and to the distinguished members of the iraqi government, and the iraqi military.or your courage, for your leadership, for your friendship over these many numbers of years. more importantly, thank you for your loyalty to the future of iraq. your dream of an independent and sovereign iraq is now a reality. we are deeply fortunate that in addition to all the great commanders who led our troops here, there are two great americans who stepped forward to lead this mission through this final transition. today we honor these two national treasures. ambassador jeffrey and general austin. jim, i want to thank you for your wise counsel, for your brilliant diplomacy, at a time that called for both. and lloyd, our nation owes you its highest gratitude for your tireless commitment to this mission, through multiple lengthy deployments. i want to offer my deepest thanks on behalf of the american people, for shouldering the burden of leadership. lloyd, your effort to make this day a reality is nothing short of miraculous. this was one of the most complex, logistical undertakings i

people the iraqi people are the ones without a doubt that suffered the most up to a million iraqi people are dead and the whole the whole thing is that what are we going to learn we obviously didn't learn anything from viet nam. we went to iraq so we didn't learn anything from viet nam it was an illegal war in your in your segment in the piece you did which by the with it was excellent you said it was a freedom the iraqi people didn't ask for you nailed it when i was there they would say mr mike that's what they called you they called you mr or ms by your first name we understand mr bush wants to fight the war on terror why does he have to fight it here they were saying the thing i could say in response to that they're the ones that are the big losers and dick cheney and those guys can say whatever they want it's all smoke and mirrors i think that's a really good point i think it's also a good point that you brought up. what did we learn what did we really learn and i think back i remember where i was when that announcement that i showed at the beginning my report was made by george bush

they'll be relying on iraqi military, iraqi police for protection. a lot of u.s.ials are deeply worried that they'll start killing americans to get the remaining americans out which would obviously open the door for even a closer leadersh in iraq and the shiite leadership in iran. that's a great nightmare scenario. it is one that some u.s. officials play down and no doubt, the president and the prime minister will play that down right now. but i can assure you, a lot of experts who have studied iraq are deeply worried about the coming months what's going to happen there. >> arwa, talk a little bit about that, what wolf just mentioned there. there will be some americans who will remain there. what are the feelings of the iraqis towards those americans that are there? are they in danger? is there that threat there? >> reporter: well, look. there is this certain scenario that does exist here and that is that the americans are viewed by some of these shia special groups directly backed by the iranian qods force that they are viewed to be occupiers, they are basically

the untold number of iraqis who have given their lives.on americans, military and civilian, who have served in iraq, nearly 4,500 fallen americans who gave their last full measure of devotion. tens of thousands of wounded warriors and so many inspiring military families. they are the reason that we can stand here today. and we owe it to every single one of them. we have a moral obligation to all of them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice. mr. prime minister? >> translator: and for the obligations of ending war and the commitment through which the american forces will withdraw from iraq which is a withdrawal that affects -- that indicates success and not like others have said that it was negative. but the goals that we established were a shield. iraq had a political process established, democratic process. and adoption of the principles of elections and the peaceful transfer of authority. iraq is following a foreign policy which does not interfere in the affairs of others and does not allow the others to intervene in its own affair

elite and just four percent of iraqis say the iraqi people benefited the most from war jake are you surprised by these results you know i'm surprised that iran's not at the top of the list because i want is greater fifty four percent of iraqis say iran a better than benefited the most. ok well yeah i mean and then i missed that point no this is shouldn't be surprised at all i mean the this year in the south have totally you know hand over fist had partnered with the iranians and prime minister maliki he and macdowell solder as well as the iranian special operations forces should pat themselves on the back because they hoodwinked hoodwinked the united states and this it's this situation and it wasn't obama that did it this was an agreement that the bush administration screwed up again so now i'm not i'm not surprised by this and it's it's it is just a sad sad tragedy and i think it's a thank god that the things over with though we can say that much michael you're sitting here nodding your head that in that jake said that that sort of resonated with you agreeing with everything jake s

the iraqi security forces, the iraqi army as i've seen it does seem to be in very good shape.he problem is the infrastructure in this country and the political system. >> what about just the iraqi people? we've seen reports of celebrations on the street, jubilation and also some fear that they are being left behind. >> we haven't seen very much celebrations. we've seen a lot of anger, in fact. you're not seeing iraqis saying thank you to american troops as they are leaving. instead, many iraqis we've been speaking to are saying this country is still very much broken, yes a dictator has been removed, a tyrant has been removed, but there are still problems with water, power. many neighborhoods in baghdad only receive two, three, four hours of electricity a day and the sectarian tensions that exploded here in the war between sunnis and shiites in 2006/2007 is still really just below the surface. >> nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engle live for us in baghdad as this end of mission ceremony continues to be under way. kefl continue to cover it on msnbc. we're going to take

this is making many iraqis in secure. >> the iraqi defense ministry says that the country's security forces will be able to maintain public order when u.s. troops have left. >> we have several options. there are agreements on cooperation with the u.s. and countries in europe, like france and germany. >> that does little to allay the fears of some business partners. some worry that the country might descend into civil war when the americans have left. >> of all of the other challenges facing iraq, there has been no political reconciliation between the three main ethnic and religious groups in the country. they are scrambling for both power and resources, like oil, water, and land. there are also concerns about how regional partners, like iran and saudi arabia, will jockey for influence. but the biggest problem remains day-to-day security. >> seems like these are part of everyday life for the people in iraq. many lived in constant fear of attacks. it remains a major battleground for the al qaeda terrorist network. it could open the way for al qaeda to grow even stronger in iraq. >> con

portrays the way that the iraqis feel about the war after the u.s. has pulled out and a very very small percentage of iraqis feel that they benefited from the war who did benefit from this war well of course american military contractors hello burton those who got the big contracts for the reconstruction during the occupation forces they made a lot of money the pentagon generally made a lot of money spent two trillion dollars i think that's the real budget then all that money goes to american contractors and corporations they profit but four thousand five hundred plus american soldiers died tens of thousands had life changing rooms you know as you'll report there are rising tide of american suicides among some american military people who've been deployed over and over again and the big losers are of course the iraqi people they lived at peace they had a nationally unified country they had relative affluence for the region women had rights relative to the region a lot of that has been shattered and is gone and it may take generations to recover now w

this is iraqi politics at its best. had the bloc suspending its membership from parliament. and if you'll remember, when he this government was initially formed, it was mostly an agreement between the irra kia blk headed by the former prime minister, a mostly sunni bloc although viewed as being secular and the bloc of iraqi prime minister the state of law coalition. this was supposed to be a power-showering agreement but members of iraquiia will tell you that it is anything but. they are accusing the prime minister of consolidating power. he maintains full control over the national security portfolio, in other words the ministries of defense and interior. in fact, his deputy went so far as to directly call him a dictator who is refusing to relinquish power and he had a warning for the united states especially at this the point in time. he said that al malaki was playing iran and the u.s. that one day the u.s. wos realize this and growths to regret their decision to back the prime minister, hala. >> hala, you have a uniq

in a moment we will speak to the iraqi deputy prime minister live from baghdad. first, humphrey hawksley reports on today's events. >> and controversial invasion and nine years later it endured with a dignified ceremony to mark the military withdrawal. 1.5 million troops deployed here over that time, 4500 killed, and $1 trillion spent on the war. but america says its state of course, and it was worth the cost in blood and dollars. >> no words, no ceremony, can provide full tribute to the sacrifices that have brought this day to pass. >>ore business as usual in central baghdad. every family has been impacted from the long years of war and sectarian killing, much of it blamed on america. >> obama praised the efforts of american troops in liberating iraq, but he forgot that the occupation created destruction and violence. >> if the americans have achieved anything, he says, they achieve that for their own benefit. as for iraqis, they paid the high price and you can see by the killings and violence. in fallujah, near baghdad, they filled the streets to mark the withd

the current iraqi political regime is not very friendly with the u.s. but it's very friendly with iran so it's a war theoretically up between the u.s. and iran the current iraqi regime will most definitely take your aunt side that we saw in al with the events in syria there are key government took the syrian government so it was the only government in the border actually. other than lebanon for today against sanctions on syria and they continue to supply syria with embargoed materials like hardware and software to use the sense of. internet censorship but is being brought from the u.s. and sold to syria by the iraqi government so it's another example of this t.j. thalia of the you know.

either circumvent circumvented or blocked the iraqi democratic system when iraqi. try to fight against u.s. interests when the iraqis wanted the us to leave the us tried its best to circumvent the system and state when iraqis wanted to elect their representatives the us tried its best to select their friends and keep them important so it wasn't a sincere process to start with and it was a failure because as you mentioned the majority of iraqis including myself did not believe that democracy would come on us thanks i want to i want to expand this from just the us iraq relationship to the broader picture the sort of global chessboard here and let's talk about iran and syria certainly president obama has called for syrian president bashar al assad to step down more than four thousand people apparently have been killed in those in those protests and then there's the matter of iran and the relationship between the u.s. and iran want to get your take i mean if there is a war and it's involved it involves the u.s. and iran whose side is iraq take and why have they not bee

>> we depend upon the iraqis. and if we need security support we will turn to them and we will tell them, i've got a problem in basra, and you need to help us. >> reporter: the question is, will they? >> i believe they will. >> reporter: that's what an ambassador has to say about his hosts. this is the man who might actually have to deal with that nightmare. lieutenant general robert keslan. how are you going to get 1320 people out of there? if you got 24-hours' notice that something like this was going to happen? are you telling me the iraqi government would evacuate immediately? would get them all out of there? >> i would argue we do have a theater, whether it's in kuwait or elsewhere, that we fall under the central government, centcomm, and i feel confident centcomm has necessary assets to take whatever measure they need to do counter that attack. >> reporter: but why put all those people at risk in the first place? as things turned out, saddam and iraq never did have the bomb. remember? but iraq, now there's a

we have so many iraqis who are here. and i think it's important that we begin the discussion with that fact that there is a deep commitment to bring iraqis here. the program to which trudy referred, the special immigrant visa program does have a ceiling of 5,000 a year. but that's not the program through which most iraqis have come in, as i said, the refugee resettlement program has resettled the vast majority of the 70,000. >> suarez: but a-- . >> brown: but a lot of the people who do want to come under that program, as she is saying, have found it very convoluted, complicated, impossible. >> part of the problem is the program itself has been undersubscribed because iraqis who are in iraq who want to come to the united states often choose the refugee resettlement program, the program through which some 62,000 have come in, because in many respects it is easier to access. and also there are advantages to that refugee program that don't exist for the siv program, for example, more family members can often come in through

hundred billion dollars spent almost five thousand american military deaths and nearly one million iraqi civilians killed many say iraq is no better off today than it was before the u.s. invaded it a recent survey shows overall iraqis feel their country is in worse shape because of the war six in ten iraqis fear a possible civil war increased foreign influence from neighbors terrorist threats and a bleak economic outlook who then benefited from the war certainly not iraqis according to the poll when asked who benefited the most fifty four percent of iraqis say the united states fifty eight percent say saudi arabia and fifty percent say iran only four percent say the iraqi people benefited the most from the war but president obama is touting the pullout as a victory fulfilled promise he made during his campaign one of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the american military. to want iraq's future will be in the hands of its people america's war in iraq will be old. bud just today several bombs rocked baghdad killing at least sixty nine people the explosions appear to have h

most iraqis will tell us what the u.s.thing but success, irrespective of how they felt about saddam hussein. many celebrated the fall of saddam hussein, but few anticipated what would be coming next. one cannot forget the country had huge chucks controlled by al qaeda, sectarian bloodletting, neighborhoods ripped apart by long sectarian lines, and a lot of the iraqis blame the u.s.' mistakes directly for this along with the mistakes made afterwards by their own politicians. you'd be hard-pressed, joe, to find a family in iraq that has not lost someone that they love, and it is because that, the blood that has been shed, they cannot look at this war as a success or victory. their unfuture is uncertain. their government appears to be falling apart at the seam, and this began even before the last u.s. soldier departed. we now have a split within the iraqi government, a bloc that has suspended its membership from parliament. there are great concerns about iran's influence over the country. many iraqis will tell you what we hea

>> the democrats, 1000 iraqis nationwide, 1000 iraqis nationwide, yes.at is what it was. >> okay, can i have the section on the arab spring thing? >> that is going to be the second half of the discussion. >> okay, questions please? >> stanley kober. at his first inaugural address, abraham lincoln said that public opinion has to be the master of a free society, that majorities and minorities can change with elections as public opinion changes and that is how they change really. what is being suggested here as a result of the invasion, the sort of sick terry carrion identity politics strengthened and it raises the question to me, that was the case and if lincoln was correct, that all this talk about institution building, we are kidding ourselves, that it was this creation of the sectarian difference that was fundamental. >> i am with the center for international private enterprise. we work with the iraqi private sector and one of the things we are finding in our recent surveys is that there's quite a negative perception of the political parties themselves.

this is not an indigenous iraqi government.we used to be asked this question, well, what do you think is going to happen to the iraqi government if the u.s. pulls out in my answer was always, i'm not sure but i'm guessing it probably won't survive without u.s. troop support. if it doesn't that's okay because it means it doesn't have the indigenous credibility that a government needs. it's a creature of the u.s. occupation. it sdepdoesn't mean it's going e easy to create a new government. i don't know what that new government is going to look like. i can be pretty sure it will not be the kind of government i would want to live under. it will probably be a little more religious than i would like. i'm a secular jewish girl from california but i don't get to live there. it's not my country. >> i understand the caution caution general powell had, if you break, it you own it. however, after this period of time, there does come to the national security interest where we began our discussion of saying, what the overall impact of contin

. >> iraqi interpreter mustafa abdul remembers growing up in the iraqi capital. >> i never cooked in iraq. i am a great cook right now because i had my mother and grandma and sisters cooking when i was living in baghdad. >> in 2003 he was 30 years old and one of 30 million iraqis who waited nervously for war. >> when president bush came on tv... >> sadam hussein and his sons must leave iraq within 48-hours. >> we kind of had an idea of when it was going to start. kind of, you know, torn between -- i had mixed emotions, very extremely happy like hell yeah, very excited that it is fully happening, but at the same time you are questioning everything, what if it doesn't work out? >> what if sadam hussein uses chemical gases and kills us all. until i heard the first bomb. it was like okay, it's happening. and i tell you what, one of the feelings i had in that particular moment, what am i going to do? am i going to be a part of it? am i even going to get the opportunity to participate in this. >> this picture here is taken at a place called objective montgomery what the u.s. army called it

troops in there longer by the iraqi government, but the iraqi government couldn't agree on the terms of how the troops of sort of the legal status of the troops in the country after december 31st. so the president, when he announced it, thomas, he talked about it as fulfilling a process. that promise was on the campaign trail. the white house believes this is an enormous accomplishment for them to take to the voters when it's time for re-election. >> what does it also mean to families that may have lost someone in iraq to see the fact that this is shoring up and the fact that there are people -- there was a soldier, iraqi soldier in "the new york times" talking about the fact there's big holes in security in iraq when american forces are are gone? >> ted koppel, our new colleague doing a story tonight on "rock center" will talk about these issues am december 31st. there's a lot of americans there, 17,000 americans still in iraq many in harm's way. it's unclear what kind of security they'll have, particularly at a consulate not very far from the iranian border, for instance, and accor

and to the distinguished members of the iraqi government and the iraqi military, thank you for your courage, for your leadership, for your friendship over these many number of years. more importantly, thank you to your loyalty for the future of iraq. your dream of an independent and sovereign iraq is now a reality. we are deeply fortunate that in addition to all the great commanders who led our troops here, there are two great americans who step forward to lead this mission through this final transition. today we honor these two national treasures. ambassador jeffrey and general austin. jim, i want to thank you for your wise counsel, for your brilliant diplomacy, at a time that called for both. and lloyd, our nation owes you its highest gratitude for your tireless commitment to this mission through multiple, lengthy deployments. i want to offer my deepest thanks on behalf of the american people for shouldering the burden of leadership. lloyd, your effort to make this day reality is nothing short of miraculous. this was one of the most complex, logical undertakings in u.s. military history.

the iraqi army is quite well trained. i've seen iraqi soldiers. they look almost like u.s. soldiers these days with their equipment, with their weapons. they still need more air power. the iraqi police force, less well trained and well equipped, but also far better than it was before and far better than it was under saddam. the problem however, is the political system in this country. there are many political parties, some of them are quite extreme. to give you an example, muqtada el sadr, his group alone, has the largest single block in parliament, a radical anti-american cleric, with a militia group. the political system here is the one that's probably going to create the biggest challenge, a political system that feels in many respects an affinity to ir iran. the security services, yes, they have been trained in the u.s. military as a military was very good at teaching iraqis how to fight, how to clear apartments, but far less good at -- far less effective at teaching them how to run a country. >> richard, if you don't mind sharing, i remember certainly where i was on ma

. -- handing over a base to the iraqi military.we're joined by retired army general bob scales. the last time i was in iraq was in november 2006, where things were about at their worst. you were there during and after the surge. how much better is it now, compared to what we remember back in 2006? >> oh, wow, john, so much better. al-qaeda has been tkpaoet dollars, the internal insurgency is gone, and -- defeated, the internal sr-pblgs is better. if you look at the level of violence when you and i were there, there were hundreds a day dying. now we don't see that anymore. i think the real question among the american military is how much better can we make them without us being there, particularly their ability to fight or confront outside states, such as -- well, such as iran, and i think there's a sense that the american military leaving so precipitously, that a lot of that follow-on training, the sophisticated stuff, air defense, mechanized warfare, transportation, command and control, all that graduate-level military stuff, may

military and the iraqi police. and to plant the seeds of democracy for the government. they essentially say look, it is up to the iraqi people. they believe it is time for the u.s. to stand down, securitywise. and for the iraqis to stand up to the security challenges they face. i had a conversation with a young specialist last night by the name of michael. right after the president gave his speech and he expressed his feelings about what was accomplished and what he did in iraq. listen. >> pretty good. we did a lot this tour, my last tour. helping the iraqi people a lot. we do whatever we could to help. i mean. there's only so much you can do. we helped them as much as we could. >> reporter: so these soldiers are not coming out saying victory. they are not saying we won. there is a somber sense, somber realization, that this country, iraq, face as very difficult future, they believe the u.s. has done its best to prepare the iraqi people for that destiny they now take on themselves. christine. >> martin savidge. tha

we have so many iraqis who are here. and i think it's important that we begin the discussion with that fact that there is a deep commitment to bring iraqis here. the program to which trudy referred, the special immigrant visa program does have a ceiling of 5,000 a year. but that's not the program through which most iraqis have come in, as i said, the refugee resettlement program has resettled the vast majority of the 70,000. >> suarez: but a-- . >> brown: but a lot of the people who do want to come under that program, as she is saying, have found it very convoluted, complicated, impossible. >> part of the problem is the program itself has been undersubscribed because iraqis who are in iraq who want to come to the united states often choose the refugee resettlement program, the program through which some 62,000 have come in, because in many respects it is easier to access. and also there are advantages to that refugee program that don't exist for the siv program, for example, more family members can often come in through

the iraqis are really fed up. they keep being told that theirs is an oil-rich country so they're asking, "oh, yeah, well, where's the money being spent because it's not being spent on services for us." >> mitchell: iraqis are fed up. how do they feel about americans now that they're leaving? >> reporter: many iraqis do respect and admire americans, but there is still a boiling resentment. they feel americans started the cycle of violence here, that they were guilty of violence through their own military, and nowadays, iraqis blame americans for putting a corrupt and incompetent government in place. they point out that this government can't even keep iraqis safe. one of the most vulnerable groups of people to random attacks are the iraqi interpreters who used to work for the more than military. and we met one of them over the past few days. too nervous to leave the house much these days, this 26-year-old we'll call terry looks at his u.s. military souvenirs and recalls happier times when he worked for the american

many iraqis increasingly concerned as the u.s. continues to leave their country could descend into chaos. arwa damon, cnn, baghdad. >> thank you, arwa. >>> coming up at 5:30. in-depth on this milestone in u.s. military history. speaking to a former baghdad bureau chief of "time" magazine. stick around. interesting. >>> questions of bradley manning's gender identity came up today in this trial at fort meade, maryland. manning the attorney brought up his online ultra ego, breanna. accused of the biggest intelligence leak in history. documents ended up on the wikileaks website. facing 22 counts of violating military code, which could land him in jail for life. >>> sorry stories from around the world, protesters in cairo are fed up with their interim prime minister. today they clashed with egyptian security forces who beat them back with batons and firearms. at least ten people have been killed since friday. more than 400 others are wounded. >>> a 10-year-old girl refuses to board her school bus to go home. we'll tell what you she sai

with attempts to shut down ports from portland to southern california then president obama hosted iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki at the white house today and preparation for the last u.s. troops to leave at the end of this year but there will be contractors and guess what the firm formerly known as blackwater wants back in scott horton is going to help us hash all out and then as congress engages in yet another battle over taxes we're going to speak to one venture capitalist that says that taxes on the rich should be raised and then the real job creators can be rewarded so it's not the rich that create the jobs then who is it we're going to have all that and more food and i could in a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to miss. all right so today president obama hosted the iraqi prime minister at the white house and it was a big event with a joint press conference at an air of celebration or at the least the president one of that to be seen as a historic event. coming days the last american soldiers will cross the border out of i

the current iraqi political regime is not very friendly with the u.s. but it's very friendly with iran so it's a war theoretically it up between the u.s. and iran the current iraq you do jim will most definitely take your aunt side that we saw in al with the events in syria there are key government took the syrian government so it was the only government in the arab world actually. other than lebanon that fought it against sanctions on syria and they continue to supply syria with embargoed material. like the hardware and software used to censor. internet censorship that is being brought from the us and sold to c.d.o. by the government so it's another example of this failure of the united states in iraq we're out of time thanks so much a blogger an iraqi american political activist rare and that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to.

it is 1000 iraqi's nationwide. 1000 iraqi's nationwide, yes.what it was. >> okay, can i have the reflection -- >> that is going to be the second half of the discussion. >> there is a whole session about it, so -- >> stanley kober. in his first and not grow address abraham lincoln said that hoblick opinion has to be the master of a society, that majorities minorities can change with elections as public opinion changes and that is how they change really. what is being suggested here as a result of the invasion, the sort of sect terry and identity politics strengthens and it raises the question to me if that was the case and if lincoln was correct, but we will talk about institution building. that it was this creation of sectarian difference that was fundamental. >> my name is morrow and i'm at the center for international enterprise. with the work with the iraqi public sector and one of the things we are finding in a recent surveys is there is quite a negative perception of the political parties themselves that instead of working for the will of

and we help professionalize and build the iraqi police because they did have iraqi police forces. he did have a special operations force. today they too, which by the way of the best in the region. today there are about 700,000 iraqi security forces in the country. that is their army, navy, air force, marine corps and all the different police forces to include the federal police cores, about 700,000 total. they are equipped with a very good equipment. much of that equipment is united states equipment and some of the best we have. .. lingering aestheticians, sunni, shia, arab are not what they need to be. the iraqis continue to work on that as well. and the government still is not completely formed. as you know the elections occurred in march of 2010. we still do not have a permanent minister of defense or a minister of the interior. the prime minister is heading up both of those organizations. we do have an act minister and then there are still security gaps that exist. their heirs sovereignty, their air defense capability, the ability to attacked two oil platforms and then the ab