President Obama on Monday confirmed in a speech that by the end of this month “America's combat mission in Iraq would end”.
By the end of August, US troop numbers in Iraq will be at 50,000, down from 144,000 at their peak.
Those remaining will be “advise and assist” brigades that, officially, will support and train Iraqi security forces guard American personnel and facilities and mount “counterterrorism operations”.
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Staying true to his 2008 campaign promise, Obama has also pledged that all US troops will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
Events in Afghanistan have recently rightly hogged headlines.
First, General David Petraeus took command (in controversial circumstances) of the US military mission and whistle blowing website Wikileaks released classified documents detailing the true business of war to a somewhat shocked public.
Afghanistan, which harboured Al-Qaeda and from where the 2001 9-11 attacks were planned, was always where the “right” war was to be waged, if such a term can be used.
Instead, President Bush and his advisers were distracted by vendettas against Saddam Hussein and false threats in Iraq.
History has judged the wisdom of US-driven policy in the region but The End has not quite been written.
Iraq? We'll see how that works out with no American presence.
Afghanistan? The longest war in US history looks set to continue for some time yet.
“Even as we welcome home so many of our troops, others are stilled deployed in Afghanistan,” Obama said in his speech at a convention for the Disabled American Veterans organization in Atlanta.
“Let us never forget,” Obama emphasized, “it was Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda plotted and trained to murder 3,000 innocent people on 9/11. It is Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan where terrorists have launched other attacks against us and our allies.
“And if Afghanistan were to be engulfed by an even wide insurgency, Al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates would have even more space to plan their next attack. And as President of the United States, I refuse to let that happen.”
Perhaps formidably, Obama's speech referenced the increasingly large, and growing, elephant in the room – Pakistan.
“In Pakistan, we've seen the government begin to take the fight to violent extremists within its borders,” Obama stressed.
“Major blows have been struck against Al-Qaeda and its leadership. Because in this region and beyond, we will tolerate no safe haven for al Qaeda and their extremist allies. We will disrupt, dismantle, and ultimately defeat Al-Qaeda.”
Obama is perhaps too smart to play a heavy military card of his own (he did inherit the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan) but with Iraq now on the backburner – literally – will Pakistan now start to feel more heat?
