february 22nd. if you want to get more on all of the stories we have been telling you about, you know where to go aljazeera.com. you can see our webpage there with some of the main stories we're following. hi i'm lisa fletcher, and you're in stream are. . -- in "the stream". libya descends into chaos more than a decade after muammar gaddafi lost power. why it is on the brink of war and what another failed state would mean. filipinos join the fight with americans in world war ii, why the veterans with us are fighting now to make good on a families.

going high tech - programming for peace, and why youtube is on board. so glad you are with us on "the stream", where you, the viewer, helps drive our conversation. my cohost and digital producer brings in all your interaction. you are talking about libya, and something that could unify the country in all this chaos, it's hard to unify that. >> we hope to unify. there's so many divisions inside outside libya, this is a hashtag "i want my country back" and, "keep calm, love tripoli", that is divisive. and barack obama in an interview

called libya his biggest foreign policy re gre. the hope and optimism seems to have come to a halt in libya as it's embroiled if civil conflict. three years after a mass uprising and coalition overlieu president muammar gaddafi, the country is grappling with powerful and well-funded militias. widespread violence, economic instability and split factions. some wonder why the west hasn't done more to finish what it started. what can the u.s. and allies do at this late stage. joining us is a libyan american at oxford libya. providing information on global events. and on skype, cofounder of the libyan youth movement, an organization covering event in

libya since the 2010 revolution. many believe libya is becoming a failed state. what is the current security situation there? >> it is a failed state. there's no question about that. it's no longer on the brink of civil war. libya is on the brink of civil war. intensity goes up and down. the situation is we have an incredible number of factions. most no better than factions. there are groups that are criminal in nature, that use oil or drugs or money or weapons, or illegal immigrants to generate funding. others are ideological, some extremists, including those affiliated with islamic state in certain parts of the country.

you have some that are the remnants of the old military regime, and others that are tribal in nature, regional. what you really - the overall picture of libya is you are dealing with a no man's land, in a sense that it's similar to somalia, but on a larger scale. and more significant because libya not only is massive geographic location, it's about three times the size of france, and has the longest chores on the mediterranean. few realise how close libya is to southern europe. it also is a country that produces enormous amounts of oil and gas, which can become a tool of funding all kinds of terrorism or criminal activities across the world. and a centrepiece across fighting that is going on now.

i want to ask you what is it like on a daily basis for people - how do you function in a society that you describe. >> it's a mystery for me that i haven't lived in a society like this. when i talked to people in libya, they got used to it. it's strange. when i was in college, and my friends were from lebanon during the lebanese civil war. they talked about lebanon and their families as if it's normal. it used to surprise me and i was shocked how they talk like that. now i realise the human spirit has an enormous capacity to adapt. people are finding all kinds of ways to survive - helping each other. there are others who left the country. libya today has about 2 million of its population out of 6 million outside the country. that's a massive number, and that - that is larger than at

any time in the history of the country, including when it was occupied by the fascist italian regime. it is impossible to build a country when 20-30% of its population is sort of in exile of one sort or another. so people just figure out ways to survive. >> you say it's impossible to build a country, and i mentioned president obama in "the times" interview saying that libya is regret. on facebook: brandon says: finally:

i want to get you in the conversation - should the international community be intervening in libya. in 2011, in the united states, they backed the uprising against muammar gaddafi. anything? >> i think that the first step is that obama and the international community realise they failed to complete the mission they started in 2011. given the recommendation of that, what can you do when you say that? you are going to let them fend for themselves, knowing how great and large geographically libya is, and knowing that they are posing a very close threat to europe and the rest of the world by continuing to be unstable and continuing to foster extremist forces developing libya as their base. so they might want to - if they are putting it on pause, libya will grow to be a larger problem down the line.

i feel they must step in. if it's not in the state of stepping in through the use of force, they must help by supporting libya, its neighbours in order to help libya. one of the first things that can be done is secure the vast borders shared with several countries in africa the u.s. says it's supporting the u.n. in its efforts in libya. what are the efforts and is the u.s. doing enough? >> it's not. let me take this a little larger here. this is really undermining the international credibility, and credibility of the united states as a government. this is not a first time problem. we have gone through this road in afghanistan where we helped drive the russians out. we then bailed out very quickly, and we lacked afghanistan - let

them fall in the hands of criminals and gangsters and waited until we saw september 11th. we have done that in iraq. we have done it in places like lebanon and somalia. the logic now is basically what the united states government is doing, and the admission of the president is significant is don't count on us ever again. no country on earth should count on the international community, or the united states ever again, because we will let you down and lead you down a very dark tunnel. so the issue here is not really the significance of libya per se, but the impact of what happened in libya as a last example of a complete and continuous failure of the international community in n.a.t.o. under the leadership of the united states, to step up and be able to enforce what is the principle of the united

nation, which is to ensure international security and peace. and the impact - sorry, there are - this is not about libya, libya sits at the center of three major geographic regionally significant geographic areas for the united states and the world. you have the countries of north africa, of southern africa, the sub-saharan africa, niger, mali, chad, sudan, you have north africa, from morocco to egypt and the mediterranean basis and southern europe. places. speaking about destabilizeing, you mentioned people have been stepping up. a youth has been stepping up and this is a quote: even that - there has been pushback, here is an 18-year-old, stepped up and was

assassinated. you see his photo on my screen. speaking about the youth, you short shabab libya, the youth of libya, what should they do in this situation where they are being targeted and as sass nated to bring back civic dialogue and country. >> i mean, that's the million dollar question, how we can continue to be involved in the process simultaneously avoiding being killed in the process. so it's something that the civil society and youth continue to struggle with, how to strategise and be involved, and not put our lives at stake. one of those approaches, and i think that's what in this twitter contributor was saying, in the dialogue process, that the u.n. special envoy is trying to facilitate that young people and civil society have been

discarded from that process at all. the approach of the kind of appeasing the various factions, the various governments that claim to exist in libya is, again, short-sited and not mind of the larger problem. >> we have about five or six seconds left - look for me five or six years down the road and not doing anything by the u.s. >> i think large areas will fall into the areas of criminals and terrorists with their own source sell. >> billions. >> billions. which is what they do in iraq. they'll be a force to unite all the extremist groups in africa, from boko haram to mali extremists to sudan, north africa, algeria, the guys that led the civil war in algeria.

and they'll use the libyan oil and shores to smuggle guns, drugs and terrorists into europe. i think it will be a major disaster for the world. i think whether it likes it or not, it will have to come back at one point, at significant treasure and american lives to stablilize thank you so much for joining us. thank you for being here. around 250,000 filipinos served in world war ii, those that are still alive say they are suffering the consequences of inaction in washington over comprehensive immigration reform. coming up next - a look at why they are holding on to promises to be reunited with their kids - many from whom they've been separated for more than 20 years. later, fighting fire with flash drives, how tech leaders and

i'm a national correspondent, i'm in "the stream". more on the story of filipino vets and a fight to reunite with their families. congress passed the immigration act in 1990 giving feel ilipino expedited pass to immigration. that did not happen. i spoke to a filipino in his hope in arlington finally. >> reporter: in a tiny apartment not far from the capital. rudy and his wife are surrounded by family. nearly every space filled with photographs, place-holders, as they enter a third decade, waiting on a promise from the u.s. government reuniting them with their four children.

>> orlando, raul and another. >> reporter: when rudy was 11, he and 250,000 other filipinos volunteered in world war ii to help the u.s. army keep the philippines out of the hands of the japanese. rudy says they were called guerillas. he was a courier on horse back. >> bringing medicine for the sick people. >> reporter: the filipino soldiers were side by side with americans - fighting and dying. in exchange for their service their children would die and receive american citizenship. >> we were promised to be american citizen, so we will be - we are very happy on that very moment, but i don't know this is the life that we will have in america >> reporter: a life without his

children and grandchildren. miles of red tape and 20-year backlogs held up the process so long that only 20,000 veterans are alive, hoping to see their kids, now grown, come to the u.s. for rudy, he has no regrets. the promise was bigger than america for his children. >> if it still happen, that democracy was repeated on that very moment. there are so many people who will not be born. >> reporter: his patriotism gives way to emotion when he and his wife think about holding on to their kids, instead of an empty promise. >> sometimes my tears pile down because when we think about the think, our children who should be here for us.

joining us is eric lachica, the american director of coalition for filipino veterans. it's a little embarrassing for us when we started to research the story, to find out 250,000 filipinos served side by side with americans in world war ii. give us a sense of how significant the filipino ii. >> major impact. the filipino soldiers was the first front line. the first battles were fought in the philippines. my dad was a fill peeno soldier who -- filipino soldier that states. >> there were plenty of filipino soldiers that gave their lives for the country. >> yes, more than 60,000 died, a million casualties, civilians, we were the front line in world war ii in asia. >> tell us what is going on now.

we are reading 20-30 years. filipino vatsets are waiting to be reunited in the u.s. what is the backlog like. they are waiting 20-30 years. 1990. >> according to our estimates there's 20,000 sons and daughter of filipino veterans waiting in line with petitions to become u.s. citizens, it's a tough situation for elderly filipino world war ii veterans. some have gone back because they couldn't stand alone unless their spouse had died. there's one veteran in san francisco, who calls me every month to found out what the status is. for the past few years he calls me "i have four or five kids heart-breaking. >> as you get older you want to be surrounded by family and

kids, and a lot count on them to take care of them. >> a lot refuse to go nursing homes. they want their kids it take care of them. that's why men come back. >> you mention the promise. we told the community, unfortunately it did not know about the history. we ask should the families of filipino vets have to wait for immigration reform to get the promised. william tweets: eric, you see what happened with immigration, president obama using executive powers, we see a deadlocked congress. many say president obama is a lame duck.

this is contentious. what shut the united states do to enforce the promise and help with immigration reform? >> we look to the new congress to pass the reunification bill. it passes in the senate over the past decade, but died in the house. we'd line the house to support the senate in its attempt. >> is that separate from larger immigration reform or part of it, and part of the problem getting it pushed through. >> unfortunately it was included in the intensive bill. it died in the house. we'd like to work with sponsors, senators and congresswoman from hawaii to get it reintroduced this month. we are hopeful - it's not controversial, we have support from both sides of the aisle. we are happy. >> you have support from the online community. susie said:

and foster: when is our community united on anything. >> this is a rare time. >> 100%. >> thank you for sharing the story still to come - programming for peace. a younger generation of tech leaders joins forces with youtube to combat violent ideologies worldwide. primetime news. >> welcome to al jazeera america. >> stories that impact the world, affect the nation and touch your life. >> i'm back. i'm not going anywhere this time. >> only on al jazeera america.

[ ♪♪ ] welcome back. a group of tech-savvy leaders recently held a haka tho in abu dhabi to combat ideologyies, we are joined from los angeles to tell us more. what is this haka tho and how do you come up with ideas to combat violent extremism. give us a compressed version of what happened in 60 straight hours.

>> sure, the haka tho point is not just to come up with product, but to create an environment to cultivate the same or equal or better passion that you see coming from the other side. the extremist narrative is driven by passion, and when we try to confront that it's a lot of checking the box projects. they will not cut it. audiences attracted to this tap into passion. if we bring in tech leaders and people from the communities and create a creative environment and they are throwing ideas on the wall and see what sticks, they come up with amazing stuff. >> you came up with more than 50 great ideas, narrowing it to four. how do you get to the four, and do they tackle a specific leader or group? >> the tech leaders we brought in, we told them there's no boundaries, they could think of whatever they wanted to think of. they tried outlandish ideas and whittled them down four that

they could work with. each addresses a different stage in the radicalization process. that came organically. people who were working towards what they felt they were strongest at. that's projects. >> we asked how the community to counter violent combat through extremism and it was said: speaking of initiatives, you are working with u.s., working against violent extremism. what is happening. >> for the hack-a-thon and the youtube event, it's about putting people in the community at the forefront. youtube, governments, other agencies, their role need to be

to get behind the creative leaders and empower them with skill sets and resources that they need. let them drive it. don't corral them or securitize them, let their imagine nation run free. and, you know, having been on both sides of the divide, on the government and the private sector side, i understand that government should and will pull back if these people move forward with their projects. >> i want to get back to what came out of the haka tho. we have a minute less much give us examples of the four great ideas that emerged. >> in 60 seconds, there was a project trying to get inspirational narratives about islamic identities to young people br latching to politicized versions of islam. and a second was crowd sourcing efforts to do constructive things to muslim communities,

pulling people away that want to help people joining jihadist groups. the third was come back to us, a project leveraging family and friends, to get them to try to lure loved ones back by showing how much they are valued in communities of origin. the fourth was a project allowing people to find people dabbling in extremist media and get like-minded peers to reach out to them and talk them down off the ledge. >> we'll survey in touch and find out where the projects is going. thank you for joining us, and the rest of our guests. until next time, waj and i will see you online.

♪ ♪ this is al jazeera. welcome to the al jazeera news hour. coming up in the next 60 minutes. john kerry arrives in france as funerals are held for more of the victims killed in last week's attacks. pie jeer yeah's president visited parts of north of the country facing attacks. the u.s. announces further measures to losen trade and travel restrictions with cuba. and flying to the faithful, pope francis gets a warm welcome in