Aug. 2: The United States will end its combat mission in Iraq as scheduled on August 31 despite a recent flare-up in violence, President Barack Obama said in a speech prepared for delivery on Monday.
“Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility,” Mr Obama will tell a national convention of Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta, Georgia, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.
“And I made it clear that by August 31, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end,” the President continued. “And that is exactly what we are doing.”
He has ordered the force to draw down to 50,000 by September 1. When he became President, Mr Obama inherited a security agreement with Baghdad that calls for all US forces to pull out by the end of 2011.
Meahwhile, amid growing clamour against the war in Afghanistan, defence secretary, Mr Robert Gates, has cautioned that large numbers of US troops will remain even after a “limited” July 2011 drawdown. Despite mounting casualties and public doubts, Mr Gates said the US-led force was making headway and Taliban insurgents would not be able to wait out American forces because a major troop withdrawal was not on the horizon. “I think we need to reemphasise the message that we are not leaving Afghanistan in July of 2011,” he said.