In a special episode from DC, presented by Abderrahim Foukara, Inside Iraq takes a look at where US policy in Iraq is going.

Earlier this summer, US troops withdrew from Iraq's main cities, a move seen as the first step in the US exit strategy from the country it invaded in 2003.

Barack Obama, the US president, has said that by August of 2010, the combat mission in Iraq will be over.

What will this mean for the US forces on the ground? And what will it all mean for Iraq?

Inside Iraq discusses with guests: Thomas E Ricks, the author of The Gamble and a Senior Fellow at the Centre for New American Security, Rend Rahim, the former Iraqi ambassador to the US and the president of the Iraq Foundation, and Scott Carpenter, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

This episode of Inside Iraq aired from Friday, August 07, 2009.