have trained two years ago and they didn t have that much initiati initiative, they weren t that well trained, not that aggressive. now we re watching them, we re following them, he s getting paid back for the time he s spent here. more than 4,400 american troops died fighting operation iraqi freedom, another 4,000 were wounded. when you look back at your experience in 05, 06, 07, was it worth it? absolutely. there are a lot of individuals that made the ultimate sacrifice. a lot of soldiers here lack soldier s faces and the people i worked with. if their sacrifice can be worth where we re going i think we re doing the right thing. reporter: a lot of soldiers told me, over the past seven years, those on their fourth deployment have spent the majority of their lives here in this country. over the last seven years. a lot of them feel very invested in iraq. some of them told me even when i
out? yes. this is a big storm. tropical storm force winds extend 200 miles out. the hurricane force winds extend 70 miles out. now, most that s mostly on the right side of the storm. but still if this thing comes within 30, 40 miles of the shore, you are going to see impacts of a major hurricane on shore. that s the big concern right now. certainly scary proposition in my eyes. thank you very much, sir. we will keep on checking in on this, obviously, as the day goes on and for the next couple of days. rob marciano in virginia beach. we are getting ready for this transition. this is an historic day, historic moment in the war in iraq. official handover. official handover. of power, of the military mission for the most part from the united states to iraq. the iraqi government. we are going to be talking more about it. you see live right there this is vice president joe biden.
with the president yesterday to ft. bliss, texas, visiting the troops. it is very clear that the president cares a great deal about the servicemen and women but this is a war-weary nation. let s face it, it is going to be a very difficult sell for the president. one thing that was notable last night is that in a nod to president bush s troop surge in iraq, he did mention the fact that that was going to be the one thing that would be important in afghanistan, a vehicle to end that war. take a listen. that s what the surge in iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future. but, as was the case in iraq, we can t do for afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves. kiran, ali, last night we already heard from the president talking about july as a potential window to take a look and see whether or not the forces, things are going well in afghanistan, whether or not it
page. this afternoon i spoke to former president george w. bush. it s well known that he and i disagreed about the war from its outset. yet no one can doubt president bush s support for our troops or his love of country and commitment to our security. so throughout the 7 1/2-year conflict, a lot of soldiers came from ft. campbell. many of them were there, this is the home to the 101st airborne division. better known to some people as the screaming eagles. the it s the only air assault division in the world. that s right. those soldiers are currently doing a lot of the heavy lifting that s going on in afghanistan right now. for more we bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she s at the home of the screaming eagles this morning. hey, barbara. reporter: good morning to both of you. we are here at ft. campbell, kentucky, the base stirring to life this morning. pt exercises going on hyped me. people coming to work. but you know, the screaming eagles did three very heavy
commander in chief is, we are going to do the following three things, and then we are going to leave. what we heard last night was we are going to leave and we re turning it over to them. what does that mean? no one knows. whether iraq s going to be able to stand on its own two feet when this is over. no one knows whether afghanistan will. the answer is not about success and responsibility, it is about we are a out of here. however, according to the polling i know people don t do things just based on polls, people want him to say the exact same thing with afghanistan. at the same time that he was talking about iraq ending, at least the u.s. combat mission there ending, afghanistan is still going strong and there s not necessarily a clear indication for most people of what our definition of success is in that country as well. so where does that leave him in terms of these wildly unpopular wars? i think iraq is one down willy-nilly. we don t know what we re leaving