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In this Dec. 14, 2003 file image taken from video, captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein undergoes medical examinations in Baghdad. In the beginning, it all looked simple: topple Saddam Hussein, destroy his purported weapons of mass destruction and lay the foundation for a pro-Western government in the heart of the Arab world. Nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives later, the objective now is simply to get out _ and leave behind a country where democracy has at least a chance, where Iran does not dominate and where conditions may not be good but "good enough." (AP Photo/US Military via APTN, File)
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In this May 13, 2004, file photo, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, left, listens to Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, during his flight from Kuwait City to Baghdad. In the beginning, it all looked simple: topple Saddam Hussein, destroy his purported weapons of mass destruction and lay the foundation for a pro-Western government in the heart of the Arab world. Nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives later, the objective now is simply to get out _ and leave behind a country where democracy has at least a chance, where Iran does not dominate and where conditions may not be good but "good enough." (AP Photo/David Hume Kennerly, Pool, File)
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In this March 31, 2003 file photo, an Iraqi prisoner of war comforts his 4-year-old son at a regrouping center for POWs captured by the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf, Iraq. The man was seized in An Najaf with his son, and the U.S. military did not want to separate father and son. In the beginning, it all looked simple: topple Saddam Hussein, destroy his purported weapons of mass destruction and lay the foundation for a pro-Western government in the heart of the Arab world. Nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives later, the objective now is simply to get out _ and leave behind a country where democracy has at least a chance, where Iran does not dominate and where conditions may not be good but "good enough." (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju, File)
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In this March 20, 2003 file photo, smoke rises from the Trade Ministry in Baghdad after it was hit by a missile during US-led forces attacks. In the beginning, it all looked simple: topple Saddam Hussein, destroy his purported weapons of mass destruction and lay the foundation for a pro-Western government in the heart of the Arab world. Nearly 4,500 American and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives later, the objective now is simply to get out _ and leave behind a country where democracy has at least a chance, where Iran does not dominate and where conditions may not be good but "good enough." (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appears on a national call-in TV show in Moscow on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Pool)
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** FILE ** Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea affairs, speaks to journalists at a hotel after he met with Chinese officials in Beijing on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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House Speaker John A. Boehner called Wednesday for Democrats to release a year-end spending bill from their blockade. Democrats said they won't allow the bill to go through until lawmakers also pass an extension of this year's payroll-tax cut. (Associated Press)
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** FILE ** House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, accompanied by fellow Republican leaders, meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, before a crucial vote on a GOP effort to renew an extension of the payroll-tax cut. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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** FILE ** Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta (center right) walks across the apron with Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III (center left), commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, after arriving in Baghdad on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011. Mr. Panetta was participating in ceremonies marking the end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)
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The US Forces Iraq colors are lowered before being encased in a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Dec., 15, 2011. The ceremonies mark the official end of the U.S. military mission in Iraq. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Pool)
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry is taking Iowa by storm in the final weeks leading up to the Republican presidential caucuses.
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Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the top Republican budget writer in the House, has a new plan for Medicare - devised with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon - that would set up a regulated competition with private insurance. (Associated Press)
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Signs of American influence on the Iraqi military - including U.S.-made M-16 assault rifles - are unmistakable. Years of training hopefully have given them the skills needed to defend their country and the professionalism to do it differently than Saddam Hussein's forces did. (Associated Press)
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Martha MacCallum interviews former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential candidate, on the Fox News. Mr. Romney is taking some heat for trying to make a $10,000 bet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry at Saturday's debate. (Associated Press)
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FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III tells the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday he is concerned about the defense spending bill's effect on the bureau's ability to investigate terrorism, saying that while the bill had been modified for the better, it "lacks clarity as to what happens at the time of arrest." The bill has been passed by the House and awaits Senate action Thursday. (Associated Press)
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President Obama speaks to returning troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., Wednesday, about the end of the Iraq war with the withdrawal of all U.S. forces at the end of this month. "Our commitment [to you] doesn't end when you take off the uniform," Mr. Obama said. (Associated Press)
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D.C. Council member Marion Barry, who owes the federal government more than $277,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties, answers questions of reporters after leaving the federal court house where he testified in Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 16, 2009. (Astrid Riecken/The Washington Times)
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"We know that [natural resources] will either help your country finance its own path out of poverty, or you will fall prey to the natural-resource curse, which will enrich a small elite, outside interests, corporations and countries, and leave your people hardly better off then when you started" - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
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South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit greets the European co-sponsors of the International Engagement Conference, including (from left) Endre Stiansen, special envoy from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Cevdet Yilmaz, minister of the Turkish Ministry of Development, and Susan Page, U.S. ambassador to the Republic of South Sudan, after speaking about the Republic of South Sudan at the Marriott Wardman Park on Wednesday. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/The Washington Times)
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"I don't really care about efforts; I care about results," says political consultant Dave Carney, who gives campaign contractors small monthly payouts and bonuses if they win. (Associated Press)
