Iraq Troop Withdrawal: "On Schedule and As Promised".

It's the applause of the disabled veterans as Obama talks of bringing American troops home from Iraq that I find so encouraging.

As a candidate for President, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. (Applause.) Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing -- as promised and on schedule.

Already, we have closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of bases. We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades. By the end of this month, we’ll have brought more than 90,000 of our troops home from Iraq since I took office -- more than 90,000 have come home.

There was a day when that applause seemed only to come when Bush spoke of "victory". It's reassuring to see that so many veterans now agree that the sooner this is over, the better.

This really was the war that should never have been waged.

Tags: Iraq war, Obama