AP Photo/Susan Walsh

President Obama announced Friday that the United States will withdraw nearly all troops from Iraq by the end of the year, effectively bringing the long and polarizing war in Iraq to an end.

"After nearly 9 years, America's war in Iraq will be over," said Mr. Obama.

He said the last American troops will depart the country by January 1 "with their heads held high, proud of their success, and knowing that the American people stand united in our support for our troops."

"The transition in Afghanistan is moving forward, and our troops are finally coming home," he added, saying in the White House briefing room that U.S. troops "will definitely be home for the holidays."

The war in Iraq has meant the death of more than 4,400 U.S. troops and come at a cost of more than $700 billion. Asked in a briefing following Mr. Obama's remarks if it was worth it, Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said, "history is going to have to judge."

Iraq: By the numbers

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sits down for six consecutive television interviews in Kabul, Afghanistan October 20, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared a laugh with a television news reporter moments after hearing deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi had been killed.

"We came, we saw, he died," she joked when told of news reports of Qaddafi's death by an aide in between formal interviews.

UPDATED 3:28 p.m. ET

President Barack Obama hailed the death of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi as a victory for the Libyan people Thursday, though he cautioned the North African nation faces difficult days ahead.

"This is a momentous day in the history of Libya," Mr. Obama said in remarks in the White House Rose Garden.

In this March 8, 2011, Muammar Qaddafi arrives at the Rixos hotel in the capital of Tripoli.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Updated 8:55 a.m. ET

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the capture of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi would be a significant development in Libya if it proves true, but she could not confirm a Reuters report saying rebels had captured and wounded him.

Clinton also said she did not expect his capture would end the fighting there in an interview in Afghanistan with CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak take part in a joint news conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011.

/ AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Obama on Thursday vowed to impose the most significant sanctions to date on Iran for its alleged plot to have the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington assassinated, and  expressed confidence the world would join the U.S. effort to isolate the Iranian government.

The president, speaking alongside South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a joint press conference, said that his administration had reached out to "all of our allies, the international community, we've laid the facts before them - and we believe that after people have analyzed them, there will not be a dispute that this in fact, what happened, this is not just a dangerous escalation - this is a pattern of dangerous and reckless behavior by the Iranian government."

"This is just one example of a series of steps that they've taken to create violence and to behave in a way that you don't see other countries doing," he said. "We're going to continue to... apply the toughest sanctions and continue to mobilize the international community to make sure that Iran is further and further isolated and pays a price for this kind of behavior."

President Obama lost an opportunity to spur a major change to U.S. relations with Iran when he chose not to side with the protestors in the streets two years ago, his 2008 opponent for the White House said Thursday.

Sen. John McCain said Mr. Obama's decision not to jeopardize his negotiations with the Iranian government by not publicly supporting street protestors in Tehran in 2009 was a mistake.

"I think if we had supported the demonstrators at the time it could have meant a significant change in the government of Iran," McCain said on CBS' "The Early Show," adding it was "opportunity that we lost."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks as she meets with Montenegro Prime Minister Igor Luksic, not seen, at the State Department Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 in Washington.

/ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Updated: 1:39 p.m. ET

A plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States is a "dangerous escalation" of political violence by the Iranian government, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday as she vowed to hold Iran accountable for its actions.

The alleged plot is a "flagrant violation of international and United States law" and the Obama administration would step up its sanctions in response, Clinton said in remarks at the Center for American Progress.

"This kind of reckless act undermines international norms and the international system," she said. "Iran must be held accountable for its actions... In addition to the steps announced by the Attorney General yesterday, the United States has increased our sanctions on individuals within the Iranian government who are associated with this plot and Iran's support for terrorism."

Updated 2:32 p.m. Eastern Time

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday said that he believes America should be "the strongest nation on earth" and argued for an increase in military spending to ensure that the United States can assert military dominance over other nations.

"It is only American power--conceived in the broadest terms--that can provide the foundation of an international system that ensures the security and prosperity of the United States and our friends and allies around the world," Romney said during a speech at the Citadel in South Carolina.

Calling for this to be an "American century" in which "America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world," he said that a "feckless" President Obama mistakenly believes that "there is nothing unique about the United States." Romney argued that the president has weakened the nation economically, militarily and in terms of "the enduring strength of our values."

"America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers," said the former Massachusetts governor. "America must lead the world, or someone else will. Without American leadership, without clarity of American purpose and resolve, the world becomes a far more dangerous place, and liberty and prosperity would surely be among the first casualties."

Romney, who used a teleprompter, spoke for about 30 minutes in front of about 450 people in what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy speech. Top Gun music played in the background before the speech as cadets filed onstage to sit behind Romney.

AP Photo/Carlos Osorio

Sending U.S. troops to Mexico to help fight drug cartels is a bad idea, Republican presidential contender and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday, rejecting an idea thrown out by his GOP opponent, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

"Let's build a fence first," Romney said in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader, "and let's have sufficient border patrol agents to protect it. And if the Mexican government want us to help it with logistics, intelligence, satellite images, I'm sure we can provide the sort of support we provided in Colombia."

"Mexico has its own military," Romney continued. "And it think it's a bad idea to send American troops into Mexico. I think Mexico would consider it a bad idea. I consider it a bad idea."

CBS News political analyst John Dickerson was joined by the New York Times' Michael Shear, Politico's Roger Simon, and USA Today's Susan Page for a discussion on whether President Obama's foreign policy victories will propel his re-election campaign or if the economy has taken too much of a toll.

Watch the full discussion at left including the roundtable's take on Florida's early primary date and the impact Gov. Chris Christie has on the Republican presidential field.

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. waves after speaking to the media in Charlotte, N.C. Sept. 29, 2011.

/ Chuck Burton

CONCORD, N.C. -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says President Obama's Middle East policy is to blame for the popular uprisings against autocratic regimes across the Arab world.

At a fundraiser here, Bachmann said she thinks the president "laid the table for the Arab Spring by demonstrating weakness," and particularly noted his call for Israel to return to its borders prior to the 1967 war with Egypt.

Bachmann, who has a track record of jumbled facts and sometimes false assertions, also drew an analogy between Obama's treatment of Israel and the fall of the shah of Iran during the Democratic administration of President Jimmy Carter, an event she maintained led to the rise of radicalism in the Islamic world.

President Obama addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2011.

/ AP

As the U.N. Security Council takes up discussion Monday of the Palestinian bid for statehood, President Obama has some tough decisions to make about how to proceed with the peace process in the Middle East.

Mr. Obama's address to the U.N. General Assembly was supportive of Israel, and clear on the U.S. threat to veto the Palestinians' bid in the U.N. Security Council -- making it impossible for Palestine to become a state member of the U.N.

Video: Obama urges Palestinians to drop U.N. bid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Mr. Obama for his speech, and foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman congratulated him. But President Obama proposed no specific plan, leaving it to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- in her role as U.S. representative to the Middle East Quartet of the U.S., Russia, the U.N. and the European Union -- to plot the next steps.

CBS/AP

In an attempt to make progress on three languishing free trade agreements, the Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at helping American workers who lose their jobs because of foreign trade.

The Senate passed the extension of funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program (TAA) by a vote of 70 to 27. Democrats, including President Obama, have said Congress must extend funding for the TAA program before approving pending trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea -- agreements that have been in the works for years.

President Obama has said he will not send the trade agreements to Congress before the TAA funding is passed. House Speaker John Boehner released a statement on Thursday evening, after the Senate passed the TAA bill, saying the House will take up the bill once Mr. Obama sends the free trade agreements to Congress.

President Obama on Wednesday told the U.N. General Assembly that Palestine cannot achieve peace with Israel by unilaterally seeking recognition from the U.N., asserting that lasting peace must be negotiated directly by those involved.

"I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades," President Obama said. "Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N. - if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now."

"Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians who must live side by side," he continued. "Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians - not us - who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and security; on refugees and Jerusalem."

In the midst of stalled peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to deliver a formal request for statehood recognition on Friday when he speaks to the General Assembly. Mr. Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are planning to pressure Abbas this week to end his bid for full U.N. membership after Abbas makes his formal request. While it is unlikely the bid makes it to the U.N. Security Council for a vote, the U.S. has promised to use its veto power if it does.