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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end.
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“As promised the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over,” Obama
said.
Live vote: Was Iraq war worth the human, financial costs?"Today I can say that troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays."
U.S. soldiers take a rest in the shade of armoured vehicles at a courtyard at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. U.S troops are scheduled to pull out of the country by the end of this year, according to President Barack Obama.
The president made the announcement at a White House briefing following a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki . Obama said the two were in full agreement about how to move forward.
The withdrawal of American troops marks a major milestone in the war that started in 2003 and resulted in the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. More than 4,400 American military members have been killed, and another 2,000 wounded since the U.S. invasion.
"Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home,'' Obama said.
Republicans criticize Obama over Iraq withdrawal"The last American soldier 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 our support for our troops,'' Obama said. "That is how America's military efforts in Iraq will end.''
The U.S. military role in Iraq has been mostly reduced to advising the security forces in a country where levels of violence had declined sharply from a peak of sectarian strife in 2006-2007, but attacks remain a daily occurrence.
The U.S. has been withdrawing about 520 military personnel every day in accordance with the mission set by Obama in early 2009, sources told NBC News.
Denis McDonough, the White House's deputy national security adviser, said that in addition to the standard Marine security detail, the U.S. will also have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for U.S. diplomats, including at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and U.S. consulates in Basra and Erbil.
US troops in Iraq
- WAR PRICE TAG FOR U.S. (as of Oct. 1, 2011) Iraq cost to date: $712.2 billion
(Current cost: $3.8 billion per month)TOTAL TROOPS DEPLOYED TODAY
Iraq: About 39,000 U.S.troops CASUALTIES Total U.S. military killed in Iraq: 4,469
U.S. military killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom: 4,408
U.S. military killed in Operation New Dawn: 61
Total U.S. military wounded in Iraq: 32,213
U.S. military wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom: 31,921
U.S. military killed in Operation New Dawn: 292AMPUTEES (as of August 2011):
Iraq: 1,146Source: NBC News
The American withdrawal by the end of 2011 was sealed in a deal between the two countries when George W. Bush was president. Obama declared the end of the combat mission earlier this year. The main sticking point has been legal immunity for any U.S. forces that remain.
Negotiations on troop status In recent months, Washington had been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of several thousand American troops remaining to continue training Iraqi security forces.
Slideshow: US troops leave Iraq (on this page)Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.
Moreover, Iraq's leadership has been split on whether it wanted American forces to stay.
Senior Iraqis say in private they would like a U.S. troop presence to keep the peace between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds in a dispute over who controls oil-rich areas in the north of Iraq.
Obama keeps campaign promise with IraqWhen the 2008 agreement requiring all U.S. forces to leave Iraq was passed, many U.S. officials assumed it would inevitably be renegotiated so that Americans could stay longer.
The U.S. said repeatedly this year it would entertain an offer from the Iraqis to have a small force stay behind, and the Iraqis said they would like American military help. But as the year wore on and the number of American troops that Washington was suggesting could stay behind dropped, it became increasingly clear that a U.S. troop presence was not a sure thing.
The issue of legal protection for the Americans was the deal-breaker.
But administration officials said they feel confident that the Iraqi security forces are well prepared to take the lead in their country. McDonough said assessment after assessment of the preparedness of Iraqi forces concluded that "these guys are ready; these guys are capable; these guys are proven; importantly, they're proven because they've been tested in a lot of the kinds of threats that they're going to see going forward.
"So we feel very good about that."
Video: End of an era as US troops withdraw from Iraq (on this page)Pulling troops out by the end of this year allows both al-Maliki and Obama to claim victory.
Obama kept a campaign promise to end the war, and al-Maliki will have ended the American presence and restored Iraqi sovereignty.
The president used the war statement to once again turn attention back to the economy, the domestic concern that is expected to determine whether he wins re-election next year.
"After a decade of war the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own, an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we've restored our leadership around the globe."
NBC's Chuck Todd, Kristin Welker, and Jim Miklaszewski along with the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Discuss: Obama: All US troops out of Iraq by end of year
‘Today I can say that troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays,’ president says
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