From CNN:

U.S. President Barack Obama, announcing Friday that "the rest of our troops will come home by the end of the year," said: "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."

The new partnership with Iraq will be "strong and enduring" after U.S. troops leave the country, Obama said in the White House briefing room. The United States will continue its interest in a strong, stable Iraq after U.S. troops leave, the president said.

"Today I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays," Obama said.

About 39,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq, and the U.S. had wanted to keep from 3,000 to 5,000 troops in Iraq past 2011 to aid in training and security. But the current Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq dictates the U.S. troops leave by year's end, and the United States and Iraq had been unable to come to an agreement on key issues regarding legal immunity for U.S. troops who would remain in Iraq, effectively ending discussion of maintaining a significant American force presence beyond 2011.

Of the 39,000 troops in Iraq, only about 150, a negligible force, will remain to assist in arms sales.

The negotiations were strained following WikiLeaks' release of a diplomatic cable that alleged Iraqi civilians, including children, were killed in a 2006 raid by American troops rather than in an airstrike as initially reported by the U.S. military.

U.S. troops have already started the drawdown - a brigade from Fort Bliss, Texas, that was originally scheduled to be among the very last to leave Iraq was being pulled out of the country months ahead of its planned departure, military officials told CNN last week.

_________________
This is my signature...

Better late than never

Coming in December 2011. You're going to Iran/Afghanistan/Pakistan/Syria/Libya!

_________________
Team Cutler.

Sounds to me like he wanted to keep them there a bit longer, but now has no choice but to bring the troops home.

To-may-to, to-mah-to.

comes a little too close to "election season" for me to buy this is as anything more than a stunt; but i'm glad they're being taken out of that ridiculous situation.

Yup. The FB statuses from Afghanistan are interesting.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Nicely done, Mr. President.

_________________
This is my signature...

not a whole lotta 'likes' i take it.

Thirteen months?

_________________
I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

Glad our people are finally coming home. Won't be long till we stick our nose somewhere else...

_________________
Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

You dont think were in election season already Sam?

There's some making the most of their time there. Others have been pretty negative. The majority of them make the whole damn country sound like a shooting/ballistics range.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

absolutely. this may be pre-season but it is still pretty important.

Would you mind some nameless sharing?

Im just interested, obviously understand if not

Even when he does something everyone can agree is a good thing......

_________________
This is my signature...

Wait until they start asking that six-headed biweekly debating monster what it thinks...

_________________
I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

A condition unique to this President only, I am quite sure. How sad. This gentleman simply does not get any benefit of the doubt.

_________________
My Mother was a witch...she was burned alive
Thankless little bitch, for the tears I cried
Take her down now, don't wanna see her face.
All blistered and burnt, can't hide my disgrace.
Am I evil? Yes. I am.

The actual election is more than a year away & "election season" started almost year ago. Should he have withdrawn troops over a year ago just to avoid suspicion (Bin Ladin says yes)? Or should he leave the troops there for another year?

When the terrorist threat level gets bumped up in concert with bad news cycles then you may be onto something.

_________________
Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.- JD Vance
If you committed violence on that day, obviously, you shouldn’t be pardoned.- JD Vance on the J-6 insurrectionists

So he's purposely going to drive up unemployment rates?

_________________

Just to clarify, I was just pointing out how wrong Telegram Sam was. I dont consider this to be any more of a political move than every other move every president has ever made.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

_________________
Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

_________________

I am withholding my support of this shoutout until I know whether he can successfully negotiate a blow job in exchange for going to Hallmark to buy ornaments.

_________________
My Mother was a witch...she was burned alive
Thankless little bitch, for the tears I cried
Take her down now, don't wanna see her face.
All blistered and burnt, can't hide my disgrace.
Am I evil? Yes. I am.

Shouldn't this be a shoutout for George Bush instead? He was the one who set this timeframe. This would kind of be like giving Barack Obama a shoutout for leaving office in 2016 when his term limit is over.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

If Axelrod is trying to get Obama re-elected based on the President's efforts in the foreign policy arena, it's a likely recipe for failure.

Bragging to your home voters about your overseas successes while unemployment at home is over 9% (and rising) and the domestic situation is circling the drain is like regaling your wife with whom you have bad sex once every 3 months with tales of your prowess with various mistresses.

The last President who thought he could coast to re-election based on his strong foreign policy efforts was a 1 term President.

And the inverse is also true, failure at foreign policy doesn't usually cost Presidents re-election (to an extent, fucking up big time in the foreign policy arena is likely to get you impeached, but unelected as well). Even W and his people thought they had screwed the pooch on WMD's and the Iraq war taking way longer than they originally promised. But then gas fell below $2 a gallon in mid-2004 and unemployment--which had spiked over 6% after 9/11--fell below 5%. The economy in 2004 was in the first stages of a boom (as specious a bubble-boom as it turned out to be) and that carried the day in 2004.

Heck, probably the greatest leader in the 20th Century in terms of foreign policy, Winston Churchill, had his ticket polled by the British voters (in a landslide) whilst he was negotiating the terms of the end of World War II at Potsdam. Unfortunately, Churchill's replacement, Clement Attlee, wasn't quite as anti-Stalin as Churchill and Stalin took over once Churchill was unseated and dictated the terms of the settlement to give Russia a ginormous buffer between Moscow and Western Europe.

This wasn't put in the politics section for a reason...

_________________
This is my signature...

Didn't want any differing opinions?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The effort was valiant Ivan.

The problem is that due to their advanced Obama Derangement Syndrome, even when things happen that everybody and their grandmother things are good, there will be every effort to spin it in a negative manor.

If this had happened under Bush 2's watch or if McCain had one, every damn one of them would be waving a flag and posting pics of Bush in his flight suit and codpiece. And they damn well know it.

But, it did.

I'm not a fan of GW Bush, but doesn't the guy who actually set the timeline deserve some credit too? If anything, both Obama and Bush 2 deserve credit.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!