all of the changes and i just we adapt to that. my job is is to break it all down and we held the view on the stand and make sense of it. a year on from the election that shook washington both the republican and democratic parties are struggling to adjust to a polarized electorate it really is an identity crisis you just run against drugs or do you literally stake out a set of positions that offer us a clear alternative not just a truck but to the politics that gave you truck faultlines examines the shifting sands of american politics life of the party this time on al jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with a quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera the u.n.

security council has held an emergency session following north korea's latest missile test pyongyang says wednesday's launch proves it has the capability to reach the u.s. mainland president trump says new sanctions will be imposed on north korea from the u.n. here's mike hanna. for the ninth time this year the security council gathers to discuss yet another crisis centered on north korea an emergency session called for by the u.s. japan and south korea and a grave warning from the french representative this death is another confirmation that the north korean threat has changed dramatically in a few months both in scope and scale the threat has shifted from being regional to global. the u.s. ambassador makes a direct plea to china to place greater economic pressure on its ally and neighbor we need china to do more president trot called chinese president xi this morning

and told him that we have come to the point that china must cut off the oil from north korea that would be a pivotal step in the world's effort to stop this international pariah but no such pledge from china instead it called again on the u.s. to explore a free for free scenario in which north korea would slow its missile program if the u.s. and south korea lowered their military posture on the peninsula this position supported by russia the military could both hope we proposed a solution based along the principle of suspension for suspension which in visions of d.p. r. k. stopping missile tests while at the same time the u.s. and south korea decreasing the scale of their military exercises this in turn will pave the way for the principles of peaceful coexistence and peaceful discussions between washington and pyongyang. but this has been repeatedly and vehemently ruled out by the u.s. and clearly while the console is united in its condemnation angst egyptian

communities abroad before going back to egypt in the next few days however i was surprised to find out i'm prevented from leaving the u.a.e. for reasons i don't understand and i'm not willing to understand i've often stated my appreciation for the u.a.e. for hosting me however i reject any intervention in egypt's affairs by preventing me from participating in a constitutional right. francis suspected to make his first trip to bangladesh and made an appeal to acknowledge the growing refugee crisis the country is facing these are live pictures now from yangon airport in me and martin where he departs the leader of the roman catholic church failed to mention the six hundred thousand or injured muslims who fled the military crackdown there the pope has been advised by catholic officials in manama to avoid using the term hinge during his visit u.s. president on from by the time the british prime minister to resume a condemnation of his anti islam re tweets trump said three and a must in videos from

a far right british group on twitter a spokesman for may call trump's actions wrong in response trump told me to focus on what he called destructive radical islamic terrorism in the u.k. and not on him. former bosnian croat military generals but i'm probably a has committed suicide by drinking poison after losing his dream of a u.n. war crimes court upon hearing his twenty year prison term had been upheld probably actually to that he was not a war criminal well those were the headlines the news continues here now jazeera after child soldiers reloaded that's what about her. we will maintain the finest fighting force of the world has ever known the world

has ever known the world has ever known the world has ever known ever united personally having a difficult people to work most of it i just don't like the image that it conjures up in most people's mind. like any other thing in the global finance it's just the military trade. and. contractors don't like her time around. like i hate to go to. this one young government perspective the iraqi crude and was considered a good deal. not be the article you were on yeah it's more like thirty years closely. we have a mismatch between the way we on magine war to be and the reality of the twenty first century can we do a lot more could we find someone as we do it for boardroom don't you get what you pay for.

b.b.c. world service and u.s. troops have left iraq going to continue to maintain a high places in the country with the largest u.s. embassy in the world the situation in afghanistan the center for crucial for the international troops to go under control over to the afghan forces fish if you're just attrition really critical to the country. says without american oxidative we are something much for the insight and you're right. this is a man who says he was. so young i thought if i was this other fans

or friends. more than they already have. right now down there tonight yeah. how many of the persons that you're sending out . you should be your child soldiers and i can. i can tell you that i mean if you think i can't i can't. i can't tell you dealing with the many people i'm going to. this and this this. new president you inspecting you know mounted by you. how do you recruit you yeah yeah. yeah yeah. really what's.

the real thing well. enough to look at here. for you and i will too. this is our tradition if you don't know for it with a stick from the spear with our own. that's the tradition so if you're trying to simulate this from a disoriented them say well it could i'm sure but that isn't the case so maybe critical of people who used to be fighting when they were very young that they all go to war you visit that's a problem not us not a problem for us mother from. the particulars not from an absence of us have. and even if they had started when they would fulfill it another thirty that's not a problem wasn't a problem just as the job as they are here his carrier yeah.

let me send guys whatever yes we fasted for him and they got his school fees got his training. the army never got no summit and resorted to using because of that his being that people go isn't what you tell me this is what they do on the understanding of each. gun to shoot those who won five. years companies risk on common contract as my mom wanted them.

or example i didn't have it is for someone time. the private military industry is a part of how the country is in fights wars today. u.s. government doesn't track the number of contractors it uses in places iraq or afghanistan we know it's a lot we don't really know exactly how many. i

spent several years working within the industry i have a military background and one of the differences between being a soldier i found and being a private military contractor is that when you work for the u.s. military or any military you take a sacred oath that you're going to serve and fight for your country and necessary die to protect a way of life one that you believe in i am an american soldier i'm a warrior and a member of a team. that will never accept defeat. at least i will never win i'll never leave a fallen comrade it's the complete opposite in a private military world you look at the budget first the loyalty of these companies and these businessmen and change depending on market forces. we operate

in the world's challenging complex emerging markets the middle east is absolutely the core for a business today. the sooner we can be in palin we perform we do the right thing on . this industry is not just what you see is what you get. when you see a company you don't know exactly who's working for them they hire and they sometimes create what we call subs sub contractors. there's been commanders in afghanistan who just simply say we don't know who the subs of the subs subs are. so you have all these like layers of a contract. a

level of quality control starts to fade quickly the deeper you go from the top to the bottom. united states army and the military in general is so reliant on the private sector i would call it a dependency but we don't know who's the on the ground presence of these companies overseas we just don't know. crazy or not surely it's really crazy in iraq. because since the

feds the ice that my fits in iraq every did that was a bomb and they bombed a village that is iraq it's. every day we have rockets fired. every day how to gunshots every day a bomb in income in income in oh my good it bomb went you know let's use damage for all of our guts for all of the civilian and guys well trained guys. as soon as i originally rock i called my mom i said mom i'm in iraq she said oh what i said i'm in iraq no no you're kidding i said no moment not kidding i'm in iraq i said mom just watch the number what's the number and she watched the number . she was she was just she was yellin oh that is what i said no mom there is no problem here we are saved we are not using weapons we are you

here is does our convinced my mom i said we are doing just domestic walk in iraq she told all the neighbors around so my son he's in iraq you know he's doing. cooking job not with weapons. just after the war and surveil you know i couldn't make it up because there was no job by then. and my friend calls me it's all me that's a. very civic and see they were recruiting guys so-called so it's also iraq if you just use weapons and we are well trained in it come. comply on.

the first time i arrive to to this training camp compliant iraq together with that to a white man fan from the security company. driving out in this small truck and swats towards the camp through this forest a landscape not so far away from from the airports and when we enter the camp and get out of the car the first thing we see is this a gun an instructor who isn't shots of the training out there making the recruits lined up in order to receive these guys from the past security company. came from iraq. with knocking from the iraqi said he needed. a way shallow fighter were supposed to go to you see not all night you know.

weapon this is only people that come. from a shell young government is there in. it was considered a quite good deal in the sense that they could actually take no good troublemakers something away to back for a couple of years and then returning them after two years with money and from the overseas deployment this could surf to stabilize security. and the beginning of the training cost of another real weapons presence so they were using the wooden sticks.

it was first after a couple of days and so the training that the weapons and their well being lined up at the tables within in the middle of the big camp. where. there was this tension and excitement those attention mainly because now it's actually getting into something very real. for many of the crews and the first time holding a weapon since the ending of the civil war. many were starting to shake and some were even starting to cry when that when the

su got the weapons not being able to to handle a. compliant backing for iraq. i mean one has come. from because i thought that we've posted a photo and i'm seeing this and something. most of them are now. going to pass. on to have born again. walked on. and i live where point.

this young man will what has been flipped mainly by young converts and. if you're looking for young men to perform minutes. the chances are quite good that they have also been. owes it to. you never can mean. it took my fight i remember any put it on the floor. as a nice metaphor that i would grant you i will close my heart to. two people are wholly shouldn't do you do on she look like just want to know what.

you know she would stay with me to go give you a glimpse they fact which was i was you know i don't know what's right what's he talking about. so i was sure enough to keep. right. on i. don't. need to. be all good and i sure you died to have in my time the person if not god every day remember me to not have you my father whom i want i who next i get i would keep. this it's little i'm going to. go. i said no i don't want

a tree so i start to i go to this that's a used unless. stuck in my boat. my boat is the ball in the knife. and dropped just as it cried for more to let the gun make you forget about you or your mortar so i start says. when i was young. at a lot of things that i've been scindia. a lot of. which is no good for you monday. because. of the job you have your command on. people you have to go to by denny don't you to have been killed.

when we think of war and the war you're right so we have this image and are mine now of a man and uniform. and uniform means they're fighting as part of a military serving a nation because if they fight for their force political patriotism and yet when you look at the wars of the twenty first century they don't match those assumptions anymore now we have outsourced a lot of our warfare to private military companies. the background of this changing

nature of war and fights that dates back to the very start of the private military industry itself as. until the early ninety's the street isn't dr mackey industry. right mercenaries who are bringing down governments for the cash can you explain what exactly find internationally is in the queue doing it. it is a company that provides military consultancy services for governments or large corporations . at the time the idea was to get very posh english officers on top of these private military companies and tim spicer was an

officer in the military and british military he got out and was asked to come help with a company called sandline. spices a rival gave an almost instant sense of respectability to what had previously been a mess in the world and i don't personally have any difficulty with what must be i just don't like the image that comes out in most people's mind the first time i met tim's vice i was interviewing him for a newspaper. in charming public school educated god's office and that really wasn't massively a feature of the construe before then it changed the agenda of the global agenda and what a problem that your company was. tim spicer was considered the respectable head of a mercenary organization but at first his business affairs it didn't go too well it was dogged by failure for example he got a phone call from a fellow indian with

a thai passport who was under house arrest for a financial scandal and he contacted tim spicer and wanted him to restore the president of syria. once the president surely and was back in power this guy would then get his contracts for diamonds and be able to make money . but it didn't work out that way. the company started life run by chip spicer for the army colonel hundred list occasioned by customs and excise that is accused just smuggling weapons illegally. when a private firm gets involved in foreign politics for the benefit of a criminal you have to stop and ask ok this really happened or is this a fictitious you know james bond type story but it was a true story. these things tended to happen to some spies or government titans

that he'd always somehow managed to get signed the recently retired british guy who had a band of mercenaries is safely back in this country so has this put him up his new career as a hired gun going to continue with this new new business of yours sandline international well i think we've got to a number of lessons to learn from this particular. episode i think that we will continue to try and develop our business as long as we can do it in a. sensible way. sandline eventually collapsed under the weight of bad publicity. was that its idea in the short term you can say that was not a successful company in terms of delivering enormous amounts of money to its shelves and so forth to firstly. it launched him spice on a career where he was able to found what would then become one of the most significant problem if you companies in the world. he just.

thought. was. now an account and agent and gen sit down. and i. have no i'm not just around when i get there i wasn't someone with. defying my disability on al-jazeera well at this time. but i think one of our biggest strengths is that we talk to normal everyday people we get them to tell their stories and doing that really reveals the truth people are still gathered outside

these gates waiting for any information most of them don't know whether that loved ones are alive or dead or miami really is a place where two worlds meet we can get to washington d.c. two hours we can get it on join us in the rest of central america about the same time but more importantly why those two cultures north and south america beaches to teach it's a very important place for all to do it's a big. if you're in beijing looking out the pacific ocean you'd see american warships one mess was that somehow time is aiming to replace america and around the world well the chinese are not that stupid these guys want to dominate a huge chunk of the planet this sounds like a preparation for our first president george washington said if you. he's prepared for the coming war. at this time.

but i'm down in jordan how the quick reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera the u.s.s. cole for the complete isolation of north korea at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council it follows pyongyang's intercontinental ballistic missile test on wednesday north korea says the launch proves it has the capability to reach the u.s. mainland some bastard to the u.n. issued a strong warning to north korea. north korea made a choice yesterday that brings the world closer to war not farther from it we have never sought war with north korea and still today we do not seek it if war does come it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday and if for comes make no mistake the north korean regime will be utterly destroyed the u.a.e. has dismissed allegations by the former egyptian prime minister ahmed shafik that

he's being stopped from traveling she says he's been blocked from leaving the u.a.e. after he announced plans to run in egypt's presidential election next year. she left egypt after he lost against muslim brotherhoods mohammed morsi and the twenty eleven election has been a strong critic of the current egyptian president abdel fattah el-sisi. but francis is about to make his first trip to bangladesh and made an appeal to acknowledge the growing refugee crisis the country is facing the leader of the roman catholic church failed to mention the six hundred thousand range of muslims who fled a military crackdown in myanmar the pope has been advised by catholic officials in may and we are to avoid using the term ranger during his visit he's expected to hold meetings with religious and political leaders u.s. president donald trump as a top british prime minister to resign may her condemnation of his anti islam retreats shared three anti muslim videos my far right british group on twitter a

spokesman for may call trump's actions wrong in response trump told me to focus on what he called it destructive radical islamic terrorism in the u.k. and not on him. former bosnian croat military leader slobodan probably act has committed suicide by drinking poison after losing his appeal of a u.n. war crimes court upon a hearing that his twenty year prison term had been upheld chronic child that he was not a war criminal well those were the headlines and news continues here on al-jazeera after child soldiers reloaded statement that some watching black enough. when i live in a kurd everything changed. the contractor content of the armed forces went up astronomically at this hour american

and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq . ideologically republicans my party wanted every single public function to be scrutinized analyzed evaluated and if possible privatized general shinseki the head of the us army at the time testified to congress and said if we're going to do iraq it's going to take several hundred thousand u.s. troops and very quickly the rest of the bush administration reacted negatively and he's absurd that's crazy it's not going to require those amount of troops and they actually simply drummed him out of the military it turned out he was right we did deploy several hundred thousand forces it was just through private military.

so in the early days of iraq it was a gold rush you had companies coming out of nowhere including blackwater who was really like a cowboy a wild wild west where nobody had any control anybody doing anything with firearms in this country to say their private military company. was an a.t.m. for these companies the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting. training in supporting military vets is that there is room hiring a prostitute or getting married. so instead of a soldier who has an x. cost of a year now being a contractor who's being paid eight times ten. well what has happened is that america has basically married a prostitute and has been active in them for

a very long period of time as long as you do we want. you to keep it with you it's not invade a country and it would be a good thing. but none of you know russians or search around ok i'm working with you on this and we will go run movies where it's a. contractor's offer some grey area benefits to politicians everybody is concerned like we have a thousand boots the ground nobody ever asks how many contractors there is don't like our boots on the ground. here so if the us military wanted to put one thousand boots on the ground and there's four thousand contractors it's a way of you know having force of five thousand but without politically risk.

that. should mean. they're shooting at you next to you yes yeah he was. just trying to bang bang so did did you get skirt shooting part of it shine from. a ricochet to his car. and that's exactly. what i might do something right once. the security companies had the sensitivity of something as civilians would often if not always. get caught in the crossfire. what governments have always done is they would do two things at once. you fight and you win hearts and minds. private and she took it didn't do to. try this

comes on the ground opening fire they were very very noticeable they would play rock music that in this was not there was no subtlety to this this is not a even the military with most discreet than the private security companies and so they were as they were very very public slap in the face for the average iraqi on a daily basis. to a real problem for the military so we sell the contractor presence in iraq in particular but afghanistan too was becoming contrary to what the mission was for the armed forces there for their presence was more danger than it was help them. knowing. who. the police turn around the traffic circle.

they're probably trying to get away from was. the problem was that we had all of these different private military companies running around we outsourced too quickly and they weren't cord needed both in contract terms but also in on the ground operational terms so what is your answer to a problem of outsourcing. outsource more we outsourced it to a private military company to coordinate. deduces contracts in iraq and was to oversee the communication coordination for all of the privacy of your companies on the ground. been affected meant that they were the general in charge of all of the private

contractors. now that point the us military was the largest machine presence in iraq but if you added together all of the private military contractors spies was effectively in charge of the second largest on force in iraq. the presence in iraq was relatively standard for years one. video which was posted on you tube from a contract so who is. following that gun while playing rock music. on its way. but no legal actions were taken.

very rapidly each is such a machine huge company. and it made to spy certain extremely healthy now and. the majority of americans now think it was a mistake to go to war in iraq public support for the war is falling war americans want the troops to come home. in a brief ceremony on a base on the edge of baghdad the united states took down the flag of its command here to mark the end of the military mission. the u.s. money was starting to be pulled out of the iraqi. field operations and the industry had to go through a very complicated reset. those companies had to realize that they weren't going to get that level of money again and so they had to offer different. deals.

that meant they would have to hire cheap the soldiers. let me. know when the loop hole to walk. don't want to go so mad. and. all the use you.

need to if you're hardly going. to get it out if. i'm with mrs. i'm going in and. out. of luck. in the street. if he don't sleep could see.

them. through the. courts before harm. innocent people. in front of plastic. bits. sometimes they will give you just my church which is not some shop we are by even if you can on a little whatsoever depressing can feel it more than you expect to hear you know that. you've. destroyed your life. i think when i was just.

work undertaken by you just is carried out to the highest standards of fresh milk competence and integrity when we first started into theater we were briefed on

peruvian and columbia him and the natural question you ask is so what do you pay for these folks and you know at the time and i'm playing off memory cells but i'm pretty good at that that was about a thousand to twelve hundred dollars and them oh i don't know six months a year ago it became. god and guards at about eight hundred dollars a month and we douse the question of security companies because of those lowest price technically acceptable rushed to the bottom that's what some call. white whale gone it's now versus proving some columbia i'm sorry so we don't have a chance to get the award unless we use a god and because there are two to four hundred dollars less him out on this most recent trip the company that is winning all the awards that had this let's first start heard of well we've got a good strategy we're using sierra leonean just so you ask the question so so what are we paying for but two hundred fifty dollars a month. you know i guess rhetorically i don't expect to be answered you know to

can we go lower could we find someone it's like we'll do it for boardroom you know that has such a terrible country that maybe they'll just go out of the country and be a free security guard i mean that's pretty inexpensive i say that it sounds facetious but it's real. no you get what you pay for. the original goal was not to bring soldiers or exogenous from the poorest countries on earth but the u.s. system requires that you pick the lowest bidder so that became the status quo in iraq to have multiple layers of foreigners as long as you're in the army and you

meet certain criteria and sometimes you don't have to be in the army to meet this criteria. companies self interest is different than national self interest companies are profit maximizing what they do that's natural. right now. what do you do if you know you have somebody from the philippines working for an american private military company in afghanistan who kills somebody what jurisdiction does that person fall under we don't know.

in about fifteen countries i've been involved in programs to reintegrate children who have served in armed forces. it's a contradiction in terms on the one hand western countries have pumped large sums of money into the reintegration of former child soldiers but now we have governments like us supporting these so-called security companies that recruit people and continue their exposure to violence and their identities as perpetrators of violence and as soldiers that make it impossible to ever reintegrate into civilian life. at one time indeed all kids came into account kill a lot of. hours on top of the time. looking

down we had to explain. i think about doing when people are dying on the street. explosions all over the city not anytime had a gunshot had a bomb all watch of a explosion i think about my going to watch happens every four. when he brought you not. the first team for. iraqi demonstrators and intended to become. full force. the. the. shut down and i remember. the wall and this is what's happened in sudan you.

know. people running to come in can't get. fighting for what's our lights or what have you fighting for you that. i feel is that you often don't use you know it's not going well because the one. justice you don't have to. it may seem like an act of free well it is not young people in sierra leone have no jobs they're desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back into civilian life and they may plant seeds of violence wherever they go. it is well known that young people who have extensive histories of violence and

being fed drugs and manipulated over time they develop problems of impulsivity high levels of aggression. you know we pride ourselves on being a moral people trying to do the right thing what we're doing is we're exploiting people using young people who have been child soldiers deliberately sending them into the jaws of combat and further violence nothing could be worse for these young people nothing could be worse for security. there's a close connection between this industry and policy makers. these private military firms really poach retired general officers and from the armed forces. because they have connections.

i say that it sounds facetious it's real. you know you get what you pay. for the security industry will continue to act. you're going to see five companies

. that. people care a lot when and if a dead soldier or dead marine shows up in this country and we start asking ourselves why did they die why what were they fighting for nobody bothers to ask about that contractors.

every american who serves joins an unbroken line of heroes i'm awed by their sacrifice. when in good time and not allow anything i'm going i lie i'm going to i'm not i'm not you when you bag you in kind of men have thermal coming in the family unit. got in on me what they need a guide. there's no one going to go out and protest in the streets of a contractor's kill. country still exercises its foreign policy the use of force and violence in these four

regions but is using proxies contractors third country nationals and in obscurity their role. you think it is if you get into that in the rock i did some issues here we'll end up in afghanistan it's really your money and your tax money. doing it but make sure the politicians don't get in trouble. private military contractors make a decision to go to war a lot easier. as part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those will fund it.

i think it's more of a return to largely dry weather across the middle east that the my mr a fair amount of clout having said that spilling out of the black sea towards the caspian sea and we are going to see that mix of race statements no across georgia by john and

feeding over towards northern parts of iran as we go on through the next couple of days the possibility of wanted to show us here on the southern end of the caspian elsewhere is fine it's drive will see temperatures in karate getting up to thirty celsius a little bit a war the route going to see those temperatures into many places across the region having said that maybe getting up to thirty three there in mecca here in doha highs of around twenty little bit of think a cloud course in northern sections of the gulf and that joins up with some think atlanta we also have just making its way sympathetic largest making its way across america central and northern parts of saudi arabia might just catch one or two showers over the next day or so but elsewhere i suspect it is going to stay dry this stays largely dry too much of southern africa few showers just around the eastern cape heavy showers continue into northern parts of mozambique into right up into the congo basin and those showers a course extend all the way up into tropical africa warburg showers coming in across the gulf of guinea but they are the process moving south.

you are making very pointed remarks where they're on line the main u.s. response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been to criminalize or if you join us on say you know you will first just wakes up in the morning and say i want to scour the world in darkness this is a dialogue and that could be what leading to some of the confusion online about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the colobus conversation at this time on al jazeera december on al-jazeera we look back at twenty seventeen through the eyes of five families who've been affected by some of the big stories of the year in an increasingly polarized world people in power sheds light on the darkest abuses of authority ten days of comprehensive coverage about nuclear arsenals around the globe and the impact they

have on the diplomatic stage a special program dedicated to this year's nobel peace prize laureates i can and their pursuit of a nuclear weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. december on al-jazeera. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage but that's what we have every day but the message is a simplistic you have the brain a good logical rational person crazy monster and misinformation is rife dismissal and does not well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narratives at this time on al-jazeera.

am. the u.s. renews calls for countries to cut ties its more real for its latest missile launch it warns its leadership.