"It's Time to Turn the Page" President Barack Obama

YouTube - Part 1 President Obama's Address On End Of Combat Mission In Iraq - 08/31/10

(USA Today)  President Obama made a television appearance before the American people Tuesday stating that the combat operations in Iraq was (supposedly) signaling an end.  President Obama stated that he's turning the job of securing Iraq back to its people, heralding the end of the combat operations which endured for nearly 7.5 years.  The war in Iraq was a war in which President Bush began in March 2003 and when Bush's term in office ended in January 2009, he handed over the war to President Obama.  President Obama wasn't supportive of the war when he was U.S. Senator.  He voted against the troop surge in January 2007.  Obama stated before the voters "We have met our responsibility," Obama said in a 19-minute speech to the nation from the White House.  "Now, it is time to turn the page."  Obama has drawn nearly 100,000 troops from Iraq since taking office, and the remaining 50,000 will train and support the country's security forces.  We still will an American presence in Iraq for security purposes.  All the troops are targeted to come home by the end of 2011.  Whether they will or not remains to be seen. 

"Ending the war is not only in Iraq's interest--it is in our own," Obama said in his second Oval Office address.  "The United States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people."  Since former President George W. Bush decided to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein, more than 4400 U.S. servicemembers have been killed and $1 trillion spent.  Despite these costs, some violence continues, and Iraq's leaders have failed to form a coalition government since elections last March.  Obama pressed Iraqis to "move forward with a sense of urgency."  The president briefly mentioned "political disagreements" about Iraq that divided Americans.  In his speech and in remarks earlier at Fort Bliss in Texas he praised U.S. troops for their courage and noted "we don't argue that we've got the finest force in the history of the world."  That force continues to face a "very tough fight in Afghanistan," Obama told the Texas soldiers.  He has added nearly 30,000 troops to that war, tripling to nearly 100,000 those fighting insurgents there.  He's insisted to the nation that the longest war in U.S. history won't continue dragging on. "As was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do themselves."  Those troop withdrawals, he said, will depend on conditions on the ground but will begin next August."

President Obama claims his most urgent task will be jump-starting the economy and getting millions of unemployed Americans back to work.  Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to the American Legion National Convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday, cautioned that Al-Qaeda is "beaten but not gone" in Iraq.