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The American Commander in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno has reported to President Obama that the drawdown and end of the combat mission for U.S. Troops in that country is on target for the end of August, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday.

The president heard from Odierno via video conference earlier on Wednesday during a meeting with his national security team in the White House situation room. Gibbs touted what he said was the impending fulfillment of Obama's vow to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to 50,000 and transition their mission fully to training and supporting Iraqi security forces at the end of this month.

According to Gibbs, Odierno reported that Iraqi forces are "fully prepared to be in the lead" after August 31.

"One of the things that General Odierno told the president and others in the meeting was that the level of violence in the past two weeks have been among the lowest in number of incidents that the coalition has seen since record keeping on those incidences began," Gibbs said.

Gibbs added that the administration anticipated a "traditional uptick in violence around Ramadan" among resisting insurgents. He declined to answer directly whether the new phase in the Iraq mission meant that the United States had "won the war."

"I think that by any account, there is still progress to be made in Iraq," Gibbs said. "I think that the president will celebrate the role and-as I've talked about earlier-the effort and the heroism that our men and women in uniform, the role that they played and the role they contributed in bringing about stability to Iraq."

Gibbs added that he was not aware of whether any doubts were expressed in the meeting about the president's vow to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Gibbs also addressed the recent controversy over an interview he gave to The Hill newspaper, in which he criticized what he referred to as the "professional left" for being unsatisfied with President Obama's performance and joked that those who compare Obama to former President George W. Bush should be drug tested.

He said that his remarks were born out of frustration by the kinds of comments he sees on cable news shows and did not expect his words to lead progressives to stay home in midterm elections.

"I don't think they will because what's at stake in November is too important to do that," he said.

Gibbs also touted the president's role in helping lead Colorado Sen. Michael Benett to a big win in Tuesday's Democratic primary and said that results across the country indicated "nothing but good news for the Democratic Party."

After signing a bill designed to create manufacturing jobs, the president has Wednesday afternoon meetings scheduled in the Oval Office with Naval Secretary Ray Mabus and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.