Reply #23: Obama: 'Our commitment in Iraq is changing' [View All]

[JonLP24]

President Obama outlined the end of combat operations in Iraq this month, and told a veterans group that the troops who fought there should be honored despite the many political disputes surrounding the seven-year war.

"As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end," Obama told the Disabled Veterans of America Conference. "I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America's combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing -- as promised and on schedule."

Obama, who had opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a distraction from the concurrent war in Afghanistan, told the crowd that by the end of this month, more than 90,000 troops will have been brought home from Iraq since he took office in January of 2009.

The president also defended his Afghanistan policy amid rising criticism of that war in the face of higher casualties, including increased opposition from congressional Democrats.

"Let us never forget," Obama said, "it was Afghanistan where al Qaeda plotted and trained to murder 3,000 innocent people on 9/11."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/08/obama-our-commitment-in-iraq-is-changing/1