reason why they didn t leave u.s. troops behind in iraq is there was not a status of forces agreement that maliki would agree to that would, among other things, free u.s. troops of any liability if iraqi civilians would be killed. bottom line, in afghanistan the president has signaled he s going to leave behind at least 9800 u.s. troops. at least he s trying to leave some u.s. troops behind to lock in some security gains. but think about what the statements we ve heard from white house officials. the washington post has a blistering you would to have y all quoting dennis mcdonough, the white house chief of staff, who back in 2011 said iraq s a success. there s been stability on the ground. that is obviously erased. bill: thank you, ed henry life in washington. patti ann has more now. patti ann: what does the pentagon have to say about all of this in fox news national security correspondent jennifer driven els us what griffin tells us what the reaction is there. reporter: hi, patt
warning that isa was planning this. they have taken over the city of falluja which was rescued from insurgents decades ago. the u.s. once declared that it had al qaeda and iraq on the run and commanders publicly stating that iraq s security forces could maintain, quote, the security gains. many blame prime minister nuri al maliki s gournment saying that he caused the nation s sectarian to grow. after american boots left iraqi soil. a terrorist group considered more merciless and brutal than al qaeda and iraq is gaining power and control. arwa, the whole situation reporter: and wolf this is in mosul. it s a disaster in falluja as
to the president are signaling what he wants to do is point out this graduating class at west point is the first one for a long time not facing deporting to iraq or afghanistan. yesterday he talked about ending the war in afghanistan and drawing done to 9800 troops. aids say he saw real security gains on the ground over the weekend. but critics are saying you need in the range of 20-25,000 to lock in the security gains. together with our allies and afghan government we have agreed this is the year we will conclude our combat mission in afghanistan. the force isn t sufficient to continue training advising and assisting the afghans and
briefing that suggested there have been security gains on the ground in afghanistan. he thinks there s quote unquote momentum. whether he is right or wrong, we ll find out. but now is the time to finally end it. and if you don t end it, it will just go on and on. i only have about a minute left. but why the timing, kt? i know you think it has something to do with the elections in afghanistan. yes. they are both going to be pro american. they won t be karzai. they will want to have a deal with america. so if the president wants out, you need to do it now. you wait three weeks, you have a new government. they ll be asking for a much longer commitment from the united states. as will a number of them afghanistan saying look, we ve got an end date and troop level to end it. enables him to turn the page today so tomorrow at west point he can look forward beyond afghanistan, beyond iraq. again, criticism of how he frames it. we will have that debate back and forth in days ahead. but i
have suggested they ll sign the agreement. he s going to say with iraq he got criticized for not leaving any troops behind to lock in security gains. the timing is interesting, he s giving a big speech tomorrow at west point about his foreign policy in general because he s been on defense on that. and so why scoop himself today by reducing the troop levels? are they trying to change the narrative about the outing of that cia initial over the weekend or that he wants to put this bit of news out there and follow up tomorrow not just on afghanistan but on the broader foreign policy. what do you think? what about the timing? they re out of there. the elections are going to happen in afghanistan in june. he s got to start talking now. you can you need some lead time here s the president. as you know, this weekend i traveled to afghanistan to thank our men and women in uniform and our deployed civilians on behalf