Meanwhile, on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said he will soon announce a plan to end the war in Iraq.

President Obama: “I am now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war.”

Administration officials say Obama is preparing to order US combat troops to withdraw from Iraq by August 2010. The nineteen-month deadline would be three months longer than what Obama proposed on the campaign trail. As many as 50,000 US troops would still remain in Iraq under Obama’s plan. A “senior military officer” told the Los Angeles Times, “When President Obama said we were going to get out within 16 months, some people heard, 'get out', and everyone’s gone. But that is not going to happen.”