Obama Announces Iraq Troop Withdrawal

[Troy]

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in US history.
He said overnight all US troops would be withdrawn from the country by the end of the year.

Mr Obama's statement ended months of wrangling over whether the US would maintain a force in Iraq beyond 2011.

He never mentioned the tense and ultimately fruitless negotiations with Iraq over whether to keep several thousand US forces in Iraq as a training force and a hedge against meddling from Iran or other outside forces.

Instead, Mr Obama spoke of a promise kept, a new day for a self-reliant Iraq, and a focus on building up the economy of the United States instead of a land far away.

"I can report that as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year," Mr Obama said.

"After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."

Good news that finally this will be over. Nearly 40,000 US troops (plus many others from other Coalition countries) are in Iraq and it will be nice for them to come home out of the danger. It is time for the local goverment and armed forces to take control of their country.

This is good news for the US economy as well because this will save BILLIONS of dollars and the US really needs to cut a ton of money from the budget.