President Obama is preparing to officially declare the end of US combat operations in Iraq seven-and-a-half years after the US invasion. Obama will make the announcement in a nationally televised speech tonight from the Oval Office. He gave a preview of his speech in his weekly radio address over the weekend.
President Obama: "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. As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As president, that’s what I’m doing."
While President Obama is claiming the war is ending, the US still maintains a large presence in Iraq. Fifty thousand US troops remain in Iraq to help with training and logistics. In addition, the US is keeping 4,500 special operations forces in Iraq to carry out counterterrroism operations. Tens of thousands of private contractors will also remain in the country.
Less than 50,000 remain in Iraq. It's a significant milestone in the war on terror.
Tuesday, President Obama was set to declare the end of combat in Iraq. With the handover to the sovereign nation of Iraq, some former fighters are skeptical of what the future holds.
"You go in thinking, I might not be here tomorrow, but then again you have a mission to do, and that's what you came to do," Specialist Benjamin Fauber says. "We can help them out, but there's only a certain point that they'll allow us to help."
Fauber, a specialist in the US Army, says he wears his uniform proudly. He was sent home to Grottoes ahead of President Obama's August 31 security forces handover. Fauber says Iraq is safer now than it was, but no place you'd choose to be.
Fauber says, "I don't think it's ever going to stop. We would try and help out people in local villages, but then again, they would turn around, put a bomb in the road and try and kill us."
Seven years after former President George W. Bush claimed 'mission accomplished' in 2003, Bridgewater political analyst Dr. David McQuilkin says, the 2010 official end to combat has some advantages for the United States.
McQuilkin believes, "The conflict now is basically ground to a very low level of American involvement." He says, "We're spending a lot of money, which I don't think we need to spend and we're in a position now, where if we're going to make a move, this is the time to do it."
Both Fauber and McQuilkin say, this is no victory. They say, time will tell if the last eight years have been successful.
The Obama administration says, barring a complete failure of Iraqi forces protecting themselves, the US fighting in Iraq has ended for good.
President Obama will speak on Iraq, from the Oval Office, Tuesday night at 8.
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