President Obama to visit Fort Bliss troops before Tuesday Ov
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President Obama to visit Fort Bliss troops before Tuesday Oval Office address
06:23 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 25, 2010
By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will visit troops at Fort Bliss on Tuesday before delivering an Oval Office address to the nation on Iraq that night, a White House official said this afternoon.
The trip to the sprawling base in El Paso will mark Obama's fourth visit to Texas, and the second this month.
Last fall, he celebrated volunteerism at Texas A&M University with former President George Bush. He also spoke at a memorial service at Fort Hood, the nation's largest military installation, after a massacre in November. Two weeks ago he visited Dallas and Austin to raise campaign cash for Democrats.
Obama plans a televised address to the nation on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Texas time about Iraq, the White House said.
The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in recent days, leaving fewer than 50,000 U.S. military personnel – the lowest level since the invasion in 2003.
Tuesday marked the deadline Obama had set to shift from a combat mission to one focused on training and counter-terrorism.
About 600 soldiers from the Bliss-based 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division have been returning in recent weeks, about 10 months after being deployed. Some 1,200 are expected to remain in Iraq through November. Several hundred are in Afghanistan.
Since 2003, more than 150,000 troops – including active duty, guard and reserve – have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from Fort Bliss, home to about 22,000 military personnel.
Obama has been under pressure from Texas leaders to visit the border and learn first-hand about security issues. Ciudad Juárez, El Paso's neighbor across the Rio Grande, has been ground zero in Mexico's violent drug war.
The White House hasn't said whether border security will be on the president's agenda that day.
Gov. Rick Perry reiterated his demand for more federal resources along the border.
“It's great that Obama is meeting with the troops in El Paso,â€
