to al jazeera". princeton univey cornel west is a provocative intellectual. >> not 1 wall street executive gone to gaol. >> a renowned academic. he studied at harvard, yale and paris. a political activist, his campaign against poverty, and african american youth. he supported president obama, but is a critic of the president on issues like the use of drones. >> they are running an empire and a killing machine. >> outspoken and controversial. what does he think of a hillary

clinton bid. >> first woman president, symbolic. >> what would martin luther king think 50 years on from the "i have a dream." >> brother martin would have tears in his own. >> dr cornel west, practicing at the seminary in new york and professor at princeton. our special guest. >> dr cornel west, welcome to "talk to al jazeera". good to have you. >> might i say i salute al jazeera, to have high qualityism on the air is beautiful to behold. >> you are a world renowned academic, threologian, academic. you lectured around the globe. if there's one thing you want people to take away from your appearances, what would it be? >> it would be that it's worthwhile to engage in a quest

for truth, understanding that truth is to allow suffering to speak. a baby in every corner of globe in tel aviv, west bank, yemen, connecticut or a baby in south side chick -- chicago, it means you are committed to the decenties and humanity of every person, each human has a participation to be decent and have integrity be honest and you cut against the grain. we live in an age of monstrous men dafty. >> you appreciate the decency of barack obama. you appeared at many events. you are a tough critic and refer to the president as a war criminal.

what happened. >> nothing happened. each speech i gave, i said i want the president to win, because he's better than the alternative. that i would breakdance the afternoon he won, and i would be his major critic the next morning, and i would not support him, but the system as a whole. he was the best candidate vis-a-vis the other candidate. i wanted to be a major critic because i had a feeling if he won he'd need pushing. >> it's one thing to be a critic and another to call him a war criminalism. >> just telling the truth. if you authorised killing including 221 children and adults. i don't care what it was, they are war crimes. i said the same thing about bush and johnson when i was young. >> these are unintentional deaths. the president said drones are effective and used as a last resort.

they have saved lives. what's the alternative. >> do you know what i mean? the alternative is that you say you'll engage in various strategies and tactics that not just minimise killing of innocent people but tell the truth when you do. it's the lies that you tell, the perjury that folk told in front of congress. hide and conceal the barr bahty. >> has president obama purgeured himself in congress or the american people. >> he hasn't. he has others say no incident civilians kill. lie, lie. >> they didn't intend. >> it's not about an intention. they are running an empire, a killing machine. when they meet it on tuesday and make the choices and over and over again innocent people and children are killed, it's a pattern of behaviour. they'll never come out and say i intend to kill the incident children. they are collateral damage.

i hate that term collateral damage, innocent lives are overlooked in a mill taristic name. >> the phrase war criminal, doesn't that diminish the intensity of intentional atrocities committed in war. >> no, it dimmin ishes moral authority. for someone that heads a global military machine, you have to look closely at the ethical grounds and moral authority. this is more likely be truth for clinton. >> if you were sitting in the obviously office, dr cornell west, and were presented with the information that you had, and you decided that you have to go after this target. would it be more moral to use tanks to carpet bomb, send in boots on the ground? >> i wouldn't be in that situation because i probably

would get shot the first days with those coming at me given my attempt to tell the truth. i would not want to mislead the people or lie about what is going on. >> you understand my question. >> it is tough, make tough decisions. what that means, something is wrong with the system that requires the head of that system to engage in that kind of activity that results in the loss of precious lives. how do we create a better world, a better system, society and government. >> cultural journalism. to a lot of journalists, to get at the truth. we have to bite them off. >> the truth is this the united states has been a nation alt war for some time, that most of the american people have given the authority to the president to take care of that war. >> we haven't declared war since world war i. >> the american people said to the president, "this is a war, we support you. the commander in chief decided this is the most effective, safest way to go after the

targets we go after. >> we had to unpack what we mean by effective and safest. some of us went to gaol because of staff and frisk. it generates high levels of fine. if you want to eliminate crime, create a fascist new york. streets are clean, everyone is afraid they don't do everything outside the law. everyone is safe, it's effective and safe. there's something called morality, something called spirituality, how you relate to one another, how you connect with one another. how you conceive a public interest and common good. it's called democracy highlighting common good. those are the things we have to zero in on. when we do we cat radically against the game. >> morality, democracy, can't you judge president obama's presidency as a success.

he repealed don't ask don't tell, named the first latino to the supreme court amongst others. >> not really. you look at bottoms up. you introduce the jim crow, 2.5 million prisoners, there because of soft drugs. significant numbers because of the 101 percentage racial, as it were, for crack cocaine as opposed to regular coke april, privatizing education and levels of corruption on wall street but not one executive gone to gaol. let jamal get caught on the corner, that's straight to gaol. it's unfair. that's the reality. massive unemployment at work. >> it's the reality. a lot of political scientists suggest if the economy was worse, the drug use, post erty and drug rates will go up. we had 50 straight months of economic growth.

it may be unequal, but it lifted some people up. >> we have to look at what we are made of, saving the economy. most of the drugs are low wage drugs. large numbers of fellow citizens gave up going to work. many are working part-time. none of it counts when it comes to statistics, and profits for the rich corporations and big banks are breaking records. executive compensation breaking records. that's ending wealth and equality, not saving the economy. he's saving a version of capitalism. he, larry somers, tim quiet ner. banks doing well, how are home owners doing. still catching hell. how are workers doing. poor people rendered invisible. poor children and inner cities rendered invisible. can't wait to go in. >> i hear what you say about

inequality. is there anything positive you can say about president obama. >> he gave some wonderful speeches. >> that's it. >> he gives wonderful speeches. health care we were holding out on the the pharmaceutical insurance companies are in the driver's seat. it's a bonanza for them and leaves out 19 million citizens. he said he'd fight for the public option, he didn't do it. thank god he has the magnificent children and wife. >> you have a magnificent reputation, you are known and respected around the world. some african opinion leaders say you are damaging your own legacy by being scathing in your criticism of president obama. what did you gain? >> i'm not worried about my legacy. if i can bear witness to the best of my ability, if i could be true with martin luther king, fredrik douglas, iota b wells,

fanny lieu haimer, that's what it's about. when they talk about legacy. they talk about what the establishment says about you. they talk about the mainstream and the streamline have to say about you. i don't give a damn what they say about me, i'm true to what my mother and father put inside of me which is a sense of loving everybody, and justice of what love looks like, tenderness, what love feels like if private. that's what i commit to.

>> we are back with dr cornel west, marking the 50th anniversary of martin luther king's "i have a dream." would dr king have been surprised we have an african american as president of the united states in 50 years. >> i think he would have tears in his eyes.

he'd like at the level of poverty of children of all colou colours. the pages of people. black americas, we are so confused, we are obsessed with being successful in terms of money and not focussing on being faithful and decrept perps, persons of integrity and quality. martin luther king junior was a freedom fighter and christian minister, and he took the cross seriously. it was assembled, of unarmed truth and unconditional love, telling the truth. and a love that i took in the struggle for justice. on the one hand he'd look at a black president and say symbolically that's wonderful, let me see what the situation is. i was in chicago, let's go back to chicago. look at the blood flowing, the low quality education, the massive unemployment, the lack of health care, look at the

dilapidated housing, let me go to the vanilla suburbs, look at the mansions and the yachts. poor people's campaign. it's worse off now than then. let me look at u.s. foreign policy. he'd zero in on the drones saying "i sacrificed so much reputation and legacy." look at the babies weeing with the drones, the bombs dropped on them. >> in it united states there has been talk about race relations largely because of the trayvon martin case and the zimmerman verdict. what does it say. >> it says we are at a point where it's difficult for people

to respect black life and ascribe value to black life. we of magnificent progress for the middle classes and upper classes of people with colour. the question becomes are they respected or embraced as toke eps, icons. >> when it comes to being respected, that's something else. >> can someone agree to you that there's a lack of respect that they haven't made progress and belief that the jury believed you did the right thing by commit zimmerman. the prosecution, the evidence did not rise to that burden that the jury needed to find him guilty for. >> given the way the jury was cast. the possibility, it was difficult for a number of the jurors to draw the conclusion that there was evidence to say that second degree murder took place. the largest context, the days it

took for the police to get there, you see, the ways in which the prosecution and the defense didn't make the strongest cases. it was very clear that brother trayvon martin's life just was not a central point of reference, let alone the tears of his precious parents. that's what, for me is upsetting. you have to keep in mind a black person shot by the police in america, 28 hours. trayvon martin is one amongst others every day: every day. >> what can be done about the deadly violence every day. one is that you need to put community policing so you dent meed to mill ittarize the police. you need communities allowing persons to flourish, strong families with quality jobs, schools and housing. it's true no matter what colour.

we have poor brothers and sisters with similar kind of crime and poverty. >> it's not a black or white issue. >> it's a human thing, it's black because of the legacy of white soup rem si. it teaches black people to hate ourselves, violate ourselves, and others can degrade, demean and violate as well. if you put in a group of people in a context with little resource, a lot of guns and drugs, delapidated housing, you get gangster activity. >> years ago bill cosby said that african-americans should take more personal responsibility for themselves. there was a prominent black anchor that said young black men should pull up their pants, stop littering, finish school and don't have a pababy out of wedl

your rejection? >> personal responsibility is spornalt. there's collective responsibility too. >> next, we'll arriving dr cornel west if he'd like hillary clinton to run for president in 2016.

>> we welcome back dr cornel west to ta"talk to al jazeera". you are in the midst of a war on poverty, dealing with not just white, black kids, urban, rural. what is the message. >> we have warped priorities. two years ago there was an idea to engage in a war of poverty. we had three different waves of highlighting the plighted predicament of poor people. we began on the indian reservation, with the poor whites, brown, blacks, it's a beautiful thing. we see poor people in action. each gathering has poor people's organization, you have poor muslims, christians, jews coming

together. we don't have enemy. we have justice, a common foe, because you have people constituting immedments and obstacles to house the dignity of poor people. it's a beautiful thing to see. the sad thing is it's hard to gain a foodhold. >> the public conversation in 2016 may not include issues of poverty, but it may look lick hillary clinton may enter the rashes there's a bit of buzz. would she be a good president. >> in some ways i would think about hillary clinton as i do barack obama. they are brilliant. they are both charismatic. they would be head of an empire, they are involved in war crimes. hillary clinton is there when the killer list is brought tuesday to make the choices as secretary of state. >> hillary clinton - dr cornel west is calling hillary clinton a war criminal. >> indeed. how could she not be a secretary

of state and say henry kissing ger was. >> she's different to kissing ger. >> he was not involved in anything that moves and breaths you kill. hillary doesn't say that, but she makes the decision to drop bombs on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of innocent people. >> she's making diplomatic decisions. >> she's in the room with the president making decisions on regard to a killer list. the good thing is we may journalists blik green wall, chris heges, bruce dixon, let's investigate what goes on with the secretary of state and president. i'm not sake this to trash her as a person, he's a person in this system that generates this kind of killing. >> is there anybody around the president who may be part of the discussions and object to the

policies, is there anybody that is not a war criminal. >> you'd have to be a voice in the decision, people that are outside. had no idea what was going into the decision and no role in executing the decision. they are not war criminals. >> some say "i hear dr west call helicopter a war criminal. it's extreme. >> it's an extreme, few people in society want to go against the train and say it. if there's independent journalists, if stone or minkin, are original i woodward. who was his friends name. byrne design. woodward is incorporated, he's establishment to the core. there was a time when that brother was young. he was telling the truth about dirty wars and crimes. >> back to politics in 2016.

how important is it for america if we elected a woman ppt. >> symbolically it has weight. margaret thatcher was a breakthrough. she turned out author airian and right wing as any other authoritarian. barack obama was magnificent. he turned out as tonnistic as bill clinton, a poor white brother from arkansas. so helicopter , she's from outside of chicago, first woman president i want to fight against patriarch, homophobian, and anti-sem ittize im >> she has fought with that and dealt with some of those issues. >> within the formal legal areen

ayou are right. i'm with them when they came out to same-sex marriage, i was with them. it should be a federal affair. i'm talking about detecting. struggles against anti-mem ittism and antisexism and racism to issues of class, issues of economic injustice and most importantly issues of just outside of the united states. >> i have to ask you i've been following you for a long time. you are wearing your uniform, black tie. with why do you wear black. >> comes out of the legacy of john col train, and martin luther king where we put on the cemetery clothes. we are coffin ready. it is our uniform. we put on the arm your, speak the truth, bear witness, be ready to die with the words. stereo it's heavy, thinking about death like that. >> death is a companion like sadness, so is joy, fun,

engagement with the world. understood. check off. understand it. some understand it better than most. those are the great artists of the living, artists of life who teach us that death in life makes us engaged with life the short time we are alive and leaf witness that that people will remember and access the best of what we enact. >> thank you for being our guest on "talk to al jazeera." thank you, good luck, good luck. most interesting people of our time... >> parkinson's forced his wife to type his novels. >> not only was i typing badly, but i was hallucinating... >> now, a revolutionary proceedure is giving is giving this best selling author a second chance >> it was a wondrerful moment... >> after the implant, they turned the juice on, and... >> emily & martin cruz smith on talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america

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