"We have drawn down from the surge," he said, "and we will complete that drawdown at the end of July.
The Obama administration hopes to begin withdrawing forces within months and to complete a drawdown by 2014 (a plan reiterated by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in Afghanistan this week).
Obama has completed the drawdown in Iraq that was begun under his Republican predecessor.
As the U.S. completes its drawdown of military forces in Iraq, the country is solidifying its own sectarian and ethnic divisions — the culmination of a process that began with the invasion in 2003.
A recent independent assessment by a thinktank close to the Pentagon found that the Taliban-led insurgency is likely to swell after this year's troop drawdown is complete, necessitating up to a $6bn annual commitment to Afghan security forces to make up the difference.
The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, refused under persistent questioning from Senate Democrats to say under what conditions he would favor new troop reductions, adding that he would not take the matter up until 45 days after a current drawdown is complete in July.
After this drawdown is complete, in 2010, we will then look at how to bring the rest of them home before the deadline we have already agreed to.
U.S. commanders say they expect to have 140,000 troops in Iraq once that drawdown is completed in July.
When this initial drawdown is completed, the number of troops will drop to about 157,000 from 162,000 in June, when the American troop level was at its peak.
They would not typically be released while the U.S. military was using the base, but concerns appear to have waned now that the military drawdown there is complete.
