In one area — Iraq — President Barack Obama has found the bipartisanship that has eluded him so far with his economic plan and domestic agenda. Obama muted his critics and found support among congressional Democrats and Republicans over the timetable for troop withdrawal that he announced last week.
The president committed to pull out nearly all combat troops by August 2010. He listened to the recommendations of the military and then roughly split the difference between what the generals requested and what he promised during the campaign.
Obama not only wants to get the troops out of Iraq, he needs to in order to meet two other commitments: lowering the federal deficit and transferring 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. In six years at war, America has spent more than $700 billion in Iraq. It costs nearly $400,000 per year to keep each soldier there. But the president doesn’t want to be accused of blowing the gains made since the surge in troops that President George W. Bush ordered and, more significantly, the successful counter-insurgency strategy of Gen. David Petraeus.
Most of the 142,000 troops there now will leave between December and August 2010. Up to 50,000 personnel will remain, as trainers, advisers and combat troops doing anti-terrorist work — an unclear mission.
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