http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/72052
Obama, in Announcing End of Combat in Iraq, Does Not Credit the Timetable Put in Place by the Bush Administration Wednesday, September 01, 2010 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer http://media.cnsnews.com/resources/72051.jpg President Barack Obama greets members of the military at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (CNSNews.com) - In his speech marking the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, President Barack Obama made only one oblique reference to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) - the agreement laying out a timeline and terms for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops that was put in place by the Bush administration. "Consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops will leave (Iraq) by the end of next year," Obama said Tuesday night in his prime-time televised speech. However, he did not give the Bush administration credit for "our agreement with the Iraqi government." Obama said the official end of combat in Iraq fulfills his campaign promise to bring the war to a "responsible" end. But the vision for ending the war was laid out before Obama took office - in the Status of Forces Agreement. On Feb. 27, 2009, one month after taking office as president, in a speech at Camp Lejeune, N.C., <http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/27/obama.troops/index.html> Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." He repeated the Aug. 31 date on Aug. 2 when he spoke to a group of disabled veterans in Atlanta. "As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end," Obama <http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-disabled-veter ans-america-conference-atlanta-georgia> said. "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 31st, 2010, America's combat mission in Iraq would end," Obama said. "And that is exactly what we are doing, as promised and on schedule." But the timeline, terms and the troop drawdown stipulated in <http://usiraq.procon.org/sourcefiles/SOFA-11-19-08.pdf> SOFA was, in fact, signed by U.S. and Iraqi officials on Nov. 16, 2008. The Iraqi parliament approved the deal on Nov. 27, 2008. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the agreement on Dec. 14, 2008. The <http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/40337> agreement, which had been in negotiation since 2007, set a timetable calling for most U.S. troops to leave Iraqi towns and cities by June 30, 2009, with about 50,000 troops left in place until the final withdrawal of all U.S. military forces by Dec. 31, 2011. "Today's vote affirms the growth of Iraq's democracy and increasing ability to secure itself," President George W. Bush said of the Iraqi parliamentary vote, in a Nov. 27, 2008 statement. "Two years ago, this day seemed unlikely. But the success of the surge and the courage of the Iraqi people set the conditions for these two agreements to be negotiated and approved by the Iraqi Parliament." On Obama's campaign Web site, Organizing for America, a different date for ending the Iraq war was given -- May 20, 2010. The Web site reads: "Barack Obama will work with military commanders on the ground in Iraq and in consultation with the Iraqi government to end the war safely and responsibly within 16 months." A Dec. 2, 2008 article in the Christian Science Monitor reported that President-elect Obama told Iraqi officials he supported the SOFA. "The security pact was the first such agreement since the invasion to outline specific terms for U.S. involvement in Iraq," the article stated. "It was also the first in the region to be publicly debated and approved. Iraqi leaders backed the agreement after reassurances from President-elect Obama that his administration would not try to change the accord negotiated by the Bush administration." The "surge" by U.S. troops in Iraq was announced by President Bush in January 2007 and involved the deployment of more than 20,000 additional soldiers. By mid-June, the additional brigades were in place and the surge began, focusing on al-Qaeda, Sunni and Shia foes in Anbar, Baghdad, Babil and Diyala provinces. By September, U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus was able to report to Congress that "the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met." At the time Bush announced the surge in January 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said, "I personally indicated that an escalation of troop levels in Iraq was a mistake and that we need a political accommodation rather than a military approach to the sectarian violence there." Then, in January 2008, after Bush's state of the Union Speech and when it was evident that the surge had been successful, Obama said, "Tonight we heard President Bush say that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that's just not true." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who also opposed the surge, issued a statement on Aug. 2, 2010, giving Obama credit for ending the war in Iraq. "America's brave men and women in uniform have done everything that has been asked of them in the war in Iraq; they have performed excellently," <http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=900780> Pelosi said. "Soon, our nation will begin a new chapter in this effort, ending combat operations on the schedule President Obama promised." But in February 2008, Pelosi said Bush's military strategy in Iraq had failed. "The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq," Pelosi <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8422.html> said on CNN's "Late Edition." "They have not done that." In his Aug. 2 remarks, Obama praised the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, which will finally end, according to the SOFA agreement, on Dec. 31, 2011. "Already, we have closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of bases," Obama said. "We're moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we've seen in decades." "By the end of this month, we'll have brought more than 90,000 of our troops home from Iraq since I took office - more than 90,000 have come home," Obama said [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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