Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Penn State Witness' Story Varies; Marking the End of the Iraq War; Battles After War for Iraq Vets; Obama, al-Maliki to Hold Press Conference; Lives Of Iraqis; Will Withdrawal Impact Obama's 2012 Campaign?

Aired December 12, 2011 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Washington, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed for this Monday, December 12th.

Marking the end of the war in Iraq after almost nine years of bloodshed. Well, right now, President Obama and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, they're meeting to discuss the troop withdrawal, the road ahead. The two leaders are going to take questions from reporters later this hour. We're going to bring that to you live. Virtually all U.S. troops are going to be out of Iraq by the end of the month.

And President Obama accuses Republicans of playing politics now with the economy. This, in an interview, CBS's "60 Minutes." The president defends his effort to compromise and challenges the political partisanship in Washington. But what does he say? He says Republican strategy cuts them off at the knees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the Republicans made a different calculation, which was, you know what? We really screwed up the economy. Obama seems popular. Our best bet is to stand on the sidelines because we think the economy is going to get worse, and at some point just blame him. And so we haven't gotten the kind of engagement from them that I would have liked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. A lot of political buzz this morning. It's centering on the weekend's GOP debate. It was one to watch.

At one point, Mitt Romney criticized the front-runner, Newt Gingrich, as being a political pro. And then he markets himself as an outsider. This is an exchange -- you've got to see this -- Gingrich snapping off a comeback.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have differences of viewpoint on some issues, but the real difference, I believe, is our backgrounds. I spent my life in the private sector. I understand how the economy works. NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only reason you didn't become a career politician is you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994.

ROMNEY: Now wait a second. Now wait a second.

With regards to the idea that if I would have beaten Ted Kennedy, I could have been a career politician, that's probably true. If I would have been able to get in the NFL like I hoped when I was a kid, while, I would have been a football star all my life, too.

(APPLAUSE)

ROMNEY: But I spent my life in the private sector. Losing to Teddy Kennedy was probably the best thing I could have done for preparing me for the job I'm seeking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're keeping an eye on the markets as well. The Dow jumped about 200 points on Friday to wrap up last week. There's uncertainty about the debt crisis in Europe as the week begins.

The market is erasing all of those gains. Looking at it now, 157 down, the stocks. Going to bring you a live update from the New York Stock Exchange in just a bit.

Well, people in the Syrian city of Homs have to meet a deadline tonight to stop the protests against the government or face military action. That's right, rebels say that tanks and troops are surrounding the city, and the regime is planning a massacre. The U.N. says more than 4,000 people have been killed in clashes protesting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The Supreme Court announced today it's going to decide if Arizona can enforce its controversial immigration law. Now, the Obama administration has fought the law, saying that immigration is not a state issue, it's a federal issue. But Arizona argues that illegal immigration has created huge problems, economic problems, safety issues for all its residents, and that the federal government has long failed to control the problem. So, the court's going to make its final ruling as soon as June.

Memphis police are looking into child sex abuse allegations against the former president of Amateur Athletic Union, or AAU. Two men told ESPN Robert Dodd molested them in the 1980s when he was a YMCA coach.

An AAU spokesman says there is a third potential victim not mentioned in that ESPN story. Now, a spokesman goes on to say that Dodd denied the allegations when the organization's board confronted him and fired him last month. CNN has not been able to reach Dodd for a response.

There's a new turn in the Penn State sex abuse case. Assistant football coach Mike McQueary told a grand jury that he saw Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a boy in the showers back in 2002. Well, now a report says that McQueary told a family friend right after the incident that he heard what he called sex sounds in the shower. According to that report, a young boy stuck out his head out of the shower stall, and then an adult arm pulled him back. A few moments later, Sandusky left the shower wearing a towel.

New information comes as CNN contributor Sara Ganim has a detailed article from the newspaper "The Patriot News." And Sara joins us from Penn State.

And Sara, other than these 10 alleged victims, Mike McQueary, he was the only witness that we know about. What do you think this means, this information, these two different stories we now have from him against Sandusky?

SARA GANIM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, Suzanne, for Jerry Sandusky's case, which is going before a preliminary hearing tomorrow, this is one piece of 10 separate cases. So this is one case out of 10.

And it's unclear if prosecutors in the last six weeks have found the boy that Mike McQueary says he saw in that shower who could testify to whatever he says happened and would eliminate the need for Mike McQueary to testify tomorrow. But where this really comes in as a big deal is, for those perjury charges that are filed against those two Penn State administrators, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, because they're going for a preliminary hearing on Friday on these perjury and failure to report charges, and the basis for those charges is that the grand jury found that Mike McQueary's testimony was more credible than theirs. They basically believed Mike McQueary instead of believing those men.

And so, if he's no longer credible, as defense attorneys for those two men said to me over the weekend, then they believe that this new evidence that's been testified to should lead to a dismissal of charges against them.

MALVEAUX: Do we know who's actually going to be speaking at this case? Do we expect the alleged victims will actually tell their stories?

GANIM: We do expect that some of them will at least be there. It's not clear how many are going to testify.

It's not clear if they have to testify. According to Pennsylvania law, there are certain allocations for changing that at a preliminary hearing, alleviating a witness from having to get on the stand, because it's just a basic evidentiary hearing, basically.

This is only to say, is there enough for this case to go to trial? This isn't a trial. I think a lot of people are expecting a mini trial, and that's because it could last a long time tomorrow. But as Joe Amendola, Jerry Sandusky's attorney, said last week, when he was preparing his client, he said, "Anybody who's looking for a bombshell is going to be disappointed."

MALVEAUX: All right. Sara Ganim, thank you very much.

Here's a rundown of some of the stories ahead.

First, a loan gunman on a shooting rampage in broad daylight right on Hollywood Sunset Boulevard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a madman in the street. Oh, my God! Are you all right? There's a madman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Unbelievable. Hear what happened next when a bystander got involved.

Then, the future of Iraq. It's our "CNN In-Depth" today, as we have a lot planned.

President Obama and Iraq's prime minister hold a joint news conference. That's going to happen in about 20 minutes. We're going to bring that for you live. One topic on the table, the deadline for U.S. troops to leave Iraq and what it means for many long overdue reunions here at home.

And this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seeing them deal with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, homelessness, that was the most difficult thing for me to see. I witnessed them save someone's life in Iraq, and they can't save their own anymore. It hurt me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The battle might be over in Iraq. There's a new struggle that begins for many veterans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

MALVEAUX: Almost nine years after the start of the Iraq War, President Obama is meeting with Iraq's prime minister to mark the end of this war. They want to discuss a pullout of U.S. troops by the end of the year. The two leaders are going to take some questions as well from reporters.

I want to bring in our White House correspondent Athena Jones, who is there.

Athena, the president and Prime Minister Maliki, they're discussing what is going to happen next in Iraq moving forward. Now, this is a promise that, under Bush, not fulfilled under Obama, but it's not exactly what he wanted. Right? The White House didn't want to pull out all the troops so quickly.

What are they concerned about?

ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the White House is saying today that this is a promise kept on the part of President Obama. Yes, it's true that it was President Bush who negotiated this agreement that would pull the troops out by the end of this year. He did that at the end of 2008. But the president has also said, well, look, I'm fulfilling this promise. There were a lot of people who thought that maybe the date would get moved around a bit.

And you're right, there is concern that now that all U.S. troops will be pulled out, none remaining to offer security, that that could create a vacuum, it will leave a vacuum for neighboring countries like Iran, mainly, to come in and cause problems. Of course we know about allegedly Iranian support for IEDs and for various extremist groups there, and so that's really one of the big concerns here.

But the U.S. and Iraqis were unable to reach an agreement on immunity for any troops that would remain, and that was a real sticking point. They were unable to reach that deal. And so now you're going to have right now only 6,000 troops remain in Iraq. In the next couple of weeks, they'll all be out -- Kyra.

MALVEAUX: It's Suzanne, Athena, but that's OK.

JONES: I'm sorry.

MALVEAUX: No, no. No worries.

So, Obama was recently criticized by the Republican opponents, saying that he supports appeasement in the Middle East. And he said -- he responded. He said, "Well, ask Bin Laden," who we know who is dead, what they think about his support for appeasement.

By any measure and many measures, he has been successful on the national security front. But how important does the White House think that issue is in winning re-election?

JONES: Well, I think you can guess that the White House is going to be pretty confident. I mean, a lot of people didn't necessarily expect that Osama bin Laden would eventually be captured, and he was. And so you can bet that the president is pretty confident about being able to run on that issue. It's certainly a pretty big deal.

And so that's how they're approaching this election when it comes to issues like that. As you mentioned, he said, "Ask Osama bin Laden whether I support appeasement." And I think that they probably feel that that's a pretty winning issue for them as they approach 2012.

MALVEAUX: And we know the economy, also a very big issue. Athena, we're hearing protests outside the White House. We know that's very common, it's pretty typical.

Is there anything unusual about the protests today?

JONES: Well, it's interesting. You're right, there are always protests outside, almost on a daily basis, but this one is linked to the fact that the president is meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, al-Maliki.

It's a group of Iranian-Americans who are concerned about a place called Camp Ashraf in Iraq. About 3,400 Iranian dissidents have been living at this Camp Ashraf. These are Iranians who are against the current government in Iran.

The concern is that there's a December 31st deadline and they're going to be closing the camp. The Iraqi government will be closing that camp. These protesters are concerned about the forcible relocation of this group.

It's really a twofold concern as well. The State Department has listed this group as terrorists. And so, they've enlisted some pretty impressive list of supporters, U.S.-based supporters. We're talking about Louis Freeh, the former FBI director; Tom Ridge, who was the secretary of Homeland Secretary; Ed Rendell, the former Pennsylvania governor; and also Patrick Kennedy, a former member of Congress. These are people who are in support of them, pushing to get them removed from that list, and also hoping that these dissidents don't get forcibly relocated.

MALVEAUX: All right. Athena, thank you very much. We'll be back at the White House when that press conference starts.

At the height of the Iraq war, the U.S. had more than 170,000 troops on the ground. Well, as of today, about 6,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq. Day by day, American servicemen and women are returning home to their families and long-awaited reunions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It feels great, great to be back with my family, friends, be back in Mechanicsville.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love him. I love him. I love him. And I just thank God for answering my prayer, bringing them all back safely.

That's a blessing. That's a blessing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And the battle doesn't always end when troops come home from war, as we know. We're going to hear more from Iraq veterans about the struggles that they face and whether or not the war was even worth it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: For troops returning from the war in Iraq, the battle doesn't always end when they come back home. They face new struggles in their relationships, their emotions, with alcohol and even suicide.

CNN's Kyra Phillips, she covered the war extensively. And recently, she sat down with Iraq veterans to talk about life after the war. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission objectives: hit the target.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Seven aircraft did drop bombs over Iraq.

(voice-over): Eight years ago, I was there when the Iraq War began --

(on camera): It's a campaign that's being called Shock and Awe.

(voice-over): -- from the air --

(on camera): You've got it in your sights, and then you've got the ordnance.

(voice-over): -- land --

(on camera): The number of threats that ground troops are dealing with.

(voice-over): -- and sea.

(on camera): There are five weapon stations on this Special Operations craft.

(voice-over): I met some of the bravest men and women I've ever known, bravery that came at a physical and mental price.

(on camera): In one word, how would you describe the war in Iraq?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sacrifice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bittersweet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mistake.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): These are veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Army, Air Force, Marines, all impacted in some way by this war.

(on camera): Was the war worth it to you?

JOSH AGUILAR, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: As an infantryman, I was on the ground a lot. And I talked to a lot of families, I talked to a lot of individuals in the Iraqi populous.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Staff Sergeant Josh Aguilar was on the ground when the war began, his first of three deployments.

AGUILAR: And I feel that as long as I gave somebody else the opportunity to have the same democracies, the same freedoms, the same hopes and dreams that we can have every day, then maybe some of those things that I did and some of the sacrifices that my friends made were worth a little bit of something.

PHILLIPS: Aguilar retired six months ago and starts school in January.

(on camera): Sarah, how about you? Was it worth it?

SARAH OLDRIDGE, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: I think I'm on the fence. I know there have been a lot of casualties, but how many more would there have been if we weren't there?

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Staff Sergeant Sarah Oldridge is now a paralegal in the Air Force Reserve and works at a private security company.

(on camera): You were a teenager building bombs. How did you process that?

OLDRIDGE: When you build those bombs, they don't come back, you know that someone's dead. And it's hard to be happy about that, but at the same time, I was happy that it wasn't me.

PHILLIPS: How did that change you?

OLDRIDGE: I think at the time you just kind of become cold and callous to it. It's self-preservation.

PHILLIPS: That you went from being a U.S. Marine to studying peace and conflict at UC Berkeley, talk about a switch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a hard time understanding why we went there in the first place, going in under false pretenses for weapons of mass destruction. Wanted to gain a better understanding of what I experienced. Getting out of the military took me at least a year to trying to negotiate being a civilian again.

PHILLIPS: Negotiate being a civilian. What do you mean by that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was very definitely ready to end my five-year enlistment, but when I got out, I didn't anticipate the feeling of loss, especially in terms of the really strong ties and bonds between me and the guys that I served with.

JESSI TSENG, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: I struggled with seeing my friends contemplate suicide.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Jessi Tseng was an Army sergeant in Iraq, an assistant to a brigade commander. Now, with a degree in sociology, she's dedicating her life to saving fellow vets.

TSENG: Seeing them deal with alcohol abuse, drug abuse, homelessness, that was the most difficult thing for me to see. I witnessed them save someone's life in Iraq, and they can't save their own anymore. It hurt me.

PHILLIPS: Ramsey Raher was an Army specialist honorably discharged just five months ago. He's now living in a transitional housing facility.

(on camera): You also struggled quite a bit since you got back. You're two months sober. That's positive.

RAMSEY RAHER, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But why did you turn to alcohol?

RAHER: I had to see good, patriotic Americans that were fathers, that were good parents, good sons, good daughters pay the ultimate sacrifice, and that played a heavy emotional toll on myself.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Ramsey received two Purple Hearts in less than a year.

RAHER: There was small arms contact, mortar attacks, RPG attacks, indirect fire on bases. I mean, you're constantly dealing with a barrage of ammunitions. Some of those events still haunt me.

PHILLIPS (on camera): Do you feel safe now?

RAHER: Now that I'm sober, yes.

PHILLIPS: The war in Iraq, how did it impact your marriages, your families?

OLDRIDGE: You know how they say the first year of marriage is tough? Well, try deploying three months after you get married. You learn a lot about yourself, about your marriage, about your spouse. We had a lot of fights, but we talked it out, and I can definitely say that our marriage is much stronger.

PHILLIPS: Josh, you've got a bit of a different story.

AGUILAR: A little bit. I was actually married six months before I deployed for the first time in Iraq, and I very specifically remember writing my wife a letter saying things are different for me and I can feel them. I can tell.

So, when I came home, on top of me dealing with my own issues, and on top of her becoming pregnant with our first child, it caused a lot of big gaps in our relationship. And by the time I deployed for my second deployment, a year and a half later, it was over. As I was walking out the door, I already knew this is the last time we're going to share a home together.

PHILLIPS: Our troops are coming home. What's your advice?

RAHER: My advice is just listen to the command. They do a very good job of giving mandatory briefings that deal with subjects such as suicide, domestic abuse, alcohol abuse. And don't diminish the good work that you did.

OLDRIDGE: You have to be open. You have to communicate. You have to be willing to talk about what you're feeling. Otherwise, you're just going to bottle it up and be angry.

MATT HOWARD, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: And realistically, people are not necessarily meant to kill other people, and they're going to have a reaction to that.

AGUILAR: Fighting those emotions and fighting those problems on your own isn't going to help. You fight as a team. You need help as a team.

TSENG: Eighteen veterans succeed in committing suicide a day, and 32 veterans attempt to commit suicide every day. And these are insane statistics, and it's real. I always think about everyone that we've lost in Iraq, and I live my life to fulfill what they could have done in the future but they can't now.

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Five voices of survival and sacrifice soon to be joined by the nearly 40,000 troops headed home, leaving Iraq for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Kyra Phillips, she joins us live.

Kyra, first of all, that's just such powerful reporting that you did during the war, and obviously as they come home. So I applaud you as a colleague and a friend.

The men and women who serve in Iraq -- and you've spoken to many of them -- do many of them think it was worth the sacrifice when it's all said and done?

PHILLIPS: Well, it's such a great question. It's a loaded question, that's for sure. And Suzanne, thanks so much for lifting me up.

I'll tell you, I've kept in touch with so many of the vets for so many years, and I'll be really straightforward with you. Not one from the highest ranking general, admiral, all the way down to the youngest ensign that I stayed in touch with, said to me 100 percent, on every level, that war was worth it. They are all struggle being.

And for these vets that I met with, the positive side, yes, it was worth serving my country. It was worth building the friendships that I did with other men and women in the military, getting to know the Iraqi families, the Iraqi kids. That is what was worth it to them.

Overall, the men and women that they lost, the friends that they lost, the deaths, the suicides, the PTSD, the things I addressed in that piece, they said that wasn't worth it, that the feeling of loss is too big. And more than anything -- and you heard Jessi say it in that piece -- she said the hardest thing for her was that she could watch her colleagues save lives, but they couldn't save their own. And that's just been too much for them to bear at this point.

MALVEAUX: We're going to talk with you a little bit about some other issues, but is there anything that really stood out on all of your trips there and the conversations you had, any memory of yours that really made an impression on you?

PHILLIPS: That's interesting, because I, as a journalist -- and I know we've talked about this before -- have asked myself, because I was there at the beginning, and I went back several times afterwards -- and I could see progress. Going to the school for the deaf, the school for the blind, and watching these Iraqi kids actually have resources now and the chance for a better education, seeing women in the university having more freedom, it was little things like that where I thought, wow, there are fabulous things happening for the Iraqi people.

But then I was also being invited to more and more funerals. So that's a tough question when you ask what was the most memorable part. The patriotism was pretty amazing, but the loss of life is something that I don't -- I think about every day.

MALVEAUX: Yes. It doesn't go away. It doesn't leave you.

Kyra, we're going to take a closer look at what is ahead for the United States and Iraq.

And Kyra's going to come back, along with Wolf Blitzer in Washington, Arwa Damon in Baghdad. We're also going to bring you live coverage of that news conference, President Obama and Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: March 17, 2003, President George W. Bush informs the nation that the U.S. and coalition forces have started military action against Iraq. Today, President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meeting to mark the end of the war in Iraq and to discuss the ahead. They're scheduled to meet with reporters in just a couple of minutes. We're going to bring that to you live.

First, I want to talk about a couple turning points on the road where we were today, and virtually all U.S. troops pulling out of Iraq in the next three weeks. With U.S. casualties mounting, violence rampant in Iraq, a U.S. troop surge began in January of 2007. U.S. troop levels increased more than 150,000 during that same year then- Candidate Obama was promising to end the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will bring our troops home. It is time to bring this war to a close. It is time to recognize there's no military solution to the problems in Iraq.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: It is time to turn the page.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: In November of 2008, the Bush administration and the Iraqi parliament agreed on a withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011. The U.S. had planned to leave several thousand troops behind as trainers, but Iraq refused to grant them immunity. After that agreement fell apart, President Obama announced in October that the U.S. would complete its withdrawal by the end of the year. So we're going to wait for the news conference that will happen momentarily, President Obama and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

In the meantime, we will talk to three of my colleagues about the end of the war in Iraq and Iraq on its own, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, he's in Washington; Kyra Phillips, in Atlanta; and in Baghdad, Arwa Damon.

Wolf, I want to start of with you.

In covering President Bush, what struck me was the moving goal posts. First, the definition of winning this war. In the beginning, it was about going after weapons of mass destruction. Then it turned into liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, and then bringing democracy to the Middle East. How does President Obama define winning this war? What does he walk away with?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: He's not going to save the United States as a mission accomplished moment or has won this war. He's very precise in his words. He's not going to do any high- fiving or anything like that right now, as almost all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by the end of this month. He's going to be cautious because he and all of his advisors are fully aware -- and they've basically told me and a lot of other people, of their deep concerns that no one knows where this government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq, is going to go. Will they strengthen the relationship with Iran, their big neighbor? Will they go ahead and undermine the movement towards democracy elsewhere?

They're very upset, very worried about Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki's government support for Bashar al-Assad in Syria. With the exception of Lebanon, the only country that refuses to go along with the rest of the Arab world. The rest of the Arab League in condemning and sanctioning, impositions sanctions against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus for what it's doing against peaceful protesters throughout the country. These are very worrying signs and a lot of officials and outside experts are very worried about where this direction, where this Iraqi government is going.

We'll hear some reassuring words, I'm sure, from Nouri al-Maliki in this joint news conference with the president, but what he says will be significant. What he does in the coming weeks and months will obviously be so much more important.

MALVEAUX: Wolf, we'll get to you in a minute.

I want to bring in Arwa, who's out of Baghdad.

Arwa, he talks about Nouri al-Maliki and this becoming more of a stable place, at least that's what the prime minister has said. What is life like for the Iraqis now?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, it's utterly heart breaking and incredibly difficult. Iraqis, especially those in the capital, Baghdad, hardly have what we would call a normal life. For them, it has become normal. This is a city of blast walls, of check points. They still don't have basic services. Attacks are still ongoing. Even as the U.S. is gearing towards withdrawing all of its troops here by the end of the month, we still have acts of violence that are not only taking people's lives but leaving them horribly mutilated.

One of our teams was out visiting with a 29-year-old woman who lost her leg in a recent explosion. We were visiting the city of Fallujah where a policeman, living on the outskirts, had his house blown up by members of al Qaeda. That's what residents have been telling us. His family was killed, his wife, his two daughters, his mother-in-law, and his 4-year-old child. That is what Iraqis are still dealing with every day.

When people compare the numbers, if you talk about what's happening now versus what happened at the height of the violence, of course, one can paint something of a positive image, but the reality is that the violence for Iraqis, the challenges and the uncertainties continue every single day.

MALVEAUX: That's very powerful.

I want to bring in Kyra Phillips. Kyra's back with us as well. Kyra has covered the war for eight years and had numerous trips there.

Kyra, what do you walk away with? This is a turning point here. You talked to a lot of the men and women who actually served.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One thing Arwa was mentioning is still how Iraq deals with so much violence every single day and that you walk through there and it still looks like such a battle zone. But one of the last trips I made back there, I want to point out, that the resilience of the Iraqi people is absolutely amazing.

I mentioned this a little bit earlier, that I had a chance to go to the University of Baghdad, the school for the deaf, the school for the blind, the college for women, the sports college for women, and it really was amazing to me that I would ask them about the war.

Yes, we deal with the war. We have to pay attention to the violence. We have to be much more careful. We have to watch what we say, what we do.

But they're still trying to live life the way everybody wanted them to be able to live their lives after the war. So they're still trying to get to work, to get to school, to get to their teaching job, to get an education. I just want to point that out, that while, every day, they're so fearful, at the same time, they are so resilient and they're trying to make their lives better and they're trying to just get through day to day.

MALVEAUX: Wolf, I want to bring you back into the conversation here.

The president, he brings forward and he says, look, this is a campaign promise I made. I'm fulfilling this promise. The men and women are coming home. You look at the state in Afghanistan, he's trying to draw down that war as well. You had bin Laden killed. All of this happens under his watch. How important is that for this president when he is looking forward to 2012? Is it all about the economy or does he get some credit for this?

BLITZER: A lot will depend in Iraq. Let's start with Iraq what now and what happens between now and November of next year. The Republicans will be very critical of him if the situation deteriorates. They'll say he should have fought harder to negotiate a continued large-scale military presence.

Not just 5,000 or 10,000 troops, maybe 20,000 or 25,000 troops should have remained and that could have stabilized the situation. Let's see what happens. Does the government in Baghdad move closer to Iran and Bashar al-Assad, in Syria, or does it maintain some sort of good strategic relationship with the United States? That will be an issue.

As far as Afghanistan is concerned, U.S. troops will remain there for at least another three years. They'll stay there until the end of 2014, even though there will be a reduction in the surge troops that went in. They'll go from about 100,000 to close to 70,000 by the end of next year. But there still will be 70,000 U.S. troops that will remain in 2013 and 2014 in Afghanistan. There's a long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan costing taxpayers about $2 billion a week, more than $100 billion a year.

These will be issues, there's no doubt about it, in the campaign. Although, you and I have covered politics for a long time, Suzanne, we know the economy and jobs will remain issue number one.

MALVEAUX: Afghanistan, having been there in September, that job is a huge one, and certainly there's a lot of doubts whether or not they'll be able to hand over security to the Afghan people within that very short window of time.

I want to bring back Arwa.

Arwa, tell us about the Iraqi people. You said things are very difficult for them now. Do they want us to leave?

DAMON: You know, it's a real mixed bag of emotion when is it comes to that. It's not a yes-or-no answer, Suzanne. For many Iraqis, this U.S. troop withdrawal comes with a lot of tense and confusing emotions. Many Iraqis are fearful of what the future will bring. They don't have a lot of faith in the capability of the Iraqi security forces.

Minorities, like the Christians, are petrified that they're going to continue to be attacked. But at the same time, some of those who we met in the last few days are saying, look, the U.S. has been here all along and they haven't been able to protect us, so what is the difference if they do leave or not?

Others are very concerned that a security vacuum is going to be left behind and that vacuum could be once again be filled by extremist Sunni elements, like al Qaeda, that Iran's influence is going to grow. There's a lot of concern about the path the Iraqi government is going to take and very little faith in its ability to truly be a nationalist one.

There are opponents of Nouri al-Maliki, critics, who say he is consolidating power. He is launching a targeted campaign against the Sunni population. He's throwing people behind bars deliberately to gain an even greater grip. Many people say they're very worried about the influence Iran has over the country and how close the Iraqi and Iranian governments are. The U.S. military especially going to be focusing on how Iran plays its cards once they leave.

MALVEAUX: Right.

I want to bring back Kyra.

You interviewed Timothy Keating this last hour. I want viewers to get a sense and hear how he responded when you asked him whether or not the war was even worth it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Eight years later, was that war worth it?

ADM. TIMOTHY KEATING, U.S. NAVY, RETIRED: Sure. Yes, ma'am, it was.

PHILLIPS: You don't feel in any way, shape or form you were duped to the reasons why we went to war?

KEATING: No. I and the folks with whom I dealt were very clear about it, Kyra. As I say, tough decisions. Might like to have done some things a little different or a lot different than we did. But in retrospect, again, I'm proud to have participated to the extent that I did. I salute the young men and women who did the real fighting in --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Those men and women that did the real fighting, final thought. They have come back with PTSD. Suicides have been off the charts, alcoholism, divorces, domestic abuse. What do you say to the troops coming home? What do you say to those vets that are wondering?

KEATING: I say thanks for your service. Thanks for demonstrating a crucible that is almost unimaginable, your courage, your honor and your commitment. And I would tell them to be strong, and in so being, to get as much help as you need as quickly as you need it. Don't be reluctant, don't be afraid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Kyra, are they getting the help they need?

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. You know, when I asked him, was the war worth it -- I mean, Admiral Keating has had such a rich career. He saw his men and women -- he saw all of the men and women, their bravery, their ability to execute a war plan efficiently.

"Shock and Awe" took seven minutes. The bombs hit the targets. So was the war worth it? It took out a horrible dictator. We showed how powerful we are as a U.S. military. But what Admiral Keating admitted to me in that interview was we were not ready for after Saddam, for after "Shock and Awe," and what was about to happen with all the terrorists and the other networks infiltrating that country. That is where military leaders and members of our military are struggling. We have the best military in the world in the capabilities. You saw, I was there with the fighter pilots flying in the F14s.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

PHILLIPS: I was with the Navy SEALs. I was out on a destroyer. I saw how capable and how incredible our military is, but it was afterwards that nobody -- they didn't even think it was going to get as bad as it is now. They weren't prepared for that. They didn't plan that. They didn't execute it well. So that's why we are seeing so many failures and a lot of controversy right now in that country.

MALVEAUX: Thank you very much, Kyra. Excellent reporting as always.

We're waiting for the president as well as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who are going to be speaking at the White House, making statements, taking questions as troop withdrawal happens and these events unfold. Again, the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, the president, President Obama at the White House just moments away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're awaiting a news conference, President Obama and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. They'll be speaking momentarily.

I want to bring in Wolf back into the conversation.

Wolf, one of the things that struck me, at least during the Bush administration, is that the president, President Bush, was always reminding Americans about the September 11th attacks when he talked about the war with Afghanistan, but also the war with Iraq, that had nothing to do with September 11th. I think it really made an impression on the psyche of this country, a country that was at war. Do you think things will be different under President Obama when you have these troops that are withdrawn? That perhaps we are not a country, a nation of people that is constantly thinking about being at war?

BLITZER: Well, the longer we go away from 9/11, obviously, the less of an impact it'll have, although it will remain in our psyche and our history forever. There's no doubt, the more you get away from that and the more peaceful it is, especially now that bin Laden has been killed, people will begin to move away from that kind of thinking, which led the president, President Bush, to go ahead and authorize the war in Iraq in March of 2003 and continue until basically now.

Let's -- as we get ready, Suzanne, to hear from the president and the Iraqi prime minister, let's not forget some 16,000 Americans are going to remain in Iraq even after the end of this month when all U.S. troops are supposed to be gone.

About 5,000 or so diplomats and diplomatic support staff and maybe as many as 15,000 private U.S. contractors, who will be there to try to protect those diplomats, counselor officials? There will be the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad. Thousands and thousands of Americans will be there. There won't be a robust U.S. military presence. There might be a few hundred trainers. They won't have diplomatic immunity.

The Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejected any immunity for remaining U.S. troops. That's the main reason why thousands of U.S. troops won't remain there right now. But there will still be a huge U.S. presence.

The great fear -- I don't know if the president or prime minister will get into it today. The great fear is that these Americans who will remain in Iraq, the diplomats, the diplomatic support team, the contractors will be very, very vulnerable. They'll be relying on Iraqi military, the Iraqi police for protection.

A lot of U.S. officials are deeply worried that they'll start killing Americans to get the remaining Americans out, which would obviously open the door for even a closer alliance between Iraq, the Shiite leadership in Iraq, and the Shiite leadership in Iran. That's a great nightmare scenario. It is one that some U.S. officials play down. And no doubt, the president and the prime minister will play that down right now. But I can assure you, a lot of experts who have studied Iraq are deeply worried about the coming months, what's going to happen there.

MALVEAUX: Arwa, talk a little bit about that, what Wolf just mentioned there. There will be some Americans who will remain there. What are the feelings of the Iraqis towards those Americans that are there? Are they in danger? Is there that threat there?

DAMON: Well, look, there is this certain scenario that does exist here and that is that the Americans are viewed by some of these Shia special groups that are directly backed by the Iranian Quds force that they are viewed to be occupiers, they are basically the exact a thing as the U.S. military.

That's why the U.S. is so greatly concerned about what's going to happen once the military leaves. Add to that the proximity that Wolf was talking about between the leadership in Iran and the Shia leadership here in Iraq, including the prime minister himself.

One has to wait and see exactly how Iran is going to decide to move forward with this relationship with Iraq. Is it going to try to somehow maintain something of an underground armed presence here, a card that can it continuously play against the United States and against the Iraqi government? Or is it really going to move forward in a political track? Not much faith in that second option.

When it comes to the Iraqi population, Suzanne, they look at these dynamics happening at a political level and they are so utterly disappointed with their own diplomats, with their own government, with the United States that, to a certain degree, they believe allowed this government to remain, or even brought it to power despite the fact that there were elections here. There is a lot of disappointment with the fact that the U.S. is leaving behind a fairly shattered nation.

When we talk about the Iraqi government, even at this point in time, Suzanne, it is still not fully formed. The Security Council, the Ministries of Defense and Interior, they do not even have permanent ministers at their head. The prime minister himself has consolidated all of this power. This is causing great concern as well.

But Iraqis, by and large, as a population, feel like they are pawns to powers, both internally and externally, over which they have no control. Powers who have absolutely no regard for the well being of the Iraqi people themselves.

MALVEAUX: Arwa Damon, thank you very much.

We're going to have our full panel after a quick break. We are watching and waiting, the White House, President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to address reporters momentarily.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Keeping an eye on the markets. Concern about the debt crisis in Europe is erasing now all of last Friday's gains. Right now, the stocks are down more than 200 points or so.

We are also keeping a close eye at the White House, what's happening there. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki both to speak before reporters, as we anticipate U.S. troop withdrawal from that country by the end of the year. We'll have more after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Top of the hour, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed.

We are watching at the White House here President Obama and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki both of them holding a news conference very shortly. We are keeping our eye on that. Obviously, this comes as the U.S. troops withdraw by the end of the year.

I want to bring in my colleagues very quickly here.

Wolf Blitzer in Washington.

First of all, Wolf, what does the president need to say here to fulfill that campaign promise that, yes, this war is wrapping up and it is over?

BLITZER: Well, it's taken him almost three years in his administration. He certainly made it a campaign commitment to get the U.S. troops out of Iraq and he's living up to that. He did it, by the way, in accordance with an agreement that his predecessor, President George W. Bush, worked out in the final months of the Bush administration. And they set this target date, December 2011, for all U.S. troops getting out of Iraq. That's what the Iraqis wanted and the U.S. wanted at that time. The president -- this current president did not accelerate it or push it back or anything like that. He is doing it according to the letter.

Now the dispute arises over whether or not 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 U.S. troops should have remained. The Obama administration tried to get the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki to accept a limited U.S. military presence beyond the end of this month. The Iraqis government adamantly rejected any notion of immunity for U.S. troops, which is a basic essential for U.S. troops to remain in a foreign country, whether in Japan or South Korea or Germany or Afghanistan or any place else.

The Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki said many members of their coalition, the Shiites who are linked to Iran, would never accept that. They didn't accept it. And as a result, U.S. troops are going to be out within the next few days.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Wolf.