White House Hails Iraq Troop Withdrawal But Won't Claim Victory

The White House hailed on Tuesday the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops out of Iraq's cities but declined to qualify the benchmark as a victory, or even a success, in the six-year-long war.

"I will keep the banner printers from doing anything crazy," said spokesman Robert Gibbs, in reference to the infamous "Mission Accomplished" sign that adorned the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln during George W. Bush's 2003 combat flight stunt. "The way we look at this is, there is progress that is being made. Obviously the security situation has improved. I think President Obama talked about that throughout last year. And again, I think we are taking important steps on two fronts: our ability to get our own combat troops home, but also our ability to give the sovereign nation of Iraq more control and responsibility."

Gibbs hinted that a spike in violence could very well accompany the withdrawal of U.S. forces. "Despite whatever happens today," he said, "this situation bears constant monitoring. Because there may be rough patches ahead. We understand that. There are important elections that will happen over the course of this year and important steps that have to be taken on the path of reconciliation."

On Tuesday, United States forces pulled out the remaining combat troops from Iraq's cities, marking an important benchmark in a withdrawal strategy that had been negotiated between the two countries. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops will remain. But commanders on the ground say that the pieces have been put in place to continue the drawdown through the course of the next year. All combat troops are due out by August 31, 2010, and the Status of Forces Agreement aims for a final withdrawal by December 2011.

Asked if President Bush's surge policy was to credit for facilitating Tuesday's accomplishment, Gibbs drew a distinction between security improvements on the ground and political progress among Iraq's governing factions.

"The president would say, obviously increasing the number of troops in that country improved the security situation," he said. "But the surge was to improve the security situation so that the political reconciliation could take place. So while the security situation has improved, we still have a lot of work to do on the political side of this equation."

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[MacQ]

A great milestone for Iraqi's, thanks to our military men and women, and President Bush who had the fortitude to make it so.
I doubt Mr. Biden, Mr. Obama or Mr. Reid will be much revered by them in their history books--just 3 who tried to undo the whole thing.

[northstardjn]

Iraq is still tribal. Violence will escalate in the cities until a civil war breaks out, again.

The Sunni and Shia have over 1000 years of hatred and distrust to get past. That ain't gonna happen. The Kurds still want Kurdistan. The Shia want Iran II, and the Sunni want Sunnistan.

Iffen I was al SAdr, or al Keida, or any other group, I would wait until the US troops leave, if they do, and then commence to fighten'. We'll know how this all turns out in about 3-4 years. Right now any comments about "victory" are, at best, premature.

Give it a rest, folks. I personally am pessimistic, but only time will tell, not pundits or party hacks.

[aznurse]

I heard that today the oil contracts were being auctioned off . It's the first time in 40 something years that that has been done in Iraq. So the oil companies were all there trying to get in on the action.
I heard about it in the radio this morning, but nothing in the news. If it's true then:
Mission Accomplished.

[MacQ]

The fact that Iraqi's will now profit from their oil is a good thing.
It will certainly be ignored by our lefties who thought we (the bad guys) were going to just somehow take it away from them. I am certain they will be silent on that. Or if an American oil company happens to win a bid to develop, they'll try to say we're stealing their oil.
I shouldn't prejudge the ignorance, but wait and see.

[baddadd49]

this is just more proof the libs never supported the military and never will.

[sviolette]

Get a life. Stop your whining.

[aznurse]

so only republicans are in the service? Only republicans have served in the military? I guess the pay raises and scholarships only occured when republicans were in office.

[bowthai]

How is this proof that liberals never supported the military? First of all, Gibbs noted that there has been both progress and improvement, attributable to the Iraqis and the troops. Second, are you implying that the president needs to trumpet 'victory' just to keep the military happy? Give our servicemen and women more credit. They can do their job without the help of tacky banners and presidential grandstanding to stroke their egos, and this president knows it. By keeping the transition low key, he's minimizing the tension that inevitably comes from our presence in the region, thus siphoning off some support for the extremism that endangers our troops.

[dieselis]

iraqi's have a chance to form a democracy. bush i belive reinstalled big oil in iraq late in his second term. so bush's main objective was meant. i wonder if al sadr will return to run for prez. bush paid him a third of a billion dollars to ask his troops to stand down and fight with us. perhaps he will just set up some puppets to do his bidding.

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Today is a day of celebration.

Ex-President Bush should be very proud tonight!

[USA2Sense]

Very sad to say - it was all a wasted effort - of lives, resources, time and money....Iraq always has been and always will exist in a tribal mentality - with no respect for human life! It's been a truth in that area for over 3000 years - what makes you think the U.S. can change that kind of brutality!

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Wow, why so negative. This is going to be a good sign to those in Iran that want independence from the Mullahs. Tonight, it will be what happens in Iraq that gives those Iranian protestors hope.

[MacQ]

Why so negative? Because this must be very disturbing for liberals.
(Agree with you, by the way)

[tnkeating]

If this true why do you think Iranians are in the streets now fighting for there freedom. Democracy is a living organism and it spreads from human to human much like a virus. What we have done in Iraq is to deliver these people from thr tribal mentality of which you speak, now its up to the Iraqis. It took our own country ten years from the time of our declaration of Independence to the time we had our Constitution, I hardly see how the Iraqis can do it any quicker. If any change of mentality occures, it has to come from the Iraqis, this has always been a given. When the people fear its government, that tyranny, When the government fears the people, thats liberty. To the men and women of our military, I say thankyou, it could not have been done, if not for you. God bless America

[MacQ]

Well said.

[TruthmongerII]

This is great news! I'm marking my calendar to count the days before the collapse of Iraq and the emergence of a fundamentalist sunni dictator/mullah. I saw this rerun in 1975 when Saigon collapsed. Another glorious victory for the American Reich!

[4evryoung]

That's because "victory" was never a possibility.

[GoldenAgeMaster]

This is considered a victory, so I don't know where you are getting you're info from.

[larry278]

Try using your favorite search engine, GoldenAgeMaster. You'll see where 4everyoung, et al found their information.

[sviolette]

There is a difference between victory and disgrace. This is no victory. Torture took of that.

[MacQ]

The Iraqi's who were rich and doing well under saddam, maybe not so much a "victory".
But I'm sure that many Iraqi's consider it a victory that their wives and sisters aren't being dragged off to Saddam's rape rooms anymore, and that they don't see their relatives go into buildings and never come out again (those ones with the hooks hanging from the ceilings).

[sviolette]

Only Bush would claim victory while sitting in the jaws of defeat.

[kgb999]

Well, it was technically a MSM reporter not a Bush person. Hard to tell the difference these days for sure.

[expired]

NaNa NaaNa NaNaNa Na hey hey hey, good bye

[dogisgreat]

Keep marching, Yankee, Keep marching.

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Spoken like a true Comrade!

[Coinyer101]

There can be no 'victory' in Iraq, period. It was a failure from the start and it was illegal even before that, because wa r crimes were committed by the Bush Administration to justify the invasion in the first place. Do your job, Holder! ....,

[publicenemy2009]

Triple fanned!

[GoldenAgeMaster]

Geeesh, we have acheived a victory whether you want to accept it or not. We won, the bad guys lost, and 25 million people can taste freedom. Sounds like a victory to me.

[sviolette]

We are the bad guys fool. When your government resorts to torture you lose. There can be no pride when it comes to torture. It is wrong for you to condone the war criminals' acts.

It may sound like victory to you but it smells like defeat to me.

You forget about all of the Iraqi civilians that were murdered? Their homes blown to bits? The millions of refugees? Those were the people Bush said we were going to help.

[poguewarrior]

The surge worked. Bush was right to stay the course. Obama was wrong to call for immediate withdrawl in '06. Reid was wrong to say the war was lost in '06.

Don't get me wrong. We should have never invaded. But we did, so we have a responsibility to not leave Iraq until they can take care of their own security.

Moving out of the cities is a very good thing. Victory in Iraq is getting out with a stable government in place. We are almost there.

[Coinyer101]

You are seriously deluded, dude. Try weed. Expand yer thought process. Your narrow view of facts is worth ignoring completely, but, I feel you need help....,

[poguewarrior]

I served to tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. I know a little bit about Iraq.

[weatherwaxx]

As long as the US was in there full force, the situation would never stabilize. You can't heal a wound until you remove the object that created the damage.

[IWantTofu]

You're right that Bush was right and everyone else was wrong. Under Obama our military has achieved all of our objectives, and are coming home (with date pretty certain). There shouldn't be finger pointing. Obama promises not to claim Bush's victory, and Bush's I told you so. Now, let's finish the war against the guys that attacked us on 9/11 on the Afghanista­n/Pakistan border (the Cambodia to your Viet Nam?)

[doubtingdavid]

A great victory for Obama and the libs. The troops are leaving Iraq. Oh yae Bush actually negotiated that with drawl last year. funny how that works.

[Coinyer101]

When 1-2 brigades /month, or more, are actually being withdrawn from the country, I will get giddy.

[kgb999]

Exactly. Everyone's all calling this a "withdrawal" - it's a minor redeployment to different bases.

But I'm happy to see a concrete first step. Actually, I was most happy to see that rally and the fireworks so well attended and to go off safely. That's cool ... it's been a while since they've had anything like a celebration.