The Hiller Instinct: Iraq Troop Pullout

April 9, 2003

Within weeks, Saddam's statue toppled in Baghdad and the war seemed won...

May 1, 2003

Less than a month later, when President Bush flew to an aircraft carrier to announce the end of major combat operations, no one said he was seven years too early.

Dec 15, 2003

And Saddam himself was caught hiding in a hole before the first anniversary of the invasion...

But Saddam's end didn't end the war. And now, all these years later, the outcome still isn't clear.

"This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq,”

...the senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said three years ago, and many Americans believe it today.

Our combat role may be ending, but the commanding general in Iraq concedes "there is still danger" for the 50,000 troops who will remain there to advise and assist.

The war brought great disappointments:

The photographs of American soldiers torturing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison...

All those purple fingers--a proud symbol of democratic voting--producing a dysfunctional Iraqi government.

Most painful of all: four thousand four hundred American men and women dying in Iraq, with thousands more seriously injured.

And the money: as much as three trillion dollars. For what exactly?

So--no surprise--when asked how history will judge the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 53% said a failure, 42% a success.

And was sending U.S. troops to Iraq a mistake? 55% say yes, 41% no.

"As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As president, that is what I am doing," President Obama said.

Once again this evening, the president will use the oval office to convey the importance of his speech.

And once again, he'll try to unify the nation on a war that has divided it.

Check back tonight--I'll tell you if he did.

I’m Andy Hiller, that’s my instinct.

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