retired army general barry mccaffrey is an msnbc military analyst.al mccaffrey, to the extent that we can, and i know we're still operating on a little bit of an information deficit, what motivated these attacks? is this message-sending? obviously, the u.s. forces have now pulled out. is this sending a message to us, or do we just not know enough yet? >> well, the attacks are undoubtedly planned or rehearsed two weeks ago, undoubtedly timed for the u.s. withdrawal. what we're seeing, most likely, is al qaeda trying to provoke all-out civil war between the shia and the sunni. maliki is playing along with that. there are two steps short of disaster. the sunni arabs aren't going to let a shia-dominated army and police force slaughter the sunni minority. there's a problem there. fortunately, we can care somewhat less, because thank god we've withdrawn militarily. >> i want to read what the u.s. embassy said, just briefly. what the u.s. embassy said in the wake of the attacks. they said, "it is especially important during that critical period that iraq's

i'm joined by msnbc military analyst and general mccaffrey. thank you for your time.get your perspective on camp victory. >> it's a turning point in the war. that victory complex captured by the third infantry division almost nine years ago. as you mention at the height of the war when we had 170,000 troops in iraq, there was as many as 30,000 plus military, maybe 20,000 civil yonc working in the giant base. it was bigger than fort bragg. it underscores by 31 december largely the war is over, we're out. we leave a strong diplomatic mission. hopefully the iraquis will hold this together. >> there are currently 12,000 u.s. troops in iraq, five bases down from 170,000 at 500 bases, we saw 2007. at the end of the year, they will all be gone. i'm going to play what the vice president had to say on his visit there. his sons returning from iraq. emotional words when talking with ann curry. let's play it. >> so damn proud of you. i'm so incredibly proud of him and these kids. these kids -- they are not kids. >> make of them are. >> make of them are, but some of them are also

in the midteens already but the wind chill and single digits. 20 degrees at o'hare. 16 degrees at mccaffreye snow melting today doing the same thing said which dekalb county some of the temperatures this is the source region of the airbus eight degrees below tonight. wind chill is at 10 below and some northern wisconsin temperatures. it is pretty chilly out there as you can see. one more look at local temperatures here is where the snow went today after it dropped a couple of inches in the southern suburbs. 36 percent of the country under snow at this point less than last year at this time. hardest hit by the snowfall. crown point. we should have had about over 3 in. by this time most seasons. tonight in the wake of the snowfall coldest temperature since february. looks like monday start climbing over and sunday is going to get with the moderate tomorrow afternoon tonight it down to six degrees in the colder outlying areas. rising to the upper '30's-low 40's by the time we get to sunday. northerly flow blowing in from the arctic through tomorrow keeps us in the '20s western flow. what that

. >> this is mark mccaffrey, the coo of the capitol area food bank. where why is it important? >> reporter: the economy is in a bad state. we have 650,000 of our friends and neighbors who don't know where the next meal is coming from in our region. here in d.c., one in two kids don't know where the next meal is coming from. if that is in the heartbreaking, i don't know what is. we're collecting food here and the food drive. last year, we generated 54,000 pounds of food ander ounce -- every ounce went to those in need. >> and we want to make sure woo try to -- we try to outdo what we did last year. >> exactly, keep pushing for the 100,000 pounds. >> reporter: thanks again, marc. the volunteers are here, i'm here and we're at the hyattsville at the giant, who else is involved? a lot of people are involved in this. >> yes. >> that is a bad name. all right. [ laughter ] it's a good cause and come on out. >> andha is for nothing else, to go and to see wisdom martin. >> right, high five. >> wisdom martin, thank you very much. can you help us stuff a truck in any of the four likes and

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in the meantime, let me bring in retired general barry mccaffrey. thank you for joining us. you heard richard engel before his report went out that the people there are not thanking the troops, not thanking this country. in fact they still have a great laupdry list of frustrations there. >> well, we're certainly not going out with roses. this isn't victory in europe day. to put in it context, 36,000 killed and wounded. $850 billion. we did take down saddam. we did leave an operative state with an army, a police force, a bureaucracy, and surely, the kurds up north and to some extent, the sunnis are better for our intervention. it was miserably executed at the start. it was pulled out of the fire by petraeus and the armed forces. we have to hope they don't go to all out civil war. >> we must have that hopeful in the meantime we have to have hope that our troops can come back and transition. whether they stay in the military or decide to try to get a job in this already tough economy. we know the unemployment rate for the people who served in iraq, i believe, is around 23 to 30

joining me is barry mccaffrey.ning to you. >> good morning, veronica. >> should the missile test today be taken as a threat by iran? >> well, i think so. they're increasingly worried about more effective sanctions against their own economy. 80% of their revenue comes out of their oil exports. it's hard for me to imagine they'd actually follow through with an attempt to close the gulf. unlike many of the think tanks in washington, though, i think they could do it fairly rapidly. they have a very powerful naval force in the persian gulf. they've got shore base missile batteries but it would force us and the gcc nation, saudi arabia, bahrain, et cetera, into military action against them. we would carry out military strikes, i'm sure of it, against their naval and air forces if they tried to close the persian gulf. >> well, i remember back in the '80s during iran/iraq war the u.s. navy was able to keep the strait open. what could the navy do, the american navy, to prevent this? >> i think in those days it was a very di