U.S. Combat Mission Ends in Iraq, Obama Says

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2010 — Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma today announced the offi­cial end to com­bat oper­a­tions in Iraq dur­ing a prime-time Oval Office address, declar­ing “a new begin­ning” for the Iraqi peo­ple.

“Oper­a­tion Iraqi Free­dom is over,” Oba­ma said, speak­ing just hours after the launch of Oper­a­tion New Dawn in Iraq. “The Iraqi peo­ple now have the lead respon­si­bil­i­ty for the secu­ri­ty of their country.” 

Oba­ma offered high praise for the men and women in uni­form whose ser­vice and sac­ri­fice led to this “his­toric moment” in time. 

“The Amer­i­cans who have served in Iraq com­plet­ed every mis­sion they were giv­en,” he said. “They defeat­ed a regime that had ter­ror­ized its peo­ple. Togeth­er with Iraqis and coali­tion part­ners who made huge sac­ri­fices of their own, our troops fought block-by-block to help Iraq seize the chance for a bet­ter future.” 

That effort came at tremen­dous cost, he said, not­ing more than 4,400 U.S. troops killed and thou­sands more wound­ed dur­ing Oper­a­tion Iraqi Freedom. 

“End­ing this war is not only in Iraq’s inter­est; it is in our own,” Oba­ma said. “The Unit­ed States has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its peo­ple. We have sent our young men and women to make enor­mous sac­ri­fices in Iraq and spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight bud­gets home. 

“We have per­se­vered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi peo­ple: a belief that out of the ash­es of war, a new begin­ning could be born in this cra­dle of civ­i­liza­tion,” he continued. 

“Through this remark­able chap­ter in the his­to­ry of the Unit­ed States and Iraq, we have met our respon­si­bil­i­ty,” he said. “Now, it is time to turn the page.” 

Oba­ma out­lined the future role of the tran­si­tion­al force of U.S. troops to remain in Iraq through Decem­ber 2011. They’ll advise and assist Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces, sup­port Iraqi troops in tar­get­ed coun­tert­er­ror­ism mis­sions and pro­tect U.S. civilians. 

“Con­sis­tent with our agree­ment with the Iraqi gov­ern­ment, all U.S. troops will leave by the end of next year,” he said. 

And as the mil­i­tary draws down, civil­ian diplo­mats, aid work­ers and advi­sors will step up to help Iraq strength­en its gov­ern­ment, insti­tu­tions and ties with the region and the world. “This new approach reflects our long-term part­ner­ship with Iraq – one based upon mutu­al inter­ests and mutu­al respect,” the pres­i­dent said. 

Oba­ma con­ced­ed that vio­lence in Iraq will not stop with the end of the U.S. com­bat mis­sion there, and that ene­mies of Iraq will keep up their attempts to derail progress. He expressed con­fi­dence, how­ev­er, that the Iraqis have the will, and Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces, the capa­bil­i­ty, to stand up to the extremists. 

“Ulti­mate­ly, these ter­ror­ists will fail to achieve their goals,” the pres­i­dent said, offer­ing assur­ance that the Unit­ed States will con­tin­ue to sup­port Iraq as a friend and partner. 

While build­ing that long-term part­ner­ship, the Unit­ed States will take the lessons learned in Iraq as it con­fronts what Oba­ma called its most press­ing secu­ri­ty chal­lenge: the fight against al-Qaida. 

“As we speak, al-Qai­da con­tin­ues to plot against us, and its lead­er­ship remains anchored in the bor­der region of Afghanistan and Pak­istan,” he said. “We will dis­rupt, dis­man­tle and defeat al-Qai­da, while pre­vent­ing Afghanistan from again serv­ing as a base for terrorists. 

“And because of the draw­down in Iraq,” he said, “we are able to apply the resources nec­es­sary to go on the offense.” 

The surge forces in Afghanistan will serve for a lim­it­ed time to break the Taliban’s momen­tum and help the Afghans build their capac­i­ty and secure their future, Oba­ma said. As in Iraq, he said Afghanistan’s future ulti­mate­ly will depend on its own gov­ern­ment and secu­ri­ty forces’ capabilities. 

Toward that end, the Unit­ed States will begin a tran­si­tion to Afghan secu­ri­ty respon­si­bil­i­ty next July, with the pace of troop reduc­tions based on con­di­tions on the ground. Oba­ma offered assur­ance of endur­ing U.S. sup­port for Afghanistan as this tran­si­tion takes shape. 

“But make no mis­take: this tran­si­tion will begin,” he empha­sized, “because open-end­ed war serves nei­ther our inter­ests nor the Afghan people’s.”

One of the lessons of Iraq, he said, is that “Amer­i­can influ­ence around the world is not a func­tion of mil­i­tary force alone.” 

“We must use all the ele­ments of our pow­er, includ­ing our diplo­ma­cy, our eco­nom­ic strength and the pow­er of America’s exam­ple, to secure our inter­ests and stand by our allies,” he said. 

Oba­ma called the mile­stone achieved today in Iraq a reminder to all Amer­i­cans that “the future is ours to shape, if we move for­ward with con­fi­dence and com­mit­ment.” “It should also serve as a mes­sage to the world that the Unit­ed States intends to strength­en our lead­er­ship in this young cen­tu­ry,” he added. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →