Final U.S. Combat Brigade Leaves Iraq
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GUNNER
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BAGHDAD, Aug 24, 2010 - A majority of Iraqis believe it was the wrong time for a major withdrawal of US combat troops, a poll said on Tuesday, with more than half also warning that it would have negative consequences.
When asked if it was the right time for American soldiers to leave -- the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under 50,000 for the first time -- 59.8 percent said no, compared to 39.5 percent who said yes.
Some 53.1 percent of respondents said they disagreed with President Barack Obama's decision last year to end the combat mission in Iraq on August 31, a move that triggered a major reduction in the US military presence here.
However, 46.2 percent of those questioned agreed with the decision.
In other questions, 51 percent said the withdrawal would have a negative effect, compared to 25.8 percent who said it would be positive.
Shortly after coming into office in 2009, Obama pledged to end combat operations in Iraq by the end of this month, bringing "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to an end, at which point troop figures would drop below 50,000.
Asked if they thought Obama cared about the situation in Iraq, 41.9 percent of those surveyed said no, compared to 39.8 who said yes. Some 15.5 percent said they do not know.
The top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said on Tuesday that around 49,700 soldiers are now stationed in the country.
"It will stay at that level through next summer," he said in Baghdad.
All US soldiers are due to leave Iraq by the end of next year, under a bilateral security agreement signed by Washington and Baghdad in November 2008.
The poll carried out by the Asharq Research Centre, a private Iraqi company, was a representative nationwide sample of 1,150 people aged 18 and above in the country's 18 provinces between August 15-23.
When asked if it was the right time for American soldiers to leave -- the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under 50,000 for the first time -- 59.8 percent said no, compared to 39.5 percent who said yes.
Some 53.1 percent of respondents said they disagreed with President Barack Obama's decision last year to end the combat mission in Iraq on August 31, a move that triggered a major reduction in the US military presence here.
However, 46.2 percent of those questioned agreed with the decision.
In other questions, 51 percent said the withdrawal would have a negative effect, compared to 25.8 percent who said it would be positive.
Shortly after coming into office in 2009, Obama pledged to end combat operations in Iraq by the end of this month, bringing "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to an end, at which point troop figures would drop below 50,000.
Asked if they thought Obama cared about the situation in Iraq, 41.9 percent of those surveyed said no, compared to 39.8 who said yes. Some 15.5 percent said they do not know.
The top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said on Tuesday that around 49,700 soldiers are now stationed in the country.
"It will stay at that level through next summer," he said in Baghdad.
All US soldiers are due to leave Iraq by the end of next year, under a bilateral security agreement signed by Washington and Baghdad in November 2008.
The poll carried out by the Asharq Research Centre, a private Iraqi company, was a representative nationwide sample of 1,150 people aged 18 and above in the country's 18 provinces between August 15-23.
H2O3C4Nitrogen
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so is there gona be a sweet home coming party .. 
GUNNER
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Obama says Iraq War Ending
VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts, Aug 28, 2010 - Three days before the official end of the US combat mission in Iraq, US President Barack Obama said Saturday that the war in the country was "ending" and called Iraq a "sovereign" nation free to determine its own destiny.
"On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the United States 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.
The president, who spends Saturday his last full vacation day at on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, will cover the issue of Iraq in a nationally-televised address from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
"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 drawdown" of troops, seven years on from the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
American 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 Shiite-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 iCasualties: Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Casualties, 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 honor those who have served in Iraq by sending them messages via such social networking Internet sites as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.
A strong critic of the war, Obama has always drawn a distinction between former Republican president George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq and the daily fights US soldiers were waging in the country.
Addressing disabled veterans in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month, Obama noted that the Iraq war had sparked a vigorous debate in the country and that there were American patriots both in favor of and against the war.
But "what this new generation of veterans must know is this: our nation's commitment to all who wear its uniform is a sacred trust that is as old as our republic itself," the president said Saturday. "It is one that, as president, I consider a moral obligation to uphold."
He said his administration was modernizing and expanding veterans' hospitals and health care system, and adapting care to better meet the needs of veterans.
VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts, Aug 28, 2010 - Three days before the official end of the US combat mission in Iraq, US President Barack Obama said Saturday that the war in the country was "ending" and called Iraq a "sovereign" nation free to determine its own destiny.
"On Tuesday, after more than seven years, the United States 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.
The president, who spends Saturday his last full vacation day at on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, will cover the issue of Iraq in a nationally-televised address from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
"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 drawdown" of troops, seven years on from the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
American 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 Shiite-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 iCasualties: Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Casualties, 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 honor those who have served in Iraq by sending them messages via such social networking Internet sites as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.
A strong critic of the war, Obama has always drawn a distinction between former Republican president George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq and the daily fights US soldiers were waging in the country.
Addressing disabled veterans in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier this month, Obama noted that the Iraq war had sparked a vigorous debate in the country and that there were American patriots both in favor of and against the war.
But "what this new generation of veterans must know is this: our nation's commitment to all who wear its uniform is a sacred trust that is as old as our republic itself," the president said Saturday. "It is one that, as president, I consider a moral obligation to uphold."
He said his administration was modernizing and expanding veterans' hospitals and health care system, and adapting care to better meet the needs of veterans.
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