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This Is Huge: Obama Pledges No Residual Forces In Iraq After 2011
In his speech on Iraq redeployment today, President Obama pledged to have all troops, including "residual forces," by the end of 2011. This is the pledge I have been waiting for:
Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end(...)
Through this period of transition, we will carry out further redeployments. And under the Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government, I intend to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
This is huge for no residual forces proponents. Now that President Obama has made this pledge, in public, it will be difficult for him to go back on it. This is especially the case since turning back on a promise with a deadline of December 31st, 2011, means violating a pledge during 2012--the year President Obama will be running for re-election.
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