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The Pentagon is prepared to leave fighting forces in Iraq for as long as a decade despite an agreement between the United States and Iraq that would bring all American troops home by 2012, the top U.S. Army officer said Tuesday. Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said the world remains dangerous and unpredictable, and the Pentagon must plan for extended U.S. combat and stability operations in two wars. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction," Casey said. "They fundamentally will change how the Army works." He spoke at an invitation-only briefing to a dozen journalists and...

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2009 – The U.S. is on track to meet the terms of a timeline of withdrawal from Iraq, the top American commander in Iraq said today. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno said he believes the U.S. is prepared to fulfill a deal requiring U.S. forces to leave major Iraqi cities by June 30 and all combat troops to depart the country by the end of 2011. “We continue to work with the government of Iraq so they can meet that timeline so that they are able to maintain stability after...

RAMADI, Iraq – As the Marine Corps shrinks its footprint in Iraq's western desert, Iraqi community leaders here are publicly voicing worries about what will happen once the Americans are gone. They fear a wave of corruption and the return of the insurgency that once held sway over the area. Marines have begun divorcing themselves from the task of advising local leaders, the clearest signal that their role in Anbar province is quickly nearing its end. An Associated Press reporter embedded with the troops witnessed two cases in a single day of Iraqis — a headmistress and a party of...

Iraqi, U.S. officials cite different pullout terms As the endgame of the U.S. involvement in Iraq develops, some plans are in place but there are several practical questions that remain unanswered. Under the withdrawal plan announced by President Barack Obama in late February, some 35,000 to 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq from summer 2010 to the end of 2011. Their mission is supposed to be limited to training Iraqi forces, conducting counter-terrorism operations, and protecting U.S. civilian and military personnel operating in the country. Some of the previous ideas about a continuing U.S. presence in the region have...

Grenades lie unattended next to a west Mosul bazaar. Garbage bags throughout the city are searched daily for bombs. At a sprawling sheep market, Iraqi army soldiers are careful not to kick over rocks for fear of setting off hidden explosives. War has ebbed in most parts of Iraq, but not in Mosul, the third-largest city and Al Qaeda's last stronghold in the fragile new democracy. And time is running out on the around-the-clock U.S. military patrols of Mosul. U.S. troops must vacate cities by June 30 under an agreement with the Iraqis, and President Obama is ending all American...

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2009 – Military leaders in Iraq have begun working toward achieving President Barack Obama’s goal of a complete troop withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2010, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said during a briefing from Iraq yesterday. “Between now and September … we’ll be reducing by two brigade combat teams here on the ground in Iraq,” Army Maj. Gen. David Perkins, the command’s director for strategic effects, said. “We’ll also be reducing the number of various enablers.” Enablers are the units that make it possible for the brigade combat teams to carry out their missions,...

Here is video of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Admiral Mike Mullen - talking with CNN's John King yesterday about President Obama's timeline for withdrawal of all U.S. "Combat" Troops from Iraq. Mullen says he is very comfortable with the plan decided on, and that Obama did listen to his commanders in the field in making this decision. It is hilarious to me that Obama is touting the withdrawal of all "combat" troops by August 2010 to cover himself on his campaign pledge to pull out of Iraq. The only thing is, he is leaving 50,000 Troops...

Battle building amongst Dems over Iraq troop-reduction planBy Susan Ferrechio Chief Congressional Correspondent 3/1/09 “I don’t think we should leave any troops there,” Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who heads the defense appropriations subcommittee that allocates war funds said about the troop-reduction plan. ..Congressional Democrats’ misgivings about President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce troop levels in Iraq has set the stage for potentially major conflicts between Capitol Hill and the White House in the months ahead.Obama’s announcement Friday that he will leave between 35,000 and 50,000 troops in Iraq after August 2010 brought lukewarm responses from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,...

President Obama's announcement of an 18-month timeline today for withdrawing U.S. combat forces from Iraq included a notable nod to his U.S. military commanders. "Let there be no doubt," he acknowledged during a visit to Camp Lejeune, N.C. "Iraq is not yet secure." He added that "too many fundamental questions remain unresolved." No one is more aware of this point than the U.S. military. President Obama's plan to bring U.S. troops home ultimately represents a compromise between top U.S. military commanders on the ground in Iraq--who pushed for a slower-than-16-month timeline while warning the president and his advisers that Iraq...

President Obama on Saturday struck back aggressively at critics of his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, casting himself as a populist crusader whose "sweeping change" has angered Washington's entrenched special interests, and promised to fight them. "I realize that passing this budget won't be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington," Mr. Obama said in his weekly video and radio address. Mr. Obama's language was combative and confrontational, as he promised to fight for "American families." "I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists...

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Andrew Ward at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama pledged to remove combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of entering the White House. John McCain, his opponent, strongly disagreed with the imposition of an artificial timetable, saying he would rather lose the presidency than the war. It is a measure of how much has changed over the past six months that Mr McCain is now one of the chief cheerleaders for Mr ObamaÂ’s plan to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by August 2010. The former Republican presidential nominee...

In announcing the US’s plans to withdraw from Iraq, and going as far as setting a date, President Obama has literally given away the Iraqi store. Citing progress, the continually improving Iraqi training cycles, and Afghanistan the United States has given the terrorist organization plenty of times to order new drapes and carpeting.

After nearly six years of war and 4,300 US military deaths, President Obama declared yesterday that combat operations in Iraq will end in 18 months and that most US troops will head home by then - but that the vast majority of the 142,000 troops now on the ground will stay through the end of this year to safeguard Iraq's national elections in December. The president announced that 35,000 to 50,000 troops will stay in the country as late as Dec. 31, 2011, the full withdrawal deadline set by Iraqi leaders and President George W. Bush, and that Obama pledged...

WASHINGTON - After years of bitterly debating whether to set a timetable for troop withdrawals in Iraq, Congress has agreed to one. The general consensus came Friday in the form of statements endorsing President Barack Obama's plan to bring home roughly two-thirds of the U.S. military force in Iraq by August 2010. It was a compromise of sorts for the Democratic president, who campaigned on the promise of bringing every soldier and Marine home from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. His plan paves the way for some 100,000 troops to come home and as many as 50,000 troops...

YESTERDAY, President Obama went to Camp Lejeune. He spoke in front of US Marines, but his real audience was his left-wing campaign supporters. And his carefully worded speech - its parsing of language worthy of Bill Clinton - may go down in history as his "Mission Accomplished" moment. We'll see who leaves Iraq when. During last year's presidential campaign, it was evident that Obama wouldn't keep his promises to his leftist base to pull our troops out rapidly. While he benefited greatly from the troop surge he opposed - which handed him a convalescent Iraq - he's learning that reality...

In 18 months, President Obama plans to give America what it hoped it had six years ago -- its "Mission Accomplished" moment in Iraq.Obama announced Friday his plan to end combat operations in Iraq by the end of August 2010, saying the goal of a "sovereign, stable and self-reliant" Iraq is achievable. Senior officials said the war, effectively, will end before Labor Day next year. But even supporters of the plan warn that any success in Iraq is fragile. And even if the war is over, the job still is far from done. President Bush was accused of prematurely declaring victory in...

Iraq War: President Obama traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Friday to announce that the U.S. would stay in Iraq at least until 2012 and keep 50,000 troops there even after combat ends. Sound familiar?Obama's withdrawal plan would take U.S. forces in Iraq down from a current 142,000 troops to 35,000 to 50,000. Under the status of forces agreement between the U.S. and Iran, negotiated and signed last year by the Bush administration, all forces must be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. In short, though President Obama will get credit, it was Bush's plan — not Obama's....

President Obama announced the withdrawal yesterday of more than 90,000 US combat troops from Iraq by August next year but his decision to keep a force of up to 50,000 was attacked by leaders of his party as a betrayal of his promise to end the war. Mr Obama's drawdown plan was even embraced by Republicans — including John McCain, his election opponent last year — but was criticised by anti-war liberals. It was the latest of several moves by the President that have disappointed the Left, who had convinced themselves that he would end the US presence in Iraq...

Obama told top leaders in Congress on Thursday that he will transition the mission in Iraq to training, advising and engaging in limited counter-terrorist operations.

President Barack Obama says he'll withdraw America's combat brigades from Iraq over the next 18 months. Do you think this is a good plan?