US PRESIDENT Barack Obama announced the imminent end of US involvement in the Iraq war yesterday, less than 24 hours after the death of Muammar Gadafy.
“After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” Mr Obama said in a statement he delivered in the White House press room.
Since Mr Obama became president, some 100,000 US troops have withdrawn from Iraq. The 40,000 who remain will depart before January 1st, he said.
The US is declaring victory and going home. “The last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in their support for our troops. That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end,” Mr Obama said.
“Here at home, the coming months will be another season of homecoming. Across America, our servicemen and women will be reunited with their families. Today, I can say our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays.”
The president placed the departure from Iraq in the broader context of shrinking US military engagements overseas. “The tide of war is receding,” he said.
“When I took office, roughly 180,000 troops were deployed in both these wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan]. And by the end of this year that number will be cut in half. And make no mistake, they will continue to go down.”
As a US senator, Mr Obama opposed the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. Extricating the US from Iraq by the end of 2011 was a key pledge during his 2008 presidential campaign. US troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan in 2014.
Under the status of forces agreement that former US president George W Bush concluded with the Iraqi government in 2008, all US troops are required to leave by the end of 2011. But there was an understanding that the US would maintain a substantial troop presence thereafter. Originally, the US intended to leave 20,000 soldiers, then 10,000 and, more recently, between 3,000 and 5,000.
The plan was scuppered by political pressure from anti-American factions within Iraq. Washington wanted continuing immunity from prosecution for US troops there, which Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government refused.
Mr Obama made the announcement after a video conference with Mr Maliki earlier yesterday. The two leaders left open the possibility that some US troops could return in 2012 to resume training Iraqi forces. Mr Maliki will visit Washington in December, Mr Obama said.
“As I told Prime Minister Maliki, we will continue discussions on how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces,” Mr Obama said.
Tens of thousands of private military contractors – mercenaries – remain in Iraq.
Echoing his remarks on Gadafy’s death and Libya’s immediate future on Thursday, Mr Obama predicted “some difficult days ahead for Iraq”. He promised that “the United States will continue to have an interest in an Iraq that is stable, secure and self-reliant”. Republican politicians have called for a US military presence to be maintained in Iraq.
The war has brought the Shia Muslim majority, many of whom have close ties to Iran, to power.
Mr Obama seemed to warn Iran yesterday: “We’ll partner with an Iraq that contributes to regional security and peace, just as we insist that other nations respect Iraq’s sovereignty.”
More than 4,400 US soldiers have died in the Iraq war. Several hundred thousand Iraqis are believed to have been killed. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the war cost $1 trillion (€720 billion), and that indirect costs will ultimately amount to $3 trillion.