Obama announces total U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by year's end

"Obama spoke of a promise kept, a new day for a self-reliant Iraq and a focus on building up the economy at home."

The U.S.economy woud have been a heck of a lot stronger now had Bush, Cheney and all their ill-informed cheerleaders in the American public not gone into Iraq and Afghanistan and launched 2 seemingly endless wars. At least this one is ending.

The damage to both U.S. finances, lives and futures of the American people and economy wrought by these decisions of a GOP-led government are going to continue to have repurcussions for decades to come, and Americans have only themselves to blame for electing such a corrupt, anti-American bunch of no-hopers into government between 2000-2008.

Let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson and don’t let the GOP sc*mbags anywhere near office again.

Outstanding, Mr. President.

Mission Accomplished.

in short answer...

Denis McDonough, the White House’s deputy national security adviser, said that in addition to the standard Marine security detail, the U.S. will also have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for U.S. diplomats, including at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and U.S. consulates in Basra and Erbil.

Yes..make the US taxpayers pick up the tab for 4-5000 overpaid contractors when the military could do the job at a fraction of the cost

Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.

This is the REAL reason Obama's troops are leaving. He does not have the diplomatic ability to get a proper SOFA like troops in the rest of the world

Yanee,

I agree with the first part of your post, although I'd rather we just pull out the diplomats and contractors too. Military contractors are ruining America's military and sopping up enormous sums of taxpayer money.

Disagree with the second part. No other president could have done it better. We've had immunity for 10 years, to devastating effect on the Iraqi civilian populace. The Iraqis don't want us there anymore. It's their country now.

Besides, Obama has a minor role in those diplomatic discussions. It's mostly between military commanders.

Instead of leading America into a fiscal and economic disaster as the GOP seems to be all too skilled at doing - especially by starting 2 unwinnable wars, it takes a Democrat to lead America out of them.

I’ve been saying this for nearly 2 years now – the U.S. government should be focusing on rebuilding and strengthening the economy at home, not abroad.

Unfortunately, the conservatives never seem to get it, let alone get what is best for their own country.

yanee - "He does not have the diplomatic ability to get a proper SOFA like troops in the rest of the world."

No, he just can't be stuffed dealing with a government that has never indicated they want a continued U.S. troop presence.

The Afghanistan president barely has any control outside the palace gates, and hasn't had for years.

This is a critical point it pays to remember.

4, 400 American lives ... Billions of $s What a wast... What a Disaster made to Iraq and their people. Curs on you America. America has to pay for this for life time. ..

“After a decade of war the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own, an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we’ve restored our leadership around the globe.”

This is the understatement of the CENTURY! Stupid Bush Sr then Jr got us into this bloody mess, for OIL! If Kuwait had been invaded and Kuwait was the worlds biggest producer of broccoli would the US have invaded Iraq?? Hell no! So thank your President Obama for trying to get us out of this horrible mess, let the Iraqis clean up their own country, even though idiot Bush messed it all up for them in the name of looking for those so called weapons of mass destruction.

Obama kept a campaign promise to end the war, and al-Maliki will have ended the American presence and restored Iraqi sovereignty.

Ah yes, and this is why I voted for my dear President Mr. Barrack Obama, to get us the hell out of Iraq!! No more Vietnams, more Iraqs! Give peace a chance! IMNSHO.

Should help lift the president in the polls. Good timing.

But it's the good ole USA. They'll soon find or invent another crisis to keep the cash flowing into their beloved industrial military complex.

Thanks to the Iraq war, America's 'leadership around the globe' has lost to China already!

The next step is indictment from the iraqi government over former US servicemen who committed war crimes during that decade of war, once it will begins when the last trooper leave the iraqi soil!

I'm so proud of President Barack Obama. It's time to move on.

Unfortunately if President Obama doesn't win the next election The Republicans will swiftly start another war. They will go after Iran I fear.

Republicans crave death and despair. They crave it so much that they will even have it in their own backyard. Not signing Obama's jobs bill is symbolic of Republicans thirst for pain and suffering.

We have been back and forth with Obama. No other President in American history has inherited such difficulties. We disagree with how he played some of his hands. For example when he had a full house and didn't institute or pass all the bills he wanted to.

Yet there's something that we forget about him. Obama has always appreciated history. We knew this about him when he took office. A House Divided Cannot Stand. It's not a victory to have simply the majority. It's a victory if the people can be United!!! Indivisible, One Nation Under God. Not this economic divide, this wedge between the rich and the poor.

Obama has met with both sides. Seeking compromise is not always a sign of weakness. It's his Presidency. He has to decide how he wants to be remembered. A ruling President or a President for the People....All the People.

Nobody thought we could clean up this mess. Iraq War and the Economy, Health Insurance. He's cleaning up as much as he can. Republicans are still trying to block his progress. Republicans are not for the people. They seek only power and only support the rich 1%

The real next step is to bring the troops home from Korea, Japan and Germany. If President Obama is re-elected or a conservative Republican is elected, the writing is on the wall: "Yankees come home." Get ready Japan. The good side is there will be plenty of jobs to clean up the toxic waste on military property and plenty of land for redevelopment. It's a win-win for both countries. How about a Las Vegas style development on Okinawa? Location, location, location. The Chinese will love it. The climate is perfect all year long and the food - simply divine.

Not too sure if Noriyosan is just being sarcastic about letting the Chinese invade and take over Japan from Okinawa to Ikebukuro but I think it is one thing to pull the heck out of way too dangerous Iraq and reinforce our troops here in Japan, South Korea, Germany etc..it would be nice if say we moved the troops from Iraq down on over into Colombia etc..we are getting killed everyday, I mean Mexicans and other Latin Americans by the USA's addiction to drugs from south of the border, time to get over Iraq and time to start killing off our Latin Amigos who are poisoning our younger generation on ALL SIDES of the so called border. IMNSHO.

Not too sure if just a guy is taking all the Chinese propaganda way too seriously, China is trying to hold its own country together and I am happy they are also trying to help other under developed countries like in Africa and Latin America, but we all need to work together because if the USA and the Chinese etc..can not get enough OIL from Iraq etc..them economies will run out of gas, unless they come up with different forms of fuel etc..but I do hope President Obama can help turn around all of these horrible situations without the stupid war hawks like Newt Gingrich etc..just waiting to go down in history in becoming the next Ronald Reagans?? IMNSHO.

Obama was negotiating with Iraq for our troops to stay longer but he was demanding amnesty for our troops. Iraq said no. So, Obama had to go back to the original deadline that was outlined by Mr. Bush's Administration.

The troops are coming home thanks to Mr. Bush.

RR

No, he just can't be stuffed dealing with a government that has never indicated they want a continued U.S. troop presence.

Actually he made it pretty clear that he wanted immunity for some long term troops to leave behind. He just didn't get it. I never liked the Iraq war, but once we got there I figured we'd at least want to get something out of it. One of the main things would be a long term base there just so that we could thumb our noses at Iran to give us a little operating leverage in the region or...you know...some favorable oil deals. Now we probably won't get our base and the russians and chinese are getting all the oil deals, so much for the 'blood for oil' argument.

At least we're leaving contractors behind. They might be there officially for the protection of U.S officials but the great thing about independant operators is how well they dance when you play the right instrument, and I've been told that the ever-so-subtle clack of a briefcase full of money being opened is among the most beautiful sounds in the world.

A ruling President or a President for the People....All the People.

I don't think it's his intent to serve anybody but the people of the U.S. Early in his term he focused on international comprimise, he was fairly well burned in that regard and now he's switched over to largely U.S centric deals such as the recent free trade deal and his distancing from Europe. He'll likely win re-election but the irony is that many of his greatest triumphs were rooted in Bush's playbook.

The killing of OBL without the permission or knowledge of Pakistan, the assassination of a U.S citizen turned terrorist, the U.S became involved in Libya, the widescale increase in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan... I'm actually quite pleased with these developments but you can't honestly tell me that these actions are that terribly dissimilar from the last administrations.

Most of his legislation has been pretty par for the course as well. He allowed the Patriot Act to continue, we got the TSA, and a really ugly healthcare bill that looks a lot like the ugly 1993 bill of which one democrat said "anyone who thinks [the Clinton health care plan] can work in the real world as presently written isn't living in it.". Because once 2014 comes up we're all going to be taking a nasty hit to the pocket book.

"Mission Accomplished" ???? yeah, help break down the US economy.... what a waste of tax payer money. Did they ever find that pallet load of new $100 dollar bills that somehow got misplaced? A car bombing last week, still hundreds dying. One person in the US might be assassinated (not even an American nor from a Democratic country) and we want to start the "War" machine. Power outages. Originally had a No-Fly zone in northern Iraq to give our help to the Kurds...and now what? We sure don't help them now when Turkey is going into Iraq to chase the Kurds down....ummmm

Yeah…he waited until re-election year to do this, when he said it would be done after getting elected. Actually, the complete pullout only involves Iraq based troops. While there are 180,000 men in Afghanistan & Iraq, only 39,500 are in Iraq.

60,000 + will remain in Afghanistan thru next year.

Barack Hussein Obama couldn’t close a tiny prison a mere 35-miles off our coast holding a paltry 100 prisoners in 3 years. Does anyone actually believe he can return 100,000+ soldiers and their equipment from a war zone half way around the world in 9 1/2 weeks? Color me skeptical. P.S. You’re welcome, Iran. Love, Barack

Oh yes. The war in Iraq is over. Because President Obama, unable to negotiate the deal he wanted, says it is.

Obama, twisting all of that and making his very first words on this matter the reminder to his frantic base that he is "fulfilling campaign promises" is far easier than saying US involvement is basically ending on the terms Bush laid out. And it's classy!

Iran, unable to resist Obama's "soaring rhetoric", will immediately cease killing US soldiers in the region and in Afghanistan.

All those high-ranking Democrats - like Obama's choice for Sec. of State and his VP, who were against the war before they were for it - will let their blindly partisan supporters go on telling the nation and the world that the Dems in Congress were duped, all of em, by that sly President Bush, and in the next sentence, still mouthing the received wisdom the organized sycophancy called the mainstream media spoonfeeds them, said supporters will insist once again Bush is the dumbest president ever.

The smart set, then turning talk to economics, will go on insisting the war broke the US economy (but that the vastly more expensive WW2 "got us out of the Depression"...), and that we stole all of Iraq's oil.

" his very first words on this matter the reminder to his frantic base"

The only thing frantic is your diatribes about Obama.

He's extracting the US from this costly mistake.

"The smart set, then turning talk to economics, will go on insisting the war broke the US economy (but that the vastly more expensive WW2 "got us out of the Depression"...), and that we stole all of Iraq's oil."

Ever hear of the Lend Lease Act? Comparing WW2 to the invasion of Iraq is ridiculous. Give it up.

Rest assured that all the companies where Bush's daddy, and others associated to the regime, hold stock got what they wanted. Opening up Iraq's oil fields without Saddam controlling them and sanctions were simply a bonus. Both Iraq and the US got it's nether portal plundered by the neo-cons.

Good on Obama for following through on the agreement forged by the Bush administration.

Once the republicans came to power in 2013, they will send troops back to iraq soon after the president sworn in! Iraq is a pie too big to lose!

"The troops are coming home thanks to Mr. Bush" The troops never should have been there in the first place.

"I'm so proud of President Barack Obama. It's time to move on." In 2006 the American public gave both the senate and the house to the Democrats in response to the Democrats promise to leave Iraq but the Dems decided not to. And, yes, President Obama wanted to stay longer but was denied amnesty for the troops. Leaving Iraq at this stage is hardly anything for either party to be proud of. I just hope the returning troops are taken care of.

RomeoROCT. 22, 2011 - 01:22PM JST Obama was negotiating with Iraq for our troops to stay longer but he was demanding amnesty for our troops. Iraq said no. So, Obama had to go back to the original deadline that was outlined by Mr. Bush's Administration.

The troops are coming home thanks to Mr. Bush.

RR

4000 Americans are dead because bush lied the country into a fake war. It took Obama three years to unwind the mess that bush and the idiot republicans created with shock and awe, and the colossal failure that followed. One of the saddest chapters in american history is coming to an end finally, hundreds of thousands dead, trillions wasted, US worldwide standing destroyed. In the end its Obama who kills OBL and Bush who gets credit for a failed war of choice with absolutely no meaning whatsoever.

Actually this was a pretty easy call for President Obama. Though we might be leaving Iraq's official borders we will still have a permanent large presence in the area right next door in Kuwait. There are 7 Army base camps there and one Air force base in country. Kuwait has no problems hosting us or our bases after liberating the country from Saddam in the first gulf war.

It would have been better if we could have reached a joint security pact with the Iraq's and maybe have one base set up in the country in my opinion though. The Iranians show no sign of being nice in the future toward anyone in the region. Though a base in Iraq would really be more geographically symbolic its not really geographically important with Kuwait so close by.

Our military presence in Kuwait should still cause the Iranians serious pause if they have designs on stirring up trouble in Iraq. It also allows the Iraqi Government to save a little face also by holding a hardline on the U.S. The Iraqi's are smart enough to know that we aren't really leaving the area. Were just moving back in next door and will be right back in if needed by the Iraqi Government.

Good for President Obama to praise the troops in his statement today I might add.

Mitt Romney with the following statement has just excused himself from eligibility to any public office:

President Obama's astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women. The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government. The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq.

Scum. He'll be back to outsourcing US jobs to low-cost countries from 2012.

If you voted for Obama well then your boy has come through. War Is Over! In addition to being Cesar Chavez, Adlai Stevenson, JFK and FDR , today we learn that Obama is also John Lennon.

Scum. He'll be back to outsourcing US jobs to low-cost countries from 2012.

I don't quite understand what this has to do with a war that Romney did not start.

It's a bit early to say if he will be prez. Why so little faith in Obama? Specifically, what countries will Romney outsource jobs to???

Thank you for serving with us, you are hero, now, find a work. Well, there are only a few. Go to college. Sorry, it's too expensive. There still that job in Walmart, maybe. Good luck.

We were kicked out by the Iraqi's... they were going to axe the part of the SOFA that made the US troops immune to the Iraqi justice system in cases of crime, so we were pushed out... Obama is now trying to say he kept his promise but in fact he was told in "tatemae" fashion to get the hell out.

TOAL ESTIMATED CASULALTIES

U.S. Troop Casualties - 4,481 US troops

Non-U.S. Troop Casualties - Total 316, with 179 from the UK

Journalists killed - 150

Some informed estimates place Iraqi civilian casualities at over 600,000.

Iraqi Physicians Murdered Since 2003 Invasion - 2,000

WOUNDED

US Troops Wounded - 32,195

FINANCIAL COST

Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000

$900 billion/ each year for the past 9 years

I blame all these to "W". Finally it is over... .....hope.

For these who are condemning Obama action here, I want to remind you Bush took us into two wars with credit cards. (We are not making one payment yet!) I am posting the weblink that will blow your mind.

No wonder we are in a financial mess. We need to change. We have to restore America. This is a first step to get us back to what it used to be.

http://costofwar.com/

Thank you for serving with us, you are hero, now, find a work. Well, there are only a few. Go to college. Sorry, it's too expensive. There still that job in Walmart, maybe. Good luck.

That's why it is very important to focus on jobs-jobs-jobs. I want ALL troops coming home to be fully employed. The congress has to kick their ass to get serious, no BS. We all owe it to them and they deserve it!!!

Thanks for your great achievements Mr 'W", you are a 'wonderful' leader! I want to express my heartfell gratitutes!

Good Move President Obama, I think it's high time the Troops need to return home. Let the Iraqi's deal with their own country and fix their internal problems themselves.

A lot of these guys coming back will end up jobless, maybe even homeless, and you'll see mental health issues spike as they return to the general population. Of course, the conservatives will claim to "support our troops" while also demanding budget cuts that destroy health care and re-integration programs for veterans.

Cut outdated weapons programs? God forbid.

Even the NY Times is saying Obama could not negotiate the deal the US wanted and that withdrawal is a direct result of this, his latest foreign policy failure.

I'm certain Rick "n---rhead" Perry or Herman "Right of.... Return...?" Cain could have done much, much better with their extensive knowledge of global politics and the sensitive way in which they handle people with different beliefs.

I heard about 3?% of soldiers coming back from Iraq are homeless...with no jobs or benefits....thank you America for bringing a nice word called, "Democracy" to a country that doesn't have hardly any....shit, America still censors pictures and words and giving the finger as if no-one knows what that means...

Obama announces total U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by year's end

The headline should state, "Obama re-announces what Bush announced three years ago". Or how about this, "Obama refuses to extend pullout policy negotiated by previous administration". Is President Obama seriously attempting to take credit for a negotiated policy that was put in place before he became president?