Government Urges President to Expunge Criminal Records of Convicted Jewish Dissidents
President Obama told top leaders in Congress on Thursday that he will end combat operations in Iraq on Aug. 31, 2010, putting a halt to all U.S.-led counterinsurgency efforts and transitioning the mission in Iraq to training, advising and engaging in limited counter-terrorist operations, congressional sources tell FOX News.
The president is expected to deliver a speech Friday at the Marine base in Camp Lejeune, N.C, in which he will order an immediate drawdown of the 142,000 Marines and Army personnel in Iraq. He has set a goal of reducing the U.S. military footprint in Iraq to no fewer than 35,000 and no more than 50,000 personnel after that date, congressional leaders were told.
The president met at the White House with top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, as well as the leaders of the National Security and Foreign Policy committees to explain his decision.
The president told lawmakers troops that remain in Iraq after Aug. 31, 2010, will carry out new missions and will be trained and organized in a way that de-emphasizes combat-readiness and intensifies the focus on these three missions:
*Train, equip and advise Iraqi security forces
*Support civilian operations in Iraq aimed at reconstruction, redevelopment and political reconciliation
*Conduct targeted counter-terrorism missions.
The president told lawmakers the plan, which ends combat operations 19 months after he was sworn in as president, represented the consensus advice he received from Defense Secretary Robert Gates; the Joints Chiefs of Staff; Army Gen. Ray Ordierno, the top military commander in Iraq, and Gen. David Petaeus, head of U.S. Central Command.
The meeting comes after leaders of both parties raised concerns about Obama’s intention to leave up to 50,000 troops in Iraq after combat operations cease.
“I have been one who has called for significant cutbacks in Iraq for some time. And I am happy to listen to the secretary of defense, the president, but when they talk about 50,000, that’s a little higher number than I had anticipated,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters before heading into the meeting with the president.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the meeting reassured Reid and other Democratic leaders who were surprised that the number was so high.
(Source: Fox News)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
He is either living in fantasy land or he gets his foreign policy advice and defense spending knowledge from Sasha and Malia.
He is EVIL!
All the enemies of the USA are very happy and they are waiting for 8/31/10 so they could regroup and “hit the ground running.”
WAIT!?!?! Didnt der rusha obama use that quote over and over during and after the campaign? Maybe thats what he
This makes sense and was the implied goal of the Bush administration except their goal had no timeline. Iraq is as democratic as it will ever be while Al Qaeda is festering more and more in Afghanistan.
We have to be careful that we dont stagnate because the policies we bind ourselves to have more to do with securing a self-righteous stance rather than moving to a conclusion that is workable, if not perfect.
He set a date for withdrawing American forces. The Iraqis can have their civil war for as long as they want – that is their minhag.
Considering we defeated al Quaeda, and installed an Iraq government so strong it feels confident to ask us to leave, it does appear we won (based on the goals that we set when the invasion of Iraq started).
Perhaps the biggest failure of the Bush presidency, even more than destroying the economy, was winning a major war with minimal casulties, and not even realizing it.