Barack Obama

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President Obama greets members of the military at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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President Obama greets members of the military at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Obama salutes as he leaves Marine One before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday, Aug., 31, 2010, for a trip to Fort Bliss, the sprawling Army base in El Paso, Texas, where he will speaks to the troops. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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President Obama walks out of the Oval Office of the White House on Monday to make a statement on the economy in the Rose Garden. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS President Obama will meet Tuesday with soldiers at Fort Bliss in Texas, hours before he delivers a prime-time speech from the Oval Office to mark the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

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WAITING FOR CONGRESS: President Obama says Senate Republicans are holding "hostage" a bill aimed at helping small businesses. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS John Carney, a Democratic candidate for the House in Delaware, talks with Lou Best at a senior center in Wilmington, Del. "I'll support [President Obama] when I think he's right," he said.

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President Obama makes a statement Monday on the economy in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Associated Press)

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President Obama makes a statement on the economy, Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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President Obama makes a statement on the economy, Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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In this Thursday, June 4, 2009, file photo, Gamal Mubarak, center, son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, talks to guests prior to the speech of President Obama at Cairo University. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

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President Obama joins Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who is running for Senate, at a campaign rally in Kansas City on July 8. Her opponent is a seven-term GOP congressman.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS President Obama, speaking at Xavier University in New Orleans on Sunday, the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, lauded the recovery there, but acknowledged that the recession and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have made it even tougher to bounce back. He pledged that his administration will continue assisting the storm-damaged region.

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President Obama greets patrons and staff at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern in New Orleans on Sunday, Aug. 29, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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** FILE ** John Brennan (left), President Obama's counterterrorism adviser, accompanied by White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton, speaks during a news conference in Vineyard Haven, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard on Friday, Aug. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

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President Barack Obama waves to a crowd as he leaves the Bunch of Grapes book store in Vineyard Haven, Mass., on Friday, Aug. 2010, where the first family is vacationing. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Lime's Bayside Bar and Grill at the Marriott in Panama City Beach, Fla., where President Barack Obama, First lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha are luncing, is seen Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010. The Obamas are spending a weekend in Florida, part vacation, part sales pitch, as the president seeks to boost a tourism industry reeling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

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Even as the Obama administration calls on nations to secure religious freedoms globally, advocates say the effort would get a boost with more action and leadership from the United States itself. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS