SOFA

Obama ran on the campaign pledge of bringing a responsible end to the Iraq War, and announced shortly after taking office that combat operations would end in 2010 After the success of the surge in 2008 Iraq had settled down and things were looking positive. Military people told the President that he should leave a residual force of about !0,000 troops there to maintain stability but Obama refused giving as an excuse that he could not extend the status of forces agreement (SOFA). That is an agreement that protects US troops from being accused of a crime and convicted in an Iraqi court. Critics said Obama was just using that as an excuse to pull out. Many feel that the pullout opened the door for ISIS. In any event a few years later Obama put 5,000 troops back in Iraq and they still do not have a SOFA. This adds credence to the claim that Obama just wanted out and used the SOFA as a reason. In the news today it was announced that US Marines are now on the ground in Iraq and there still is no SOFA.