President meets with troops in Texas ahead of announcement
U.S. President Barack Obama headed to Texas to thank troops at a military base ahead of a speech Tuesday in which he will declare the end of America’s seven-year-long combat mission in Iraq. Though U.S. presidents rarely make addresses from their official office, it will be Obama’s second time since mid-June, when he addressed the nation about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama vowed to withdraw all but 50,000 U.S. troops by Aug. 31, a reduction of about 90,000 forces by the end of his first 20 months in office. A White House spokesperson repeatedly brushed aside questions about whether Obama would credit Bush’s troop surge with helping to pave the way for the withdrawal, as he was a vocal opponent to former President George Bush’s plan to boost U.S. troop strength by thousands in 2006.