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.”

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.

Col. Bryan Bearden, commander of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, was relieved of duty Monday because of problems in the wing’s maintenance group that cropped up in a series of inspections, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

The maintenance problems caused Gen. Howie Chandler, Pacific Air Forces commander, to lose faith in Bearden’s leadership and his ability to take the wing in the right direction, the sources said.

Bearden is not being investigated for any wrong-doing, the sources said, but the recent inspections found problems with the maintenance group’s adherence to technical orders and standards of documentation.

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