Obama's Iraq Speech Slated for Feb. 27

Update 2-27: Watch the speech here. 

Obama will give the speech in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune.

IHT: President Barack Obama will deliver an address on Friday on "the way forward" in Iraq, officials said, in which he is widely expected to announce steps to begin pulling out U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

"We're keeping a campaign commitment," Vice President Joe Biden told NBC television in an interview on Wednesday when asked the substance of Obama's address at Camp Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in North Carolina.

Obama Expected to Announce Iraq Troop Withdrawal This Week

AP: The United States will withdraw most of its troops from Iraq by August 2010, 19 months after President Barack Obama's inauguration day, according to administration officials who expect Obama to make the announcement this week.

The withdrawal plan would fulfill one of Obama's central campaign pledges, albeit a little more slowly than he promised. He said he would withdraw troops within 16 months, roughly one brigade a month from the time of his inauguration.

The U.S. military would leave behind a residual force, between 30,000 and 50,000 troops, to continue advising and training Iraqi security forces. Also staying beyond the 19 months would be intelligence and surveillance specialists and their equipment, including unmanned aircraft, according to two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.

A further withdrawal would take place before December 2011, when the U.S. has already agreed with Iraq that it would remove all American troops.

A senior White House official said Tuesday that Obama is at least a day away from making a final decision. He further said an announcement on Wednesday was unlikely, but Obama could discuss Iraq during a trip to North Carolina on Friday.

Iraqis Vote for US Troop Withdrawal By 2011

NPR: The Iraqi cabinet voted Sunday to approve a new pact that calls for the U.S. military to withdraw from Iraq by 2011.

After nearly a year of hard-bargaining with U.S. negotiators, the Iraqi government voted to approve a draft agreement for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq within the next three years.

Obama on Bush's "Return on Success"

Obama's remarks today: 

Good morning. I’d like to comment on the President’s speech. First, let me acknowledge the extraordinary and courageous work that our troops have done in both Iraq and Afghanistan. They have performed brilliantly under extremely difficult circumstances.
Today, President Bush announced very modest troop redeployments from Iraq. Meanwhile, we will continue to keep nearly 140,000 troops in Iraq while our military is overstretched, which is still at pre-surge levels. We will continue to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a $79 billion surplus. In the absence of a timetable to remove our combat brigades, we will continue to give Iraq’s leaders a blank check instead of pressing them to reconcile their differences. So the President’s talk of “return on success” is a new name for continuing the same strategic mistake that has dominated our foreign policy for over 5 years.

President Bush also announced additional troops for Afghanistan. I am glad that the President is moving in the direction of the policy that I have advocated for years. But the most substantial increase will come when an additional Army brigade is deployed five months from now – in February, after the President has left office. His plan comes up short – it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency.

What President Bush and Senator McCain don’t understand is that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was – the central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks seven years later. Today, the Taliban is on the offensive, al Qaeda has a new sanctuary, and its leaders are putting out videotapes. Yet under President Bush’s plan, we still have nearly four times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan, and we have no comprehensive plan to deal with the al Qaeda sanctuary in northwest Pakistan.

Now, the choice for the American people could not be clearer. John McCain has been talking a lot about change, but he’s running for four more years of the same foreign policy that we’ve had under George Bush. Senator McCain will continue the overwhelming focus on Iraq that has taken our eye off of the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. And Senator McCain goes even further than President Bush in opposing the sovereign Iraqi government’s own support for a timetable to redeploy our troops, and he has no plan to press the Iraqis to reconcile.

It’s time to change our foreign policy. I will succeed in Iraq by responsibly removing our combat brigades and pressing Iraqis to stand up for their future. I will rebuild our military. I will finally have a comprehensive strategy to finish the job in Afghanistan – with more troops, more training for Afghan security forces, more development resources, more anti-corruption safeguards, and more of a focus on eliminating the Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuary along the Pakistan border. And I will stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq so that we can invest in our economy here at home.

Last week, we heard a lot of tough talk in St. Paul, but we didn’t hear much about the Bush-McCain record. Because seven years after 9/11, we are still fighting a war without end in Iraq and we still haven’t taken out the terrorists responsible for 9/11. We heard no explanation for why Osama bin Laden is still at large, because that’s where George Bush and John McCain’s judgment has gotten us. President Bush’s speech today underscored that we cannot afford more of the same.

Bush to Pull Iraq Troops for Afghanistan

All of a sudden it's possible to have a withdrawal timetable because of the growing need in Afghanistan. How slow is this president. Necessity breeds possibilities.

NYT: The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago.

Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007.

One factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there.