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President Obama, welcoming Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq to the White House on Monday, said that after eight years of war, Iraq had become a “sovereign, self-reliant and democratic” country that could serve as a model for aspiring democrats across the Middle East. Mr. Obama, who as a young politician labeled Iraq a “dumb war” and campaigned on a pledge to end it, used language reminiscent of the Bush administration to justify the costly commitment of American lives and treasure. mulberry bagsThanks to these sacrifices, he said, “what we have now achieved is an Iraq that is self-governing, that is inclusive and that has enormous potential.” The two leaders appeared at a news conference after a morning of meetings, and a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, meant to mark a historic milestone in the relationship between the countries as the last American military convoy prepared to roll out of Iraq this month. Yet the meetings also underscored the nations’ continuing ties, with Mr. Obama making it clear that the United States would supply Iraq with military hardware and training for years to come. The administration announced it would sell 18 more F-16 fighter jets to Iraq, helping rebuild an air force destroyed by war, and Mr. Maliki said he was seeking other military equipment. History will judge whether the decision to go to war was a mistake, Mr. Obama said. But he and Mr. Maliki both tried to keep their focus on the future, describing a partnership that they said would extend far beyond security to trade, energy investment and educational exchanges. Iraq’s economy was projected to grow faster than that of China or India, Mr. Obama noted. Still, the complexity of the relationship was also in plain view, particularly regarding a split over how to respond to the brutal crackdown in Syria. Mr. Obama has imposed sanctions and called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying his “capacity to retain legitimacy inside Syria, I think, is deeply eroded.mulberry sale” Mr. Maliki, while affirming support for the Syrian people, said he did not have “the right to ask a president to abdicate” and did not favor a trade embargo. Unresolved issues include the status of Camp Ashraf, where thousands of dissident Iranians have been labeled terrorists and detained, and what will happen to the last remaining prisoner being held by the American military in Iraq, mulberry bags for saleAli Musa Daqduq, a Lebanese suspected of being a Hezbollah operative and accused of involvement in a 2007 raid by Shiite militants in Karbala that resulted in the deaths of five American soldiers. Outside the White House, about a thousand supporters of the Iranian dissident group the Mujahedeen Khalq, known as M.E.K., rallied to demand that the group be removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist groups, and that the residents of Camp Ashraf be protected. They waved yellow banners and were addressed by Tom Ridge, the former secretary of homeland security, and other former senior officials, who support their demands.