U.S. has paid “huge price” in Iraq: Obama

AP President Barack Obama walks to the Oval Office after arriving via Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.

In an important policy speech that marked the end of the United States’ combat operations in Iraq, President Barack Obama said, “Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country.”

Remarking on the cost of the war of more than seven years, he said that the U.S. had met its responsibilities throughout this “remarkable chapter in the history of the U.S. and Iraq.” However Mr. Obama sought to shift the emphasis to ending the war, saying, “Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest – it is in our own. The U.S. has paid a huge price to put the future of Iraq in the hands of its people.”