defeating the insurgency. Only when it was faced with leaving office did it agree to the Status of Forces Agreement that set a withdrawal deadline because they didn't want a Democratic administration to create that deal. The most important message that Obama is delivering is that Iraqis need to solve their own problems. They can't keep looking to the Americans to do everything for them, which is what they currently do on many matters. musingsoniraq.blogspot.com

[FormerDemocrat]

How can it be a "suprise" when it was all over the media?

[abbe91]

Don't make generalizations it only makes you look foolish.. You know nothing about my past opinions. Maybe you should contact your new messiah and personally ask him why he bowed to the King of a country thats own people attacked America during 911. Fraud
Posted by nolies74621 at 5:05 AM : Apr 8, 2009

Check with your Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld trinity. They will tell you that 911 was the Iraq make, not the Saoudis, not Dubai. They let Bin Laden's family take a flight away from the US when all other air traffic was grounded right after 911.

[nolies74621]

Strange that your opinions about foreign leaders change when a democrat is president.
Posted by abbe91 at 5:02 AM : Apr 8, 2009

Don't make generalizations it only makes you look foolish.. You know nothing about my past opinions. Maybe you should contact your new messiah and personally ask him why he bowed to the King of a country thats own people attacked America during 911. Fraud

[abbe91]

Big difference between celeabrating cultural activities and bowing like a servant to an AUTOCRAT. What a fraud!
Posted by nolies74621 at 4:46 AM : Apr 8, 2009

In case you missed it, it was the same AUTOCRAT on the picture in my post.

[abbe91]

Big difference between celeabrating cultural activities and bowing like a servant to an AUTOCRAT. What a fraud!
Posted by nolies74621 at 4:46 AM : Apr 8, 2009

Under Bush 43, Abdullah was an ally.
Under Reagan, Saddam Hussein was an ally.

Strange that your opinions about foreign leaders change when a democrat is president.

[nolies74621]

Aren't you shocked by this ...
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/F/j/bush_abdullah_chaching.jpg

Breaking news: Bush and Abdullah moving to Vermont ...
Posted by abbe91 at 12:19 AM : Apr 8, 2009

Big difference between celeabrating cultural activities and bowing like a servant to an AUTOCRAT. What a fraud!

[woodjd42]

Our Kenyan-In-Chief,err Optimistic-In-Chief,err Coward-In-Chief doesnt have a clue. IRAN will take control of Iraq not Iraqis.
Posted by _BaghdadsHere

You may be right on this fact. However you need to look at who is to blame for that. If bush/chaney would not have invaded Iraq, that would not even be possible since Sadam was a sworn enemy of Iran. So you idiot, put the blame where it should be, bush/chaney.

[abbe91]

Posted by nolies74621 at 11:22 PM : Apr 7, 2009

Aren't you shocked by this ...
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/F/j/bush_abdullah_chaching.jpg

Breaking news: Bush and Abdullah moving to Vermont ...

[rebelscout]

Hey Baghdad, why don't you just do yourself and help the world?

[rebelscout]

Hello Bahgdad, you moron!! You have not changed your just mad that the idiot's you voted for lost! Get over it !!

[nolies74621]

Obama bows to Saudi king
Greeting called 'most unbecoming for president of the United States'

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Posted: April 02, 2009
4:12 pm Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


President Obama greeted the king of Saudi Arabia with a full bow from the waist yesterday, a move one commentator described as a violation of protocol and not worthy of the office he holds.

"I am quite certain that this is not the protocol, and is most unbecoming a president of the United States," writes Clarice Feldman in an American Thinker commentary.

The situation developed as leaders of the world attending the G20 summit in London assembled for a photograph to mark the event.

In this first image, after the king extended his hand while Obama approached, Obama bends from the waist until his head is nearly at the monarch's waist:



OK! I saw the vidoe and was shocked. How could the so called POTUS bow to a Monarch. I guess he wants oil. Any defebse for the exhulted messiahs' actions on this total lack of guts. He may as well have said to the world that America will BOW TO ANYONE and pretty much supplicated to the entire world. WEAK,WEAK,WEAK. So much for the intelligence factor. Now I have seen it all. Why is'nt CBS covering this?

[Hyptnotized_Liberals]

death obama and death amrica is well, amrica is killer country millions of people they killed in japan, vaitnaam,iraq,afgan and other countrys
Posted by gupt777

Get your filthy rotten Arab Muslim propaganda off of these forums, MUSLIM.

[maxonhudson]

wow, a real commander in chief, what a concept !!

[nolalou]

Now America sees this president for who he really is a Neo Marxist who has time to take his shoes off in a mosque in Turkey and bows to a saudi king but won't stop in Normandy to pay tribute to our WWII dead in France. This stooge who was helped put in place by George Soros elected by idiots and says America is not at war with islam is now sending 17,000 troops to the Afghan country while leaving 50,000 in Iraq. This president unfortunetly is a liar and pathetic and if stupidity was ever a federal crime BO would be impeached under the constitution and none of this is change we can believe in!
Posted by wdh3007

Please explain how we are at war with Islam...
Posted by gravypants

gravypants, if you are looking for a total complete IDIOT,, I suggest you look in the nearest mirror, you f-ing MORON! I don't even know where to start tearing apart your stupid comments, but lets start with you calling President Obama a neo-marxist! President Obama is not a Marxist., he has not declared war on capitalism! Just because he took some positions you may not agree with on the economic mess he inherited, dosn't make him a Marxist.. but your comments DO make you an IDIOT!

You complain about the places he chose to visit, you'd rather he visit Normandy than Iraq where our troops are NOW? You're upset he said the USA is Not at war with Islam? Oh.. are you proposing a modern day Crusades? Of course we are NOT are war with Islam.. the United States does NOT declare war against a Religion.. but against countries who present a threat! The fact that Afghanistan is majority Muslim is besides the point, if Al Quida were Hindu terrorists, it wouldn't make any difference!

You are a MORON, A total utter IDIOT, yo are not worth the mud on the bottom of Obma's shoes..! You don't have to agree with the President, but your comment show the world what a f-ing JERK you are!

[wdh3007]

ah gravy the last time I cheked their were troops in Iraq and the Afghan country unless they all came I must have missed something... maybe that's what it was?