in the village idiot nato itself and you know that's upset a lot of people here in washington but i think looking forward we've seen the polls of the power structure change and we haven't kept up to it couple kept up with a and i think in syria you're seeing that and stark relief right now so i've talked to a lot of supporters of president trump just out in middle america and one of the things that came up is something i heard you know 20 years ago but it still feels real to them is that america fought the cold war and china won and and that people feel as if for everything that they have expended in lives and energy around the world other nations are free riding on american power and that they look at it is a sort of an entitlement that is that is due them and jim i want to ask you and that is one with you agree with that because that's where a lot of president from supporters are that the they want to see america get something back for all of its investment in the world they feel their due and when

you listen to the president's rhetoric whether it's on ukraine or talking about nato or talking to japan or south korea about doing more it's almost a transactional arrangement you need to pay us to defend you we'll decide later if that security guarantee is is good if you buy a lot of weapons so should we bring something it's a hit toward you to use words quid pro quo but that has a transactional dimension to it to show americans that they're getting something out of these commitments well i guess i think not only is there an enormous enormous amount of continuity in our alliance structure and i would argue kelly that's because it works in the alliance structures sustain because people feel like they're giving them value to your point i mean when the data i've looked at in the polling is nato is actually more popular no more americans and it's actually more popular among conservatives so there isn't really a kind of a run away from europe attitude in the american public that i mean that's what. the

data is that. part of it though i agree with you it is the trompe and rhetoric of hey people need to pay up and have skin in the game because i think americans intuitively understand that collective defense is not defending you collective defense is that you're involved and that if you are in the game and you are participating you're actually a much more reliable partner so we look at for example that you know countries like poland which is capture the president's attention and which me makes me very hopeful about nato that here is a country on the front lines of nato that values even more the nato engagement and the u.s. commitment and poland is increasing its defense expenditures. and i think i don't see a distinction between europe and china i think if there's one thing that's kind of a bipartisan consensus in the u.s. is the rise of china is the stabilizing it's what the united states the president's taking that head on so i think strengthening the the alliance structure and partnerships in the middle east in europe in the asia pacific that makes sense to

americans because what are we one the president to do to protect us against the people that could so global disorder and eventually come let me hold that thought there and let's run a clip of the president's comments during his inauguration we will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical islamic terrorism which we will eradicate completely from the face of the year. rich let me ask you this because it's something i've been struggling with and jim just just put it on the table which is china should this have been we will refer reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against the stabilizing rise of china did we get distracted with the wrong task by overemphasizing radical islamic terrorism is the rationale for all the things we were doing when in fact there's a geo strategic threat to the united states as we see it that's on the china side.

things differently it's a some extent so you know after $911.00 everyone woke up and said oh my god we have not paid enough attention to terrorism we took a holiday from history it's all about counterterrorism now or waking up and saying it's all about china it's all about great power competition why did we spend so much time in the middle east why do we do these counterterrorism operations and of course the answer is you have to protect the american people from terrorism you also have to protect the american people and their way of life and their economy from the kind of world that autocracies like china and russia seek to build so we're not a regional power not a one issue power we've got to do both at the same time and it depends on what the proportions are the president actually deserves some significant credit for the defeat of isis which you know if we were still watching americans you know being beheaded on t.v. and having attacks inspired in the united states we would be very focused on that it's a good thing that we don't have to be as focused on it as we are now but it doesn't mean that we don't focus on it all and yes it's true the chinese of britain free for a long time you have a little bit more of a sotto voce kind of approach to building up the alliances and partnerships in asia

because if the united states were to go around and say ok country you're with us or you're with china no country will make that stark decision but they quietly will align themselves more with our side than with china as an insurance policy. and that's exactly what we want to signal to the al polity quite now i mean. there's a really important point that i don't think should get lost or and and that you are i think you're right. in the territories more but the fact is the last 3 presidents have fought islamist terrorism and i think logically nobody really is just that but the point about the great power competition i think is important because if you if you went back and you said bush what your bad guy list he's going to go they're all going to say terrorism but he's going to go china iran north korea and russia and you ask obama what you're bad guy list china north korea iran and russia and yes from what your bag what we actually do say that's remarkable that's the 1st time since the end of the cold war where we've had across 3 presidential ministrations 2

different parties 3 very different presidents essentially have a very similar threat perception now jim telling this whole thing about vladimir putin and his buddy and kim jong un i mean i just i know i what you're seeing a struggle you know come on you know superficial calling it as if you know the most superficial criticism because if you actually look at our policies in north korea and in russia let's be honest i mean they the reason why they talk to those guys or the north koreans are going to tables because those policies are pretty tough but in some ways tougher than obama can south korea trust what trump is going to do on north korea a lot more than the u.s. can trust with south koreans could to a great but this is the question right when the president says that he cares about long range missiles shot from north korea that can hit the united states but doesn't care about short range or medium range missiles look at south korea and japan if you're a south korean or japanese. you know a government official who's relying on the american security guarantee that will make you worried now what happens if there's an actual attack who knows who you're

always in the realm of who knows but you look at the signaling up to that but you know jim's point and is is why we don't live in george washington's world he was a great man but that was 240 some years ago and there were european. empire's and he didn't want to get there so i'm just going to record no records montane says george washington's a little dated a little a little dated the powered way going on particularly one of the great question i'm going to deal with i want to tell you there's a run in north korea with allies on our side or without notice they only used countries don't have a bit of help he was getting is something that law it's a level but meet the discussion and i want to tip my hat to it because she's getting back to the question of what and why why are we doing what we're doing in the world a lot of national security decisions in this country in the united states are driven more by inertia than by planning and my in my view and i lived in japan i grew up on a military base in japan i saw 39 u.s. military installations on okinawa and i would ask why are they there and you would

see some of the irresponsible behavior of these of these leaders in the region over their history and whatnot they could do that because u.s. forces were there so it raised the question of what we're trying to achieve and would everyone's behavior change if they counted on us less counted on the united states less kelly well and i agree with that entirely and unfortunately my magazine seems to be in the minority when we're talking about these issues we have writers talking about all the time whether or not we need to get to to reduce our footprint and south korea for example for you advocating isolationism but it's not isolationism because it is it's basically reducing our reliance on a military solution to every problem and globally we're not talking about reducing our diplomatic entreaties we're not talking about reducing the treaties we make or even the the trade involved in communication there are you know

the alliances it is a matter of reducing our military footprint which in many cases has actually been an instigating factor and some of these hot spots that you're seeing. i just like to go back to the ticking off of the different. enemies so to speak you know one of them is terrorism and we've talked about isis but isis would not exist today if it wasn't for the invasion of iraq and i feel like when we have these medic conversations about foreign policy we normally talk about in terms of old alliances and current threats but we don't talk about how we got there and we invaded iraq that was a complete there was a there was a conversation that washington was having but it was a foregone conclusion now we find ourselves there we created you know al qaeda in iraq which wasn't there before and then iraq al qaeda was diminished and what came up was isis so we're talking about

a threat that would have existed if we didn't make some of the foreign policy decisions and get into some of the entanglements that we find ourselves in jim you lived in your eye bro we would know how to fight world war 2 if we had won world war one of the i mean you could play the historical game tonight and then pick a point where you want to blame somebody one is we could debate that all day long i'm not sure it gets us where the other thing is the reality in foreign policy is you are where you are maybe you don't like how you got here but it will shake your head all you want but we're. learning from our mistakes is that not is that something that we should expect from our leaders or are the sort of liberation here which we should learn from our mistakes look it was always you know learn from our mistakes and i don't know exactly the right thing anybody and so you know you are an authority and one rich well i think there is certainly a different group of people who are in that area in the play rich so we are where we are and yes we should learn from mistakes that we've made in past decisions but the question now is are we better off doing x. or doing why are we better off staying in syria in iraq and putting pressure on

isis are we better off leaving and not doing that or that the idea of fair validate the president no no no killing no i mean look at all the people that he looked at look who he thing to think the troops are on the ground i think their intelligence partners and think you know the. i mean without partners our allies and troops on the ground we've not been able to carry out that mission so maybe it would be better if we didn't carry out the mission baghdad was alive today i think it would not be but that's the kind of costs you absorb if you if you make those services we have just a few minutes i want to ask each of you a question because we haven't brought it up it hasn't come up in this discussion but your former boss senator john mccain would not have allowed this discussion due to take place without discussing mentioning america's commitment to the human rights needs of others in the world and so we have a discussion so in this discussion where should human rights fit or not fit have we moved beyond that i think it's a huge well i think on its merits it's a huge element of american foreign policy but it's also comparative advantage for us to russia and china in this great power competition want to build

a world that is safe for their particular brand of autocracy they're using technology and other means to export their own values and yet we have a very different view we should be defending our own democracies and we should be supporting the aspirations of democracies and human rights abroad because it gives a strategic advantage as well as being good on the merits you think we're doing it while we do it to a greater a much later less degree in the trump and the obama administrations in the high point in the bush administrations there's a happy medium that we need to sort of wobble towards because the state department do stuff the white house you know it differently well i mean you brought up a bomb administration and obama's administration had escalated the drone war more than the bush administration so the whole idea that he was promoting this sort of humanitarian and intervention sounds good but what how he was doing it what's killing others with killing other people in places like pakistan and somalia and other places which created more terrorists and we know that and that is part of

learning from mistakes and jim i'm going to give you the final word i mean i think at some places got a great record i think they've been great for advocating for the rights of citizens of it as well they've been terrific on the rowing another areas like i'd like to see. stronger but america is always a nation of interests and values which which one do we need then the answer is we try to advance both to the best of our capability and i think that's the right that fascinating conversation is great i'd like to thank you all for being with us richard fontaine c.e.o. of the center for numerous american security james carafano vice president of the davis institute for national security and foreign policy at the heritage foundation and kelly playhouse executive director at the american conservative magazine thank you all so much for being with me. so what is the bottom line as the u.s. continues to rearrange its alliances no ally could be blamed for not knowing which way is north america was joined at the hip with the kurds in syria the kurds who clobbered the islamic state but today america hardly knows them and as for human rights trumps white house clearly hasn't made them

a priority the value of being allied with america has simply plummeted allies can't count on the us to really stand by them in their dark times and that's the bottom line see you next week. the prime minister. mission is to the british only 31st to vote and making this country the great just place. to put. the phone drama brick sit on al-jazeera and say to really know someone you must walk a mile in their shoes. it's personal journeys of people who follow in their chosen . weakness on al-jazeera.

i. a survivor of the genocide there were people who beg me to kill the suffering but i

didn't have the heart to do who's dedicated his life to searching the woods for bones of the victims of the srebrenica massacre. and curious. you know hope of finally laying the past to rest and giving peace to the victims' families. i could just find a finger i could bury. on al-jazeera. i . violence breaks out in iraq's capital protesters remain defiant the city's heavily fortified green zone has been hit by rocket fire. alonzo robin you're watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha also

coming up buildings collapse and residents sent into a panic in southern philippines hit by a 3rd strong earthquake also the pentagon releases the 1st images from the u.s. raid that killed rice a leader abu bakar al baghdadi. u.s. impeachment investigators seek testimony from donald trump's former national security advisor. welcome to the program the iraqi military says one person is being killed after iraq it was fired into baghdad's heavily fortified green zone it happened shortly after another incident at the nearby not bridge witnesses say security forces shot at least one protester dead and several others were injured thousands of demonstrators are defying a curfew to continue antigovernment protests lower burden manly has more.

defying clouds of tear gas and reports of live ammunition these protesters a tearing down concrete barriers their aim to reach the highly secured green zone home to government offices and embassies. iraqi human rights commission says many protesters were injured after being hit with tear gas canisters as they face government forces in the synoptic bridge in central baghdad. it's the 3rd night since a curfew was imposed by the iraqi military but the lockdown is largely ignored by protesters. hours before the curfew these are the scenes in tahrir square an area that has become the symbol of an uprising that began in early october. to when will we stay like this. we're a nation that loves life our countries reach you still from us we will remain

steadfast men and women together. these protesters are angry about high unemployment for meddling in domestic affairs leave us in iran and what they call top level corruption was. your interests quest support in a sense brothers and friends who are protesting to show a civilized image to the world. we come to tap your square every morning to treat injured protesters we mix water and east and distribute it to people here. the thousands of people demonstrating in major cities in iraq including cabala and basra the government should make a real serious reform in the political system in the electoral system also earned you know iraqi wire real democracy ideal

democracy as protesters call for prime minister up to mahdi to step down his position is becoming increasingly more fragile chair cleric. who leads parliament's largest bloc is also working towards removing him the over the past month schools of people have been killed and thousands injured and despite the violence some protest has created a festival atmosphere with some people playing dominoes of the stunts and some offered free haircuts to the crowd the in the protests have become increasingly more diverse with women and students joining the crowds about a manly al-jazeera. syrian state media is reporting heavy fighting between government troops and turkish forces near the border is happening around the town of rotten i mean syrian government forces have taken the positions following a recent kurdish withdraw it's all part of

a deal between russia and turkey to start joint security patrols hashim alba is only talking syrian border. syrian government and the s.d.s. say that they came under heavy artillery attacks from the turkish military particularly in the areas of tel tama and on the outskirts of basra lane now the syrian opposition on the other hand is saying that those confrontations were very limited and that the fighting was not between the syrian army and the turkish military or rather between the syrian military and the syrian opposition the said there was he's backed by turkey and the situation remains very tense in those areas it is clearly an indication that all the parties are vying for the biggest say the syrian opposition backed by turkey for example is saying that it wants to extend its influence particularly in the area of us west as front of your top tell us elaine and prevent the as the air from moving back to those areas and ensuring that the syrian army is not trying to take advantage of the withdrawal of this as

the effort to redeploy or these areas the tension that you see now in those areas would pose enormous challenges for the turkish military and the russians who are likely to start the joint patrols in the safe zone which has been a pretty requisite for the turkish government took is also them and it wants to set up an observation post along that safe zone and this is going to be a delicate mission for them if the fighting continues what pleased if the syrian military is determined to maintain a military presence in the area that stretches from merkel bayani to low fat men beach all the way east towards miss lee and maliki on the border with iraq however we are dealing with a situation where now you having the. turkish military turkish turkish government

along with the syrian with the russians becoming somehow the most important players in the north is some part of syria and the alliance only to shape the future of that particular area a palestinian politician has been arrested by israeli forces during a raid on a home in the occupied west bank city of ramallah. is a member of the palestinian legislative council and a leading figure in the popular front for the liberation of palestine a party that has been banned by israel draws daughter posted on social media saying more than 70 soldiers and about 12 military vehicles were involved in the raid well let's speak to gerard to talk to ya and she joins me on skype from ottawa in canada good to have you with us live here on al-jazeera you are so far away from the incident what are you being told about your mother's detention thank you for having me and just a couple hours ago i received a phone call from a sister from our home in ramallah tel informing me that israeli soldiers have

raided our home as you just mentioned and arrested my mother yet again only 8 months after she was released from her latest detention before that when she was released on february 27th of this year so i just only heard about this 2 hours ago from my sister back home this must come as quite a shock do you know what she's been charged with or what is being investigated. we have absolutely no idea just as her previous detentions by the israeli forces the 1st one being on april 25th teen where she was held for 15 months and the 2nd one july 2 in july 2nd 2017 where she was held for 18 months and this time as well my mom was detained under.

the so-called administrate of detention which allows israel to hold palestinians without any evidence based on something that they call security reasons and based on secret evidence so my mother has never been charged with any crimes we have never been informed for the reason of her of harassed and she's never been given the right to a proper trial so what access will your mother have from previous experience to legal representation or medical access. medical access for my mother who suffers from severe health conditions have been very limited during her detention this time during the arrest my sister and foreign really that. out of the 70 soldiers that raided our home 20 of them entered our home for her arrest led by

the commander of the military commander of the area who allowed her to take her medication with her and asked her to pack a bag to take with her so she has been given access to her medication but the medical attention that she received in the past inside is really detention centers has been extremely negligent it has been. extremely. worrying for for all of us. and also this time. we haven't been able to get any legal representation for her yet because we have no idea where they took her to israel can hold detainees for up to 48 hours before they inform any human rights organization or lawyer of the location of the detainee mr all we do we're just into the few early hours of this detention we hope

we'll be able to speak to you through the day both you and dr sara get more information about this incident for the moment thank you very much for joining us from canada thank you for having me thank you. a powerful earthquake has hit the southern philippines and in people fleeing from homes schools and shopping malls buildings collapsed when the 6.5 magnitude quake hit the island of mindanao is the 3rd earthquake to strike the same area in the past 2 weeks let's get some more on this from correspondent in the philippines. joins me now from manila jamila obviously you know people on the our limited are very worried about what's going on just bring us up to speed on what we know about the situation so. well you know so hail the situation on the ground is expected to worsen just as emergency response relief aid are slowly trickling in for the earthquake that happened 2 days ago as you know there have been 8 people who died from that

earthquake and more than 6000 people have been this place now the earthquake this morning in the areas of double bill sore in the provinces of north but about there really is expected to worsen the situation on the ground we've heard spokesperson of the emergency cluster of the office of the president basically say that they believe that some people remain trapped in several structures including possibly a mall. a hotel in the power and city in north cut about the province and another area in the city the president is expected to land today to conduct inspection visit in the areas that have affected the earthquake 2 days ago but that may not happen now rescue operations are well under underway there are also reports of hail that there have been 2 towns that have been trapped the town of the loon and another area also in north cut about you know exports of our.