Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Last year Mr. Obama promised to remove U.S. troops from Iraq at the rate of one combat brigades at the rate of one per month from the time he took office until the beginnning of June, 2010, leaving behind a residual force of unspecified size. During the campaign, Mr. Obama kept open the option of changing the plan based on assessments of security conditions in Iraq.

Today at Camp Lejeune, N.C., the president unveiled a plan that differed from his campaign pledge in two respects. First was the later date for concluding his withdrawal of combat troops, who number about 142,000 today. Second was the decision to keep most of those departing troops in Iraq through the end of this year. The bulk of the pullout will thus be accomplished between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31 next year.

Between 35,000 and 50,000 troops would remain for counterterrorism, training Iraqi forces and protecting Iraqi civilians. Although Mr. Obama had said during the campaign that he would retain a U.S. force for such purposes, some Democratic leaders expressed surprise when the president gave them the figures yesterday.

In a conference call today with reporters, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the president's decision was bassed on the desire of U.S. military leaders to retain a ``maximum force'' this year, while Iraq completes local elections nationwide and the government and populace absorbs the results of the voting.

Reed said Mr. Obama's new troop withdrawal plan falls "well within the range" of Mr. Obama's earlier, 16-month schedule and the somewhat longer timetable negotiated last year between the Iraqi government and the Bush administration, Reed said. That ``status of forces'' agreement between former President Bush and Iraq's leaders requires all American troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

The size of the force that Mr. Obama now plans to leave in Iraq is also well within the range of estimates that Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has given for many months.

Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said of Mr. Obama's new plan: "The general trend is the important thing," Whitehouse said. "So far, so good."

After voicing his concern about the plan in his statement today, Langevin added, ``However, I do not want to reverse any of the gains we have achieved and will examine all the options that will help maintain stability in Iraq.'' He said he looks forward to learning more about the troop withdrawal plan.