West Point, December 02: President Barack Obama renewed a pledge Tuesday that all US forces will leave Iraq by the end of 2011 as planned.
“Today, after extraordinary costs, we are bringing the Iraq war to a responsible end,” Obama told military cadets gathered in the prestigious West Point military academy as he unveiled a new strategy in Afghanistan.
“We will remove our combat brigades from Iraq by the end of next summer and all of our troops by the end of 2011,” he said, praising US troops.
“Thanks to their courage, grit and perseverance, we have given Iraqis a chance to shape their future, and we are successfully leaving Iraq to its people.”
There are concerns that wrangling over the date of the elections set for January could push back the timetable for the US withdrawal.
The elections were thrown into doubt after Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed a new law governing the vote only days after it had been passed.
The war-torn country’s electoral commission said it was stopping work at least for the time being, meaning the ballot, only the second national poll since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is likely to be delayed.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an ‘act of aggression’ that violated international law.
Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.
An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.
Critics argue that the recent stability announced in the country should not excuse the ‘crime’ of invading Iraq, calling for the prosecution of the war’s architects for ‘crimes against humanity’.
—Agencies