President Obama went before the television cameras on Friday to announce what had largely been pre-ordained before he took office, that all U.S. troops would be leaving Iraq before the end of the calendar year.
It was in the final months of George W. Bush’s presidency that the United States negotiated an agreement to withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
In his first year as commander in chief, Obama promised to adhere to the timeline, even though many U.S. and Iraqi military leaders said some American forces should remain in the country. The U.S. position on the 2011 date changed this year, however. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his predecessor, Robert Gates, said publicly that some U.S. troops should remain in the country after the withdrawal. The conflict has claimed 4,200 American lives.
Proponents of remaining in Iraq argued the smaller U.S. footprint would be needed to train the Iraqi military on new American equipment—and as a trip wire if sectarian tensions flared up again and threatened to plunge the country into another civil war.