Obama Announces End Of Combat Operations In Iraq As Of August 31st

Today President Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq will cease on August 31st, with a transitional occupation force to remain for another year.

“As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America’s combat mission in Iraq would end. That is exactly what we are doing—as promised, and on schedule.” The president says that by the end of the month more than 90,000 troops will have come home from Iraq since he took office. “As agreed to with the Iraqi government, we will maintain a transitional force until we remove all our troops from Iraq by the end of next year,” Obama said of the 50,000 transitional force that will remain, “During this period, our forces will have a focused mission—supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts.”

Meanwhile the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan continues to increase.