Analyzing President Obama's Iraq speech

(NECN) - Last night President Obama said that the United States is "turning the page" on the Iraq war.

Boston University International Relations professor William Keylor says the president's speech was "completely appropriate to the situation. It was a very somber, restrained, almost a little tedious. This war is coming to an end not with a bang, but a whimper."

He says the president knows the attention of the country has shifted elsewhere to economic problems, but felt a need to officially mark the withdrawal.

"Can you imagine at the end of World War II if President Truman had said of the recent war, 'it's time to turn the page' instead of 'let's remember the wonderful job that our G.I.'s did and so-forth'?"

Keylor says the president had very little positive things to say about the war, other than praising the job of the troops on the ground.