business insider's gregory white to see if america is at risk for a lost decade japan style but first today's top story. u.s. president barack obama was out taking a victory lap on iraq today he was talking about the end of america's combat mission in the country which is that for the end of this month a promise he made obama gave a speech in atlanta georgia and to sum up the message in one hundred forty characters let's take a look at what he tweeted today he said quote as a candidate a presidential candidate pledged to bring to you walk iraq war to a responsible and that's exactly what we're doing as promised on schedule and quote now but this is this focus on iraq to distract from the waning support and the deteriorating security situation in afghanistan perhaps is obama trying to change the narrative of a war in iraq that was entered into under a false pretense at the cost of more than seven hundred billion dollars and counting and more than four thousand u.s. lives which for iraqis has meant the death of more than one hundred thousand iraqis

and the displacement of two million well here to talk about is jon soltz co-founder and chair of vote vets dot org and steve connors director of meeting resistance gentlemen first i want to start with a simple question that i want to get your insight on does iraq have a solidified democracy has there really been a successful democracy built let's start with you i think it's par for the course i mean that there's no you know complete failure of the government to perform anything but we don't have a prime minister right now so i can't say it's been a complete success i also think you know the surge was maybe even a greater fairer than the invasion itself because we never got the political reconciliation that we were looking for within the administration so you still don't know what the oil law in regards to this is going to be shared between sunni and sunni what about cricket or saddam repatriated a lot of civilians so these are major issues that he rock had to face they haven't handled and so yes there was more security yes there's a little less violence yes the president's making a victory lap but i think some of the core fundamental issues. iraq still are still

present what do you think about about the democracy or the lack thereof in place in any iraq right now seems that the iraqi people have bought into. the politicians who let's face it these politicians were put in place by the invasion and by the occupation of the country most of these people expensive to use your tanks oil that they wouldn't even regard as iraqi anymore by the people who remain through the years so it was that's what we kind of dealing with now and i think somebody like. he's had an opportunity to show that he can govern the country. and he's all he's shown is that he can he can turn the volume to deal with more violence but he still always don't need politics from that point on so i think they're going to have to step up to the plate on the government. and just you know don't betray this concept of democracy the boats into the doesn't sound like either of you think that this is tied up with a neat little bow as a success story so i want to know does it justify the money the years that the u.s.

is bent there the lies the geopolitical issues americans reputation abroad that it's tarnished that most of us most americans when polled thought was wrong in the first place as any of this justified by the u.s. mission where you sits where you stand so for me as running organization of people have on the war it's a huge joke the whole war was a huge shake i mean i believe in the war when i went into iraq because that's what i was told weapons of mass destruction you're talking about hundreds of thousands of troops deployed for eight years you talk about trillions of dollars not going to military those overstaying you talk about that wasn't weakened by the war in fact use as a recruiting poster you're talking about how destroyed american credibility throughout the world i think it's a huge problem for the american military now some would argue inside my profession in the military that it's been good it's taught us coin it's trained our younger officers on tactics i think that's that's some type of argument people can make but overall there are going to talk about it as a good training exercise i think i think it's horrible i think like you know where i stand on it is it's pretty clear but overall if if you're occurred in the. north

or you're a shia in the south or was exiled like some of our translators who work with us they're happy with the invasion of the call dns and the christians who were in iraq for years that were you know most of those huge communities in detroit michigan they still look at the worst of success so it depends on where you are and your relationship with saddam over the time period before but in my perspective i'm for the united states i think the war is a huge failure maybe our greatest and foreign policy in the history of our country do you agree. i think it was a huge failure i think the reason that the reason that the u.s. and britain went to war in iraq in the first place was because they thought it would be used. and robin cook who was one of the few outspoken opponents of the of the nation in the first place the british member of parliament he said if you direct had the weapons that we say that they have we would never it's like when he was absolutely right. we saw that we could be the bully boy and that we could have our way in the region with very little cost and it's been proven to be wrong well ok that said today we have president obama speaking to veterans about this and

he seems to be talking about it all in positive terms and the accomplishments and his victory is making good on his pledge to pull out of iraq it sounds like both of you gentlemen think that it's been a failure so what happens now what happens when when they do pull out when u.s. troops are completely out because you both have said that there are a lot of complicated issues that start with you well you know people say can he end the war with i don't know if you end this war the united states came in and change the war there was always a warning iraq it was saddam laying the smack down the shia and the kurds of the united states comes in and we empower a secular shia leader and maliki so you know. that's that's that's sort of you know what we did and so the words always going to be there now and we're going to tackle what our troops face i think is dangerous what the president said today because as we pull out the troops that have controlled the sectors the areas like parts of baghdad we still have to register which is move all of our military equipment from baghdad let's say down the quaids to the ports so there's

a chance we're still going to lose american troops in iraq next year and so i think it's easier to make that speech unfortunately i think the president's been given a free pass in iraq since day one since he was a candidate yes it was against the iraq war yes he was a state senator and chicago speaking in a district where it was highly unpopular support the war he never made a vote in congress and we've seen what he's done in afghanistan which is embrace a counterinsurgency strategy that he simply. pows in iraq so afghanistan he's in huge trouble right now and i hate to say this but it looks like the iraq speech to top that is a way to as he likes to do skin the cat and be on both sides of the fence and show to the left is upset in afghanistan that he did quote and the iraq war but the iraq war was essentially ended by the sofa agreement that the iraqi government put in place ok i want to ask you what you're an interpretation is of what's going to happen in iraq once the u.s. pulls out at the end of august is the security situation going to deteriorate is democracy going to deteriorate is it going to get better what's going to happen i think one of the things that this withdrawal so essentially was what president

obama is doing is he's keeping to the promise of the sofer agreement the status of forces agreement that the president bush signed with prime minister maliki that is a positive that he's keeping to the reasons. and i think one of the things that will happen with the prime minister is all over who ever succeed say money should be should be allowed is that as i said earlier they have to stop politicking and they have to stone governing now if the only way that they have to get themselves out of trouble is to resort to violence again and i'm talking about the government here they will no longer have the american military to bail them out now maliki only prevailed in bandra and in saudi city because the american military provided his forces with air support if they don't have that they will not prevail and it would it would probably split the the iraqi security forces as well so what i'm saying is that the withdrawal of american troops really puts maliki or his successor on the spot you now have to provide good governance to your country the

week before last it was fifty degrees celsius in baghdad no electricity after all this time no electricity that is painful and john you spoke about the violence and i want to play a little bit of what president obama had to say in his speech today about the violence in iraq and we can we can roll that at that clip. today. even as terrorists try to darrelle iraq's progress because of the sacrifices of our troops and their rocky partners violence in iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years and next month we will change our military mission from combat to supporting and training iraqi security forces. in fact in many parts of the country iraqis have already taken the lead for security. now he's talking about violence being reduced this comes at

a time when iraq has reported that civilian casualties are the highest last month than they were over the last two years something that the u.s. has disputed thing deaths are estimated they estimate only half that so what do you make of this disconnect of these civilian casualties reported from july that this is a mistake that we talk we make in terms of here in the united states but when i served in kosovo the reason the violence was low was because we had an agreement set in place before we entered the country so when we talk about violence what we need to be concerned about is what's causing the violence and that's politics as iraq said it was insurgents sure my point is that why are there insurgents and how do you get the insurgents from no longer being insurgents if you have a fully functioning democracy that everyone will feel a part of it was elected and so forth so i think it's a sign that democracy is not as strong as it would be because if you if people have a voice in government why would the new testified to what drives violent is a bad politics we're going to leave it at that for today but we appreciate both of your gentlemen you gentlemen for insight on this story that is so different of

a picture from what president obama painted in his speech today. so just ahead on the show the housing crisis in the u.s. the number of foreclosures keeps rising across the country and the minority community is being hit very hard our chief correspondent joanne hoppus has a report when we come back. it's no secret the united states faces

a very long road ahead to get back to good economic health that's according to fed chief ben bernanke he mentioned that many americans are still dealing with unemployment lost savings and foreclosures and foreclosures are actually increasing and seventy five percent of the nation's largest cities are tears jan hoffa's followed one woman's quest to save her home and she has this report. and this is it and. if i come to d.c. and speak to the people themselves that are empowered that maybe they could just do something to me blake has been under immense pressure for the past two years on top of having her child she has been on the verge of going homeless the banks wilmont finance her home she's yet another victim of foreclosure in the united states if you have a man i did never guys are going to break down there so she has decided to turn to naca the neighborhood assistance corporation of america for help the nonprofit

community advocacy group conducted its annual save the dream tour conference here in washington d.c. first i have to get through the conference is geared toward helping struggling homeowners we hope that the senate is going to make a call to service or and have the service of. constituents when naka workers couldn't break a deal with the bank kimmie came to capitol hill in a last attempt to save her home by seeking help from senator chuck schumer. the senate missing our district office. and they want to speak to the district office oh well we're referring to everyone always referring and always passing it off to somebody else and i don't understand why we can't just settle is really frustrating a single mother's dream and then entire communities in limbo in parts of the country where foreclosures continue to skyrocket even under the obama administration u.s. president barack obama has introduced a number of and so. and to such as the home affordable modification program to

assist minority communities as a district so even those initiatives fall sort of saving the country's most vulnerable communities from going homeless according to. an online tracking poll since president obama took office foreclosures and delinquency rates in the washington d.c. area have risen from four point seven percent to eight percent examples of economic disparities display real life conditions here in the nation's capital the rate of urban gentrification in this city where u.s. president barack obama now calls home has become so severe that lifelong residents of the district have taken over this patch of land that has been designated by the days to counsel for corporate developers what we're trying to do is get the administration to understand that. this is we're not the steps and mission is to stabilize neighborhoods and we're going to do whatever it takes to get it done but even as african-americans demand obama take more action to help their

communities who backed him by eighty percent during the two thousand and eight election their anger does not fully reflect here at a protest against obama demonstrators mostly bloc still flash photos and clap for the president. signs that the in durant in minority communities remains even though the housing crisis is hurting them the most patients and for the most part tolerance holding out the question is for how long. to have hospice are to washington d.c. . and joining me with more on her story is jihad now jan one of the interesting things that we talked about. is that. is actually pretty successful and helping these people get help refinance their loans stay in their homes meanwhile we know that many of the obama admin. programs have not been i mean for one example

one of the programs was supposed to help three to four million people by two thousand and twelve so far only three hundred eighty nine thousand of those people who are eligible loans have actually been modified i mean that is a tiny proportion why is there this disconnect more and thanks for mentioning the thing that's very important this discussion of course the program we're talking about as i mentioned in the story which is the home affordable modification program which as you mentioned was supposed to assist those imminent risk people who are in danger of foreclosures now why is that not working and why is it actually helping out more whites than it is blocks that actually link to the rising unemployment numbers so this program actually supposed to coincide with people who have jobs but unfortunately the unemployment numbers are so high with the black and latino community you're also seeing numbers of foreclosure rates in the country but you know the administration has tried to settle back in march they actually allocated six hundred million to all states with high unemployment numbers but that didn't do

anything because as we see the numbers are actually skyrocketing in some areas of the country and in detroit for one of the areas in california another and of course here the district of columbia we're seeing the same kind of statistics and it's interesting too is something that really stuck out in your story people were there protesting obama but then we saw his motorcade and people cheering now this also comes at a time we just have recent rasmussen polls that show that for the first time more people blame obama for. economic conditions there they're experiencing forty eight percent versus forty seven percent that blame bush but what's going on what's kind of the contradiction between people protesting obama and blaming him on one hand but then getting excited when his motorcade drives by what what went on there was definitely some irony as you can as you can imagine because if you do talk to your average african american whose home is in danger of being foreclosed they won't blame obama they all centrally blame the banks blame congress blame everyone else but not president obama. no condemnation of the president it really links back to

the two thousand and eight campaign you know a black an american for the most part still inspired by what president obama meant however to do in dealing slowly because people's patience is also going away under president obama the raps a bit more foreclosures and the african-american and latino communities then there was under president bush and that's according to the national community reinvestment coalition that actually conducted the survey so well you know african-americans and latinos are going through hard times they won't condemn the person that has not been hard on these banks that have been choosing who to refinance and who not to refinance and it is very race related lauren i mean if you don't have a if you don't a job then i can even take a look at you or even consider you not that you know kemi blake didn't in the in the story but for the most part she represents the growing majority of the country that is under these kind of conditions they cannot seek help and we know that african-americans have been disproportionately affected by unemployment in the u.s. so a very tough predicament that they're and not getting help from obama but getting maybe a little inspiration when they see as motorcade drive by i want to thank you for

that report and for talking with us we're going to take a quick break but coming up next how words then well known faster and threat to the u.s. government believe it or not the late howard and had a long as b i file we went to his longtime friend anthony our nov to find out why. one of the key elements of democracy. which is so uncomfortable for me a story. pays for the news. how dependent news this independent media. who is behind the t.v. story. george media. should in reality. he was a historian a playwright an anti-war political activist of boston university professor the late howard zinn he's known by some as the people's president an american mahatma he

wrote the people's history of the u.s. telling a different side of the country's past it was also the subject of four hundred twenty three pages of government surveillance which the federal bureau of investigation just released earlier i spoke with his former colleague also the coeditor of the voices of the people's history anthony are no when i asked him what vin did that would have made him such a threat to the united states that would have warranted this close watch forward twenty three pages worth here's what he had to say. well if you look at the activities that the f.b.i. monitored it involves things like going to civil rights demonstrations studying the conditions in the south who were facing racial discrimination supporting the rights of workers organize unions opposing the vietnam war activities as basic as handing out leaflets or going to study groups about politics about history none of these

were a genuine threat to the u.s. government but they represented howard's participation over several decades in social movements they were fighting to expand democratic freedoms and rights for people here and around the world but of course that was seen by the paranoid people who ran the f.b.i. people like j. edgar hoover as a threat anything that threatened the stability of the power of entrenched interests in this country they saw it as a threat to their to their power to their institutions and as we know they suppressed that and sought to use kovar and if arius means to suppress that is it is a double standard though isn't this this kind of dissent this kind of peaceful activism these kind of social movements is not the kind of freedom of speech and assembly that i'm. supposed to be built upon. well i mean this is the complete contradiction and you even have quotes from howard zinn making that point that are in the f.b.i. files that have been released and you have these f.b.i.

agents reporting on things that he said in speeches. having newspaper clippings of reporting on his talks and on his use people citing books that he wrote even agents reporting conversations that they had directly with howard and they don't seem to understand that contradiction even when he is pointing out very directly to him that this is a country which claims to be about freedom of assembly freedom of speech the right to change the government if it doesn't represent your interests and those are the rights that he was fighting to expand and you know it's interesting i know i've heard you before in interviews say the event kind of gave the international world a different view of american history of american life because it's typically seen through perhaps the u.s. president or are those sort of official ways do you think this these f.b.i. files this surveillance paints a picture of a government that sees anything that's not main stream the mainstream point of view

as a threat or as dangerous to the u.s. to the government. i mean absolutely look at the history of surveillance in this country and there's a there's a consistent pattern of the government seeking to intervene in peaceful movements to infiltrate them to undermine to suppress them and people paid very serious costs for this howard lost his job at spelman college probably because of this activity but other people had their careers ruined in some cases were driven to suicide by this kind of suppression and the this isn't just something from the past the washington post recently did a study on the current operations of the so-called national security state. including domestic spying operations and there are huge operations including surveillance of peaceful organizations demonstrators individuals who are working to

educate and to organize for basic freedoms that should be completely free of any government interference as an mc i want to ask about you know today in the post nine eleven world where the u.s. has the patriot act where we know warrantless wiretapping is going on where we know the f.b.i. is pushing for a warrant less access to people's internet information and internet use what do you think about the direction things have gone what do you think howard zinn would say about that. i think it was deeply concerned he opposed the patriot act he opposed the expansion of police powers surveillance powers that have been acted since nine eleven and he was well aware that this is a recurring theme in our history that in times of war or times of perceived threat to national security the government expands its powers and that there has been serious price paid in civil liberties and by the individuals who seek to

challenge those restrictions on fundamental rights so he was opposed to it he spoke out against it but he also understood that we shouldn't develop a culture of fear that we need to openly challenge the restrictions on our civil liberties and we need to do so in an environment where we don't let the government silence us or intimidate us or make it less likely that we'll go out on a demonstration that will sign a petition that will speak our minds that if we do that we're censoring ourselves we're actually letting these laws have the impact the government hopes it will have but we actually need to keep our voice keep our benadryl and speaking out in organizing and protesting and collectively create a culture that support. people who do speak up and i'm sure that were howard's and alive today all of those sentiments and comments and statements would have made it into his f.b.i. file it would have been even longer then it stands today i want to thank you mr

arnault for for giving us that insight into your former friend and colleague. now the u.s. may still be trying to recover from the recession but that's not stopping our love of alcohol in fact our consumption is at a twenty five year high apparently we are a bunch of losers according to a new gallup poll listen to this in the eighteen to thirty four and thirty five to fifty four age bracket seventy two percent of americans say they have a regular drink now it drops significantly if you're over fifty five fifty nine percent which is still pretty high for people at that age now gallup started the pull back in one nine hundred thirty nine and it found fifty eight percent of americans were drinkers so when your work tomorrow look around and anyone under the age of fifty four pretty much likes the sauce now this study went on to find a few other interesting tidbits beer is the preferred drink followed by wine and

finally liquor men under the age of fifty love beer no shocker there i'm sure and men in the midwest drink the largest amount of beer also no shocker women over fifty years old drink the most wine i guess makes sense considering how many of us have seen our mothers enjoy a nice glass of wine at lunch or dinner and the biggest liquor drinkers are women between the ages of eighteen to forty nine i think the girl on the graphic which maybe will bring back up was maybe one of those now people who make the most money there she is i think she is one of those eighteen to forty nine year olds who like liquor now people who make the most money drink the most and those who don't attend church often are also big drinkers and i was actually surprised by this fact fifty eight percent of all high schoolers say. drinkers so i guess we're starting a younger these days. now still to come on the show our tool time winner tonight you're going to love it it's a battle between iran and the u.s.

this time over who can build the biggest and baddest embassy in london i'll explain in just a moment and we'll also have battle of the billboards to dueling billboards have sprung up in san francisco over islam a debate on the issue in just a moment. we've got. the biggest issues good human voice face to face with the news makers. come out and this is all see it were chuckled a headline. about the blaze a state of emergency has been declared in seven regions across russia up to wildfires triggered by record heat wave forty have died already thousands of homes have been destroyed and mosco is shrouded in thick small presents made bed it has

called for the nation to unite in the face of the cells to. bali to pressure and about ten by israel which has not agreed to cooperate with the united nations investigation into the time going to gaza bound a trip in may the surprise move for his international condemnation of the shooting dead of nine turkish activists. our world was it was president led to the shots challenges barack obama to face off debate on live t.v. as america's top military man refuses to rule out a no and the time against iran over its disputed nuclear program. plus the online whistleblower wiki leaks publishes amounts of encrypted supplied file days after releasing tens of thousands of top secret u.s. documents on the ongoing war suggesting cover ups of soup and then critics say however a it's just a p.r. stunt with the new information so it's all unreadable prompting wide speculation

it's called. those are the headlines now let's go back to their you want to show you now washington studio is. today's tool time is drawing attention to architecture the. it's fueling tensions between countries now just months ago we first told you about the american embassy which is being built in the u.k. now this one billion dollar project earned a lot of flack from americans for its over the top designs which include a moat around the exterior of the entire building to prevent terrorist attacks listen. you know nine eleven i mean they didn't get that and get there with boats i think that i think most are very practical but i think there are at least a couple hundred years. coming on horseback i guess but otherwise probably not we surely the people know how to swim the terrorists. well it seems like one country.