Obama plans Iraq pullout by August 2010
CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will announce on Friday he will withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq by August 2010, winding down the unpopular six-year war but leaving behind up to 50,000 troops through 2011.
The 19-month timetable marks a historic juncture in a war that has proven enormously costly to the United States and defined the presidency of George W. Bush. It has been a huge drain on the Treasury, cost the lives of some 4,250 U.S. soldiers and damaged America's standing in the world.
Obama's decision to leave a sizable force to bolster stability was welcomed by congressional Republicans, including former presidential candidate Senator John McCain, while some Democrats were concerned too many troops would remain in Iraq.
The announcement fulfils a major campaign promise that Obama made last year as he concentrates on beefing up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, which he has called the central front in the U.S.-led war on terror.
The president was to outline his plan in a speech at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina, from which thousands of Marines are to be deployed as part of 17,000 troop buildup in Afghanistan ordered by Obama last week.
His visit to Camp Lejeune comes at the end of a long week in which he focussed on rebuilding the U.S. economy and unveiled a huge $3.55 trillion (2.5 trillion pound) budget blueprint for fiscal 2010.
For many war-weary Americans, the Iraq conflict has been dramatically overshadowed by a deep recession that has left many struggling to make ends meet and millions jobless.
"The president will announce that the current combat mission in Iraq will end on August 31, 2010. At that point, the remaining forces in Iraq will undertake a new mission, a more limited mission," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some 35,000 to 50,000 of the 142,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq will remain to train and equip the Iraqi forces, protect civilian reconstruction projects and conduct limited counterterrorism operations, the official said.
"A REASONABLE PLAN"
Administration officials said the 19-month timetable was based on a recommendation by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and other military leaders.
The pacing of the drawdown will be left up to commanders on the ground. "They will speed up or slow it down according to what they need," one official said.
The White House briefed key congressional leaders on the plan ahead of the announcement. Obama drew support from McCain, who on the campaign trail last year bitterly fought Obama's call to withdraw troops from Iraq.
"Overall it is a reasonable plan and one that can work and I support it," McCain told Reuters.
McCain, as a presidential candidate, had argued that Obama was naive in campaigning on a pledge to pull U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.
Key Democrats appeared cool to the plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, asked about leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq, said: "That's a little higher number than I had anticipated."
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in an MSNBC interview on Wednesday said she wanted to hear the president's justification for keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq.
For many war-weary Americans, the Iraq war has been dramatically overshadowed by a deep recession that has left many struggling to make ends meet and millions jobless.
As U.S. troops draw down, Washington will put more focus on a regional diplomatic strategy and greater efforts to encourage Iraq's leaders to strengthen a fragile political stability to prevent a resurgence of the sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
By the end of 2011, the aim is to have "zero" U.S. troops in Iraq, in line with a military pact signed between the two countries, an administration official said.
The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 after the Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein of hiding weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found and troops became bogged down first in a bloody insurgency and then in civil strife between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. Violence has since sharply declined.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro, Susan Cornwell and Steve Holland; editing by Vicki Allen)