Obama Announces Complete Iraq Drawdown
"I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays."
| Posted Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, at 1:05 PM ET
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
President Obama announced Friday that a completed drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq will be complete by the end of the year.
“After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” the president said in a short statement from the White House press room.
He added: "Today, I can say that our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays."
The announcement came after the president held a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss the matter, and Obama said that the two were "in full agreement about how to move forward."
Since the war began more than 1 million Americans have served in Iraq, more than 4,000 troops have died, and more thans 32,000 have been injured. There are roughly 39,000 troops currently in Iraq, ABC News reports.
An agreement signed by Iraq and the U.S. during the Bush administration called for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops by Dec. 31, 2011 – but the document also left the door open for further talks that could postpone the end date.
Obama had come under increasing pressure from a bipartisan swath of congressional lawmakers to have the U.S. troops out by the end of the year.
