During a July 22 trip to Ramadi, Barack Obama, second from left, spoke with a tribal sheik, third from left, with the help of a translator. By Erin Kirk, AFP/Getty ImagesFrom USA Today:
BAGHDAD — Saad Eskander, the director of Iraq's National Library and Archive, will never forget Nov. 20, 2006. That was the day Barack Obama declared Iraq was "descending into chaos" and called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, in a speech that would define the war policy Obama carried into his historic run for president.
Eskander remembers it for a different reason: "That was the saddest day of my life."
HISTORICAL VIEW: When a president inherits a war
That morning, mortars and gunfire echoed outside Eskander's office in downtown Baghdad. Then, just before noon, he learned that one of his staffers had been shot dead by a sectarian militia while on his way to work.
The slaying bolstered Eskander's belief, shared by most Iraqis during that bloody era of the war, that America was part of the problem in Iraq and U.S. troops should leave.
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My Comment: This USA Today has a number of good charts and data base links. A link that should be bookmarked.