Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

IN BAGHDAD the daily toll of death and kidnapping remains remorselessly high; the sectarian divisions just as deep; civil society in tatters; electricity sporadic; reconstruction barely begun; as the country drifts rudderless without a government nearly six months after elections. But for President Obama it is “time to turn the page”. Addressing the US public on Tuesday night in his second prime-time address from the Oval Office, he declared an end to the war. “Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended,” he said, expressing the hope “that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilisation”. It is a hope sadly belied by the reality on the ground.

Mr Obama spoke of the genuinely huge price the US and its troops have paid for a war that he inherited most unwillingly from George Bush. Some 1.5 million troops served in Iraq, their numbers now down from a high of 170,000 to 50,000, comprising only trainers and non-combat forces. More than 4,400 died in seven years of fighting and 32,000 were wounded. The war’s €586 billion financial cost far outstripped original estimates, contributing sharply to Washington’s spiraling deficit.