Obama welcomes home troops, marks end of Iraq war

marking a symbolic end to the nearly nine-year war that strained America’s armed forces and inflicted lasting damage to its standing worldwide.
Addressing soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne Division, Obama said he wanted to mark “a historic moment in the life of our country and our military”.
“As your commander in chief and on behalf of a grateful nation, I’m proud to finally say these two words – welcome home, welcome home, welcome home,” he told thousands of troops gathered in an airplane hangar, who erupted in cheers.
The war killed 4 500 US troops and at least 60 000 Iraqis. Obama said on Tuesday the war would cost more than $1 trillion (£646 billion) all told.
Ending the Iraq war fulfils a promise that helped Obama win the presidency in 2008 and allows the White House to focus more on Afghanistan as well as economic worries at home, where the high jobless rate is a major concern for voters.
But as the last American forces pack up and leave Iraq this month, the debate over Obama’s exit strategy remains heated.
Critics have accused Obama of ending the war hastily to suit his re-election campaign, warning the pullout could embolden still-active insurgent fighters as well as Iraq’s neighbour Iran.
Mitt Romney, a leading Republican contender for the 2012 presidential race, said in an open letter to Obama on Wednesday that “words of welcome to our returning soldiers is not enough” and called it “a disgrace” that veterans of the Iraq war are facing unemployment above 11 percent, several points higher than the national rate.
And John McCain, who ran against Obama for the presidency in 2008, said this week he found it “a bit presumptuous” for Obama to take credit for the conflict he was opposed to and was set to respond to what he called the president’s “victory lap” in Fort Bragg later yesterday. As of this week, there were about 5 500 US troops left in Iraq, down from more than 170 000 at the height of the war.
Obama owes his presidency in part to his opposition to the Iraq war, which grew hugely unpopular as the Bush administration wore on and claims that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and supporting al Qaeda militants turned out to be false.
As an Illinois state legislator, Obama gave a stirring speech in 2002 warning that invading Iraq would plunge the United States into a “dumb war” and he used his anti-war stance to distinguish himself in the Democratic presidential run-off from Hillary Clinton who voted in Congress to go to war in Iraq.
In office, Obama moved quickly to scale back what his aides had dubbed “Bush’s war” and to shift the Pentagon’s focus to Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan, which he called the neglected battleground in the fight against al Qaeda.
Commentators now see that conflict as “Obama’s war” and believe his presidency will be judged more on the outcomes of the Afghan campaign than on developments in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Thousands of people in the Iraqi city of Fallujah have taken to the streets to celebrate the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
Demonstrators rallied across the city on Wednesday, shouting slogans in support of the “resistance”, a reference to the campaign by Iraqi fighters in Fallujah that was a bastion of opposition against the US-led invasion.
Some protesters burned US and Israeli flags while others held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases such as “Now we are free” and “Fallujah is the flame of the resistance”.
In the centre of the city surrounded by the Iraqi army, protesters carried posters bearing photos of apparent fighters, faces covered and carrying weapons.
They also held up pictures of US soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against the city in 2004.
The demonstration was dubbed the first annual “festival to celebrate the role of the resistance”.
Fallujah, home to about a half a million people 60km west of Baghdad, was home to some of the first anti-US protests in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, in May of that year.
When the protests began, residents were content to throw only their shoes at US soldiers, an Arab gesture that signifies anger and disrespect.
But in March 2004, four US employees of a US private security firm, Blackwater, since renamed Xe and later Academi, were killed in the city, leading to two major offensives by US troops against Fallujah.
Signs of the attacks are still visible today in collapsed buildings and bullet holes in walls.
Widespread fighting in Fallujah against the occupation begun in 2003, after a controversial event known as the “pupil’s” uprising.
The US military had turned a primary school into their city headquarters in April 2003. When 200 demonstrators gathered outside asking for the school to be reopened, US forces opened fire, killing at least 13 civilians and injuring dozens.
The US military said they had shot at armed men after being fired upon from nearby rooftops, but marchers insisted their demonstration had been unarmed and peaceful.
In November, a second campaign was launched against the Sunni rebellion, just months before legislative elections in January 2005. Around 2 000 civilians and 140 Americans died, and the battle is considered one of the fiercest for the US since the Vietnam war. – Al Jazeera.