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NBC's Jim Miklaszewski consulted his unnamed "senior military" sources. They told him: "Significant numbers of US troops will still be in Iraq three years from now." On the campaign trail, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both used the anniversary to deliver speeches to remind voters that they disagreed with those brass. NBC's Ron Allen reported that Obama would start pulling out troops immediately upon taking office; Rodham Clinton would start after 60 days. Obama would complete the pullout in 16 months; Rodham Clinton "has not yet said how long a pullout will take."
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell was traveling in the region with Republican John McCain. Would he pledge "a dramatic reduction in the number of US forces engaged in combat in Iraq?" "Oh yes! Sure." What about McCain's thrice-repeated error that Iran is training al-Qaeda guerrillas? "I corrected it in my comment immediately," he reassured O'Donnell. She reflected that the mistake left McCain "to defend his expertise during a trip in which he intended to showcase it."
ABC's White House correspondent Martha Raddatz is also traveling in the region as part of Vice President Dick Cheney's entourage and anchor Charles Gibson replayed one delicious exchange. Cheney offered his assessment of Iraq: "There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better." What about the majority of Americans who state, in opinion polls, that the war was not worth the cost? "So?" "So you do not care what the American people think?" "No," Cheney answered. "You cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls."
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