White House: U.S. ‘on target’ to end Iraq combat mission

The United States is “on target” to end its combat mission in Iraq at the end of the month, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.



But even as Operation Iraqi Freedom comes to an end Aug. 31, President Obama and his team have warned that violence will continue as Iraqis take more responsibility for their security and governance. 

{mosads}Obama was briefed by his national security team on Iraq Wednesday morning in the White House Situation Room, and Gibbs said the president “was satisfied with the progress we continue to see on the security side.”

“Nothing was brought up with the president that would necessitate us needing to turn back,” Gibbs said. 



After a transition ceremony on Aug. 31, about 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in a noncombat capacity. But Gibbs stressed that since Obama took office, more than 80,000 U.S. troops have been withdrawn.

“There will be a new mission. We’ll have a new commanding general. And the Iraqis will fully be in the lead,” Gibbs said. 



All U.S. forces are to leave the country by the end of 2011.

Obama heard from Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who “reported that the security situation has retained the significant improvements made over the last couple of years and that Iraqi security forces are fully prepared to be in the lead when we end their combat mission later this month.”



While Gibbs said the Pentagon has “1,001” contingency plans for what to do if Iraq should regress into violent, sectarian warfare, the president does not expect to have to use any of them.

“The president did not hear from those on the ground, both on the diplomatic side and on the security and military side, did not hear anything that would lead him to believe that any of those plans would ultimately be necessary,” Gibbs said.



Obama faces a number of balancing acts when discussing the end of a war he opposed — a position that helped launch him into the national spotlight.

Asked Wednesday if the U.S. had won the war in Iraq, Gibbs said the president will mark the occasion by celebrating “the effort and the heroism that — that our men and women in uniform, the role that they played and the role that they contributed in bringing about stability to that country.”



But with Iraqis still slow to form a centralized government, Gibbs warned that there is still a great deal of work to be done, calling political progress in Iraq a “significant priority that Vice President Biden will continue to play a key role in achieving.”