9 per centof allresi - dents in Luzerne County lived bel owthepovert y lev el.By 2009, that jumped to 13 perce nt. Census figures, more people in Luz erne County are livi ng in poverty than two years ago. Obama, an opponent of the war fromthestart,tookofficeandaccel. troops are to exit the country inaccordancewithadealstruckbe- tween the countries in 2008 when Georg e W.Bush waspresident. mili tary pre sen ce in Ira qstandsatjustunder40,00 0.All U.S. “A fter nea rly nine yea rs,Ameri ca’ s warin Ira q wil l be over.” Obam a spok e afte r a priv atevid- eo conf ere nce with Iraqi Prim e Ministe r Nourial-Maliki,and heof- fer ed ass ura ncesthatthe twolead- ersagre edon thedecis ion.
“I can report that, as pro m- ised, the rest of ou r tr oo ps in Ira q wil l come ho me by th e endof theyear ,” Obam a said. Instead, Oba- ma spok e of a promise kept, a ne w day fo r a self-r eliant Iraq and a focus on building up the e co n o m y a t home. for ces there as a train- ing force and a hed ge aga ins t meddlin g from Ir an or ot he r outsideforces. He never mention ed the tens e and ulti - mately fruitless negotiations with Ira q ove r whe the r tokeep se ve ra l tho u- sandU.S. w o u l d main taina for ce in Ira q bey ond 201 1.
Obama’sstatementputanendto monthsof wran- g l i n g o v e r whe the r the U. his tory, anno unci ngthat all American troops would be with- drawn from the country by year’s end. W ASHI NG TON - Pre sid ent Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the long estand mos t divi siveconfli cts in U.