 President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end. In a Friday morning video conference, Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to a complete U.S. military departure that will fulfill a promise important to Obama’s reelection effort. The decision drew sharp criticism from his Republican rivals, as well as expressions of relieved support from those who believe it is time for the United States to conclude a war Obama once called “dumb.” 
 
 For months, U.S. and Iraqi officials had been negotiating the terms of an accord that would have kept several thousand U.S. troops in Iraq for special operations and training beyond the year-end deadline set by the George W. Bush administration. As a result, only a contingent of fewer than 200 Marines assigned to help protect the large U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad will remain, along with a small number of other personnel to provide training related to new military sales and other tasks. “The rest of our troops in Iraq will come home,” Obama said Friday at the White House, adding that they will “be home for the holidays.” 
 
 “After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” he said. The U.S. military role in Iraq has been mostly reduced to advising the security forces in a country where levels of violence had declined sharply from a peak of sectarian strife in 2006-2007, but attacks remain a daily occurrence. The loyalty is to the political parties and to the sects.” 
 
 Administration officials said Iraqi forces are indeed prepared to preserve the nation’s stability. Denis McDonough, the White House's deputy national security adviser, said that in addition to the standard Marine security detail, the U.S. will also have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors to provide security for U.S. diplomats, including at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and U.S. consulates in Basra and Erbil.
– A holiday present for families of soldiers serving in Iraq: Everybody's coming home by the end of the year, President Obama announced today. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," said Obama, who had announced the end of the combat mission earlier this year, notes AP. The US had considered leaving several thousand troops in the country for special ops and training but could not reach an agreement on that with the Iraqi government, reports the Washington Post. That means the only US forces in the country next year will be the relative handful, about 150, necessary to provide protection for the US embassy and American diplomats. "Today I can say that troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays," said Obama, who spoke earlier in the day with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. More than 4,400 American forces have been killed since the US invaded in 2003, notes MSNBC.