Obama calls the troops home

US President Barack Obama last week announced
a plan that would see up to one hundred
thousand of the American troops still in
Iraq return stateside by August 2010. He has
said that the ‘combat mission’ will officially be
over by that point. Nonetheless, Obama is not
recklessly ‘cutting and running’, as many Re-
publicans feared he might – thirty-five to fifty
thousand soldiers will stay in the Middle East to
assist Iraqi security forces.

However, Obama is likely to draw criticism
from both sides of the aisle – Republicans will
be cautious about such a quick withdrawal of
troops, while Democrats will say that he is fall-
ing short of his campaign pledge to withdraw all
troops within sixteen months of taking charge.

The _Boar_ though is pleased to see this sign
of the Iraq War coming to an end, whether
you think that this plan is too hasty, not quick
enough or just about right. It may well be that
Obama is not matching his pledge to the letter,
but this is a plan to withdraw the vast majority
of US forces within eighteen months of mov-
ing into the White House, which is pretty close.
Instead of endlessly nitpicking the differences
between a promise made in a campaign and a
plan made with all relevant intelligence and ad-
visors available, the _Boar_ would rather celebrate
the fact that a nation is being given back to her
citizens. In the words of the President, “Thanks
to the sacrifices of those who have served, we
have forged hard-earned progress, we are leav-
ing Iraq to its people, and we have begun the
work of ending the war.” That’s right, ending
the war. Did you think you would hear that in
your lifetime?