President Barack Obama on Friday told the conflict-weary US public that looming withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq and Muammar Qadhafi's ouster in Libya meant "the tide of war is receding." "After a decade of war, the nation we now need to build is our own," Obama said in sombre Veterans Day holiday remarks after placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in the storied US military cemetery in Arlington.
The president paid tribute to US forces he said pulled Iraq from sectarian chaos and put it on track "to forge a better future," "pushed back the Taliban, decimated al Qaeda" in Afghanistan, and "helped end Qadhafi's brutal dictatorship and returned Libya to its people." And Obama praised the soldiers who killed Osama bin Laden in a daring US commando raid in May, saying they had delivered "the ultimate justice" to the al Qaeda mastermind a decade after the September 11 strikes.
"Because of their incredible efforts, we can stand here today and say with confidence the tide of war is receding," Obama said. He noted that all US combat troops are due to leave Iraq by year's end and quit Afghanistan come 2014, stressing: "My fellow Americans, our troops are coming home."
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