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March 2, 2009

US Plans to Keep up to 50,000 Troops in Iraq Until 2011
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Under President Obama’s plan, up to 50,000 US troops would remain in
Iraq through 2011.

President Barack Obama: "As I have long said, we will retain a
transitional force to carry out three distinct functions: training,
equipping, and advising Iraqi Security Forces as long as they remain
non-sectarian; conducting targeted counterterrorism missions; and
protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts within Iraq.
Initially, this force will likely be made up of 35,000 to 50,000 US
troops.”

President Obama’s decision to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq has angered
many critics of the war. Iraq Veterans Against the War described Obama’s
proposal as a “plan for almost three more years of an unjustified
military occupation.” During an interview on MSNBC, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi spoke out against part of Obama’s plan.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “And I don’t know what the justification is for
50,000, a presence of 50,000 troops in Iraq. I do think that there’s a
need for some, and I don’t know that all of them have to be in country.
I would think a third of that, maybe 20,000, a little more than a third,
15,000 or 20,000.”

President Obama’s speech on Iraq left several major questions
unanswered. He did not address whether the US will keep permanent
military bases in Iraq, and he made no promise to withdraw the over
100,000 private US military contractors and mercenaries stationed in
Iraq.



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