(Updates with Obama meeting with family of soldier killed in Iraq in 10th, 11th paragraphs.)
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama marked the end of the U.S. war in Iraq with a salute to American troops at a military base central to the fight and a pledge to support veterans who are returning home to face a difficult economy.
“As your commander in chief, and on behalf of a grateful nation, I’m proud to finally say these two words,” Obama told soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command. “Welcome home.”
The conclusion of the war is “an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making,” he said. “And today, we remember everything that you did to make it possible.”
A promise to end the conflict in Iraq was a central element of Obama’s campaign for the presidency in 2008. When he took office in January 2009, there were almost 150,000 troops in Iraq. That number has shrunk to less than 8,000 and the number of U.S. military bases in the country has fallen to five from 505. When the pullout is complete, the U.S. presence will be at the embassy in Baghdad, with an array of diplomats, military advisers and contractors.
“There is something profound about the end of a war that has lasted so long,” Obama told troops.
‘Twists and Turns’
He said nine years ago, as troops were preparing to deploy to the Persian Gulf, he was still a state senator in Illinois and many of the soldiers before him were in grade school. The U.S. effort in Iraq since then, “has taken many twists and turns,” he said.
“It is harder to end a war than to begin one,” Obama said. While the Iraq that emerged from the conflict “is not a perfect place,” he said, the U.S. was leaving behind a sovereign and stable country with an elected, representative government.
