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Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Akufen

Het artikel gaat niet om het omkeren van z'n mening over Afghanistan. We wisten al lang dat hij zich daar op ging focussen. Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat het een juiste beslissing is. Het artikel gaat echter over de oorlog in Irak die verder zal gaan terwijl men van een "withdrawl" spreekt.

Het is een 'Phased withdrawal'

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will announce a plan to withdraw most troops from Iraq by August 2010, Pentagon officials said on Wednesday.

The decision will be announced during the president's visit to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Friday, the officials were quoted by CNN as saying.

Obama is expected to announce that except a residual force between 30,000 to 50,000 to be left till Dec. 2011, most of the 142,000 US troops will be out of Iraq by August 2010, 19 months after Obama's swearing-in on Jan. 20, they said.

The new withdrawal timetable will be three months later than Obama's original pledge to pull out most troops in 16 months after his inauguration.

Some 4,250 U.S. troops died and 650 billion U.S. dollars have been spent since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003.