As Iraq war ends, Obama welcomes troops home

 

 

 

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — More than three years after he campaigned against the Iraq war near this Army post, President Obama returned Wednesday to hail the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who fought to establish the “sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq” that America is leaving behind this month.

With his wife, Michelle, by his side, Obama marked the United States’ imminent departure from Iraq by telling hundreds of service members, many clad in fatigues and maroon berets signifying active airborne status, that the war was a “source of great controversy” at home. As a U.S. senator, Obama opposed the decision to invade Iraq and railed against the conflict in a 2008 campaign speech in nearby Fayetteville.