Illinois Senator Barack Obama has formally launched his presidential campaign. If elected, the Illinois Democrat would become the country’s first African-American president. On Saturday, Senator Obama addressed thousands of supporters at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois — the site of Abraham Lincoln’s famous “House Divided” speech against slavery in 1858. Senator Obama called for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.

Sen. Obama: “Most of you know that I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today we grieve for the families who’ve lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, the young lives that could have been. America, it’s time to start bringing our troops home. It’s time. It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war.”