Obama: Full withdrawal from Iraq by Jan. 1

President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, announcing that all U.S. troops will be withdrawing from the country by year's end as promised in a deal struck before he took office

All U.S. troops will leave Iraq by Jan. 1, formally ending the war that began more than eight-and-a-half years ago and has taken more than 4,400 American lives, President Obama said today.

"After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," Obama said at the White House.

Obama delivered his statement after speaking with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki via a secure video conference.

The war started with a U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003 that ousted longtime Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The initial enthusiasm surrounding Hussein's overthrow quickly gave way to fighting between rival ethnic and religious groups and a long guerrilla war against U.S. forces that reached its peak in 2007, when then-president George W. Bush ordered more than 30,000 extra troops for a "surge" that helped turn the tide.

Although the United States has signed an agreement to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year, officials from both countries had discussed maintaining a small U.S. residual force of 3,000 to 5,000 American troops to train Iraqi forces.

The United States has balked at updating the agreement, however, because Iraq has refused to grant American troops legal immunity in Iraqi courts.

Publicly, al-Maliki had remained neutral on whether to ask residual forces to remain behind. But he faced fierce internal political pressure and recently told Obama administration officials that it was impossible for him to win support for immunity for U.S. troops from the Iraqi parliament, the Associated Press reported.

In making the announcement, Obama stressed that the Iraqis are ready for the transition. At the height of sectarian strife that pushed Iraq to the precipice of civil war in 2005-06, there were more than 1,500 security incidents each week. Presently, there are about 100 security incidents per week.

As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama vowed to end the war. He noted in his remarks to reporters that he was following through with his promise and that it was now time to turn the country's full attention to bolstering the American economy.

"After a decade of war the nation that we need to build and the nation that we will build is our own, an America that sees its economic strength restored just as we've restored our leadership around the globe," Obama said.

There are presently about 40,000 troops in Iraq. The complete withdrawal from Iraq marks a follow-through under a deal brokered between the countries in 2008 by President George W. Bush.

The decision to end the war was applauded by Obama allies.

"The United States is fulfilling our agreement with an Iraqi government that wants to shape its own future," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "The president is also following through on his commitment to end both the conflict in Iraq and our military presence."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supported keeping a residual force behind in Iraq, but said the decision to end the U.S. presence was the right one considering the Iraqis refused to give U.S. troops immunity.

"I was prepared to support a continued presence of U.S. trainers in Iraq beyond the end of this year," Levin said. "But in light of Iraq's refusal to eliminate the possibility that U.S. troops would face prosecutions in Iraqi courts, President Obama has made the right decision."

House Speaker John Boehner commended U.S. troops for their sacrifice and credited the Bush administration.

"The continued drawdown of American troops that began under the previous administration wouldn't be possible if not for the hard work and sacrifice of our servicemembers, diplomats and their families.

Some conservatives, however, condemned the decision.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney questioned the motives behind Obama's decision. "The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government," said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. "The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq."

Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, a GOP presidential candidate, said the United States was being "ejected" from Iraq and called on the administration to demand the Iraqi government compensate the U.S. government for the cost of liberating the country.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that all of the U.S. commanders he has spoken with told him that a continued U.S. military presence was needed beyond 2011.

"I am confident that no U.S. commander of any stature who has served in Iraq recommended the course of action that has now been taken," McCain said.

Fred Kagan, one of the architects of the 2006-07 troop surge that helped turn around the war, also warned that Obama risks squandering hard-fought progress and will sharpen neighboring Iran's influence inside Iraq and increase the chances that the Iraqi government will fail.

"It makes a mockery, moreover, of the notion that the United States is somehow isolating Iran and increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic mere days after the revelation of an elaborate Iranian plot to conduct attacks on American soil," Kagan wrote in a blog posting for the American Enterprise Institute. "What sort of sanctions regime can we maintain if Iraq is effectively a free-trade corridor with Iran?"

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough deflected suggestions that the United States was withdrawing too quickly.

"What the president preferred was for the best relationship for the United States and Iraq going forward," McDonough said. "That's exactly what we have now."

Dating back to his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama was a tough critic of the war, and his opposition was a central aspect of his campaign for the presidency. But today, he centered his comments on what U.S. troops have achieved and how the Iraqi military and political cultural has grown.

"Over the next two months, our troops in Iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home," Obama said. "The last American soldiers will cross the border out of Iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

White House officials downplayed concerns that the Iraqi forces may not be capable of managing the country's security and discounted there will be an uptick in violence as the final U.S. troops leave the country. McDonough stressed it was time to recognize that recognize Iraq is "secure, stable and self-reliant."

Anthony Blinken, national security adviser to Vice President Biden, noted that whenever the U.S. military has reduced its presence — the withdrawal of additional troops sent as part of Bush's 2007 troop surge; U.S. forces exiting Iraqi cities and cutting the American presence to 50,000 servicmembers last year — violence has actually declined.

But the two demurred when asked whether the U.S. sacrifice — more than 4,400 troops killed and nearly $1 trillion in American taxpayer money — was worth it.

"History is going to judge that," Blinken said. "I don't think any of us can say that now."