Obama Says Iraq Transition Speech Isn't `Victory Lap'
Obama Says Iraq Transition Speech Isn’t ‘Victory Lap’
Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Iraq war veterans at Fort Bliss, Texas.
U.S. President Barack Obama shakes hands with Iraq war veterans at Fort Bliss, Texas. Photographer: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama thanked U.S. troops for their service and said his speech to the nation tonight marking the transition from the American combat role in Iraq won’t be a “victory lap.”
“There’s still a lot of work that we’ve got to do to make sure Iraq is an effective partner with us,” Obama said in remarks to U.S. military personnel at Fort Bliss in Texas.
The president thanked the soldiers for their service and told them that on every mission they’ve been assigned they have “performed with gallantry.” He also warned them the U.S. still has a “tough slog” ahead in Afghanistan.
He said his speech “is not going to be a victory lap, it’s not going to be self-congratulatory.”
The visit to Fort Bliss, home of the 1st Armored Division, was part of a day of events for the president surrounding the shift for U.S. forces in Iraq from combat operations to assisting and training Iraqi forces. Obama tonight will give the second Oval Office address of his presidency to talk about what the change means for the U.S. and his strategy ahead in the broader battle against terrorists, including in Afghanistan.
The president will “describe what’s taken place since he last spoke about the Iraq war in detail in February of 2009,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama.
Changing Role
The number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq swelled to about 170,000 in 2006 and 2007 during the height of the insurgency. The U.S. has withdrawn 70,000 troops in the past year and closed 500 bases as part of the drawdown. There are now fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and they are scheduled to leave by the end of next year.
The Iraqi Security Forces, with 660,000 personnel, have been in the lead for more than a year.
As the U.S. has decreased its presence in Iraq, Obama has shifted personnel and resources to Afghanistan, which the president has called the “epicenter” of the terrorist threat to the U.S.
Obama “believes that we should refocus resources” on fighting al-Qaeda and other extremists in Afghanistan and on the U.S. economy, Rhodes said.
Obama told the troops at Fort Bliss that the U.S. still faces “a very tough fight” in Afghanistan.
“A lot of families have been touched by the war in Iraq, a lot of families are now being touched in Afghanistan,” he said.
No ‘Safe Haven’
“But what I know is that after 9/11 this country was unified in saying we are not going to let something like that happen again,” Obama said. “And we are going to go after those who perpetrated that crime and we are going to make sure that they do not have safe haven.”
Obama made a promise to wind down the war in Iraq a central element of his presidential campaign, and in tonight’s speech he’ll be able to fulfill that vow while also focusing on broader national security goals and the fight in Afghanistan.
Obama “is now able to make good on his pledge,” said Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “But he has to be very cautious in doing so because the United States is by no means out of the woods in Iraq.”
Advise and Assist
The official shift from Operation Iraqi Freedom to a lower- profile Operation New Dawn means the U.S. changes to an advise and assist role for Iraqi forces. Since it began with the U.S.- led invasion in March 2003, the war has cost $750 billion and the lives of at least 4,421 Americans. In the U.S., 53 percent of the public said history will judge the war a failure, according to an Aug. 5-8 Gallup poll.
While the number of U.S. troops has dropped below 50,000 and Iraqi forces are taking over responsibility for security, insurgents and extremist groups continue to stage attacks.
While recent high-profile attacks are “a concern,” none of them “come anywhere close to destabilizing the government or the country,” U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him today to Stuttgart, Germany. “We’re way beyond that.”
Republican leaders welcomed the transition point while reminding voters that Obama was critical of former President George W. Bush’s decision in 2007 to put more troops into Iraq.
Troop Buildup
“We should also be thankful that another president had the determination and the will to carry out the plan that made tonight’s announcement possible,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio told a convention of the American Legion that it was the “courage and sacrifices” by U.S. forces that made the transition possible.
“Some leaders who opposed, criticized and fought tooth- and-nail to stop the surge strategy now proudly claim credit for the results,” Boehner said, according to excerpts released by his office.
Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser, said in an interview that the former president’s decision to deploy more than 20,000 extra troops to quell violence and provide greater security in such places as Baghdad and Anbar Province helped create conditions allowing for the withdrawal.
“For the Obama administration, Iraq has gone from a problem to be shed, to a burden to be borne, to finally, in the words of Vice President Biden, ‘an opportunity for a success’ for this administration,” he said.
“I’ll be the first to give them credit, but they in turn need to credit President Bush for the surge” of troops that “was essential to get the violence down,” Hadley said.
Obama called Bush this morning from Air Force One as the president traveled to Fort Bliss in Texas to meet with U.S. troops, Bill Burton, deputy press secretary, told reporters.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net;
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