President Obama will address reports that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of year in a statement scheduled for 12:45PM ET. President Obama's statement comes following a discussion he had with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Last week, reports indicated that the U.S. had abandoned plans to keep forces in Iraq past the December 31 withdrawal deadline and various cable reports now are indicating the decision has been finalized. 40,000 troops are currently in Iraq.
We'll post a live video and updates as they become available.
9:38 AM PT: MSNBC quotes a statement from a White House official saying that President Obama will announce "the complete drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year."
9:41 AM PT: Apparently, Iraq's Parliament would not agree to allow a force of 5,000 remain in the country for training purposes. There may still be a handful of troops, but only to protect the U.S. embassy.
9:42 AM PT: Another quote from that statement delivered to MSNBC: "This will allow us to say definitively that the Iraq war is over."
9:45 AM PT: Here's a link to the White House live feed page.
9:47 AM PT: Here's MSNBC's live feed:
9:50 AM PT: "As a candidate for President I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end...after taking office I announced a new strategy [to remove our troops by the end of 2011]."
9:50 AM PT: "Today I can report ... after nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over."
9:52 AM PT: President Obama says that America's relationship with Iraq now becomes that between two sovereign nations, and that America will continue to support and befriend Iraq, but now through diplomatic and civilian channels.
9:54 AM PT: President Obama says that when he took office, there were 180,000 troops serving in Iraq in Afghanistan and that by the end of the year the number will be half that amount, and that the number will continue to decrease.
9:57 AM PT: President Obama concludes by saluting the service of America's newest veterans, and pledging to repay their sacrifice and making sure they participate in what he says is our most important task: creating jobs and economic opportunity.
9:59 AM PT: For the record, it has now been nearly eight and one half years since George W. Bush declared "Mission: Accomplished." Finally, it's real.