Obama sets Iraq withdrawal dates

Obama has set some dates for withdrawl of troops from Iraq, but they are not much faster than what had been negotiated between Iraq and the former President.

Around 100,000 of the 150,000 or so troops will leave by the end of August 2010. This is three months later than he promised in the campaign. ANd most of the withdrawals will be in those final few months.

Obama is also leaving 50,000 troops who will not be classified as combat troops, but there for training, advice and protecting civilians, plus targeted counterterrorism. Sounds like combat to me!

And those 50,000 will stay until Dec 2011 – the date Bush had agreed to with the Iraqi Government.

It will be interesting to see if Obama manages these new deadlines without further slippage.