candy crowley. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. when the u.s. invaded iraq back in march 2003, few people imagined it was the start of a nightmare that would last almost nine years, cost more than 4,000 american lives, plus hundred of billions of u.s. taxpayer doll lors. the u.s. mission in iraq which had been gradually drawing down will instead come to an abrupt end in just over two months with all american forces out of iraq by year s end. president obama himself announced the end of the iraq war. today, i can report that as promised, the rest of our troops in iraq will come home by the end of the year. after nearly nine years, america s war in iraq will be over. over the next two months, our troops in iraq, tens of thousands of them, will pack up their gear and board convoys for the journey home. the last american soldier will cross the border out of iraq with their heads held high, proud of their success and knowing that the american people stand unit
news. mission over, but hardly mission accomplished in iraq. so today i can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in iraq will come home by the end of the year. now president bush began the war in march 2003 with a dose of what the pentagon called shock and awe. in announcing its end, president obama used the term success, not victory, and said it was time america focused less on wars overseas and more on economic problems here at home. i would note that the end of war in iraq reflects the larger transition. the tide of war is receding. there is no doubt public opinion is on the president s side. nearly 7 in 10 americans oppose the war in iraq. but a number of conservatives, including the leading republican candidates for president tonight say, president obama is weakening america and emboldening iran. the former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, said the unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simp
gunfire what happened in the next few moments is unclear, he was finally killed. how he died, we do not yet know. didn t take long for the death photos surface. we want to warn you, they are very graphic. gadhafi is indeed dead. the photos come from misrata where he was taken and killed possibly while trying to escape, possibly in a fire fight between captors and support toers or in crossfire or possibly executed. you can see he is surrounded by onlookers, he is not being mourned, certainly not there his death and of his son being celebrated in libya and in the west. faced with the potential of mass atrocities and a call for help from the libyan people, the united states and our friends and allies stopped gadhafi forces in their tracks. a coalition that the united states, nato, and arab nations persevered through the summer to protect lybian civilians and courageous libyan people and broke the back of the regime. we ll have video as well and a much more impromptu of sec
[ speaking foreign language ]. that is the first time that we are seeing this video. it s another angle of the video that we saw earlier. clearly you see him wiping blood off his face, looking confused. that matches what a correspondent on the ground says occurred. the bottom line is, gadhafi is dead. the circumstances under which he died, though, are still a little hazy. still unclear. it didn t take long for the death photos to surface. i want to warn you, they are very graphic but this is, indeed, gadhafi, and gadhafi is indeed gone. this photo is taken from misrata. possibly executed or caught in cross fire. you can see there are onlookers. faced with the potential of mass otrocities and a call for help from the libyan people, the united states and our friends and allies stopped gadhafi forces in their tracks. a coalition that the united states, nato, and arab nations persevered through the summer to protect the civilians and libyan people and broke the back of the re
[ speaking foreign language ] gunfire what happened in the next few moments is unclear, he was finally killed. how he died, we do not yet know. didn t take long for the death photos surface. we want to warn you, they are very graphic. gadhafi is indeed dead. the photos come from misrata where he was taken and killed possibly while trying to escape, possibly in a fire fight between captors and support toers or in crossfire or possibly executed. you can see he is surrounded by onlookers, he is not being mourned, certainly not there his death and of his son being celebrated in libya and in the west. faced with the potential of mass atrocities and a call for help from the libyan people, the united states and our friends and allies stopped gadhafi forces in their tracks. a coalition that the united states, nato, and arab nations persevered through the summer to protect lybian civilians and courageous libyan people and broke the back of the regime. we ll have video as well an