finally! Obama keeping a campaign promise

BREAKING: Last Combat Brigade Leaves Iraq; Operation Iraqi Freedom officially ends 8/31

It's about time some of these troops are finally getting to come home from Iraq. We're still going to have 50,000 troops there so this doesn't mean the end of casualties by any means, though the troops in Iraq have seen a drastic reduction in casualties as Iraqi troops take responsibility for their own security.

The official end to Operation Iraqi Freedom is August 31st. But today's exit of the last Stryker Brigade into Kuwait signals an end to the United States' active combat role in that country, and serves as notice that the promises made to leave are being kept.

The remaining 50,000 troops will continue to leave the country through December, 2011, when the US military presence is scheduled to end completely.

This does signify fulfillment of President Obama's promise as well:

February 28, 2009:

The plan will withdraw most of the 142,000 troops now in Iraq by the summer of next year, leaving 35,000 to 50,000 behind with the limited missions of training and advising Iraq security forces, hunting terrorist cells and protecting U.S. civilian and military personnel. Those "transitional forces" will leave by 2011 in accordance with a strategic agreement negotiated by President George W. Bush before he left office.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can," Obama told the Marines. "By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."

(Crooks and Liars)
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It's been a long 7-1/2 years, and we have at least a year and 1/2 still to go, but at least Obama is making progress on this disaster that bush left him.