President Obama today will hail the drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq in a speech to the national convention of Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta, reminding the nation the combat mission in a war he opposed will be over at the end of this month.
“As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end,” Obama will say today, according to excerpts from the White House. “I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America’s combat mission in Iraq would end,” Obama will say. “And that is exactly what we are doing–as promised, on schedule.
National Democrats believe that even as the surge of troops to Afghanistan is ramping up, that troops coming home from Iraq will be politically well received.
Obama will tout that “hundreds” of U.S. bases have been closed or turned over to Iraqis.
“We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades. By the end of this month, we’ll have brought more than 90,000 of our troops home from Iraq since I took office–more than 90,000,” Obama will say in the speech.
The president will outline the strategy for the next year, with troops “supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts.”
Obama will warn they are “dangerous tasks,” and say, “The hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq.”
The White House provided a fact sheet showing that in Obama’s first full month as president in February 2009, there were 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
At the end of May this year there were 88,000. By the end of the month Operation Iraqi Freedom will be over and there will be 50,000 troops in the country.
At the end of the month, there will be 1.2 million pieces of military equipment in Iraq, down from the 3.4 million pieces in January 2009 when Obama took office, the White House said. The equipment is going to Afghanistan, to replenish U.S. military stocks and to Iraqis, the administration said.
Bases in Iraq are being reduced from a high of 357 to 94 by the end of August.
The White House also sent these tidbits to put the drawdown in perspective:
- In January 2009, there were about 177,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan: 144,000 in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan. In July 2010, there are about 169,000: 81,000 in Iraq and 87,000 in Afghanistan. In September 2010, there will be about 146,000: 50,000 in Iraq and 96,000 in Afghanistan. So even with the surge in Afghanistan, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will have been reduced from 177,000 to roughly 146,000. In addition to those on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are about 28,000 U.S. service-members deployed supporting Iraq and 17,000 supporting Afghanistan. They are deployed in other locations, such as Kuwait, Qatar, and afloat in the Persian Gulf.
- The drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq since January 2009 comprises roughly three times as many troops as the President ordered to Afghanistan last December.
