Obama announces total Iraq troop withdrawal

By BEN FELLER - AP White House Correspondent | AP – 1 hr 7 mins ago [EXCERPTS]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all American troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end.
Obama's statement put an end to months of wrangling over whether the U.S. would maintain a force in Iraq beyond 2011. [...]
"I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year," Obama said. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over." [...]
The U.S. military presence in Iraq stands at just under 40,000. All U.S. troops are to exit the country in accordance with a deal struck between the countries in 2008 when George W. Bush was president.
Obama, an opponent of the war from the start, took office and accelerated the end of the conflict. In August 2010, he declared the U.S. combat mission over.
"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 soldier 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."

With this announcement, it would appear my speculation and premise that the conflict is the fulfillment of the 2,600 year old prophecy in chapters 50 and 51 of the book of Jeremiah in the hebrew bible is plainly and simply wrong.

The prophet declares that the cities of Iraq would be set on fire, and that the fires are what exhaust the nations who have invaded and occupied the land, so that they say, "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed..." And so they "forsake" the land, each returning to his own country.

But here we have Obama declaring the withdrawal based on "success" and in a simple fulfillment of an agreement to do so.

That is not what Jeremiah described as the basis for the withdrawal of the occupying forces.

Unless the cities burn very soon, so that Obama is forced to give the Jeremiah "We applied healing..." speech, we are not witnessing the fulfillment of Jeremiah's ancient prophecy of doom on Babylon.

And I guess that is a good thing, since the remaining judgments were horrific, and culminated in utter desolation.