50,000 US Troops

From BBC News:
"US troops in Iraq 'below 50,000' ahead of August target"

The number of US troops in Iraq has fallen below 50,000, ahead of a 31 August deadline when US combat operations are due to end, the US military has said. After taking office last year, US President Barack Obama set the August deadline to cut numbers below 50,000. Last week, the last US combat brigade left the country, seven years after the US-led invasion began. Under a US-Iraq deal, all US troops must pull out by the end of 2011. This number of US troops will remain until the end of 2011 to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests. They will be armed, but will only use their weapons in self-defence or at the request of the Iraqi government, and will work on training Iraqi troops and helping with counter-terrorism operations, the US military said. From 1 September, US troops will operate under Operation New Dawn instead of Operation Iraqi Freedom. There have been as many as 165,000 US troops in Iraq; it was down to 120,000 in January this year, and they have been leaving mostly by the plane-load since then, reports the BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad. The remaining troops will be part of what the Americans have termed AABs (Advise and Assist Brigades), but to suggest that they are non-combat forces is misleading, our correspondent adds. They are fully armed and can switch to combat immediately if asked to do so by the Iraqis. They can also act alone in self-defence without Iraqi permission.

^ No matter what the Government and military call the soldiers still left in Iraq, the fact is that 50,000 of them are still in a war zone. I have the feeling that the media and public will stop thinking of the men and women who are serving over there (especially since most of the public and media already don't seem to care.)People need to remember the sacrifice of these soldiers and the news should keep reporting about Iraq until the last soldier comes home. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11069261