On November 17, 2008, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “reached an agreement requiring American troops to withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009 and to pull out of the country altogether by the end of 2011. The agreement was controversial inside an administration that had spent years resisting any kind of timetable in Iraq. [Republican National Committee Chairman] Ed Gillespie opposed it, calling it an ‘eviction notice.’ But Bush signed off on it after [Commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq] David Petraeus and his successor, General Ray Odierno, endorsed it.”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 620