Iraq top of Obama's to-do list
2009-01-18 19:14
Washington - Barack Obama's first order of business as US president will be to direct the military to exit Iraq and task his economic team with pulling the nation out of recession, his spokesperson said on Sunday.
Incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said also that Obama's inaugural speech was more or less complete, as the president-elect prepared to kick off three days of celebrations with a concert at the Lincoln Memorial.
"First he's going to meet with his economic team to see where we are on an economic recovery and re-investment plan ... so that the American people can feel confident that things are moving in the right direction," Gibbs told Fox News Sunday.
"And he'll also meet with military advisers to talk about the conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.
"The goal of the meeting certainly as it relates to Iraq is to keep our commitment to remove responsibly and safely our troops, our combat brigades over the course of the next 16 months."
Guantanamo Bay
Obama is vowing to redeploy the military from Iraq and power up the US offensive against a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the crucible of outgoing President George W Bush's "war on terror".
While Obama has warned that shutting down Guantanamo Bay will not be done quickly or easily, Gibbs signalled that the process of closing the war on terror internment base would start in the first week of his presidency.
"I think you'll see a series of things where the president will keep his commitments that he made during the campaign," he said when asked about what kind of executive orders Obama would issue in his term's first 24 hours.
On the speech that Obama will deliver after he is sworn in at noon on Tuesday, Gibbs said it will be "heavily infused with this notion of responsibility and getting our country back on track".
"He had to clear his schedule from virtually everything last weekend - sat down and wrote out the bulk of the speech as it is now," he said.
Will take time
"And I think he's relieved to have something on paper and ready to give on Tuesday."
Gibbs vied to temper runaway expectations for the Obama presidency after Bush's profoundly controversial two terms.
"We did not get into the situation overnight. The problems and the challenges that our country face didn't happen all last week. It's going to take us some time," he said.
"Everything's not going to be done in the first month of this administration, but we're going to work hard each and every day to bring change to Washington and to bring hope and confidence to the American people."