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US wraps up combat operation in Iraq
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Only 50-thousand US service personnel will remain in Iraq after August. Those remaining brigades will turn their focus to training and advising Iraqi security forces.
All US troops are supposed to leave and all bases close by the end of next year.
Major General Lanzi, US Army, said, "We say 'are the Iraq security forces ready?' They have shown they've been ready. We saw that during the elections, we've seen that during some major religious holidays. We have seen what they are capable of doing."
However, Iraq's national security still remains unstable. A potentially explosive conflict between Arabs and Kurds has not been resolved.
More than one and a half million Iraqis are still displaced after being driven from their homes by violence.
Suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have tried to exploit the political vacuum with persistent suicide bombings and assassinations.
The US withdrawal signals the end of one of the country's most costly wars.
Almost 1 trillion US dollars have been spent, while more than 44-hundred US soldiers and over 100-thousand Iraqi civilians have been killed since 2003.
Former US diplomat Frank Wisner says the US has paid a hefty price.
Frank Wisner, Former US Ambassador, said, "Just to go in because we have the capability is not a good idea. We have to be absolutely certain a vital national interest is met, and that we can sustain that interest into the future. Sustain it politically at home, sustain it internationally. That, I suspect we still have to prove to ourselves -- that the price was worth it.
Analysts predict Obama's address will be less about mission accomplished, and more about keeping his promise to end the war.
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