2010 News & Events
President Obama's Address on the End of the Combat Mission in Iraq
Having returned hours earlier from a conversation with troops at Fort
Bliss, Texas – troops who had seen every phase of what has become one of
America’s longest wars – the President spoke to the Nation
for just the second time from the Oval Office to announce the end of
America’s combat role in that war. Americans in high school today may
barely remember a time when America was not in combat in Iraq, and young
adults – including so many of our troops who have sacrificed so much –
have almost by definition gone their entire adult lives in a country
divided over the war. Today, as the President put it, was a day to
begin to “turn the page” – a day when America could turn its focus
towards building itself back up from a devastating recession.