Jay Carney press release

Kynthia Nettle · December 12, 2011

artical that came out of Washington DC today from Makiki visit......Carpe diem RV……..Fortis Fortis Dominus

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release December 12, 2011 Press Gaggle by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 12/12/2011

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

10:52 A.M. EST

MR. CARNEY: As you know, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki is here to meet with the President. You will be seeing them both fairly soon.

And if I could just note, this is a momentous visit because, as you know, the Iraq war -- a war that we've been engaged in for 8 and a half years -- is over. And after eight and a half years of sacrifice, America's war in Iraq is coming to an end. Since President Obama took office, nearly 150,000 U.S. troops have been removed from Iraq and hundreds of bases have been shut down. In the next two weeks the final U.S. forces will cross the border. For the first time in over eight years no U.S. troops will be preparing to deploy to Iraq. We will have no bases in Iraq. The war is over and the troops are coming home.

Q Thank you. We've heard a lot of talk about building a durable friendship, an enduring partnership. Can you talk just a little bit about what the strategic partnership will look like between the U.S. and Iraq, and whether -- how much monetary aid and for how long will be part of this?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I don't have any specific proposals or initiatives to lay out, but it is absolutely the case that our relationship with Iraq will remain strong; that the intensity of our engagement at the economic, diplomatic, cultural, educational, as well as security levels will remain strong; and we will have a significant presence in Iraq.

We have invested an enormous amount in Iraq’s future, we have had so many Americans sacrifice so much for the future of that country that it is very much in our interest to maintain a positive relationship with Iraq and to build on what is a very strong foundation in that relationship. But it will be a relationship between two sovereign nations, and it will be a relationship similar to the kinds that we have with other countries around the globe.

As for specifics in terms of the nature of the programs and things that we might have and that we might engage in with Iraq, I’ll leave that to others for later.

Yes.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/12/press-gaggle-press-secretary-jay-carney-12122011