still with me is retired army colonel and military analyst for msnbc jack jacobs.ack, as we watch this, a lot of pomp and circumstance going on, the tone somber right now. take us through what we can expect sort of here in the next half hour, what we'll be seeing ceremonially. >> they're playing the american national anthem at the moment. you've seen everybody in a position of presenting arms in the hand salute now for quite some time. which means they probably already played the iraqi anthem and may, in fact, play it again later on. there will be be a variety of speeches after the casing of the colors. that is, they'll roll the colors and encase them in their packages for shipping, and that will be the end of it in theory, and then they'll be a number of speeches, including one by secretary of defense leon panetta, who undoubtedly will extol the virtues of the american forces having fought there for almost a decade, the losses we've sustained, the money we've spent and the great job we've done in bringing iraq to the 21st century and giving them an opportunity to

and finding praise is occasionally difficult for jack jacobs.to say, we launched more predator strikes in obama's first month in office than george w. bush had his entire administration. and like the president was suggesting, you don't want to be number two or number three in the bad guy chain of command because we're going to drop a bomb on you. >> what did you make of the president's response when he was called an appeaser and the way he came back? >> well, i think it was very gentlemenly, especially in view of the emotion-charged campaign we're in the middle of. i thought it was very -- >> and the troops know what this means. >> no, sure. sure, they do. >> and donald trump doesn't. >> no, no, no, donald trump's never spent a minute on active duty, in uniform, doesn't know what he's talking about militarily. >> colonel jack jacobs. good to have you with us tonight. >>> next in psycho talk, the right wing lies about killing bin laden keep piling up. sean hannity wants to give all the credit to president bush? bush didn't care about finding bin

we are joined by retired colonel jack jacobs.y read a statement in part saying the white house is condemning the deadly attacks and such attempts are an attempt to derail progress in the country hoping it will fail. is this a result of our troops leaving or decisions made by prime minister maliki? >> a little bit of both. we decided we were going to leave and have been withdrawing troops for a long time. the power structure had a long time to develop tactics and strategies. we leave and they said no more power sharing. not surprisingly, there is violence. 16 bombs and so many people killed. all coordinate and that could have been planned well in advance. we have been leading up to this day. >> al qaeda and sunni insurgents served no agenda other than murder and hatred. no one claimed responsibility, but i have to go back to al maliki's decision to move out and people would be his political enemies. was this a part of a greater plan by him? >> oh, yes, sure. don't forget the sunnis used to be in charge and they are now not. they a

we will talk to jack jacobs about what will happen to the bases and our footprint in that country.. why consumers are heading back to the malls to get back the cash they spent on gifts they have not even given out yet. herman cain defense secretary? the gop candidate talks about what would be his dream job. they are okay for pilots and not passengers? why ipads are getting the green light to be in the cockpit. we will have that story. the flag of the u.s. forces of iraq is on the way back to the united states. the pomp and circumstance of the official shut down ceremony. veterans of the nearly nine-year conflict can be secure in knowing that your sacrifice helped the iraqi people to cast tyranny aside. military analyst and colonel jack jacobs, what's your thoughts on what we saw and witnessed today? >> seems like it's the end. the last troops out of iraq and have been there a long, long time. it's not really the end. there between 15 and 17,000 contractors doing a lot of the jobs that our troops were doing before. our task has not ended there, but second there is a lot of activity

army colonel jack jacobs is an u.s. military analyst and a recipient of the medal of honor.e you here when we have situations like this. these explosions, these coordinated attacks, are you surprised by what you're hearing today? >> thouno, and i don't think an else was either. there's been a series of events, then al maliki decide he's not going to share power anymore, and not surprissurprisingly, al and iraq, the sunni, skperveand everyone else who wants is going to explode bombs and it continues. this is not one little point, it's going to be a graph of those. >> colonel, at what point does it become so concerning, though, for the obama administration that they may consider, may start talking about, if they haven't already, start talk about returning booting on the ground there? >> we always have a plan to put boots on the ground in a lot of different places. we have plans to respond to all kinds of attacks and all sorts of contingencies, everywhere around the world. but this is an election year. the president of the united states has made a big deal out of getting out of

. >>> let's bring in retirmds army colonel jack jacobs and recipient of the medal of honor. great to have you with us this morning. you were one of the last guys out of vietnam. i wonder what it feels like for an american serviceman on a day like this? >> absolutely magnificent. when you're the last guy out, you're getting ready to leave, you have no interest whatsoever in the fineries of international politics or even domestic politics. you want to get home. and i remember coming back from vietnam my second tour in january 1973 after having been there five years before fighting more or less the same war, being extremely happy that i was coming home and not very much concerned with what the outcome might turn out to be. >> if you take the politics, jack, out of this extraordinary divisive war that's separated the country over the last decade or so, what will be the legacy from a military point of view of our intervention in iraq? >> well, there's plenty of argument about this. i think you could argue strenuously that part of it, ironically, is the loss of influence in that p

. >> let me bring in colonel jack jacobs with us as well. colonel, here you are, medal of honor recipient. we know right from wrong in this country. we know that we're supposed to support our service members, the men and women who put their lives on the line. this is happening at the dover air force base mortuary. no one knows better than i would think these people how these remains are supposed to be handled. >> they're not properly supervised approximate if all the things you're talking about aren't continuously reinforced, even good people get sloppy, will get to a point where they make a decision. they know it's wrong and auto do it anyway because they're too laz lazy. anytime you have people in a bureaucratic organization not properly supervised, things like this happen. the worst part about it is the fact that the air force didn't come clean right up-front. bad news doesn't get any better with age. you got to get it out right away and clean it up right away and make sure it doesn't happen again. >> over four years the air force dumped

joined now by msnbc military analyst colonel jack jacobs. colonel, good to see you here. when we hear about the vice president reaching out to all of these leaders, how effective is that based on the situation -- official intervention from the united states is now over. >> not very much. as a matter of fact, it's too little too late. if we wanted to use the diplomatic instrument of power, foreign policy in order to get iraq squared away, we should've done it a long time. by a long time, i mean seven years ago. we constantly rely on the military instrument of power alone, and that can't work. and now that we've pulled everyone out, there's no leverage there. >> the question that bubbles up and we've talked about this for the last week, is there a point where the president says we've got to put troops back on the ground there? even though the iraqis may not want us there? >> i can't see him doing that. it's political death for him to do that. in any situation i can invision, it might be something really bad in the country and we're going to start pulling troops out, i mean

. >> and also colonel jack jacobs. >> perfect day to have him onboard. >> why don't we go ahead and put leon panetta's speech in perspective. >> after nearly nine years, the u.s. has formally ended its operations in iraq. we'll talk about exactly what that means coming up in a ceremony, though, earlier today at the airport in baghdad, the u.s. forces iraq flag was officially retired. bringing to a close a conflict that has claimed nearly 4,500 american lives and cost more than $800 billion. secretary panetta among the dignitaries in attendance saying today is "time for iraq to look forward." and that the conflict has sparked a new era of opportunity. here at home, president obama marked the occasion at the ft. bragg army base in north carolina yesterday where troops have been part of the war since day one and are among the last soldiers to come home. >> for nearly nine years, our nation has been at war in iraq. as your commander in chief, and on behalf of a grateful nation, i'm proud to finally say these two words -- and i know your families agree -- welcome home. welcome home. welcome

joining me is the military analyst colonel jack jacobs.kes? >> very interesting question. if our objective is to get rid of high-level al qaeda and taliban operatives, particularly those operating in the border zone inside pakistan, we've done a great job. we've knocked off lots and lots of top level leaders. leaving as targets lots and lots of lower level asem blajs of foot soldiers the ratio of attacks, given the collateral that we have from time to time is not worth it, that's why we suspended it. cia is doing some of them. military is doing some of them. we need to get better coordinated and we can't seem to positively involve the pakistanis and that's a big problem. >> what is to say about this complicated action. tt diplomatic dance that we have to engage in a nuclear power. >> the pakistanis have the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world. that's troublesome. i and a lot of people are concerned that there is going to be a coo involved in pakistan. one of those guys, one of their cohurts will rise up. we don't know how to deal

a bit later this hour we'll speak with colonel jack jacobs about what that withdrawal means for the future, and the region and our military. >> the death of a florida a&m drum major has been officially ruled a homicide. medical examiner says he was beaten to death with a hazing ritual that left him with bruising to his chest, arms and internal bleeding which caused him to go into shock. university president says he may step down temporarily until police finish their investigation. >>> moving to the weather this saturday morning, taking a live look now at new york city, it is clear and cool and beautiful outside. folks may be scrambling to the malls today because we're just a week from christmas. what's it going to be like outside where you are? nbc meteorologist bill karins has those details. >> around the country everyone is wondering where's the snow? where is winter? temperatures haven't even been that cold yet. now as we go into the heart of the winter season, sooner or later it has to arrive. so, where is it? let's take a look at the temperature. you notice this morning, there's some

addressed to secretary of the treasury geithner and director of office and management and budget, jack lu -- jacob lu should say. it signed by steven c. gross, chief actuary of the social security administration. i'd ask it be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator's time has expired. mr. casey: i'd ask for two more minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: here's the pertinent part of this letter. we, meaning the social security administration, quote, "we estimate that the projected level of the old age and survivors insurance and disability insurance trust funds would be unaffected by enactment of this provision in my bill" unquote. what he's talking about there is social security. it's would be unaffected. the trustee said last year the same thing and i won't add all this to the record, just read the one sentence. this is page 33 of a report from last year. "therefore this payroll tax from last year is estimated to have no financial impact on this -- on these same trust accounts." so it's abundantly clear that there's no impact on soci