Obama ends Iraq war as US loses power and relevance

PRESIDENT Barack Obama has marked the end of America's military involvement in Iraq with a welcome home speech for troops at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Obama declared the military operation a “success”, saying US troops were proudly leaving behind “a stable and self-reliant Iraq”. Commentators were less triumphant. While some called the withdrawal ‘dignified’, others suggested that the US left Iraq because it was no longer relevant.  
 
Obama right to praise troops

The cost of the war both to American troops and to Iraqis was great, says an editorial in The Daily Telegraph. “Serious questions also remain over whether the war was legitimate in the first place.” As for British involvement, these questions will be answered when the Chilcot Inquiry reports next summer.
 
But Obama was right to pay tribute to the sacrifices made by those who served in Iraq, says the Telegraph. “They cannot be blamed for the mistakes of their political masters.”

Exit timed for elections

It was tricky for Barack Obama, writes North America editor Mark Mardell for BBC News. “He had to praise the troops but bury a war he had once called ‘dumb’.” No-one wants to be told their sacrifice was for nothing, so Obama listed the merits of a war he has always opposed.

The end had come sooner than many imagined, adds Mardell, and while the US military and the Iraqi government failed to reach an agreement which would allow thousands of US troops to remain, Obama is unlikely to be “heartbroken by this failure”.
 
US has lost relevance

To give credit where it is due, Obama did face down the military and neo-cons to set the date for withdrawal, says Adrian Hamilton in The Independent, thus achieving an end that may not be “victorious”, but is “at least reasonably dignified”.  
 
But the departure is an indication not so much of its achievement in bringing about a new order after Sadam Hussein, says Hamilton, as “the extent to which the US force has simply become a less and less important player in the country’s affairs”.
 
The Guardian questions the US President calling the withdrawal a successful, honourable conclusion. In an editorial titled Retreat from Baghdad, the paper says the Iraq war “sits comfortably alongside the greatest military blunders in history”.
 
“The scars of this great folly will be born by generations to come,” says the Guardian. And as the influence of Iran increases, the fight for the destiny of the Arab region is being won, “but not by America”. ·