Obama lauds progress in Iraq

McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday, declaring it time for U.S. troops to start leaving and Iraqis to take complete charge of their country. Events on the ground illustrated how difficult that may yet prove to be.

The number of violent incidents in Baghdad is increasing: Six car bombs exploded the day before the president’s visit, killing 36 people in the capital. Another one detonated Tuesday before Obama arrived, killing nine more people. Sectarian tensions that led to civil war several years ago are simmering.

Still, in his first visit since becoming president, Obama chose to focus on the positive.

“We should not be distracted because we have made enormous progress working alongside the Iraqi government over the last few months,” Obama said. He maintained that overall violence was down and there had been real movement on political issues.

After meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the home of the senior U.S. commander, Army Gen. Ray Odierno, Obama said his heart went out to the victims of the recent attacks in Baghdad. Obama was greeted at the airport by Odierno, who whisked him off into a black SUV and headed to Al Faw palace, a former residence of Saddam Hussein.

Most U.S. forces are to withdraw from their bases in Iraq this summer. Obama has pushed for all U.S. combat brigades to leave by August 2010. His withdrawal plans would “ultimately result in the removal of all U.S. troops by 2011,” he said.

Addressing hundreds of U.S. soldiers just days before the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Obama added: “It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis.”

Obama campaigned for office on a pledge to end the war here and instead focus U.S. attention on Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. He has banked on a reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq as he seeks to add an additional 21,000 troops in Afghanistan.

But some Iraqi politicians fear that an era of relative peace has been squandered.

A buildup of U.S. troops in 2007 was credited with helping end the civil war. The number of soldiers has dropped now to 135,000 from more than 160,000 two years ago.