White House: No exit date for long-term troop presence in Iraq

On Wednesday, the White House announced that 450 more American troops will be sent to Iraq, though press secretary Josh Earnest wouldn't offer any exit date for these soldiers or the more than 3,000 U.S. troops already in the country. "I wouldn't put a timeline on it other than to say that the president has acknowledged since last year that this won't be a short-term proposition," Earnest explained.

The count of U.S. troops in Iraq has steadily increased over the course of the last year, accompanied by swelling ranks of contractors:

This long-term commitment of military members close to the front lines of ISIS activity comes more than a decade after President George W. Bush announced the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq with his now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. It also comes three and a half years after President Barack Obama declared the end of the Iraq war in December 2011.

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