Obama Declares End to U.S. Iraq Combat

"President Obama"

08/31/2010

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and HELENE COOPER
NY TIMES
August 31, 2010


WASHINGTON — President Obama formally declared an end to the combat mission in Iraq Tuesday night, telling the nation that, after seven years of war that claimed more than 4,400 American lives, it is ‘’time to turn the page’’ toward another war, Afghanistan, and toward pressing problems at home.

In an address from the Oval Office – only his second as president – Mr. Obama reminded Americans that, in giving responsibility for Iraqi security to the Iraqis, he was fulfilling a promise he made while running for office. He conceded that Americans are ‘’understandably asking tough questions’’ about Afghanistan, but urged the nation to stick with him on that war.

“We must never lose sight of what’s at stake,’’ Mr. Obama said. Sounding much like his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, he warned, “As we speak, al Qaeda continues to plot against us.’’

But it was clear that, at a time when Americans are anxious about the economy, Mr. Obama also wanted to use the address to pivot toward problems at home. As he praised the courage and resolve of the American troops, he reminded the nation of the blood and treasure that had been spilled during the Iraq war, and said it is time for him to focus on his “central responsibility’’ as president: restoring the economic health of the nation.

“At this moment, as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy, and grit, and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad,’’ Mr. Obama said. “They have met every test that they faced. Now, it is our turn. Now, it is our responsibility to honor them by coming together, all of us, and working to secure the dream that so many generations have fought for – the dream that a better life awaits anyone who is willing to work for it and reach for it.’’

Mr. Obama also spoke directly to Iraqi leaders, urging them to “move forward with a sense of urgency’’ to form a government – a task that has eluded them since elections were held there earlier this year. He vowed Iraq would have ‘’a strong partner in the United States,’’ declaring, “Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not.’’

For Mr. Obama, who had opposed the Iraq war from the outset, one of the central challenges of the speech was conveying to the nation that he did not believe those killed had lost their lives in vain.

Another was whether – or how – to mention former President Bush, who was the architect of the 2007 troop buildup, opposed by Mr. Obama, that many military experts say helped stabilize Iraq enough to make the troop withdrawal possible. Many Republicans, including Senator John McCain of Arizona, had called on the president to publicly credit his predecessor for the surge policy.

Mr. Obama did not. Mentioning that he had spoken by telephone with Mr. Bush earlier in the day, he said, “It’s well known that he and I disagreed about the war from the outset. Yet no one could doubt President Bush’s support for our troops, or his live of country and commitment to our security.”

Earlier in the day, he had said that there is a “tough slog” ahead in the war in Afghanistan, as he told troops in Fort Bliss, Texas, on Tuesday.

Speaking just hours before he delivered the Oval Office address, he addressed the situation in Iraq, where some 50,000 troops will remain until next year in a mainly advisory and training role, Mr. Obama warned that the American mission was not yet accomplished. Mr. Obama told the troops that his address was “not going to be a victory lap; it’s not going to be self-congratulatory. There’s still a lot of work.”

Mr. Obama’s address tonight was meant to convey that he has kept one of the central promises of his campaign: withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq. But he is tiptoeing a fine line between taking credit for the withdrawal and echoing the “mission accomplished” tone that President Bush struck so famously seven years ago, and that came back to haunt Mr. Bush in the years that Iraq fell into further chaos.

Mr. Obama called Mr. Bush on Tuesday morning from Air Force One as he was en route to Fort Bliss, White House officials said. The two spoke “just for a few moments,” Benjamin Rhodes, a national security spokesman, told reporters aboard the plane, declining to give any details.

In rolling out the promises-kept theme on the Iraq withdrawal, Mr. Obama is trying to reconcile his record of opposition to the war, and to the troop surge ordered by President Bush which many military officials credit for stemming violence in Iraq, with his role as a war-time commander seeking to credit his troops with a mission accomplished.

While there were “big debates about war and peace” across the country, the president said, “the one thing we don’t argue about is that we have the finest fighting force in the history of the world.” He got shouts of approval from the assembled Fort Bliss troops for that line. (The event was covered by a small pool of print and television reporters.)

“The main message I have tonight and the main message I have to you is congratulations on a job well done,” Mr. Obama said. “The most pride I take in my job is being your commander in chief.”

On Afghanistan, Mr. Obama said that he was convinced that under the command of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the latest American military commander in Afghanistan, “we have the troops who are there in a position to start taking the fight to the terrorists.” But he warned that there would be heavy casualties.

In Baghdad, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi politicians. At each meeting, Mr. Biden previewed the main themes in President Obama’s speech and made the point that the United States wanted a long-term relationship with Iraq.

But another topic of the closed-door discussions was the Iraqis’ faltering efforts to form a government, months after elections.

After the meetings a senior administration officials declined to say if any headway had been made.

“We do come away from this day believing negotiations are extremely active and that’s positive,” he said. “But we still need to see the Iraqis move forward and actually come to agreement and form a government.”

As the start of the morning meeting with Mr. Maliki, Mr. Biden suggested that reports of increased violence in Iraq had been exaggerated.

“Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is things are still very much different,” Mr. Biden said. “Things are much safer.”

Still, Mr. Biden traveling party got a vivid warning of the remaining threats when three alerts sounded that the Green Zone was under possible mortar or rocket attack and they were instructed to take cover.

In Washington, a senior intelligence official told reporters that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is estimated to have just 10 percent of the strength it had during the peak of its manpower in 2006 and 2007. The official declined to provide the actual figures that the estimate was drawn from, and he said he expected the group would have a core of fighters inside Iraq for “a long time to come.”

The senior official, who declined to be identified because he was discussing classified intelligence assessments, noted the sharp reduction of violence in the country and said that attacks in Iraq had been lowered to a “tolerable” level.

He said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps continued to provide “equipment, training and a refuge” for various militant groups in the country, and that Iran’s support for these groups was almost certain to continue as the United States reduces its military presence in the country.

Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates sounded a restrained, sober note about the state of America’s two wars in remarks to the American Legion in Milwaukee.

In Iraq, he said, the most recent elections have yet to result in a coalition government, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is beaten but not gone, and sectarian tensions remain. He said the 50,000 United States troops still in Iraq would continue to work with Iraqi security forces, who only last week faced a flurry of coordinated insurgent attacks across the country that killed at least 51 people.

“I am not saying that all is, or necessarily will be, well in Iraq,” Mr. Gates, who is one of Mr. Obama’s most influential advisers, told the legion. And he warned against “premature victory parades or self-congratulations.”

In Afghanistan, he said, the Taliban are “a cruel and ruthless adversary, and are not going quietly.” Their leadership, he said, has ordered a campaign of intimidation against Afghan civilians and is singling out women for brutal attacks.

“I know there is a good deal of concern and impatience about the pace of progress since the new strategy was announced last December,” Mr. Gates said, referring to Mr. Obama’s decision to send to Afghanistan 30,000 additional United States troops, who have finished arriving only this month. Total American forces in Afghanistan now number nearly 100,000.

But in an attempt to draw a parallel between the current fragile stability of Iraq and what might be possible in Afghanistan, Mr. Gates said that the intensifying combat and rising casualties in Afghanistan were in many ways reminiscent of the early months of the surge of United States forces ordered in Iraq by President George W. Bush in 2007, when American troops were taking the highest losses of the war.

“Three and a half years ago very few believed the surge could take us to where we are today in Iraq, and there were plenty of reasons for doubts,” said Mr. Gates, who helped make the surge decision as Mr. Bush’s defense secretary at the time. But “back then, this country’s civilian and military leadership chose the path we believed had the best chance of achieving our national security objectives, as we are doing in Afghanistan today.”

He added: “Success there is not inevitable. But with the right strategy and the willingness to see it through, it is possible. And it is certainly worth the fight.”

Despite his cautious tone on Iraq, Mr. Gates cited what he called dramatic security gains. He said that violence levels this year remained at their lowest level since the beginning of the war in 2003, that American forces have not had to conduct an airstrike in six months and that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia had been largely cut off “from its masters abroad.”

Mr. Gates said the gains had been purchased “at a terrible cost”: 4,427 American service members killed, 34,268 Americans wounded or injured and untold losses and trauma endured by the Iraqis themselves.

Mr. Gates’s voice seemed to choke as he then said: “The courage of these men and women, their determination, their sacrifice — and that of their families — along with the service and sacrifice of so many others in uniform, have made this day, this transition, possible. And we must never forget.”

In Afghanistan, Mr. Gates promised that the United States would take a hard line against corruption in the Afghan government. He also echoed Mr. Obama and senior military commanders by saying that the president’s deadline for the start of withdrawals of United States forces from Afghanistan next July would be a gradual beginning, not a massive departure.

“If the Taliban really believe that America is heading for the exits next summer in large numbers, they’ll be deeply disappointed and surprised to find us very much in the fight,” he said.