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Obama: US combat in Iraq to end by Aug 31, 2010
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-28 09:45

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – US President Barack Obama drew a firm finish line in the Iraq war Friday, six years after the invasion he opposed and six weeks into his presidency. Obama said he will withdraw combat forces within 18 months. "Let me say this as plainly as I can," he said. "By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."

President Barack Obama speaks about combat troop level reductions in Iraq as he addresses military personnel at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., Friday, Feb. 27, 2009. [Agencies]

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Yet in the same speech before Marines and military leadership, he said the vast majority of those involved in the pullout will not leave this year. Obama also said tens of thousands of US personnel will remain behind to train and advise Iraqis.

"We have forged hard-earned progress, we are leaving Iraq to its people, and we have begun the work of ending this war," he said.

Obama was moving to fulfill in large measure the defining promise of his presidential campaign — to end combat operations within 16 months of taking office. He's doing it in 19 months instead.

The president said the US cannot "let the pursuit of the perfect stand in the way of achievable goals." That was a declaration not of mission accomplished, but of mission accomplished as best as America could — this in the face of Obama's growing commitment to the conflict in Afghanistan, the other war he inherited.

"The most important decisions that have to be made about Iraq's future must now be made by Iraqis," the president said at the sprawling Camp Lejeune, N.C., base, which is about to deploy thousands of troops to Afghanistan.

Senior Obama administration officials had said earlier that of the roughly 100,000 US combat troops to be pulled out of Iraq over the next 18 months, most will remain in the war zone through at least the end of this year to ensure national elections there go smoothly.

The pace of withdrawal means that although the pullout will start soon, it will be backloaded, with most troops returning in the last few months of the time frame.

And even after the drawdown, a sizable US force of 35,000 to 50,000 US troops will stay in Iraq longer under a new mission of training, civilian protection and counterterrorism.

In any case, all US troops must be out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. That's the deadline set under an agreement the two countries sealed near the end of Bush's presidency. Obama has no plans to extend that date or pursue any permanent troop presence in Iraq.

More than 4,250 Americans have been killed in Iraq, a costly, unpopular enterprise at home that Obama criticized when support for the invasion was strong and few other politicians dared stand against it.

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