President Obama said Wednesday that he was "very encouraged" by Iraq's progress in taking over its own security responsibilities and that the United States was on track to withdraw all military forces from the country by 2011.
| No thanks to you, Mr. Surrender. If you'd had your way we would have been gone by now with our tails between our legs, and the Iraqis -- and their foreign oppressors -- would have been at each others' throats. |
In a brief news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after the two met for more than an hour at the White House, Obama acknowledged there would be "some tough days ahead. There will be attacks on Iraqi security forces and the American troops supporting them . . . There are still those who want to foment sectarian conflict."
But "those efforts will fail," Obama said as he gently reiterated the U.S. view that Iraq must resolve the internal disputes that continue to cause both violence and political turmoil. "America strongly supports efforts by the Iraqi government to promote national unity," he said.
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