Obama To Deliver Speech On Iraq, Announcing New Plans

San Francisco (Obama.net)- After seven years of the Iraq War, President Barack Obama has said that combat in Iraq is now over. The stress goes on the word “combat.” President Obama has pulled out all of the combat brigades from Iraq just as he said he would when he was running for office.

Obama said that by the end of August 2010, there would be no more combination American troops in the state of Iraq and that the total number of troops would be under 50,000. And sure enough, that is exactly what the case is. Obama has removed nearly 100,000 troops from Iraq in the last twenty months as the Iraqi police and military have been getting stronger, in addition to their government becoming more and more stable.

Tuesday night, President Obama is scheduled to give about a fifteen-minute speech to the people of the United States.

White House officials have made one thing perfectly clear; President Obama is not announcing a victory in Iraq, simply a “change of mission.”

Obama is expected to talk about how the combat has ended for the American military in Iraq and how the remaining goals include a higher emphasis on strengthening Iraq’s government to the point where they will need no American assistance at all and on helping the Iraqi military and police.

Robert Gibbs, the Press Secretary of the White House said, “we will be their ally, but the responsibility of charting the future of Iraq first and foremost belongs to the Iraqis.”

With 4,400 American soldiers lost in the war, much less than any other war in United States history, it is tough to call the war a success so far. Granted the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was overthrown, but the purpose of entering Iraq in the first place was never made public by former President George W. Bush.

But with his second ever Oval Office national address, Obama will tout the positives that lay ahead for the people of Iraq and the American soldiers in the state.

The new mission will be revealed to the American people Tuesday night. As well, a reiteration that all troops are expected to be removed from Iraq by the end of 2011 is also expected to be heard tonight.