Obama Iraq Announcement: President's Troop Withdrawal Plan Prompts Outpouring Of Political Reaction (PHOTOS)

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year.

"As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end," Obama said in an announcement from the White House. "So today I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year."

"After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," he said. "Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays."

HuffPost's Jen Bendery and Joshua Hersh report:

There are currently 41,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, virtually all of whom will be pulled by December 31, 2011. The White House announced that 4,000 to 5,000 security contractors would remain in the country in various posts. At the height of U.S. involvement in 2006, there were 170,000 soldiers on the ground.

Obama said the end of U.S. involvement in Iraq reflects a larger transition away from "the tide of war." He referenced the fact that troops are beginning to return home from Afghanistan and said that trend will only continue as the U.S. refocuses on its needs at home.

The president's decision to adhere to a withdrawal deadline set by the Bush administration in 2008 spurred a variety of responses from within the political community.

Take a look at the reactions below and vote on the best:

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Comments

[Reba Latimer]

03:34 PM on 10/26/2011

it is hard for me to believe people have forgot that Bush started the Iraq war and left America in
the mess we are in now.it takes a lot of nerve for Republicans to blaime Obama ! do they really
think we want them to run our country again ? If they don't like Obama,the Dems should find
some one else to run for president.rember the old saying-fool me once,shame on you,fool me
twice shame on me.

[donk970]

12:46 PM on 10/26/2011

Iraq is ungovernable in the absence of a tyrant. It really doesn't matter how long we stay; we removed the tyrant and once we are gone Iraq will be in a complete state of chaos until a new tyrant comes along. O is doing the right thing - should have done it as soon as he took office but better late than never.

[sociocanuck]

11:59 AM on 10/25/2011

Okay, so I only went through the first half of the slides, but in that first half the praise or opposition seemed to be completely partisan, with only Boehner as an exception - via a clearly still politically-motivated purposely-ambilvalent statement that might as well have been partisan too.

I despair for the state of political discourse in America. And I despair, in advance, of the near inevitable subset of comment replies that will perpetuate or at least congratulate the division-for-the-sake-of-division.

[Robert Bobby Rouge]

01:46 AM on 10/23/2011

Dear Fellow Taxpayers,
As you may have heard by now, our "Commander & Chief" has made the announcement about finally ending the war in Iraq.
That was if you recall, one of his campaign promises, within a projected time-line that would not jeopardize national security.

However, if you listen to the video, the President also mentioned that about 80,000 troops in Afghanistan will also be reduced over a strategic time period.

Any President that makes strategic decisions of this magnitude, automatically becomes vulnerable to receiving blame, should something (God Forbid), reverse itself in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Be assured, soon we will be getting contradictory opinions and condemnations for the President's actions, by the same school of allies that incited the wars in the first place.

Remember, we will be spending an estimated FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS since it began.
The final bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project "Costs of War" by Brown University­'s Watson Institute for Internatio­nal Studies. (www.costso­fwar.org)”

I congradulate MoveOn.org for their dedication to get us out of Iraq, an invasion that will be an eternal black mark on our U. S. history annals.

In summation, we all need to look at the last 10 years of our history and ask ourselves - Do we really want to elect a leadership that provokes wars and confrontations , or do we want to keep a Peacemaker for the next 4 years?

[nick12788]

03:38 AM on 10/23/2011

Excellent point! F&F

[gina victoria]

07:44 PM on 10/22/2011

every time i say something about trhat uk in bo they remove it !!!

[gina victoria]

07:30 PM on 10/22/2011

i hate 2 see whats forth comin 2 America w/ barry havin 13 more looooooooooooooooooooooong months in office !!! its frightful not knowin . also all these soilders comin home 2 this major mess of no jobs ...whats is goin 2 happen ?! yea barry sure made a major mess of America !!!

[louistruj]

09:03 AM on 10/23/2011

Savings their life's is more human. They are still employed. they get to see their family and love ones. where's your common sense?

[time2talk]

12:31 AM on 10/24/2011

How in the world could you figure out what she said?

[romil]

05:43 PM on 10/22/2011

Thank god that mc cain wasn't elected. He'd have us fighting whatever enemy decided to go to Iraq to practice on the US military. We'd be sitting ducks until the people came to their senses and voted the p-head out of office.

[time2talk]

12:33 AM on 10/24/2011

He seemed to be mentally deteriorating when he was running for president. He's progressively gotten worse.

[donk970]

12:51 PM on 10/26/2011

I am convinced that McCain threw the election. As soon as the whole economy crashed he realized that whoever won the election was going to be blamed for 30 years of mismanagement. So he chose Sara as his running mate knowing that she would be certain death to his campaign.

[cocoagoddess81]

02:58 PM on 10/22/2011

Interesting to read the comments on this board. I could not understand why anyone would be against bringing our troops back home. The soldiers I have talked to about this have had enough and are confident that our commander in chief has done the right thing.

When those soldiers come back with PTSD and all kinds of issues, I'm sure they'll be happy to know some of their fellow Americans hate the president so badly they were willing to leave them there to vanquish.

[rw302361]

02:17 PM on 10/22/2011

the whole GOP party is down on 10 count and the DEMS and INDP. LIKE SEN. from CONN. need to go with the evil perveted Republican war mongers greedy self serving cheating lieing DOGS that they are FOX included and KOCH BROS. need to spend their nice life in MAX PRISON

[bayoulivn]

01:59 PM on 10/22/2011

We invaded a country under a lie, ask [COLIN POWELL] killed their leader for open market on his oil, spent the wealth of america people,their kids, an their kids that are not even born yet. But still we have small minded people that believe[ G.W.B.] was right to invade. Truth be know is that IRAQ had its own currency backed by oil, not by the american dollar as it is today. America should wake up an read between the lines.

[DocBlake]

12:27 PM on 10/22/2011

If any of you on the right still believe that the War in Iraq was waged as a response to 9/11, to rid Saddam of WMD or to promote democracy in the country, please seek professional help!. The Usual suspects on the right were agitating for war during the Clinton adminstration. Please read this letter, dated 3 1/2 yerars prior to 9/11:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

Now that the adults are back in charge, the maddness is about to end.

[clark8642]

12:40 PM on 10/22/2011

Actually there may be other factors, in addition to oil, for which WMD and 9/11 and subsequently democracy were convenient covers. George Tenet's book (At the Center of the Storm) on his time running the CIA makes some interesting points about pre-war discussions in the Bush White House.

[mastheader1]

05:30 PM on 10/22/2011

To what ? kill kaddfy ,or bin laden or other alquida ? What is your point lojerkneck

[clark8642]

12:07 PM on 10/22/2011

To those who think we should stay in Iraq I respectfully disagree. We all have opinions and mine is that we should leave. (Actually, without a status of forces agreement staying is not an option.) Still, this misses a MUCH bigger problem. The inability of the Congressional supercommittee to come to agreement on a plan to cut the projected deficit portends massive cuts in defense. That may or may not be a good thing but at least our politicians should be discussing it and the ramifications of such cuts.

[DocBlake]

11:54 AM on 10/22/2011

THIS JUST IN!!! Joint Statement of republikan leaders regarding the end of US involvement in Iraq:

We the undersigned republikans vigorously object to President Obama's premature ending of US involvement in Iraq. 9 years of war are nowhere near enough, and the President's lack of leadership will prevent us from losing another 5000 soldiers killed and spending another $1trillion which we do not have and will have to borrow from the Chinese. Plus, we all hate peace! "Four more years?" Hell yes, four more years! Of War. At least!

Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Rick Perry

[mrtimmaulden]

12:02 PM on 10/22/2011

fanned for that

[louistruj]

09:18 AM on 10/23/2011

The true of the matter is that the Republican administration cost us Trillions with the war but worse had thousands of our soldiers die for a needless cause. Their was a move to impeach Geo Bush because he was wrong stariing a war on accusing Iraq on "on Weapons of Mass Destructions. In reality who made the money on all those expenditures on Hi-tech weapons to fight the Iraquis which ended up with the death of Soldiers,men ,women and children of over a million which is on record attributed to Bush's War.

[Rminuteman]

11:39 AM on 10/22/2011

When we invade a Country to liberate it from a Tyrant like Saddam Hussien, America should call ALL the shots. We have spent scores of our young troops lives and tens of billions of dollars to free those people from oppression, and yet Obama is allowing their new government to dictate how they will treat our troops on the ground...Is Obama so weak kneed that he cannot negotiate a better deal than having that country prosecute our G.I.s for some alleged crime? With Hillary as our Secretary of State, and the Muslims relationship to women as second class citizens, maybe Obama should have used a tough negotiator instead of Hillary as his spokesperson. It is sad to see Obama caving-in, once again, when America has so much at stake in Iraq. Let us all hope this decision will be justified in the end.

[mrtimmaulden]

11:54 AM on 10/22/2011

It's THEIR country, dood, we're simply OCCUPYING it. Should we send terrorists back to their home countries to stand trial? Good luck figuring that out, Einstein!

[clark8642]

11:56 AM on 10/22/2011

Actually we invaded it to get rid of WMD. Had the President suggested that we invade Iraq to bring it Democracy and rid it of a tyrant he would have been laughed out of town. Democracy was a poor second choice when there were no WMD.

[westronandnan]

11:33 AM on 10/22/2011

All these chickenhawk politicians who are so quick to commit our precious young people to mindless conflicts should have to return home and lead their National Guard Units into the conflict.

That would bring a sudden end to these ill-planned, ill-advised, costly and deadly misadventures.