consider this. the news of the day plus so much more. answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> a major foreign policy speech for president obama. how he sees america's new role. ved who received no hope when he was at a breaking point. the school agrees that it happened. and the world mourns the loss of

maya angelou . diahann carroll has her thoughts. >> we must shift our counterterrorism strategy. to more fefg it's not just one person who's going to change it all. it's the overall. >> maya angelou has died. >> she is against all the odds. >> i had something to do in this world. >> after months of accusations of feeble leadership and his handling of international crises and conflicts, president obama gave the commencement speech at west point university. when national security demanded

it working through multilateral institutions and in concert with allies, provided a force multiplier that made america stronger particularly in response to russia's meddling if ukraine. the president also said that terrorism remained the most direct threat to u.s. and abroad. and while al qaeda's central leadership had been decimated, its decentralized strategies required new resources to defeat. >> up to $5 billion which will allow us to train build capacity and facilitate partner-countries on the front lines. >> the president also proclaimed his belief in american exceptionalism and leadership insisting in sponges to his critics -- in response to his critics that america had rarely been stronger in relation to the rest of the world. >> our military has no peer. the odds of a direct threat

against us by any nation do not come close to the dangers we faced during the cold war. >> for more i'm joined from washington, d.c. by james jeffrey, presently a fellow at the washington institute. and james dicky. first. did you hear anything new from the president's speech, which in effect really sounded mostly like new money for old allies. >> well, it's -- i'm very happy he took that decision. in addition, he did say that he would up the amount of military assistance to syrian rebels and do it through the u.s. military rather than as we assume intelligence agencies. and you have to take this in context with his semi positive decision to keep troops longer in afghanistan. what has become the standard

president obama line how he looks at the world and how he looks at america's role in it i think. >> we have talked many times about al qaeda's expanded diffusion around the world and how that has made it stronger in the world. it was all about getting rid of the central leadership and notful about the affiliates. you just wrote a piece entitled, america's epic yemen fail. hunting down with this. >> whether we're talking about boko haram in nigeria or al qaeda in yemen, in north africa. all of them feel that they have the initiative right now, the united states doesn't have the commitment to send in troops to stop them which is true which is what obama is saying.

we are not going to be sending in troops to stop them. i think he is right about that but the problem is that he can't get on message enough to make it clear that the united states really is determined to stop these groups over time. >> and that message is important ambassador. the washington post came out with a brutal editorial on wednesday calling president obama's foreign policy consistently bad, this was after the afghanistan pull back that you referred to. they mentioned the pull back from iraq, the decision to not intervene militarily in syria. not leaving any troops in libya to help out. how do you see it? >> i agree basically with the washington post editorial. taken as a system, taken as a series of decisions, they are worrisome because we have threats in the world that are even greater than al qaeda.

al qaeda needs to be combated. i don't see it quite the way he does. i do see the growing power of russia, the growing power of china, the continued mess in the middle east, taken together as an even greater be existential threl t threat to us. >> what obama understands very well is the american people were fed up with wars. they would be happier if we had gotten out of iraq sooner, afghanistan sooner. obama argues you can't be isolationist in today's world but american troops are not going to fix everything, sometimes other countries are going to help us do it or they're going to have to do it themselves. >> he seems to be taking a middle ground. >> that is the problem. that's the leadership problem and that is that people don't want to listen to middle ground. they want to be inspired by action or retreat from action. we don't want to adjust things

as circumstances require which is pretty much what he is saying. >> ambassador you brought up the multilamultilateral issue. president obama said if we don't lead nobody else will. but most of his talk was about collective action. what is america's role here? >> that's all good and as chris said we do have a problem with the american people. i don't think it's as serious as it was when we had hundreds of thousands in iraq without a known mission. we do have to work with allies. bill clinton did that. if we are working for a middle ground i would take bill clinton not barack obama. he worked with the u.n. repeatedly. desert fox, kosovo, bosnia. they weren't at the level of afghanistan or iraq. they were mobilizing the community, it's all or nothing it's either i give you iraq or i'm going to mobilize people in

the u.n. to issue declarations and pass resolutions. >> well, the ambassador is right of course about the clinton administration but the important thing to remember is that all those actions were taken by clinton before iraq and before afghanistan and before the exhaustion that the people feel about these wars now. >> strongly about the president and how he is projecting weakness rather than strength. senator bob corker says when you see putin doing the things he's doing when you see china stepping out and doing the things they're doing, is it because they see a president that they don't believe will back up statements with actions. chris. >> the republicans never saw a tax they didn't hate, and a war they didn't like. i think that's just more of the same. they don't even say how are you going opay for it? i mean are they going to back a $5 billion fund to fight terrorism? i doubt it.

even though war in iraq cost $2.5 billion a week. no, i don't think these kinds of political sniping is going to help. but the problem lies with obama. he needs to find a way to inspire the american people and a narrative that people believe in not just a situational response to events. >> one positive narrative ambassador was about ukraine, saying the multilateral efforts there have worked and that they there. do you agree? >> absolutely. but, and there's always a but with this administration. taking the decision to pull all of our troops out of afghanistan in two years regardless of the situation will be seen by putin as another example that regardless of where the president will not see things through if there's any political pressure or need to use the military. he will apply that to the situation in the baltics and elsewhere in nato's eastern borders i fear.

well done in ukraine but it has to be put in global perspective. >> do you think russia or china ambassador will rethink things? >> i think they will find themselves, they will think that the americans are still very reluctantly to use military force. again you cited american exhaustion. i'm exhausted by iraq and afghanistan. i and my family have spent seven years there. but the american people are exhausted by stupid long term commitments of hundreds of thousands of troops without any particular mission and with a lot of casualties. they didn't seem to be exhausted whether obama bend into libya. i don't think they would have been exhausted going into syria. >> lot of latinos concerned about where obama is for the many issues in latin america.

in the words of an iraq war veteran, in his childhood as the son of a lieutenant colonel highly decorated vietnam war veteran, soldiers are expendable in war and they are expendable and forgotten when they return. colby bezell wrote a piece for the new york times, thank you for being expendable. he has also frequently written for esquire. center stage for whole country you said it didn't surprise you one bit because you have had to deal with these things your whole life. if this is common knowledge with our military, something going on forever, why did it take this scandal to bring light to it? >> we don't care about our veterans. we kind of want them out of sight out of mind. and you know, we want them for the welcome home hero ceremony

but we kind of forget and don't really care about what happens once the ceremony is over. >> as this is an important commitment to our veterans and when you see what's going on it's really just horrifying. and you write that you thought it was a miracle that you survived iraq and you think it's a miracle you survived the va. because you had suicidal thoughts when you returned and you ran into a brick wall trying to get help from the va. >> you know several times i was at a really low dark point at my life. i was at a point where i needed too go down to the va -- to do down to the va and get help. every time i made the call, they put you on hold or transfer you to the wrong person. anyways when they finally get you through, it's almost two months for an appointment to see someone. whenever i say is that the soonest you could see me they say yeah that's the soonest they

explain to me they have all these soldiers coming back from the war getting out flooding the va system and they just don't have the people to take care of all the new veterans that are enrolling in the va for help. >> you said you were drinking you had a cup of coffee and the reaction you got from the doctor was incredible. >> yes, i remember that time. i had a friend that was like hey colby you need to go down to the va, maybe they can help you. from previous experiences i knew not ocall the va, they'll just put you on hold. i went to the emergency room, saw somebody, had a cub of coffee, the lady was like, how much coffee did you drink in a day, i was thinking, what does this have to do with anything? i said maybe a pot, two pots, she told me to cut down on my coffee and come back in a month

or so and see how i feel. i'm like lady, i'm having weird thoughts about maybe jumping off a bridge or something. i need some medication, some antianxiety medication, something pe . she was telling me the story how they would prescribe pills, and a lot of people would get looked on pills, they were cutting back on giving people pills. i'm like you got to be kidding me. i walked out of the vaiz, worse than what i was when i entered. i had good experienced with the va but that was one point i was like, you got to be kidding me. >> you do say if you want to get attention from the va that really the only hope to get it quickly is to go to the emergency room? veterans. if you are in bad shape, don't

even bother calling them. just go down there. >> your experience with the va began long before your return, your experience with the vaiz, you saw as a child how inefficient it could be when you needed to be treated then. >> my experiences with the va is waiting in the lobby hours and hours and hours. my dad doesn't like waiting in the lobby either you know, and he wants me to -- one story i had i was sick and the doctor asked me how bad are you on a scale of 1 to 10, i don't know 6 or 7. put my name on the list, and my dad says you got to tell them you are at least 10 or 12. we sat around all day waiting to be seen. >> you said this scandal may be the best thing that ever happens to our veterans. are you really hopeful that this could finally be what it takes to get our veterans the care

they need? >> i don't know if i'm hopeful but i hope this raises hell and gets people angry and pissed off. it's pretty pathetic if you are in really bad shape and you go down to the va for help, they tell you we can't help you for a couple of months, eight or ten weeks. we ask a lot for our soldiers. they go out there multiple deployments they come back, i think we owe it to them to make sure they get treated, you know? >> we certainly do and i hope that we can be hopeful and something can be done. colby bezel thank you very much for joining us. >> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. grammy award winning singer, songwriter angelique kidjo >> music transforms lives of people >> inspiring strength

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>> fewer debates rouse morepassn gun control. the second amendment 60ss of a single convoluted sentence. a well regulated militia, being secure for state the right to bear arms shall not be infringed. did the framers of the constitution intend that to mean, every individual has the right to own a gun or has politics twisted the intention of our forefathers. michael walton, good to have you with us. you really do a boygraphy of the second amendment, you look at it through the history, from the beginning, from its origination, at a time when every white male between 16 and 60 had to have a gun and was automatically a member of the militia. back then there was no discussion or issue about whether there should be an

individual issue to bear arms. there. >> right, you're exactly right. this is very controversial. the way we look at the second amendment has changed over time. and the original founders the way they wrote it and looked at it was from a world that's almost impossible for us to imagine. as you say every single white man was required by law to own a gun and to bring it into their militia service. and the amendment was written because they were worried, some people were worried that the new united states government as it was being created, would threaten tyranny and would threaten the 13 state militias. >> it was most about each state having its militia. and about each government being titran cal.

tyrannical. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. does it protect the individual right or the militia? in a way it's both. to protect the individual right to have a gun to fulfill a duty to serve in the militia. the question is the militias vanished pretty soon after that. the reality is over time there were a lot of guns, a lot of people had guns and throughout america's history there were gun laws. gun rights and gun laws went hand in hand, dodge city, the great frontier town, there was a sign placed in the middle of the town, welcome to dodge city, firearms prohibited. even this gives you an unfettered right to a gun, something people advanced. >> you are pretty much looking at the 200 years after the second amendment and you say really there wasn't much discussion. >> it was an amazing thing. the supreme court didn't rule that the second amendment gives you an individual right to a gun

until 2008. that was the first time. it ruled four times before otherwise but there weren't thousands of cases. it wasn't something that people didn't think was all that important. when the first federal gun law was being debated in the 1930s the national rifle association testified about it. testified in support of it. and it was asked what do you think about the constitution, do you think there's any constitutional problem? and they said we haven't given that question any thought. it's a very different time. >> that all changed. >> it's changed for sure. civil war officers were worried that the union troops had shown poor marksmanship. it was to train military to shoot. it was formed as a sportsman's

organization to protect hunters' interests . got taken over by what's referred as the revolt in cincinnati. a new, very activist group took over the organization put in new leadership and it became a constitutional crusade about the second amendment and against all gun laws as we know. >> and ironically back then, chief justice berger who was a conservative, referred to individual rights to own guns as a fraud. but that changed as the nra started lobbying and this became much more of a discussion in the public forum. and then antonin scalia wrote his opinion in the heller opinion in 2008, and that really changed everything. >> the whole supreme court was

responding to a very textbook legal campaign waged by the nra and other gun rights supporters starting in the 1970s to change the way we saw this provision, to change constitutional law. they started actually with scholarship. there were a lot of people who went back and looked at the founding era and thought, no no, this is really an individual right. not what you think, they moved public opinion. public opinion's shifted and now it's the common view and then eventually the supreme court. >> the ship rarely gets turned around once the supreme court establishes a right. so now, at this point, there has been a bunch of efforts to restrict gun rights within the supreme court's decision. is that what we'll see? again you see all sorts of legislatures taking actions but courts some deciding some are constitutional and some aren't. seems like we're on a long back

and forth on this. >> you know, alexis de toqueville, said this will end up in a lawsuit. that was in the 1800s. the begun rights forces are on the march, you have laws, new laws that allow people to carry weapons. in georgia, recently, for example, there's a law that makes it so you can carry a gun just about anywhere. on the other hand, the supreme court ruled like all rights, there could be limitations. not everybody can carry a gun at every time. and dozens of courts, dozens of federal courts all over the country have considered some of these issues since the heller case, since 2008. and overwhelmingly, they have upheld the existing gun laws. they've said that yes, there's a right. but there's also common sense limitations. so it may well be that maybe the

heller case did gun control forces a favor by sort of drawing a line and saying, you know what, the gun-grabbers as they might call them, they're not coming to take your guns. but what are the rules? who can have a gun? how can we make sure that there's a safety, but the supreme court hasn't spoken again. it's going to wind up being debated most likely at the highest level in the next couple of years. >> of course the framers who are great writers didn't do a good job there. >> they did us no favors on the commas and punctuation this time. >> michael, thank you, second amendment, a biography. >> misbehaving children locked up doing time while they should be in school. >> they have to prepare for jail >> throwing away our future >> we're using the same failed

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north america's most expensive for real estate. and it's not in new york or chicago or miami. the average price in vancouver is $733,000. the city is beautiful and hollywood's second home but the canadian city has been very hot lately with a 40% jump in remits -- in real estate values a year ago. san diego, in the top five. canada has three in the top 6, vancouver's dominance may be in part because of huge chinese investments. it's a prime example of how some cities are benefiting from what's become a global market place for real estate. the new yorker reported on a group of economists who looked at dates of housing data and have found what are called superstar cities. those cities draw large amount of foreign investment. following rich around the world. international investors cetd for $68.2

billion of -- accounted for $68.2 billion of real estate investment in 12 months ending in last year. that's about 6.3% of the total in the u.s. and their focus is mostly in florida, california, arizona and texas. the knight frank wealth report found differences of what your money will buy in the most sought-after location worldwide. $1 million gives you virtually nothing in monaco. the size of a walk in closet. you can get twice that for a luxury apartment in new york. that's about the size of a studio. uj believable. we'll be back with more of the stream is uniquely interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. >> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and

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>> al jazeera america. vé this. >> when a poet dies, something hopeful in the national psyche dies. those words written by maya angelou about a friend could have been written about her. one of america's greatest poa et cetera. sh poets. angelou's life, to become one of the most influential women of the last 50 years was as varied as it was accomplished. poet, novelist, ak tris sing are dancer professor, historian, even the first black streetcar are conductor in san francisco. her story, i know why the caged

bird sings, grappled about with issues of racism and rape, brought her worldwide acclaim. acclaim.bill clinton 's inaugural inaugural. >> she posted her last public thoughts on twitter last friday they read, "listen to yourself and in that quiteude you might hear the voice of god. joining us from los angeles is a long time friend and collaborator of maya angelou, diahann carroll. and a tv film written by angelou, sister, sister. it must be a terribly sad day for you as it is for many americans. you were per friend, you worked

with her on stage, and you played her mother on "i know why the caged bird sings." what will you remember about her most? >> i would think it would be her humanity and her courage. if she believed in something , don't argue, she has to take it through life through friends through each experience until, until it is exactly as she sees it in front of the rest of us. she presents it to us. the first time i saw maya was here, really. in i think it was called yeah littl yelittle club, in beverly hills, it held 15, 20 people. but i saw she was going to be there. and i went and i stood in the back really nervous about how

this creature was going to find her path in this part of california . and the music started and she came through the door, this tall, magnificent woman, no shoes, walked to the stage with, i think, drums, i would say drums. and she turned and she faced us, and we were absolutely in the palm of her hand for the next, oh, two hours. some songs, some story, some -- she was incredible. >> one of the things people forget about her because of all her other be accomplishments was that she was a terrific entertainer, she was a song writer, she played kunta kinte's grandmother in the television

series roots. she won six grammies, she won a tony, what an incredible life. >> her presence was a meaning unto itself. when she walked into the room, it wasn't necessary for her to do anything. you would still turn. i was doing something a few years ago in canada, i received a message from her that a car would pick me up at a certain time that i should come to this place, so i did, i did exactly as she told me to do. and she came out and she took me by the hand , took me into the little studio much like this, we talked about mother hood, children, men, life and i still don't know exactly where i was, we hugged and

she are put me back in the car. but the driver said, ms. angelou, i trusted her completely. >> in one wonderful moment, let's take a look at it, late in her life came from the oprah winfrey show where they played a clip of her performing in 1952. >> ms. calypso herself, maya angelou. ♪ loy loy loy mo and jo run the can store, from behind the door ♪

>> it's great to watch her face diahann. as she watched that. she had such an impact on african american writers. in the '70s and '80s. tony morrison andallist walk -- and alice walker. >> she loved to pull people into her ring of greatness and she was very happy for those who acknowledged that she was the leader of the pack. and we all became kind of a sisterhood. there was someone over there in san francisco and one in florida. we could call each other and say you know i'm a friend of maya's and that's all we needed to hear. >> she endured a really rough life when she was young, hardship pain poverty rape as a young

girl. with one of the incredible stories, for a woman with such a great voice, she didn't even speak or the years after her rapist was killed. did she ever talk to you about that? >> no. no, there was really no reason for her to talk wit about that. she always talked about things that taught you something. >> but it was part of the movie and the book. >> oh yes, yes, yes. i played her mother in the film. it was so strange playing her mother. our age difference made it very pecular. but it was a throw back really. but no, i don't ever remember hear her talk about what happened. >> a quick final word. what do you think she'd like her legacy to be? >> i think maya knows exactly what her legacy is. she made it slowly, carefully, planned, and able to communicate, i'm so glad we had her.

it would have been lovely to have had her a little longer but i'm so glad we had her. >> she wrote people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will not forget how you made them feel. i doubt anyone will forget anything about maya angelou. diahann carroll, it's really an honor to have you with us. again our condolences. glad to have you with us. >> thank you very >> the show may be over but the conversation continues. you can find us at twitter @ajconsiderthis. we'll see you next time. >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america

>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. here are the stories we're following for you. the freedom swap for an u.s. soldier, why some say it's opening pandora's box. and the obama administration unveiled new rules to cut carbon emissions from power plants across the country.