House members thank Obama for withdrawing troops from Iraq

Two longstanding House critics of U.S. military operations thanked President Obama for his decision last week to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year.

"I would like to thank President Obama for bringing all of our troops home from Iraq by the end of this year," Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) said on the House floor.

"This war was unnecessary, a war that cost over $850 billion, over 4,400 Americans were killed, and over 33,000 wounded," he added. "It is my hope that future Congresses will not accept misinformation from an administration as justification for sending our troops overseas to engage in combat."

Jones added that he hoped the administration would bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan before the current 2015 timetable.

"I don't know how much America has to take from a corrupt leader like Karzai," Jones said of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "Bin Laden is dead: That was the whole purpose in going to Afghanistan."

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), another vocal opponent of U.S. troop deployment in the Middle East, said Obama's announcement last Friday was welcome, but also "long overdue."

"When I heard the president's announcement that our troops would be home from Iraq by the end of the year, I had one thought: It's about damn time," she said. She also cautioned that the U.S. should make sure not to backslide into a renewed military occupation as it works with Iraq in a "constructive bilateral partnership."

Woolsey started her comments with a simple "Thank you, President Obama," for ending nearly nine years of U.S. military occupation in Iraq.