Anand B.A., B.L.,

The withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq has been a contentious issue within the United States since the beginning of the Iraq War. As the war has progressed from its initial 2003 invasion phase to a multi-year occupation, U.S. public opinion has turned in favor of troop withdrawal. As of May 2007, 55 percent of Americans believed that the Iraq war was a mistake, and 51 percent of registered voters favored troop withdrawal. In late April 2007, the U.S. Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that sets a deadline for troop withdrawal, but President Bush vetoed this bill soon afterwards. All US Forces are mandated to withdraw from Iraqi territory by 31 December 2011 under the terms of a bilateral agreement signed in 2008.

Activities during George.W.Bush

On November 17, 2005, Representative John Murtha introduced H.J.Res. 73 , a resolution calling for U.S. forces in Iraq to be “redeployed at the earliest practicable date” to stand as a quick-reaction force in U.S. bases in neighboring countries such as Kuwait. In response, Republicans proposed a resolution that “the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately,” without any provision for redeployment, which was voted down 403-3.

On June 16, 2006, the House voted 256-153 in a non-binding resolution against establishing a deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Republican then-House Majority Leader John Boehner, who argued against a deadline, stated “achieving victory is our only option”, and “we must not shy away”. On the other hand, Democratic then-House Minority Leader and current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi argued that a deadline is necessary, and stated “’stay the course’ is not a strategy, it’s a slogan”, and “it’s time to face the facts.”

On March 27, 2007, Congress passed H.R. 1591, which called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by March 2008. However, President Bush vetoed the bill and the House of Representatives failed to override the veto. Congress then passed H.R. 2206, which provided funding for the Iraq War through September 30, 2007 and was signed into law by President Bush on May 25, 2007. H.R. 2206 included eighteen benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet.

On May 9, 2007, Representative Jim McGovern introduced H.R. 2237 to the House: “To provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq.” The bill failed with a vote of 255 to 171, thirteen of the Nays coming from Democrats representing districts won by John Kerry in 2004.^]

On July 12, 2007 the House passed H.R. 2956 by a vote of 223 to 201, for redeployment (or withdrawal) of U.S. armed forces out of Iraq. The resolution requires most troops to withdraw from Iraq by April 1, 2008.

On July 18, 2007, after an all-night debate, the Senate blocked the passage of a bill that would have set a troop withdrawal timetable with a vote of 52-47. The withdrawal would have started within 120 days, and would have required that all troops (except an unspecified number could be left behind to conduct a very narrow set of missions) be out of the country by April 30, 2008.

McGovern-Polk proposal

Former U.S. Senator George McGovern and William R. Polk, director of the University of Chicago Center for Middle Eastern Studies, published a detailed proposal for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in their book, Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now. (Simon & Schuster, 2006.) A sizable excerpt was published in the October 2006 edition of Harper’s magazine.

This plan was completely abandoned. Some of the basic features of their proposal included:

• The first soldiers to be sent home should be private security contractors.
• An international stabilization force of 15,000 soldiers to be established. Troops will be drawn from Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, funded by the U.S. This force would remain for two years after the departure of U.S. troops.
• Transport, communications, and light arms equipment currently used by U.S. forces should be donated to the new multinational force.
• In place of a new Iraqi army, a national reconstruction corps should be established, modeled on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• The immediate cessation of work on U.S. military bases.
• U.S. withdrawal from the Green Zone.
• Release of all prisoners of war.

2008 U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces bilateral Agreement

In 2008, the US and Iraqi government signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement which implments that all US forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 and that All US Forces would be mandated to withdraw from Iraqi territory by December 31, 2011 under the terms of a bilateral agreement. On December 14, 2008, then-U.S. President George W. Bush signed the security pact with Iraq. In his fourth and final trip to Iraq, the president appeared with Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and said more work is to be done.

U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement

The U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (official name: “Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq”) was a status of forces agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States. It established that U.S. combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. The pact required criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and required a warrant for searches of homes and buildings that were not related to combat. U.S. contractors working for U.S. forces would have been subject to Iraqi criminal law, while contractors working for the State Department and other U.S. agencies would retain their immunity. If U.S. forces committed still undecided “major premeditated felonies” while off-duty and off-base, they would have been subjected to an undecided procedures laid out by a joint U.S.-Iraq committee if the U.S. certified the forces were off-duty.

The agreement ceased as of the 16th of December 2011, when the United States completed it final withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The symbolic ceremony in Baghdad officially “cased” (retired) the flag of US forces in Iraq, according to army tradition

The Iraqi government also approved a Strategic Framework Agreement with the U.S., aimed at ensuring international cooperation including minority ethnicity, gender, and belief interests and other constitutional rights; threat deterrence; exchange students; education; and cooperation in the areas of energy development, environmental hygiene, health care, information technology, communications, and law enforcement.

Several groups of Iraqis protested the passing of the SOFA accord as prolonging and legitimizing the occupation, and Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani expressed concerns with the ratified version. Some other Iraqis expressed skepticism that the U.S. would completely end its presence by 2011. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had predicted that after 2011 he would have expected to see “perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops” as part of a residual force in Iraq. Some Americans had discussed “loopholes” and some Iraqis had said they believed parts of the pact remained a “mystery”.

President Obama’s speech on February 27, 2009

On February 27, 2009, at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Barack Obama announced a deadline for the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. According to the president, by August 31, 2010, after nearly seven and a half years of United States military engagement in Iraq, all but a “transitional force” of 35,000 to 50,000 troops would be withdrawn from the Middle Eastern nation. President Obama defined the task of the transitional force as “training, equipping, and advising Iraqi Security Forces as long as they remain non-sectarian; conducting targeted counter-terrorism missions; and protecting our ongoing civilian and military efforts within Iraq”. Under this plan, the majority of troops will be withdrawn just a month after the deadline in the signed agreement between former President George W. Bush and Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki where the majority of troops will be withdrawn at one point, and the entirety of troops to be out by December 31, 2011.

August 2010 partial withdrawal

On August 19, 2010, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division was the last US combat brigade to withdraw from Iraq. About 50,000 US troops will remain in the country in an advisory capacity. According to the US, they will help to train Iraqi forces in a new mission dubbed by the US as “Operation New Dawn,” which will run until the end of 2011. The mission that ended August 19, 2010 was dubbed by the US as “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” at a projected cost of more than $900 billion and 4,415 US troops killed in action. Over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were estimated to be killed, according to the Iraq Body Count website. President Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in his Oval Office address on August 31, 2010.

Full withdrawal

With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any U.S. troops, on October 21, 2011, President Obama announced the full withdrawal of troops from Iraq as scheduled before. The U.S. will retain an embassy in Baghdad and two consulates with around 4,000 to 5,000 defense contractors. President Obama and al-Maliki outlined a broad agenda for post-war cooperation without American troops in Iraq during a joint press conference on December 12, 2011 at the White House. This agenda includes cooperation on energy, trade and education as well as cooperation in security, counter-terrorism, economic development and strengthening Iraq’s institutions. Both leaders said their countries will maintain strong security, diplomatic and economic ties after the last U.S. combat forces withdraw at the end of 2011.

President Barack Obama paid tribute to the troops who served in Iraq on December 14, 2011, at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina. As the last of the American troops prepared to exit Iraq, he said the United States was leaving behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” Iraq. On December 15, an American military ceremony was held in Baghdad putting a formal end to the U.S mission in Iraq. Only 4,000 U.S troops remain in Iraq and they are scheduled to leave by the end of the year, leaving behind 200 Marine Security Guards and 15,000 embassy personnel.

Key dates in the 2003-2011 Iraq war

2003

—March 20: U.S. forces attack Baghdad with missiles and bombs in a failed attempt to kill Saddam Hussein. U.S. and allied ground troops roll into Iraq.

—April 9: American troops storm Baghdad and the statue of Saddam is toppled in Firdous Square, the symbolic collapse of his regime.

—May 1: President George W. Bush declares an end to major combat operations.

—July 22: Saddam’s sons Oday and Qusay are killed in a gunfight in Mosul.

—Aug. 7: A car bomb strikes the Jordanian Embassy, the first such attack of the war. Twelve days later, a truck bomb demolishes the headquarters of the United Nations in Baghdad, killing top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others.

—Sept 3: U.S. announces an Iraqi administration largely made up of Iraqi exiles who opposed Saddam.

—Oct. 26: A barrage of rockets slams into the Al-Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone, killing an American lieutenant colonel and injuring 17 other people. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the war, who was visiting Baghdad, escapes injury.

—Dec. 13: Saddam is captured in an underground hideout near Tikrit.

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2004

—Feb. 1: Two suicide bombers attack Kurdish political offices in Irbil, killing 117 people and injuring 133.

—March 2: Multiple explosions rock Baghdad and Karbala at the climax of a Shiite festival, killing nearly 200 people in the deadliest attack so far.

—March 31: Four Blackwater security contractors are ambushed and killed in Fallujah, setting off the first battle for the insurgent-dominated city west of Baghdad.

—April 4: Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launch attacks across southern Iraq after the U.S tries to close his newspaper. Fighting rages until the end of August.

—April 18: U.S. announces an investigation into abuses against detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison as gruesome photos emerge showing Iraqi prisoners humiliated.

—May 17: The head of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, is killed in suicide attack near the entrance to the Green Zone.

—May 19: U.S. jets mistakenly bomb a wedding party in western Iraq, killing 42 people, including women and children.

—June 28: The U.S. transfers sovereignty to the Iraqis but retains most real power. The civilian head of the occupation authority, L. Paul Bremer, leaves the country.

—July 1: Trial of Saddam begins with the ousted leader appearing at his first hearing.

—Sept. 30: A car bomb strikes American troops handing out candy to children, killing up to 35 children.

—Nov. 7: U.S. soldiers and Marines launch the biggest attack of the war to date to seize the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

—Dec. 21: A bomb kills 22 people, including 18 Americans, at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul.

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2005

—Jan. 26: A helicopter crashes in western Iraq, killing 31 Americans.

—Jan. 30: Iraqis select a new parliament in the first elections since the fall of Saddam. Shiite and Kurdish parties take an overwhelming majority after Sunnis largely boycott.

—Feb. 28: A vehicle bomb kills 127 people in Hillah in the deadliest blast to date.

—March 4: Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena is freed by Italian intelligence but the rescuing agent is killed when U.S. troops fire on their vehicle en route to Baghdad airport.

—Aug. 28: An Iraqi commission submits a draft constitution to parliament.

—Aug. 31: Rumors of a suicide bomber panics Shiite marchers in a religious procession at a Baghdad bridge and nearly 10,000 people reportedly die in the stampede.

—Sept. 14: A series of bombings kills 160 people in Baghdad in a dramatic escalation of the insurgency.

—Oct. 15: Iraqis approve the new constitution in a referendum.

—Oct. 24: The Palestine and Sheraton hotels, favored by Western journalists, are struck by multiple truck bombs.

—Nov. 19: U.S. troops kill 24 people, including 15 noncombatants, in Haditha after an insurgent attack.

—Dec. 15: Iraqis choose a new parliament in the first election under the new constitution.

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2006

—Feb. 22: Sunni militants bomb the Shiite Golden Dome shrine in Samarra, triggering a wave of sectarian violence that brings Iraq to the brink of civil war.

—June 7: The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is killed in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.

—June 17: U.S. troops launch a battle to take control of the western city of Ramadi in a bloody conflict that persists for more than a year.

—July 9: Shiite militias kill 40 Sunnis in the Jihad neighborhood of Baghdad as sectarian war spreads to the capital.

—Nov. 23: Bombs kill more than 200 Shiites in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood.

—Dec. 30: Saddam is executed by hanging.

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2007

—Jan. 10: President Bush orders 30,000 reinforcements to Iraq in an effort to stem the sectarian war and stabilize Baghdad.

—Jan. 28: Followers of a Shiite cult launch a battle in Najaf that kills nearly 300 people.

—Feb. 3: A bomb in a Baghdad market kills 135 people.

—Feb. 27: Shiite militias besiege British bases in Basra, ultimately prompting most British forces to leave the country.

—March 23: Iranians seize 15 British navy personnel patrolling near Basra, releasing them April 4.

—March 27: A blast in Tal Afar kills 152 people, setting off a wave of Shiite reprisals that claim 70 Sunni lives.

—April 18: Bombs across Baghdad kill nearly 200 people.

—Aug. 14: A series of bombings directed against the Yazidi religious community in the north kills nearly 800 people.

—Aug. 29: Muqtada al-Sadr announces a cease-fire after a public backlash against his militia following a clash in Karbala that killed 50 people. Attacks against U.S. troops in Shiite areas begin to drop.

—Sept. 16: Blackwater security guards mistakenly believing they were under attack kill 17 civilians in Nisoor Square in Baghdad.

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2008

—Jan. 8: U.S. and Iraqi forces launch operations in Baghdad to secure the capital.

—Jan. 23: Operations begin in Mosul against al-Qaida’s last major urban stronghold.

—Feb. 21: Turkey launches an offensive in northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels from the PKK.

—March 25: Heavy fighting breaks out in Basra as Iraqi forces try to crush Shiite militias, which launch counterattacks in Baghdad. Fighting rages for a month until the Shiites accept a cease-fire.

—Oct. 26: U.S. special operations troops strike in Syria to break up a ring smuggling weapons and fighters into Iraq.

—Nov. 27: The Iraqi parliament approves an agreement with the U.S. calling for the departure of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

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2009

—May 27: The last British combat troops leave Iraq.

—Aug. 19: A massive truck bomb kills about 100 people in Baghdad.

—Oct. 25: Bombs targeting government buildings kill 127 in Baghdad.

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2010

—March 7: Iraqi parliamentary election fails to give power to a single bloc, leading to months of political negotiations and infighting that drag on until a power-sharing deal in November.

—Aug. 18: U.S. combat operations in Iraq end as its last combat brigade departs for Kuwait. Thousands of troops remain behind in a supporting role.

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2011

—April 8: The Iraqi army raids Camp Ashraf, home to Iranian exiles. The raid kills 34 civilians and produces calls for the Iraqi government to honor agreements for the protection of the camp.

—May 5: Car bomb in Hillah kills nearly 30 people.

—June 21: A bomb in the southern city of Diwaniyah kills 20 and injures 30.

—Oct. 21: President Barack Obama announces all troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year.

—Dec. 15: The U.S. military officially declares the end of its mission.

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