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WORLD> Middle East
Bush makes surprise Iraq visit to close out tenure
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-14 22:12

For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight -- even after weapons of mass destruction, the initial justification for invading Iraq, were not found -- as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the US needs to get out of Iraq.

US soldiers distribute relief goods to residents on the occasion of Eid al-Adha in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad December 9, 2008. [Agencies]

More than 4,209 members of the US military have been killed in the war since it began five years and nine months ago. It has so far cost nearly $576 billion.

There are about 149,000 US troops in Iraq. At the troop-level peak in October 2007, there were 170,000 US military personnel in the country.

The new US-Iraqi security pact goes into effect next month. It replaces a U.N. mandate that gives the US-led coalition broad powers to conduct military operations and detain people without charge if they were believed to pose a security threat. The bilateral agreement changes some of those terms and calls for all American troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011, in two stages.

The first stage begins next year, when US troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June.

But the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said Saturday that even after that summer deadline, some US troops will remain in Iraqi cities. They will serve in local security stations as training and mentoring teams, and so will not violate the mandate for American combat forces to leave urban areas, he said.

Iraq's Defense Ministry said Sunday that US commanders would have to get Baghdad's permission for keep the troops there.

Odierno said the continuing US presence is important in light of the elections being held in Iraq throughout next year.

The agreement has received its final blessing within Iraqi's government, but Iraqi voters will have the final say in a referendum by the end of July. Provincial elections also are to be held after the first of the year

Bush credits last year's military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003.

But the successes are still viewed as fragile and reversible. Intermittent but high-profile bombings continue to shake confidence and the remaining high tensions between rival ethnic and religious groups raise questions about what will happen in Iraq after US troops start withdrawing.

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