U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq by Year’s End, Obama Says

Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Barack Obama speaks in the briefing room of the White House in Washington on Friday.

By MARK LANDLER

Published: October 21, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that the last American soldier would leave Iraq by the end of the year, bringing to an end a nearly nine-year military engagement that cost the lives of 4,400 troops and more than $1 trillion, divided the American public, and came to define America’s role in the world.

Mr. Obama said that as of Jan. 1, 2012, the United States and Iraq would begin “a normal relationship between two sovereign nations, and equal partnership based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

In a videoconference on Friday morning with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Mr. Obama told him of the administration’s decision, which grows out of an inability of the United States and Iraq to come to an agreement on leaving a few thousand military trainers in the country.

The United States had earlier agreed to exit Iraq by the end of the year and leave 3,000 to 5,000 troops in Iraq as trainers, with some members of Congress advocating the retention of a reduced fighting force as well. But Pentagon lawyers insisted that the Iraqi Parliament grant immunity from legal prosecution to the troops if they were to remain. In recent weeks American negotiators in Baghdad concluded that it would be impossible to obtain that immunity, essentially scuttling any chance of a substantial troop presence here next year.

Mr. Obama appeared to leave open the possibility of further negotiations on the question of military trainers. “As I told Prime Minister Maliki, we will continue discussions on how we might help Iraq train and equip its forces — again, just as we offer training and assistance to countries around the world,” he said. “After all, there will be some difficult days ahead for Iraq, and the United States will continue to have an interest in an Iraq that is stable, secure and self-reliant.”

The original status of forces agreement, negotiated in the last days of the Bush administration, called for the withdrawal of all American troops by the end of 2011. But the agreement was reached with a wink-and-nod understanding that a politically palatable way would be found to keep a substantial American troop presence in the country after that date.

Over time, however, political pressure in Iraq to end the American occupation gradually came to dominate military imperatives. The suggested number of American troops that would remain dwindled from between 30,000 and 50,000 to 20,000 to 10,000 and, finally, 3,000 to 5,000 before today’s announcement of a total withdrawal.

If Mr. Obama’s announcement was not a surprise, it was freighted with symbolism, drawing a line under a conflict that has consumed the United States for close to a decade. It also fulfills a pledge that the president made during the 2008 campaign to wind down the war.

“After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” Mr. Obama declared in the White House briefing room shortly before 1 p.m. “Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home.” Those soldiers, numbering nearly 50,000, will be joining approximately 100,000 others who have already been withdrawn.

“The last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in their support for our troops,” the president said. “That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end.”

Mr. Obama placed the announcement in the context of a broader ebbing in America’s military engagements abroad. Declaring that “tide of war is receding,” the president noted the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya on Thursday, which augurs the end of the NATO operation there, as well as the transition in Afghanistan to Afghan security responsibility.

“Here at home, the coming months will be another season of homecoming,” Mr. Obama said. “Across America, our servicemen and women will be reunited with their families. Today, I can say our troops in Iraq will definitely be home for the holidays.”

But negotiations will continue, and some of those troops might find themselves redeployed to Iraq in 2012 or beyond, an American official said on Friday. But the official, who spoke anonymously because the deliberations are meant to be confidential, said the talks will now center on arrangements that would begin next year, after all United States troops leave.

Possibilities being discussed are for some troops to come back in 2012, an option preferred by some Iraqi politicians who want to claim credit for ending what many here still call an occupation, even though legally it ended years ago. Other scenarios being discussed include training in the United States, in a neighboring country such as Kuwait or having some American troops come back under the auspices of NATO.

In the meantime, an agreement is in place to keep more than 150 Defense Department personnel, both military and civilian, in Iraq to secure the American Embassy, manage military sales and carry out standard duties of a defense attaché and office of security cooperation. They will operate under the authority of the State Department, which will be taking the leading role in Iraq.

American officials continued to express concern about gaps in Iraq’s security capabilities to withstand what they view as continued threats of sectarian violence and Iran’s malign influence. But if those gaps are to be addressed by American military assistance, it will have to be in a different form than imagined during negotiations that faltered, and now have failed.

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Reporting contributed by Tim Arango in Baghdad and Thom Shanker in Washington.