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A US soldier in Iraq -
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President Barack Obama told Americans on Sunday a substantial number of the 140,000 US troops in Iraq would be home within a year, saying Iraqis were now ready to take more responsibility for their own security.
Obama, who inherited two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, pledged
during his presidential campaign to withdraw all US troops from
Iraq within 16 months, at a rate of one or two brigades a
month.
In an interview with NBC television, Obama praised the provincial
elections held in Iraq at the weekend, the most peaceful polls
since US-led forces invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.
Asked in the NBC interview whether a substantial number of troops
would be home in time for next year's Super Bowl, the National
Football League's championship game being played on Sunday, Obama
replied: "Yes. We are going to roll out in a very formal fashion
what our intentions are in Iraq as well as Afghanistan."
The Obama administration has launched a comprehensive review of
America's strategy in Afghanistan, where NATO-led forces are
struggling to cope with spiraling violence and a resurgent Taliban
militancy.
The administration is considering almost doubling the US force in
Afghanistan from 36,000 to more than 60,000 within 18 months.
Obama, who held talks with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the
Pentagon last week, has said he wants a responsible and phased
withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. The United States signed a a
military deal with Iraq last year that set a 2011 deadline for US
forces to quit the country.
"In conversations I have had with the joint chiefs, with commanders
on the ground, I think we have a sense, now that the Iraqis just
had a very significant election with no significant violence, we
are in a position to put more responsibility on the Iraqis," Obama
said in the interview.
He also said one of the more sobering moments of his young
presidency was having to sign letters to send to families of slain
soldiers.
Some 644 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and 4,236 in
Iraq.
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