Iraq may be free of US troops in 2010
Photo: Obama (L) and top US military commander in Iraq, David Petraeus, talk as they take a helicopter ride over Baghdad. Obama visited Iraq as a presidential candidate in July, expressing hopes that combat forces could leave by 2010.
US President Barack Obama is reportedly mulling over a plan to withdraw American troops stationed in Iraq within the next 18 months.
According to a report in the Washington Post and New York Times, Obama is expected to announce the decision to end US operations in Iraq by August 2010.
Obama’s withdrawal timetable is three months longer than the 16-month withdrawal schedule promised during his 2009 campaign for the presidency.
Military commanders within the army have persuaded the president to postpone his withdrawal plans, senior administration officials were quoted as saying.
Obama’s "compromise" is meant to "assuage the concerns of ground commanders who want to cement security gains, strengthen political institutions and make sure Iraq does not become unstable all over again," the report adds.
The plan, however, does not necessarily promise a total withdrawal as the Obama administration may keep tens of thousands of troops in the country as part of a "residual force".
The force will continue "training Iraqi security forces hunt down foreign terrorist cells and guard American institutions."
Although the actual number of the residual force has not been specified, Obama’s national security advisers said during the campaign that it could number from 30,000 to 55,000 troops.
Under pressure due to the global economic slump, the White House seeks to make good on its promise to cut the federal deficit in half by the time the Obama term ends in 2013.
The president has inherited an annual deficit of over $1 trillion from the previous White House occupant, George W. Bush.
During his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Obama indirectly criticized the Bush administration for failing to plan for the country’s economic plight and bloated debt.
"Critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day," he said. "Well, that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here."
Other links:
Iran to pre-commission nuclear plant
US continues threatening Iran on N-program
US sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan
