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February 25, 2009

Obama to Announce 19-Month Timeline for Withdrawal of Iraq Combat Troops
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Meanwhile, on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said he will soon
announce a plan to end the war in Iraq.

President Obama: “I am now carefully reviewing our policies in both
wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to
its people and responsibly ends this war.”

Administration officials say Obama is preparing to order US combat
troops to withdraw from Iraq by August 2010. The nineteen-month deadline
would be three months longer than what Obama proposed on the campaign
trail. As many as 50,000 US troops would still remain in Iraq under
Obama’s plan. A “senior military officer” told the Los Angeles Times,
“When President Obama said we were going to get out within 16 months,
some people heard, ‘get out’, and everyone’s gone. But that is not going
to happen.”



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