Administration officials say President Barack Obama is planning to announce that most U.S. troops will be out of Iraq in less than 19 months.
The plan would leave a interim force of between 30,000 and 50,000 to advise and train Iraqi security forces and to provide intelligence and surveillance. They would have to be out by 2011. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The withdrawal would fall three months short of one of Obama's central campaign pledges to remove U.S. troops in 16 months.
A senior White House official says Obama is at least a day away from a final decision.
There are currently 142,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
About 4,250 have died and more than 31,000 wounded since the war began in 2003. It has cost more than $650 billion since 2003.
Who will be the first person to accuse the President of breaking his campaign promise to complete this withdrawal in 16 months?
