US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011?

Sounds like more verbal diarrhea from Pinocchiobama. The Iraq war started in 1990 and has been ongoing ever since, in various degrees of intensity. How realistic is it to put belief in the words of a man who has misled and lied to the American people since way before he was elected?

What has been achieved by the Iraq war since 2003? On the downside:

1. A net loss of $1.5 Trillion and more to the US economy, and contribution of the war(s) to the economic downturn at home.
2. The deaths of 5000 US troops, with many more thousands maimed for life. A continuing cost of $10s of billions to treat injured troops, for years after the war officially "ends".
3. The deaths of anything between 100,000 and 1.2 million Iraqi civilians, and the destruction of essential Iraqi infrastructure, much of which never got fixed. Widespread littering throughout the Iraqi countryside of unexploded bombs and cluster munitions which are still killing and maiming innocent people, mostly children.
4. Mass pollution of land and ground water by radioactive "depleted" uranium throughout Iraq, especially in S. Iraq, essentially for ever. (DU is an alpha-emitter with a half-life of over 4 billion years).
5. Worldwide distrust as regards the US government and its intentions. A greatly enhanced risk of retaliation and revenge attacks against US interests both at home and overseas.... middle easterners don't forget as quickly as we "attention-deficit affected, instant-gratification-addicted" westerners.


On the "upside":

1. Astronomical size profits for oil, "defense", security and surveillance corporations, many of whose senior executives have very close relations with powerful figures within the US government.
2. Our old thug-buddy Saddam Hussein was deposed and executed. The dictator is dead, long live the dictator.

That pretty much covers it.