president obama has ended the war in iraq. the white house take on this is simple. president obama promised to end u.s. troop involvement in iraq and today fulfilled that promise. in one sense, it s absolutely true. here s what he said when he launched his campaign nearly four years ago. america, it is time to start bringing our troops home. it s time it s time to admit that no amount of american lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else s civil war. now here s the president last year. consistent with our agreement with the iraqi government, all u.s. troops will leave by the end of next year. and here s mr. obama today. 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 united in our support for our troops. sounds relatively simple, but keeping them honest, it leaves out a key fact, one that president obama made no me
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
[ 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
nine years complete withdrawal is in the white house s assessment, is this a victory for the united states and if i could bundle up just if you could answer that, then follow up. i think one of the more poignant moments in the secure video conference downstairs was when president obama congratulated prime minister maliki and the people of iraq for getting to this momentous moment. and importantly when prime minister maliki congratulated president obama an our troops an our diplomats for all they ve done. so when the president laid out a vision for the future of iraq in february 2009 down in camp lejeune, many of you were there, he said what we are looking for is an iraq that s secure, stable an self-reliant and that s exactly what we got here. there is no question this is a success. specifically, long discussions over the issue of immunity. had that issue been resolved, would the president have preferred to have had trainers, u.s. trainers, u.s. troops remain there as
the bill rape will continue to rise. all crimes will continue to rise. you think it s appropriate for the vice president to use language in such we ve got to go. you hear the vice president there make a reference to flint, as in flint michigan. last week the vice president raised the spectrum of rising crime republicans keep blocking the president s plan to keech teachers and first responders on the payrolls. in 2008, when flint had 265 sworn officers on the police force, there were 35 murders and 91 rapes in the city. in 2010, when flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65, rapes, to pick two categories, climbed to 229. in 2011, you now only have 125 shields. god only know what the numbers will be this year for flint if we don t rectify it. the vice president going through the statistics in flint. that was a week ago. republicans began complaining within minutes of that event. but yesterday in philadelphia, the vice president escalated t