Speaking at Camp LeJeune, President Obama laid out his plans for Iraq. Bridget has the story and below are the highlights. Check out Obama's full remarks as prepared for delivery after the jump.
Here are the highlights:
By August 31, 2010, all combat troops will be withdrawn
Between 35,000 and 50,000 troops left in Iraq at that point.
All troops out of Iraq by end of 2011.
"Sustained diplomacy" in the country, working with the U.N. to support national elections and improve local governments
Help for displaced Iraqis. "America has a strategic interest - and a moral responsibility - to act."
Comprehensive American engagement across the region. "As we go forward the United states will pursue principled and sustained engagement with all of the nations in the region, and that will include Iran and Syria."
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is sending two more troop brigades to Afghanistan.
Obama said in a statement that the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan "demands argent attention and swift action."
"The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan," he said, "and al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from its safe-haven along the Pakistani border."
The president said he has authorized deploying a Marine Expeditionary Brigade this spring and an Army Stryker brigade later in the summer. The brigades will total approximately 12,000 troops, according to news reports.
Obama campaigned on the need for a new strategy in Afghanistan. Once he took office, though, it became unclear what that strategy would be an how many additional troops it would entail.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (OH) and his deputy Republican Whip Eric Cantor (VA) headed out of Iraq on Friday, after spending several days meeting with key U.S. and Iraqi officials.
The leaders - joined by senior House Republicans - met with President Jalal Talabani, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and current Commanding General of Multi National Force-Iraq, Raymond Odierno, in addition to Major General John Kelly (USMC) and Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin (U.S. Army), according to a release issued by Boehner's office.
Armed Services Ranking member John McHugh (N.Y), Intelligence Committee Ranking member Pete Hoekstra (MI), Appropriations Committee members Tom Latham (IA) and Jo Bonner (AL) accompanied the top two House Republicans on the codel.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will travel to Poznan, Poland, as a delegate to Monday's U.N. climate change conference, and the longtime climate advocate says he will tell the conference that "America is back" now that President-elect Barack Obama is entering the White House.
"A very significant component of the message I will carry to Poznan is that America is back--we are back in a position of participation, a position of respecting views and entering real discussions and trying to find the best framework for all of us. And I mean all of us--no nation can be left out of this solution over the long term, and we're all going to have to come to the table," Kerry said yesterday on conference call hosted by the Pew Environment Group
"It's a moment we've been waiting for, many of us, for some period of time--well, for eight years, to be blunt," Kerry said.
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet in Poznan Dec. 1-12 to discuss long-term cooperation on climate change; 190 national delegations are expeted to attend.
Kerry represented the U.S. at the latest round of U.N. climate negotiations, held in Bali, Indonesia in 2007.
Kerry also said President-elect Barack Obama is poised to demonstrate that the economic crisis is not a roadblock to climate action, and that the two problems can be dealt with by the same solution: green jobs.
"You have to turn this challenge into the economic resurgence, into the economic rebound, and I think that President Obama is poised to show America how a green economy and a transformational economy, away from this dependency on fossil fuels is in fact part of the plan of restoring the economy and strengthening our economy," Kerry said.
World leaders at the G20 summit last weekend appeared to snub President Bush by refusing to shake his hand during a group photo shoot.
In the CNN video, Bush walks with his head down while his those around him, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, exchange greetings.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) could be named the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as soon as Wednesday, according to congressional sources who spoke to the Boston Globe.
Kerry is currently the third-most senior Democrat of the committee, behind Sen. Joe Biden (Del.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.). Biden is leaving the chairmanship to assume the vice presidency, while Dodd said he will remain as chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Kerry has reportedly been a contender to become Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is "actively seeking" an appointment in Barack Obama's administration as Secretary of State, several Democrats told the Associated Press.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, endorsed Obama over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) during the early stages of this year's Democratic nomination fight. Kerry is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is the chairman of the Near East, South and Central Asian Affairs subcommittee.
He is second in line to take over the chairmanship of the full Foreign Relations Committee after Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). The current chairman is Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who will become the vice president in January.
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