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| B.O. says Iraq war 'ending,' calls country 'sovereign' | |
| 2010-08-29 | |
| [Pak Daily Times] Three days before the official end of the US combat mission in Iraq, US President Barack Obama said on Saturday that the war in the country was "ending" and called Iraq a "sovereign" nation free to determine its own destiny. George Bush and Condi Rice ensured that Iraq got its sovereignty back in 2005. Where have you been, Bambi? "On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the US of America will end its combat mission in Iraq and take an important step forward in responsibly ending the Iraq war," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war," Obama recalled in the address. "As president, that is what I am doing. We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office." US troop numbers in Iraq fell below 50,000 last Tuesday in line with Obama's instructions as part of a "responsible draw down" of troops, seven years on from the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. US troop levels are now less than a third of the peak figure of around 170,000 during the US military "surge" of 2007, when Iraq was in the midst of a brutal Shia-Sunni sectarian war that cost thousands of lives. But more than 4,400 US servicemen and women have lost their lives in this war since it began in 2003, according to an AFP count based on data from www.icasualties.org, an independent website. According to promises given by the US president, the US combat mission in Iraq will officially end on August 31. The remaining US troops, who will have a support and training mission, are scheduled to leave the country by the end of 2011. "But the bottom line is this, the war is ending," Obama pointed out. "Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course. And by the end of next year, all of our troops will be home." The president also used his address to call on Americans to honour those who have served in Iraq by sending them messages via such social networking Internet sites as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Well, He is going to get their vote in 2012. |
| Posted by: Goodluck 2010-08-29 13:48 |
| #1 Hotair notes: "Total mentions of Bush: zero. Total mentions of victory: zero. Total mentions of “I” in speech: six, including the three in the excerpt above." |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-08-29 13:11 |