11/12/18 11/12/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. betrayal.sm is it's we erase the very thing thahat e nation holds most precious, that which gets it life and makes it

great. its moral values. amy: the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. that is when world war i ended 100 years ago this weekend. while world leadaders gathered n france to mark armistice day, french president macron rebuked president trump's nationalist rhetoric. trump skipped not only the paris peace forum, but a ceremony honoring american soldiers killed in france -- because it was raining. we speak to the historian adam hochschild about this weekend's centennial, the significance of world war i, and the pacifists who refused to fight in the war. then to mark veterans day, we speak with suzanne gordon, author of "wounds of war: how the va delivers health, healini, and hope to the nation's veterans." >> and there is a huge threat to privatize the v.a. by people

like the koch brothers, the infamous hedge fund insider trader stephen cohen, who is turned to set up an alternative mental health system to compete with the v.a. amy: we will also speak with suzanne gordrdon about the marie 12 peopleo massacred at a bar holding a country music night for college students in thousand oaks, california, last week. the gunman served inin afghanisn and may have been suffering from ptsd. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in california, at least 31 people are dead and more than 200 are missing as three massive wildfires fueled by easterly winds and a historic drought continue to rage. in northern california's butte county, the camp fire has become

the state's deadliest in 85 years after at least 29 people died as the town of paradise was almost completely destroyed. recovery workers say some victims were reduced to bone fragments, raising the prospect of a much larger death toll, as some 228 butte couounty residens remain unaccounted for. in southern california, a quarter-million residents of los angeles and ventura counties were ordered to evacuate the woolsey fire, including the entire city of malibu and parts of the san fernando valley. the fire tore through ocean-sise homes as panicicked residents sought to escape through a massive traffic jajam along the pacific coast highghway. the woolsey fire began near the santa susana field laboratory, site of a partial nuclear meltdown nearly 60 years ago. california's department of toxic substances control said it did not believe the flames kicked up any radioactive materials. on sunday, governor jerry brown said the fires were driven by

climate change and that california needs to learn to adapt. abnormal.n a new and things like this will be part of our future. beginning.ll be the it will be things like this and worse. amy: the fires are so large that they can be clearly seen from space. smoke and ash have left millions of californians exposed to air quality rated at "unhealthy" or "very unhealthy" levels, with residents ofof los angeles, sacramento, and the bay area warned against spending time outdoors. prpresident trump responded to e fires by blaming california officials and threatening to cut off federal aid. is early saturday morning, trump tweeted -- "there is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in california except that forest management is so poor. billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. remedy now, or no more fed payments!" trump's tweet drew outrage from

first responders and state officials. california professional firefighters president brian rice called trump's tweet -- "ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning." adding -- "at a time when our every effort should be focused on vanquishing the destructive fires and helping the victims, the president has chosen instead to issue an uninformed political threat aimed squarely at the innocent victims of these cataclysmic fires." among the southern california communities evacuated due to the fires was thousand oaks, site of last wednesday's mass shooting by a former marine who opened fire at a country music bar, killing 12 people. new details about the shooter ian long have emerged. a former high school track coach said long assaulted her and screamed profanities at her in high school. she described long as a ticking time bomb who constantly lost his temper. but her attempts to have long thrown off the track team were

overruled by a senior coach who said that would compromise long's goal of joining the marines. sam tanner, who later served in the u.s. marine corps with ian times"old "the new york "i'm not surprised someone i knew ended up doing a mass shooting. with another guy recently committed suicide by cops in texas. guys struggle. we have lost more marines in our pure group to suicide than we ever lost in afghanistan." day killedterans a themselves. we will speak with suzanne gordon, author of "wounds of war" about this later in the broadcast. recounts in the u.s. senate and gubernatorial races are underway. in the senate race, republican governor rick scott's lead over democratic incumbent bill nelson has shrunk to just 0.15%.

in broward county -- florida's second most populous county -- reports of undervoting have raised concern, with 25,000 more people a apparently voting in te governor's race than the senanae race. some say this could be due to confusing ballot design or problems with the vote-counting machines. in the governor's race, republican ron desantis is leading democrat andrew gillum by 0.41%. both president trump and republican governor rick scott have claimed, with no evidence, that democrats are carrying out widespread voter fraud. this is democrat andrew gillum responding to those claims in on sunday from a church in fort lauderdale. >> the governor has tried to follow another lawsuit to keep those votes that were counted just yesterday from being added to the total tally. these are l legal votes. these are legal votes t that hae been cast. and we are right now in court fighting to have those votes counted. amy: gillum originally conceded

his race on election night, but has since retracted as his opponent's lead narrowed. florida's recounts are scheduled to be completed by thursday. in arizona, democrat kyrsten sinema has increased her lead over republican martha mcsally to almost 1.5% in the race to succeed republican senator jeff flake. but hundreds of thousands more votes remain to be counted. in the georgia governor's race, democrat stacey abrams filed a federal lawsuit sunday, calling for rejected absentee and provisional ballots to be counted in a race that is still too close to call. unofficial voting numbers put republican brian kemp in the lead at 50.3% of the vote. if his lead shrinks to 50% or less, the race will go to a runoff. in orange county, california, 15 term republican congress member and former speechwriter for president reagan, dana rohrabacher has lost his seat to

democratic challenger harley rouda. the mississippi senate race will head to a run-off later this month after neither republican incumbent cindy hyde-smith nor democratic challenger mike espy receiving 50% of the vote needed to declare victory. hyde-smith is coming under fire for a remark earlier this month during a campaign stop, in which a video she is heard saying -- "if hehe invited me to a public hanging, i'd be on the front row." hyde have been smith is referring to local rancher. her opponent mike espy is african-american. the fbi is investigating a florida company where matt whitaker, president trump's pick for acting attorney general, once served as a paid advisory board member. last year, the federal trade commission shut down the company, world patent marketing incorporated, after a number of inventors, including military veterans, said the company cheated them out of their life savings. whitaker was paid at least $9,300 to serve on the board of world patent marketing and

appeared in promotional videos on behalf of the company. as acting attorney general, whitaker will oversee the fbi, which is now investigating whitaker's former company. the growing scandal came as democrats questioned whether trump's appointment of whitaker is constitutional. they also warned against any interference by the justice department in special counsel robert mueller's investigation. on friday, trump was asked if he'd spoken to matt whitaker about the mueller probe before appointing him acting attorney general. pres. trump: i don't know matt whitaker. amy: president trump's comment friday directly contradicted a previous statement he made one month ago. this is trump speaking on "fox and friends" on october 11. preses. trump: i can tell you mt whitaker is a great guy. i know matt whitaker. amy: trump attacks the media pressed further about whether he hired whitaker in order to end the mueller probe, trump attacked reporters. this is trump being questioned by cnn's abby phillip

>> d1 him to bring in robert mueller? pres. trump: what a stupid question that is. what a stupid question. i want you a lot. you ask a lot of stupid questions. pres. amy: abby phillip is one of three prominent african-american women reporters attacked by trump in recent days. last wednesday, trump accused pbs reporter yamiche alcindor of asking a racist question at a white house news conference, after she asked trump whether he was emboldening white nationalists. trump went on to attack april ryan of american urban radio networks, whom trump repeatedly told to sit down on wednesday as she tried to ask a question about voter suppression. pres. trump: the same thing with april ryan. i watch her get up. i mean, you talk about somebody that is a loser. she doesn't know what the hell she is doing. she gets publicity and then she gets a pay raise or to get the contract with i think cnn, but

she isis very nasty. she should not be. amy: in more news from the justice department, jeff sessions signed a last-minute order limiting the use of consent decrees wednesday hours before he was fired by president trump. the order will restrict the ability of law enforcement officials to use court-enforced agreements between the justice department and local police departments to enact changes when the police departments have been accused of abuses and civil rights violations. in paris, , president trump joid world leaders sunday as they gathered to pay tribute to the millions who died in world war i on the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war. speaking at a formal ceremony at the arc de triomphe, french president emmanuel macron warned growing nationalism in countries including the united states threatens the world once again. after the ceremony, over 70 heads of state attended the paris peace forum. president trump was reportedly the sole head of state present to skip it, returning to the u.s. shortly after it began. trump also faced widespread

criticism for his decision to cancel a visit to u.s. military cemetery on saturday because it was raining. after headlines we'll speak to historian adam hochschild, whose article for the new yorker earlier this month was headlined, "a hundred years after the armistice." in yemen, aid workers are warning that a u.s.-backed, saudi-led assault on the port city of hodeida threatens to cut off supply lines of food and medicine that are desperately needed by millions. the u.n. has called yemen the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe, with some 14 million people on the brink of famine. over the weekend, the saudi coalition intensified its assault on hodeida, with reports of at least 149 deaths, including civilians, just in the past 24 hours. this is dr. mariam aldogani of the group save the children speaking from hodeida on friday. >> in the last 30 minutes, there were more than 15 airstrikes. 15.

.his is today at the hospital, i saw a teenager, 15 years old. .e is totally paralyzed before three days, he was walking in the street. and then a stray bullet thetrated his neck and cut spinal cord. he is totally paralyzed. amy: "the new york times" reports top saudi intelligence officials close to crown prince mohammed bin salman considered a $2 billion plan to hire private intelligence operatives to assassinate prominent iranians. "the times" cited three people familiar with discussions about plans to kill qassim suleimani, the leader of the quds force of iran's revolutionary guards corps. the plan was reportedly discussed at a meeting arranged by george nader, a lebanese-american who reportedly pitched the assassination planan to trump white house officials. in somalia's capital mogadishu, suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a popular hotel saturday, killing 39 people and

wounding 40 others. the militant group al-shabab claimed responsibility. the attack came as the trump administration has stepped up attacks on al-shabab, with at least 29 airstrikes in somalia so far this year. in the gaza strip, palestinians say israeli commandos in a civilian vehicle drove into the southern city of khan younis sunday in a clandestine raid that killed seven hamas members including a commander. israel said one of soldiers had been killed in an exchange of fire before israel called in tank fire and airstrikes while the commandos escaped back to israel. after the fighting, palestinians fired rockets into southern 17 israel, none of which appear to have caused deaths or injuries. meanwhile, israel allowed the government of qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid to pay the salaries of thousands of palestinian civil servants who have worked for months without a full paycheck. israel also allowed a shipment of diesel fuel, paid by qatar, which has reduced the number of hours gaza residents have spent without electricity.

even with the increased power supply, gazans have only about eight hours of electricity per day. and in oklahoma city, a jury has ordered the insurance giant aetna to pay over $25 million to the family of a cacancer patient who died after she was denied cancer treatment. the jury ruled aetna acted recklessly in 2014 when three of the company's medical directors decided to deny radiation therapy to orrana cunningham, who had stage 4 cancer near her brain stem. the directors called the treatment experimental, even though the treatment is covered under medicare. ororrana died in 2015 5 at the e of 54. doctors thinink the treatment denied by aetna might have dramatically extended her life. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th monthth. that is wh w worldar came to

an end 100 years ago this weweeken on sunday,ororld ldersrs gatherer in paris to pay tribute to the dead, marking the anniversary of the armistice maeded as e "w"waro end d l wars." betwn n 1914nd 1 191 about 1 milln n civians s peshed, , d almost 1mimilliosoldldie weree killeded. anotr r 21 mlionon we wounund. on suny,y, freh prpresent emmanu m macrouseded h addrere at theereremonto c cauonon against e e dangs of natialism. as aision o franc generousation wi a visio whh carries universavalulues has bebe in thosdark tim extly the posite of e selfhness of people, ich ly lookst its ow interests. exactpatrtism is e opposi of natialism. .ionalisis its betrayal

by pursuing our own interests first with no regard to others, we you r raise the very y thingt a nation holds most precious. ththat which g gives it lifife d makes it great. its moral values. amy: macron's comments were widely viewed as a rebuke of president trump who has openly describebed himself as a nationalist. just before the summit, president macron also called for the formation of a european army. he said -- "we have to protect ourselves with respect to china, russia and even the united states of america. we need a europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the united states, in a more sovereign manner." following the formal cerememonyt the arc de triomphe, macron and german chancellor angela merkel attended a peace conference with nearly 80 heads of state, including russian president vladimir putin and turkey's

recep tayyip erdogan. president trump did not attend the paris peace forum, returning -- apparently, the sole leader who did not, returning to the united states shortly after it began. yes, trump reportedly the only one among 72 leaders to skip the meeting. trump also faced widespread criticism for his decision to cancel a visit to a u.s. military cemetery on saturday in france because it was rainining. he canceled his visit to pay honor to death u.s. world war i war dead. to find out more about the significance of the war and its commemoration, we go now to berkeley, california, to talk to adam hochschild, lecturer at the graduate school of journalism, university of california at berkeley. his most recent book published last month "lessons from a dark , time and other essays." his article for the new yorker earlier this month was headlined, "a hundred years after the armistice."

his other books include "to end all wars: a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914-1918" and "king leopold's ghost." adam hochschild was a co-founder of mother jones magazine. adam, welcome back to democracy now! first, share your response to what took place this weekend on the centennial of world war i. >> hi, amy, it is all was good to be with you. i think my main feeling was disappointment -- not for the first time -- without president trump responded to this extraordinary anniversary. here we are exactly yesterday, 100 years to the day after this terrible war ended, and president macron of france, at least wanted to use the anniversary to bring together world leaders to talk about peace and to talk about how wars like this could be averted in the future. and instead, trump ignored that,

just want through very perfunctory paying respects to the american dead -- not the ones he would've had to visit in the rain, but others, and then turned around and went home. i think the lesson we ought to take looking back at the first world war is that wars break out very easily. people always think starting a war is going to solve a problem. it usually creates all sorts of other problems instead. look at what has happened with the united states ventures in iraq and afghanistan. and an anniversary like this is a time for sitting down, thinking about that, talking about that, not turning your back on other world leaders and rushing home. amy: quite something. president trump on saturday, while other world leaders visited the cemetery's of their war dead, president trump,

though it was completely planned, he said because of the rain, he wasn't going to the cemetery where over -- well, how many soldiers, i think over 1000 perhaps 2000 american soldiers, were buried. if you can talk about who these soldiers are who died in world war i? >> well, these were men who volunteered and men who were drafted and who went to europe in the last months of the war. the united states -- world war i lasted for 4.5 years from the summer of 1914 until november 11, 1918. for the first 2.5 of those years, the united states was officially neutral, even though it was selling huge amounts of arms and armaments and ammunition and so forth to the allied countries -- britain and france, above all.

but the u.s. was not involved in the fighting. in the united states joined and in the spring of 1917. it took really a little more than a year to get large numbers of american troops sufficiently trained. but starting in the summer of 1918, huge numbers of americans, young americans, went to france very eager to fight, as young men so often and so tragically are all over the world. in fact, when those u.s. troops got to france, many of the men assigned to rear areas begin to do with the military called deserting to the front. they had come to europe to fight and is the glory in battle and not to be loading supplies in the rear somewhere. so by the end of the war, there were some 2 million u.s. troops in france.

they supplied in important ingredient in the forces that brought the allied armies to victory. they were fresh and raring to go, unlike the soldiers of the countries that had already been fighting in europe for more than four years. roughly a little over 100,000 americans perished in that war, about half of them in combat and the other half from the great influenza epidemic that swept through the world at that time, killing a huge number of people. but that flu epidemic was closely related to the war because it was first medically noticed on the u.s. army base in kansas. and as american troops went to europe, they carry the flu with them and then it spread very rapidly through european countries as w well. of course, any k kind of disease like that spreads even faster when people who are suffering from it are in close confinement with lots of others, in places

like ships, army barracks, it trenches, and so forth. amy: i wanted to ask about both french president macron's comments -- clearly alluding to president trump calling himself a n nationalist and saying nationalism is the opposite of the churches in, mccrone said. in another attribute to trumump's,s,'s, angela merkel wd of the dangers of isolationism. the first world war shows how isolationism leads to many distractions and if escalalation is an was of the resolution more than 100 years ago, how can something be the right chohoice today. in an interconnected world that has five times more people asked today, shaping interconnected world and this was the model of our presidency lastst are forors very reason. amy: adam hohochschild, your response? >> i like president macron's

remarks about the difference between patriotism and nationalism. i think it is important distinction. always sings,t "my country first, my country above all." patriotism, by his definition, i think means something subtle and more than and different. it actually reminded me of something which 100 years ago someone quite different said about patriotism. i'm thinking about the great anarchist leader who was one of many americans who resisted the war and was punished for it. goldman was sentenced to two years in prison for organizing against the draft. and at her trial, she was accused of the prosecution of the unpatriotic. she replied this way. i will read you what she wrote -- "german of the jury, may there

not be different kinds of patriotism as our different kinds of liberty." she explained "of the man who loves a woman with open eyes is intended by her beauty when he sees her false." i think that is a pretty good definition of patriotism or you can love your country, but you're not blind to its fault and when you see your country doing something that you think is wrong, such as joining a war that has no business being and, you have every right to speak out. this main feeling about 100th anniversary of this terrible war is that we should be honoring people like emma goldman, like eugene debs, like jan adams who saw the war as madness when it was going on,

did eveverything t they could to bring it to a stop. they were patriots also. amy: talk about jane adams, eugene debs, and others. allpart of your book to end wars. >> when we look back at the first world war, i think at this point most of us would agree that if there was any one single event in the 20th century that we could reach back and magically undo, wouldn't it be the war of 1914 to 1918? not only did it produce a colossal death toll, but it left behind a legacy of bitterness and resentment in germany that hitler's was able to manipulate so cleverly to gain power and start an even more destructive war in the holocaust as well. i think it is important -- possible to remember the second world war happening without the

first. at the time it w was happening, 1914 to 1918, there were and all of the warring countries, extraordinary people who saw what was happening as madness and who often refused to fight, if they were young men eligible for the military, or who supported those who refused to fight. emma g goldman was sent to jail for organizing against the d drt and speaking out very strongly against the war. eugene debs, the great labor leader, spoke out against the war after the united states entered it -- and for that, he was sentenced to prison. he was still in prison in november 1921 he received nearly one million votes for president on the socialist party ticket, being able to campaign only from his prison cell. jane addams, the pioneer social worker come also was a strong opponent of the war. and she took part in a remarkable conference of women

from warring countries on both sides and from neutral nations who met in the hague in neutral holland in 1915 to try to t talk about ways of making peace. in the photographs from that conference am a one of the few places, if not the only place, where during those 4.5 years you can see people from both sides embracing each other, talking together, trying to figure out how to stop this horrible conflict. there were brave war resisters inin every other country. in france, for example, someone i hope they have been honoring this past week -- though i have not seen anything about it -- is the great french socialist outer who in 1914 spoke very strongly against this war he saw looming, sought coming a week before it started he rushed to brussels for r an emergency conference of the leaders.

before an enormous crowd and applause, he put his arm around the leader of the german social democrats and said, our people will never make war on each other will stop because of that, three days later after he had gone back to france, he was assassinated. three days after that, the war began. his assassin, incidentally, was found innocent at his trial because the crime was judged to be "a crime of passion." a legal gimmick that usually let's men get away with murdering women, but in this case, it was put two different useful stuff there were more than 6000 people in england. then who were eligible for the worseto refused it and into prison because of that. there were resisters in germany, like the great democratically minded socialist sent to prison for her opposition to o the war. more such people in russia.

so from all of these countries, i think these are the people, as well as the veterans, who should be honored at this point. amy: on wednesday, french president manual mackall stirred controversrsy when he's adjusted marshalwould honor philippe petain. war, hehe second world collaborated with the 90's and the deportation of jews from france. he was convicted and jailed for treason after the second world war. maccallum clarified his remarks thursday. >> and looking at history and as i said yesterday, there is one marshal upon who is one of the war. no one can erase that. so now i simply said, you can't erase history. we are not the judges of history, but there was never any question of him receiving an individual memory should. and so what i've always said and

wanted to do and to be done is for the army marshals to be remembered and for there to be more individual commemoration petain.au >> amy: adam hochschild, if you could talk about petain and the role he played and how you believe world war i, the way it ended, led to world war ii? >> petain was sort of an odd case because he was a great military hero and world war i and then in world war ii, he became the leader of the french regime that collaborated with the german occupiers, most majority is he -- most notoriously, in assisting in rounding up the jes france and jews from other countries s who try to take refuge and shipping them off to the dedeath camps. so a very controversial figure

and a strange person to pick to honor. the first world war, one reason that petain was a military hero was that he suppressed successfully a widespread mutiny in the french army. 1917,7, tens of thousands of french soldiers refused orders to take part in new attacks. they had just been through a fruitless s offensive where some 30,0,000 french s soldiers were killed. one ofof tse typicalal world wai attacks were s soldiers were ordered toto climb out of their trenches and advance into machine-gun fire and just get mowed down by the thousands. mutiny spread through the french army. soldiers refused to attack. one group of soldiers hydronic a chain -- hijacked a train and tried to drive it back to paris. other soldiers said we're not going to leave our trenches, but we will be here to defend france but we will not take part in the

attacks. this was the greatest such catastrophe to hit the allied army in the west. in, and withought a mixture of care and stick, managed just press the meat needs. shot. some neat names others were sentenced to death. then he approved their sentences so they felt grateful to him to be allowed to live. he improved the food sent t to e army. he granted people leave on a more regular basis and basically, things got calmed down, although, the french army did make no more of those absolutely suicidal attack. really his role. your other question, amy, was about how the first world war led to the second, wright? amy:y: yes. >> there were a couple of peculiar things about the way the first world war ended.

there is no way it could have ended well when you have so many people killed. 1.8 million soldiers killed. france, one point formally. -- 1.4 million. every nation felt deeply bloodied and deeply wounded, hurt, losing all of these sons, husbands, brothers. and the many civilian casualties as well. but one peculiar thing about how the war ended was because of the tightly controlled propaganda apparatus, especially on the german side, the german people in the last months of the war really had no idea that their army was losing. it was easy not to realize that because the fighting was still taking place almost entirely outside of germany. the german army, even thouough t

had retreated a couple hundred miles, it was still in francee andd belgium by novemberer 191. on the eastern front in russia, germany and russiaia had made a peace deal and germany now occupied a huguge swath of what was then t the russianan empire- today, ukraine, belarus, the baltic s states.s. so germansns felt there is no fighting on r home territory, we he e a be tolold ythingng about defeat or anhihing, why is there sudden a an armistice? and then the terms of ee miststicbecame car mediately that gmamany had to retreafrfrom a of f th land d occupiedfurthermore, there were going tbebe repepations and allied tros s wereoingng tbe occupied b bing part of germany. the rhineland, the aa a of gegeany on either side, ppticularly on the w wtern side

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german surnder andhahateve government signed that w g going toto b blamed for losing t war. e e high commandididn't eveven sendarticularly senior mitary reprentatives to the signing ceremony bause theyy did d not wa a any ptogrgrap of e key y nerals there. they st aim nal cap didn't and a low ranking ctain -- caaiain ana lolow nking captaiai thahat nd of f t things u for german public that was asnished to findut that ey d losthe war was ready to be told that somebody was to blame r this. and is reallpaveved e way for hler. the reon anoth part ofhat mistice reemenlso that createnormous ount of e wi, which s this. througut the w, germanyad

be under aight nav blockade the itish naontrollethe as and tir ships srounded german a its allaustria, hungar so that no foregn ships cod get thugh. is cated a gat deal hunger becauseermany othe e of thear had impord o quarter of i food. and oncehe fightgtarted, its pruction ofood, i's homegrowood, grely dinished becse the yngan whwould noallye tillin the elds and herdi the ttle werat the fnt being killed germanquickly n short ood. e populatn was onhe edge of fine for ch of th w. is estited by solars th morehan 400,0 germandied of malnuition. the avege gern lt 10% to 20% of tir body ight durg thwar.

ere are atistics on ildren's growtduring tt peod that ows the erage german chi, any givge in918, was an in shorter than t averageerman chd at y give agen 1914. so gerns suffed terrib fromhis foodlockade. and thewere horfied to arn en t armisti was sigd, itrovided at the blockad woul ctinue until gmany .ied a fal peace taty and evybody kn that wa mont off. indeedit did n happen til nearight mons later en thtreaty oversaill was gned. soermany h to contue to starvatnwarme for mohs afterhe armisce. and in thaarticle wrote, i quote e americ journalt osld garrin bouvard germa four

months aer the aistice a talkg about w littleood ople hav to eat. heisits onhospitalhere all they heo give tir patie of a sort isustarrot soup. he talksboutow now'm hearing a kind of bitterness in the air that i did not hear a couple of months ago when i first got here. amy: adam, what lessons can we learn today from world war i? >> a couple, i think. one is that war is almost always cause more problems than they solve. everybody thinks starting a war is going to solve a particular problem. weird when you get some tyrant out of power, where gwen a punisher country for doing this or that. 10, 50, 20 years later, you find yourself dealing with consequences that you never anticipated.

and i think that was the case with world war i where it led to a second even more destructive war in the holocaust as well. that is the lesson of the u.s. , for example, were we know isis began to form in the prison camps of that war when islamic militants came together with saddamam hussein's army. i think -- think long and hard before starting a new war. anybody at any time should take that lesson from this first of the terrible wars of the 20th century. amy: and particularly what president trump should learn? >> in particicular, i think you should learn that any wars he might contemplate -- and it is a little hard to figure out what they might be, but he is made all sorts of threatening noises against the chinese, against the

iranians, previously against the north koreans and possibly against the north koreans because he and kim seemed to be falling out of love at this point -- that to carry any of those threats farther into war -- almostcertain certain to be a disaster. it is hard to imagine any military conflict with any of those countries ending up well and not causing more problems than it solves. amy: adam hochschild, thank you for being with us, author of "to end all wars: a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914-1918" and you lecture at the graduate school of journalism, university of california at berkeley. when we come back, it is veterans day. we will speak with suzanne gordon "wounds of war: how the , , va delivers healthth, heali, and hope to the nation's veterans." wewe will also talalk about the marine cor vet who g gunned down 12 p people at a country m musie ks last weweek.

stay with us. ♪ [music brbreak]

amy: performing sunday that care ceremony marking the mist is that ended world war i. the song was written by a former french colony that honors the memory of african soldiers who died in thee war over a century ago. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as return to this federal observance of veterans day to the issue of veterans' health care. on sunday, vice president mike pence wrote an article for fox news titled "veterans have no better friend than president trump." pence touted trump's record on veterans' health, writing -- "president trump has signed the most substantial veterans' health-care reform in a generation, making veterans choice a permanent part of american law. today our veterans have access to the real-time, world-class care they have earned, whether at a private health-care provider or the department of veterans affairs. this law will also improve the va's ability to recruit and retain quality health-care professionals, give veterans access to walk-in care, and expand health-care choices, including options for telehealth and mental health services."

critics of the law say it is an attempt to drain the veteran's health administration of needed resources, eventually forcing the privatization of the system. meanwhile, the issue of veterans' mental health was raised again last week after a former marine opened fire at a country music bar last week in ththousand oaks, californinia, killing 12 people. there were mostly college students. police have identified the gunman as 28-year-old ian david long, a marine veteran who had deployed to afghanistan and had a history of mental health issues, including possible ptsd. earlier this year, he was who served with him said "i'm not surprised some and i knew ended up doing a mass shooting. yet another that recently committed suicide by cop's in texas. guys struggle. we have lost more marines and our favor to suicide and we ever lost in afghanistan." earlier this year, he was evaluated by mental health professionals after police

responded to a disturbance at his home where he lived with his mother, but he was cleared by the specialists. his neighbor said she was afraid of him. for more, we are joined by award-winning journalist and author suzanne gordon. her new book is "wounds of war: how the va delivers health, healing, and hope to the nation's veterans." she recently wrote an article for "the new york times" headlined "by protecting veterans' health, you may protect your own." welcome to democracy now! you wrote this beast of protecting veterans health, you may protect your own. explain. >> the veterans health administration doesn't just care for veterans and give innovative state-of-the-art care to the nation's military veterans. thelso conducts research, shingles vaccine, the first liver transplant, that helps all americans. i think the va from a shingles vaccine, for example. provides [indiscernible]

likeaches nurses psychologists and social workers. it develops models of clinical care that really help us all. i've never seen teamwork practiced so thoroughly as i have in va hospitals, and i've been covering have a sector health care from his 35 years. the end-of-life care, and tell you to carry gives to -- carry gives to patients of cancer, and other diseases that will end up in their deaths, is really amazing. invented thecally field of geriatrics. i live in northern california and kaiser, which is a system that is for a close to the v.a. but nowhere near as good as it, my view am a has a handful of doctors to deal with an aging population. the v.a. continues to innovate. the room program and order to look at the impact of

genes on health, their developing ways of dealing with demented patients that are aggressive and unable to be transferred to nursing homes. i watched one program where world war ii veterans were terrified when they open the window shade because he thought speaking of the armistice -- speaking of the armistice [indiscernible] they taught the nurses and the aids how to deal with this veteran without using any kind of restraints and were able to finally get him into a nursing home and a content down so much that when i walked in the room theday after seeing him other day in a very agitated state, he came up to me and he asked me how i was and kissed my hand. amy: can you talk about pence's statement about president trump sunning the most substantial veterans health care reform in a generation, making veterans'twas a permanent part of american law. what is this about?

>> he's referring to the v.a. mission act of 2018, which was passed in june. sadly, too many democrats also voted for this act. this act definitely is a big change. and what it will do is not make veterans healthier or really help them to deal with h the may different wounds of war and a military service that they suffer from. the v.a.ng to starve of resources. it allows many more veterans to go into private sector h hospits and doctors and mental health providers and so forth who various studies show are not familiar with their many very specific problems. every dollar that is paid to the private sector will come out of ae veterans health administration budget. so pretty soon what we will see is there will be more money going to private sector doctors and hospitals that are not equipped to take care of veterans problems.

and money will be taken right out of the vha budget. what you'll see then is facility closures, layoffs, service cuts, etc. , becauseay even see this is going to be so expensive because private sector care is two to three times more expensive than v.a. care -- i mean, veterans health administration positions and other staff are on salary. so they have no incentive to over treat. they have no incentive to duplicate tests. they have no incentive to order other tests that are not necessary. so the cost are going to rise. i think what we're going to see is their will because in eligibility, which veterans are eligible for this care, and cuts in which service they are eligible for. v.a. missionthe act. i think it is all about killing the mission of the v.a., which is to give high-quality care to

the kind of veterans that come back from war with serious adam described in the earlier segment, and the problems ande other problems that so many veterans suffer from. and go suzanne gordon, we're going to take a break for 30 seconds. i want to ask about ian long, the alleged shooter in the thousand oaks case who gunned , mainly collegee kids. he is a marine corps veteran. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: that is sunday someone in paris marking 100 years since the armistice that ended w world war i. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace reportrt. i'm amamy goodman. the issue of veterans medal health raised again last week after former marine opened fire at a country music are in thousand oaks, california, killing 12 people, mostly college students. please identified him as 28 28-year-old in devon long, a former marine, had deployed to afghghanistan and hd a history of mental health issues, including possible ptsd. suzanne gordon is still with us. suzanne, we don't know that much about ian long, but we know some things like the police went to his house, he lives with his mother. his mother was afraiaid of him. mental health professioionals assist him, but they did not do anything more than that at the time. he goes into this bar that apparently he frequented and guns 12 people down.

studio inat a yoga tallahassee, florida, another young man, young white man who is a military veteran, blows -- a 61-year-old doctor a and a student at floria state. can you talk about your response to this and looking at veterans coming home? >> so i think we have to be very careful, amy, not to label every veteran who comes home with a mental health problem as a danger to other people. we have had three instances this year. there was also the tragic murder and homicide and suicide of a veteran in california who killed three women who led the pathway home program. i think the lesson of many of these shootings is that you have

to be very careful who you accept into the military and train to use arms. long a currently have problems before he was accepted into the military. i'm sure being in the military did not help. albert wong who killed people in california had a problem before he was taken into the military, and i did not help. and i think the lesson really of these shootings is that we have to not take people into the military who have problems with mental illness and then train them to use weapons. longin the case o of iann come also it was revealed in the last few days that he had assaulted his track coach, a woman. this was in high school. she medially brought it to authorities at the school and they told her to hush this up

because they did not want to wreck his marine future. >> and that is unacceptable. it behooves recruiters to really look into that and it proves people in high school a mental health to be careful about those kinds of actions because you really don't want somebody like that to go into military service . but i think the real issue h hee is what the veterans health administration does to help people so that we don't have those kinds of attacks. we have totoe careful n not to stigmatize every veteran who has a middle health condition, and look at them as a potential serial killer. i think most of the veterans who i have met really only hurt themselves. one of the most important lessons i learned when i spent "wounds ofesearching war" is how many veterans don't

get help. and that kind of socialization not to get help when you have a mental health problem or substance abuse problem begins in our broader society. it is continued in the military. the military continually socializes people not to ask for help because they are weak is that many people feel it will end their careers in the service, then they get out of the service with many problems. sometimes they don't admit when they are separating from the service that they have a problem because if they admit they have a problem, they're put on a medical hold and it will delay their discharge. then they come into the broader society and there's a lot of stigma against mental illness and getting help. i have been really impressed by the veterans health administration. they have hundreds of videos of veterans begging other veterans to get help. they have pierced support programs were veterans who have had mental health --

amy: suzanne gordon, we have the wrath of the show but we want you to stay with us and we will post it online at democracynow.org. suzanne gordon's new book is called "ones of war." that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or

hello. thank you for joining us on this edition of nhkhk newslinene. i'm raja. israeli forces and hamas militants continue to exchange fire. they launched more than 300 rockets on monday in retaliation for by israeli special forces into gaza which isff