Iraq Troop Withdrawal: US Combat Troops Out by Year-End (VIDEO)

Effectively announcing mission accomplished, the White House announced today that U.S. Combat troops would withdraw completely from Iraq before the end of the year. 

 Iraq Troop Pullout: U.S. Combat Troops Out by Year-End

Republican reaction was swift and strong against the Obama White House after the announcment; Mitt Romney blasted the Obama administration's "astonishing failure" of policy and "wasting" of American blood with an immedate pullout from Iraq.

With the fall of Moammar Gaddafi, and the killing of Osama bin Laden in the past, President Obama announced today that the 45,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq would be withdrawn leaving behind around four to five thousand diplomats and private contractors in Bagdad.

The White House believes that with regards to dealing with Iran, there is still State Department, CIA and international sanctions available as means to deal with the bellicose Arab nation.

President Obama also left the door open for troop training in Iraq, but for now that training would be in the United States after a deal failed that would have left a considerable training force in the country.

United States and Iraq, said Mr. Obama, would pursue “a normal relationship between two sovereign nations, and equal partnership based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

By bringing troops out of Iraq, a nearly nine-year military operation that cost the lives of 4,400 troops and more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money, will end.