comes from this sirte basin. there s heavy fighting there and also heavy fighting nearby. so it s a question of how much oil comes back. when it does, it s great news for the market, because it s the light sweet crude that the market likes. easy to refine. thank you for that. want to update you on something that we were reporting. there will be some sort of statement coming from the president about iraq shortly. let s go down to jim miklaszewski at pentagon on what that announcement may be. u.s. military officials are telling nbc news that the president will announce essentially that negotiations with the iraqis have broken down in terms of any efforts to keep a residual force there in iraq after the first of this year. and the president is prepared to announce that almost all american troops will be coming out of iraq by the end of this
of the united states this is very disturbing if you think of the american lives lost, the limbs lost, the treasure in defending that country. according to reporting in the last week, with strong support, not only from iran s qutz force. joining us now is jim miklaszewski, our veteran pentagon correspondent. you have seen this from the beginning. there has to be a moment of closure and relief, though this will be jim miklaszewski is on the phone, he will be doing more reporting. on the phone now is barry mccaffrey. are the iraqis read i do take on this fight themselves? we re certainly about to find
been hearing, is that the iraq parliament would not agree to an extension of the status of forces agreement that would have prevented some small force, leon panetta had suggested some 3,000, 4,000 americans to stay on the ground as trainers to help the iraqi army continue to train, but that would not be possible without the extension by iraq s parliament it became clear that the politics in iraq would not make that possible. with me now in washington is chris matthews as we await the president. so much history so many lives. we are talking about all american troops except for perhaps a small force of marines, for instance who would protect the embassy and a few others would be gone by the end of this year. our being in iraq has been can t ver controversial since the beginning. this war has always been the subject of dispute it was the reason we could all agree, i think that barack obama won the democratic nomination. he opposed the war in iraq.
out. i view this as good news for the united states. i thought staying on with a small force, 3,000 to 5,000 as trainers would leave them vulnerable. and then the notion of lack of immunity was a no-go. we re better off. we will end up with a couple hundred military people in the embassy doing military sales, monitoring equipment deliveries to the iraqis. i think coming out is the appropriate move. and will the iraqis hold together? my guess is, yes. they have six neighbors surrounding them. most of whom wish them ill, but none of whom think regional war in the middle east is to anybody s benefit. internally now, the shiites are dominant in the national police, the army, the sunni and kurds are am presencive,
the white house a couple weeks ago that he didn t think it was possible to get the necessary majority to sign on to that immunity. this was a pledge or a target made by president obama. we were told the two issues were immunity, and that this was the president s deadline to begin with, to withdraw forces out. there were always plans to keep a small force, anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 inside iraq to assist the iraqi military, serve as trainers, but it appears that all, maybe a couple left behind to work with the state department and the embassy there in iraq, but it appears that almost all of the u.s. forces that first went in to iraq in march of 2003 will now be coming out, which would mark an end, total end of u.s. military participation in the war in