CNN

For those of us like me who are not experts at military ops, and really should have no opinion of when the troops can safely be reduced so the ones who remain are safe, I look forward to most of the troops coming home. Pelosi, on the other hand is such an expert and this morning on network TV said that 20,000 was the right number. Her talents continue to dazzle me! What a moron!

The Iraq War was a sham. It's results: A destabilized Middle East. Unfortunately I feel like when we leave a power vacuum will open that will be filled with competing political and economic interests to dictate the country's future. We simply CANNOT afford to continue trying to stabilize the country though. If Georgie, JR. had been a smart kid he would have realized the lesson his father's tenure taught, that Iraq can be dominated by the American military quickly, but that the ramifications of a full-scale invasion and occupation were too costly. BUSH'S TENURE has PERMANENTLY scarred the American Economy and Middle Eastern politics.

Here we go again. All of you goofballs talking about winning and loosing. Get this through you thick heads!!! YOU CANNOT CLAIM VICTORY IN AN INSURGENT WAR!!! Why? Because you're fighting the people who live there. This is the same crap we went through in Nam. You people just don't get it!! We were victorious in WWII because we had an identifiable enemy whom we defeated. They surrendered to us, and went home. NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO SURRENDER TO US IN IRAQ OR AFGANISTAN. That's why we should never allow our government to get us involved in this kind of folly. By the way, those of you who are so gung-ho to get Osama bin Laden, there are recruiting offices in every town. Sign Up!! Put some skin in the game or
shut up.

Some may call him a lying looser, but I call him Mr. President. He has taken a look at the Iraqi situation and changed a bit but he is still working to bring them home. Exit Question: If you are beat by a lying looser what does that say for your grasp on power? Sounds like you voted agains Obama, looks like your vote did not count.

They ARE BOTH still W's wars. He had to get Saddam for trying to kill his daddy instead of getting Bin Laden for plotting to bring the US Down.

They ARE BOTH still W's wars – we have to pay for W's mistakes.

i am an army vet–1963 to 65 and I say this war is an illegal war that was caused by lies-SO GET OUT. these countries have been at war with each other until this happened–Iraq and Iran are enemies, but we have helped them come together which in texas is called STUPID.

Jon in CA = Miserable, Unhappy, Loser.............

God bless you President Obama...the makings of a great leader!

What a smart commander-in-chief! Announce to our enemies what day we are pulling out! Gee, I guess USA military planning is changing to a 'smarter' strategy?

@Jon in CA February 27th, 2009 11:33 am ET
Obama = Lying Loser!........No you are the Lying Racist Loser ..... President Obama.is a good Leader ...all you Rush Limbaugh Sheep want him to fail ...Well I got news for you with God on his side he will be successful **JON=Confussed Follower!!!

Another sad day indeed!

Not soon enough! To many politics and more dead for nothing!

victory accomplished, thanks Bush. When Obama pulls out too soon, we can blame him.

Ask Oboma what your country can do for you,not what you can do for your country !!!! Bring the war home !!!

Smoke and mirrors. He is leaving 50k there to do what. Do you think they will not be attacked and need to fight. Why does he not just state that all combat troops have been romoved and those there now are just peacekeepers. Promised fullfilled. That was easy.

We hear the loud outcries about troop drawdown, to happen forthwith, and it is quite understandable, given the ill-conceived idea of invasion of Iraq, in the first place. But, let's do it so the withdrawal is gradual but relatively more quickly, in order to appease all the parties concerned, without drawin' diabolical diatribes from the right side of the aisle.

No, JJ. W was not "right all along." He has never been right about anything and we are so blessed to have him out of office, it's a pity he couldn't have been kept out in the first place like the election would have, if it hadn't been stolen. I wish Obama could pull more troops out more quickly, but I have confidence that he is doing the best he can, given the information he now has access to. Dummy Bush ran in there and wrecked their country and built an atrmosphere to help Al Qaeda and left Iraq with a horrible horrible mess; the U.S. owes it to them to try and make sure that our departure does not further destabilize them. I think he's doing it as fast as he possibly can. Hopefully the losers who want us to stay there indefinitely will someday realize what sorry misguided bozos they are.

Go Obama Go I'm sure that the troops and their family's are glad for the hand up.

I reckon Obama just might need em' more here at home anyway.

Good news for the anti-war people, however; i don't think that leaving more than forty thousands troops in Iraq and increasing troops in Afghanistan will help reduce the cost of the Two wars at once. Let's hope this Smart president of ours Succeed i really hope he does.
God Bless the united States Of America.

Go Obama Go I'm sure the troops and their famly's will be glad for the pay raise.

Thank goodness Obama was not president in WWII. He would have announced the D-Day invasion in a radio address.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."

Translation: I don't know when I will call the troops home, it just depends on when the right timing comes along. I'm just saying this to make the hippies happy.

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN....Defund the military, fold up our tents and run home with our tails between our legs, stop those irrascible interrogations of terrorists and talk them to death. The great legacy of a community organizer playing grown up!

8 years and 900 billion to late. Thanks Bush!

I am so fed up with Republican's and their "ideas" or lack thereof. As a Democrat, I have kept my mouth shut for 28 years (most of my life) as our leaders mostly Republican throughout, have chosen to place me in social slavery. Since they prefer "capitalism", which causes higher crime and higher prices while they pay less in taxes and control my destiny; let me say sit down and shut up. Your way didn't work! Obviously, with the way the economy is sinking. You cannot blame Obama, he inherited this mess 5 wks ago, your 'good ole boys' caused our demise over a 28 year power trip. NAFTA introduced by Bill Clinton, approved by a Republican Congress. Who lost in that one? Just the American Worker. Rush Limbaugh is a loud mouth that has a drug problem, that is who you choose to solve our problems. I say we slice the USA in half, so the Democrats can live in peace in the North and the Republicans can go to hell.

I forgot, Bush was right...AGAIN! and obama was wrong...AGAIN!!!

Obama promised 16 months on the campaign trail..... NOW its 19 mo!
He keeps fudging on his word. Can we trust or believe anything he says???

Next catastrophe will be the HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY. People w/o jobs can't afford it. Health Ins. Agencies will close up shop.

Then it'll be a Job market catastrophe... Obama wants everyone to have a college education and says HE will pay for it. (Probably because his wife got a free ride for hers!) If we are a nation of PhD's, the competition will be fierce, as there won't be enough jobs. PhD's will be picking up garbage for a paycheck.

Obama hasn't really thought these things out.

who's the idiot who said promise fulfulled?? Oh, that would be @Kevin St Pete, FL

Casue as we all know, this is another broken campaign promise. Obama is showing he is an inexperienced idiot and finding making promises is a lot harder than fulfilling promises.

And please don't come back with "...and GWB did this.." You sound like a 5 year old.

As far as I am concerned, with only a 3 month difference than what she said on the campaign trail, President Obama has kept his word with ending this war. Thank you Mr. President!

FINALLY!!! The troops deserve to come home and have served well over enough time. What got accomplished in Iraq, because I surely don't know? These troops consist of real people and I'm so glad they get to come home. No more lives need to be lost. Thank you Obama for keeping your word!

If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are AGAINST it, then it must be a GREAT plan !!!!

How pissed will the parent of the child who dies on August 30, 2010 be? We need to get out of the war but dont publically announce the date. Just hold a suprise press conference one day and say "He folks we are out of Iraq"

Jeez, it seems like all the idiot comments on here from smog headed Californians...
You people have no idea the information this man is getting that may or may not require him to adjust the time table that brings our troops home. Yes, they should be back now and should never have been sent to begin with, but this is quite a mess that he has to sort out and as long as he brings them home as soon as responsibly possible, then I say job well done.
And to those who WILL NOT LET THE MAN DO HIS JOB... It took the last administration 8 years to cause the damage our country now has to deal with. Why all the nay saying in his first TWO MONTHS.
Congress had better get their ACTS (Dem/Rep) together and look at the WHOLE picture. Why are we paying these NIMRODS to have no clue how to fix the mess THEY created? The president can't fix it all by himself. I don't see congress offering any feasible/reasonable alternatives.
Why didn't you people listen to Ron Paul? A Republican I TRULY respect. (mus be his Libertarian roots)

What's going to happen to the vets who return home and have no full time paying job? The reserve and guard personnel who have lost jobs while deployed ? Wow this is really going to impact the economy in a negative way putting a strain out.

pull them out of afgabistan also and close our borders and ship all illegals and non-citizens back to their own contries...love it or leave it

End the combat in Iraq and send more troops in Afghanistan. No matter what is war is not going to be over soon. Obama still has to learn a lot. W must be laughing at decisions made by Obama. We will see a new president after four years.

TO: DavidinCA February 27th, 2009 10:45 am ET

It would be appropriate for George Bush to be a part of that announcement since it was under his strong leadership that the US military succeeded in their job to make this possible.

Yeah Right. Mission Accomplished. Give me a break. $10 Bill a month that could have been helping us here at home, 4,000+ dead americans and how many more Iraqis? It would be appropriate for Bush to be put in prison for starting a war based on LIES. Where are those WMD??

A quote from another article today – just some perspective
"The remaining troops would be gradually withdrawn until all U.S. forces are out of Iraq by December 31, 2011 - the deadline set under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year." there had to be some sort of plan put in pplace because of this agreement, not just because of campaign promises. It's easy to promise and deliver on something someone else negociated.

"Oh great. The terrorists will be happy to know this date. How asinine."

So? They already know that the Bush Administration signed the treaty to be completely out by Dec 31, 2011. This is the date of removal of combat toops (not support troops, like supply, transport, etc).

Obama talks – the markets tank. We're hovering just above 7000 and about to break through floor into 6000 territory.

By the time this socialist, Obama, is done – he'll have the market at the levels during FDR's Presidency.

Thanks, Chief. Now let's end all wars for all time.

@ "t" "He keeping his word "

I am happy some troops are finally coming home from this ridculous war. At the same time Obama needs to take responsibility for the fact that he made a wild promise that he could not keep. 19 months is not 16 and 50,000 is not zero. He's a smart ivy league lawyer – he knew better.

And I haven't seen the troops yet. Maybe it will be more than 19 months. The remaining 50,000 to pay back the Big Oil lobby-like donors is very troubling.

Obama said we will remove them from Iraq, but he didnt mention he would be sending them to Afganistan and the horn of Africa!

JON n CA – you forgot something – I will bring our troops home "according to conditions on the ground". You also forgot what a true Lying looser looks like – he has graying hair, a goofy look and dances like a leprechaun and goes by the name Bush.

Annouce "mission over" and leave 50,000 in peacekeepers on the ground. History repeats.

Great. Announce the end of the war and it's over. Just like that. What a naive imbecile. Our enemies around the world are loving this. Oh, that's right, the only reason we have enemies is because of Bush. Everything is his fault.

It seems like almost every announcement is a ceremony. I'm not complaining but just acknowledging the pomp. ITS GREAT.

Lets pull ALL of our troops from both wars. Then they can murder each other instead of Americans!!!! DEM's would blame Bush!

Jon in CA , February 27th, 2009 11:33 am ET SAID:

2008 Campaign trail:
"All we're doing is raiding villages and killing innocent civilians"

2008 Debates:
"I will bring ALL our troops home within 16 months"

2009:
"I will bring home the troops within 19 months"

2009 (PS):
"Well…we're going to leave 50,000 in Iraq and send 50,000 more to Afghanistan"
==================================================================

Thanks for reposting past history. Many folks forgot what he said about raiding villages and killing innocent civilians. I guess it doesn't apply to when he gets in office huh? Now where have I heard this before? Hmmm...........

Does this mean that we will have finally conquered the axis of evil?

Thank God, finally the ridiculous costly war can finally come to an end!

Translation: The "end" of the Iraq war will see only a 65% reduction in troop levels. Regardless of whether or not we say our combat operations are ending, the remaining 50,000 troops will be left in combat conditions without the manpower necessary to deal with it.

In the meantime, Obama intends to shift to a new offensive in Afghanistan before Iraq is secure.

I don't care if there was WMD or there wasn't. I don't care if there were terrorists before the war or there wasn't. They are there now, so why don't we fight them there?

Finish the job Mr. President. It's within our grasp. I can't bear the thought of looking at another wall listing the names of my brothers who died for nothing because politicians, not soldiers, refused to commit to victory.

Perhaps our troops would be of better use on our Mexican border stopping the drug smugglers from killing at will.

Leaving 50,000 US troops in Iraq is hardly keeping his promise to pull all US troops out. This is barely less than half that is there now! Does not sound like and end to the combat mission to me.

I've been thinking that this war was a cover up for something else??????????

You can't put a date on something like this...the situation will most likely change and we will still be there...

Mark my words, this is going to be a tremendous mistake on his administration...

2008 Campaign trail:
"All we're doing is raiding villages and killing innocent civilians"

2008 Debates:
"I will bring ALL our troops home within 16 months"

2009:
"I will bring home the troops within 19 months"

2009 (PS):
"Well...we're going to leave 50,000 in Iraq and send 50,000 more to Afghanistan"

Obama = Lying Loser!

I am sorry that Bush left such a mess for the next President

I am not an Obama supporter, but I wish Obama the best success, no one should have been shouldered with what that irresponsible team of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzalous, Rice and the rest of the trash team left

what a nightmare they were

Please key in on the phrase "combat mission". The follow on role will be that of peacekeeper...just like Korea.

No surprise. This is one of the items his campaign was based upon. Is it a smart move? Perhaps. Do we need to keep a presence there. I say yes, albeit an advisory role.

Recent Obama Administration announcements:

1. Most troops out in 21 months, depending on conditions on the ground.
2. 50,000 troops to stay in Iraq for the long-term, maybe indefinitely.
3. 17,000 troop surge into Afghanistan
4. Terror detainees do not have constitutional rights
5. Step up drone attacks in pakistan
6. Strong positions against Iran and North Korea
7. Review of Guantanimo shows it does meant the Geneva Convention standards.

I agree with all of these announcements, how does this make Obama different from McCain or Bush? Campaign rhetoric meets the practicalities of governing. Good luck Obama.

1. Make sure to let the enemy know
2. I saw this on a banner somewhere before

Acceptable. Well done, President Obama. Another promise fulfilled.

NOW GET BIN LADEN!!!!!!!

Nothing wrong with getting out of Iraq or the Mid East. For those of you too young or forgetful to remember, it was LBJ who listened to the DOD and the bad reports from the Gulf of Tonkin that got us deeper involved in Viet Nam. We can't be the world's police department anymore.

Great, how long will our remaned mission be there. Barrack promised the troops out. And no LIBs, it does not matter that the Republicans put them there at all!! He promised them ALL out and got elected in part on that promise. If he doesn't do it, it shows once again that he is either a liar, or not competent enough to do his job!

NOT SOON ENOUGH. BRING THEM HOME NOW.

How can we stop Russians from supplying weapons to Taliban to fight our troops in Afghanistan?

Probably Russians want to revenge, US supplying weapons to Taliban in the 1980s to fight Russian troops.

What is a combat troop? Some one with a gun?? Mean looking military dude??? Marines????

From a winnable war in Iraq to a war that is unwinnable in Afghanistan....I am very surprised that the ant-war left is so silent about Obama's war.

It would be appropriate for George Bush to be a part of that announcement since it was under his strong leadership that the US military succeeded in their job to make this possible.

bring the boys home, let the Iraq people sort this out, it may not end up a 'shining beacon on a hill' but it will be theirs, and our boys will be out of a civil war

Oh great. The terrorists will be happy to know this date. How asinine.

THANK GOD, IT'S TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.

I would say this is yet another over-zealous announcement that will not hold up until it happens!

So I guess W was right all along..............

My President, George Bush has already worked out the diplomatic nuances and foundation for a pull out of Troops from Iraq. Just go back and play the tapes where the United States has been in a phase-down mode since negotiations between Iraq and the U.S.
Obama should not draw a date/line in the sand. He is putting himself upon a pedestal, and putting our troops in harms way, by being unwilling to even consider what circumstances on the ground might require. I am trying to sleep through this Presidency... so please wake me when its all over.

I guess that man just have to have his time of TV every day? Not just a rock star, but a TV star, too?

I know he is The Messiah.....but how can he know what the situation on the ground be on that date??.................what a foolish thing to say

Leave 50,000 troops.... so more empty campaign promises to the kool-aid drinkers.. Are you going to wake up yet????

AMEN!!!!

Imagine how much money we'll save when we're not pouring it into the sand.

and here comes the GOPer soul train, choo-choing about broken promises in an attempt to stir up resentment...

Combat mission will end? What about non-combat troops staying there for maybe up to 100 years? How much money will it cost to sustain troops there and fund "reconstruction"programs at US tax payer expence? How about additional costs for additional troops and projects in Afghanistan? I voted to boot the Republicans out in 2008 but what a bunch of losers we have screwing thing up in their stead.

TOO LATE!
GET THEM OUT NOW!
AFGHANISTAN TOO!
GERMANY TOO!
S. KOREA TOO!

President Obama VOWED during campaign to get troops out earlier than what he is saying now , please don't fill the American people with untruths like the last administration did.

So, Obama is going to leave 50,000 troops in Iraq-–who cares-it was only a stupid campaign promise to withdraw that he knew all you suckers out there would fall for.

Just not how I promised everyone in my campaign.

I hope pans out better than the Nancy and Harry promise of the same tone two years ago during the midterm elections.

He keeping his word and that;s a good thing

August 2009 would make more sense.

Obama caves into cry babies!! That should be the headline!!

Got it. Begin operations on September 1, 2010. Thanks.

Thank you Mr. Prseident. It's about time this war ended. The Iraqis can govern themselves. If they want to destroy their country, so be it. But we need to get out of there.

If I was a terrorist, I'd now be making some very glorious plans for September 1, 2010. Thank you, Obama. You are doing just what Jihad wants.