Obama’s Oval Office Speech: Promise Kept On Iraq Withdrawal

Helene Cooper
The New York Times
August 31, 2010

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

For only the second time since he took office, President Obama will speak to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, in an address meant to convey that he has kept one of the central promises of his campaign: withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq.

Mr. Obama will steer clear of the “mission accomplished” tone that President George W. Bush struck so famously seven years ago — and that subsequently came back to haunt him as Iraq fell into further chaos. “You won’t hear those words coming from us,” said the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs.

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But Mr. Obama will still strike a promises-kept theme, aides said, even as he seeks to reconcile his opposition to the Iraq war — and his opposition to the so-called troop surge, which Republicans and many military officials credit for the decrease in violence in Iraq — with his role as a wartime commander in chief seeking to credit his troops with carrying out a difficult mission. The president, his aides said, will seek to honor the American soldiers who served in Iraq.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 8:06 am

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