Obama decision near on 2010 exit from Iraq

WASHINGTON — President Obama is nearing a decision that would order U.S. combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010 as he seeks to finally end a war that has consumed and polarized the United States for nearly six years, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

The timetable would give the military three months more to withdraw than the 16-month pullout Obama promised while campaigning, a compromise that could assuage the concerns of commanders who want to cement security gains, strengthen political institutions and further stabilize Iraq.

Even with the withdrawal order, Obama plans to leave behind a "residual force" of tens of thousands of troops to continue training Iraqi security forces, hunt down foreign terrorist cells and guard U.S. institutions, just as he said he would during last year's campaign.

Obama, who met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday, has not made a final decision but could complete his review and announce his plan this week, administration officials said. It was not clear Tuesday exactly how many of the 140,000 troops would remain in Iraq after August 2010 or whether any of the 14 combat brigades now there would stay under a new mission.

The 19-month time frame for the withdrawal of combat troops split the difference with military commanders who proposed a range of options, including the 16-month withdrawal Obama promised last year and a longer timetable that would have spread the withdrawal over 23 months. Obama's advisers said they believed they had reached an accommodation that would satisfy both the military and a public eager to get out of Iraq, while relieving the strain on the armed forces and freeing up resources for Afghanistan.

The troop withdrawal also could help to ease the budget pressure the White House is facing as Obama seeks to make good on a promise to cut the federal deficit in half by 2013, when his current term will end.

In recent weeks, Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed the three withdrawal options — 16, 19 and 23 months — with the president. Pentagon officials characterized the discussions as extensive and said each option was presented with what Gates and Mullen saw as the accompanying risks.

Both Gates and Mullen made their own recommendations, but Pentagon officials declined to specify them.

The top two commanders responsible for Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno, have declined to say what options they preferred, but military officials have made it clear that the two were uncomfortable with the 16-month drawdown that Obama pledged during the campaign.

Administration officials said it was possible that Obama would announce his decision on Iraq troop withdrawals Friday during a visit to North Carolina, possibly either at Camp Lejeune or Fort Bragg. Camp Lejeune is the home of some 8,000 Marines who are to be deployed to Afghanistan in the next few weeks under a plan Obama announced last week to send 17,000 additional troops to the country.