that's the first thing you can say the pentagon is a little hard to tell in detail the pentagon usually admits to about yearly to about eight hundred military bases or sites from macro to micro but in their count they don't include anything in a war zone and at tom dispatch you know we've done some reporting for instance on the afghan war or the present afghan war zone where we have upwards of four hundred bases again from tiny combat outposts to enormous basically american towns with boardwalks with fast food joints and whatever that we just built more or less from scratch and there are certain countries where the countries are embarrassed that their military bases there it's really hard to say i mean eight hundred to a thousand maybe more depending on what you're counting it's an awful lot it's an imperial presence of a kind i don't think we've ever seen in history and it's particularly strange because the bases traditionally bases more or less where the

way you kept colonies but for us bases are actually the thing when you see global it's a frightening word it sounds like every single country throughout just globe has some form of military presence from the united states that i can't swear that it's every city probably isn't every single country but a striking number of countries i don't actually know the number right here but i mean if you think if you if you take this another way and you think to yourself. the u.s. military now has a kind of secret military inside it and those are the special operations forces which have been incredibly peeved up and taken over certain activities that once were more cia type activities in the bush and now obama period the special operations forces and there are thirteen thousand of them according to the washington post stationed outside the united states their station now in seventy five countries there are only one hundred ninety two countries in the. u.s.

i think that's the latest figure so you're talking about somewhere upwards of forty percent just for special operations forces so it is a lot now it's very interesting that to draw that dividing line between declared war is an undeclared wars which you reach this point in your work often most americans are aware of declared wars with iraq but afghanistan over the last several years what about the un declared boys how come nobody really talks about bad wars skirmishes whatever you know it's hard to know in this country what people know i mean i mean even the wars the afghan war for instance has disappeared more or less disappeared for years at a time from i think from the media well from public consciousness you know it's hard to say what the u.s. media you could always find something i mean there's something there and that is that is it's not that there's ever no coverage but you have to be a news jockey like me you have to be reading the inside pages of the papers the war in the pakistani border line and americans obviously know very little about that i mean we are proud of our drones and so we're caught always between calling it

a covert war and actually. that actually bragging about it and americans are remarkably detached from the wars that being are being fought in their names and the various other military positions and so on and so forth on the globe it's one of the things that i focus on as is just the degree to which we are doing things that americans could know about basically don't we have to put some of that blame on the media who is essentially responsible for bringing some of that information to the u.s. and i have to ask you do you feel like the media and the military are sort of sleeping in the same bed at this point i think the military made of but there's a there's a history with the military of a post vietnam history of trying to put journalists in bed with it when you are embedded with the military there's an element of stockholm syndrome there just has to be with it and you tend to if you're out with american troops in afghanistan you . in the end i mean your life is at stake you are at the end going to identify with

american troops let me ask you this you've spent years the ciphering sort of the military is a thing of the us foreign policy when when when should that line be drawn between you know reasonable national defense and really kind of paranoid expansionism is that line ever drawn any more no it basically is no longer drawn and so what you really get this you get american treasure poor into by the multi-billions into you know into into remarkably strange wars approach i've long been convinced that if osama bin laden you know had a dream for him in a nightmare for us it was to involve us in in inconclusive wars in distant lands would cost us a fortune there's a kind of intelligence national security bureaucracy that's fed in this country all fear and americans are irrationally scared of terrorism since two thousand and one

the number of americans who have been you know killed by by terrorist actions is it's a shark attacks but below anything else dangerous in our world you know and yet the fear level is so who remarkably high and everything is justified upon us those lines are drawn and we don't think seriously about what our national interest is and we're paying for it now you've mentioned money and apparently the pentagon is going to be able to enjoy as much as seven hundred twenty six billion dollars next year or something along those nice debts and i have to ask you i mean it might seem a sort of a naive question but it has to be asked couldn't this money be put to better use and especially now in this economy but of course you know commanders in afghanistan can walk into a village they have they have a fund so they can find an afghan village elder if they want to do a hearts and minds' sort of thing they can see that the infrastructure is weak that they have canals or children or whatever they can just pay money to people to start . digging out those canals you can't do that in the united states we're

a can't do nation here we can't build anything we just we just decided not to build a tunnel between new jersey and new york city where i live because it was too expensive but we can spend billions building these bases very efficiently and if there are extraordinary in a way can do x. these huge bases in afghanistan or iraq or wherever else i think it's quite startling actually and what about the cost of civilians on the ground civilian lives we have piled up many towers in response to the towers that went down to two thousand trees three we have piled up many towers of dead and they don't have memorials nobody thinks about them i mean except obviously their families and their countries we don't know the numbers in iraq or afghanistan but they are they are startling numbers that not only has the idea of peace gone just go on the idea really of diplomacy in the normal sense as opposed to a militarized kind of diplomacy but the very idea of victory the most basic thing

to military culture is going on in one of your latest articles you ask this question how old will you be when the american envoy stared state goes down as you often bring up this point of a terror of an eternal state of war you know is that essentially it america's destiny ended in one war and started i actually think not this can only go on so long all things of course must end but in the american case you know we cannot simply continue fighting trillion dollars to three whatever it might be trillion dollar wars ad infinitum my this country simply can't afford it and washington thinks that we're in a slow long manageable decline i think this country like the soviet union in an earlier period it's in decline now most this is what americans know asked the question is this country in decline sixty five percent of americans the most recent poll say yes we are in a state of decline american spiel this washington doesn't fully feel this you. but

but that reality is going to shape this war world of ours will it continue to go on for the next couple of decades or what i know it's a time when i don't know i don't think it's a couple of decades no i mean longer or less no i think it's less i think it's really significantly less i think we are in a steeper decline and we realize we won't be able to afford. to eternally. it will be a necessity to to lessen the american military on the military mission on the planet talking about these issues and u.s. war as any u.s. military is and. there are many authors out there here in the united states talking about it how come this point is just not get across to washington is it is so different planets i think washington is had many ways remarkably sealed off from most fresh thinking i think one of the startling things and disturbing things about the arrival of the barack obama in foreign policy terms is that it is the people he

chose to put around him you know obama picked james jones as his national security adviser general marie a retired marine general who is a friend of john mccain's he had made several actions coming up right out nothing is really going to change after that right it's going to be the same thing over and over again it will be worse it will be worse because the we know before the election happens and without being there are november second without even thinking about it we know that whoever comes in the group the the america will be a country that will be able to do less and congress will be able to do less and less is going to happen for a while i mean less and in the sense of anything new any change anything that would really set us on a different course i think this is not going to be a happy moment. not a very optimistic prediction time go hard thank you very much for sitting time with us today it's a pleasure. dear

mom i'm sorry that i had to do this i've been in so much pain in the past year that i can't take it anymore the stomach and chest pains have been getting worse and no doctor has been able to help me please know that i'll finally be at peace and with no more pain i wish i could have had a life with it was a bit always pictured her being my wife and mother to my kids i love you all see you all in heaven when your time comes i'm going to meet jesus christ. thousands of u.s. troops in iraq received one of these drugs a drug called lariam and it may have prevented many soldiers from getting sick the question tonight is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about its rare side effects serious life changing side effects.

the admiral know human. passenger liner sailing in the black sea. all those thirty first nineteen eighty six. twenty three twenty. four kilometers off shore. crashes into another vessel. four hundred twenty three people die. russian titanic. there is not enough space for them on the ground. down to. get things nonexistent under the sun. through the gap of adrenaline. discovered deeply hidden secrets.

even. talking to god. from the. under the ground. more news today. flared up if these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations or the day. she's available in. the room. who took. the.

cream to feel. the world. the latest news in this week's top stories. russia seals the deal to build. nuclear power in a bid to help the. state. cooperation with. all. the complaints. destroyed. when there were two hundred million dollars.

and up next all the sports highlights with. hello and welcome to the sports on love action packed sunday in the top stories marching on an exam that pleasure called flags of grace isn't it when three now it's time to allow you to get six points clear at the top of the russian prime in a. while moving on up toward hudson is a little cool in the future a rise out of the relegation zone that winning one millivolts in. lows and highs may call you she loses the final of the set pieces by open but kim clijsters triumphs into. i was always football wasn't in petersburg have restored their six point lead at the top of the russian premier league offer a comprehensive three no home when iran you were in a real battle to avoid relegation the hosts went in front off the quarter of an

hour off the tank pylons if it was going to require a second and. third world. to make a strong team once the cross was in the closet have provided an easy finish in six minutes after the restart on the actual sponsor of the game. to sing it's in his second day off today and takes his time to the season to twelfth so it is a mystery game six points in the bag run as a looping. game all of those attempts to extend the line out when she was eighteen late in the first top mako passion was sent off for a second yellow card after what looks like an interval by the referee but i still took those three points i tried stopping the time minutes on the fly taking the brunt of this false integrations nothing beats soccer nothing worse than a table. else let's not go on one minute's time trying to prod the only goal came

in the fifty's that missed option c. back and then shot what thanks tunnel is there to fire home in for. mr thompson along the sabera. was spotted not just conceded a no go early in the game that he did not wish to school late equaliser getting a judge on salvaging a point for the visitors the statistics in the table. and in the end of the day ten man sasson came back to the old one one with that placed a scotch use ground suit to mash nets is open for the ah man off the thirty nine minutes for the next day ivana level and useless face off in the interval but they will put you on the back first answer just got a few shots or read off the fifty three minutes however sutton held on for the draw on a point. can also say falls by sponsors moscow came from behind to stay in the hunt for a place in europe next season i'm signed found themselves a go down when i go schmetz adopt a twenty two minutes but spots like went into the right level aiden mcgeady

provided the cross weeks tops that i saw i didn't finish and one one the way it stayed until the final minute since it's on was last was down in the box. made no mistakes and spots spot attacks so i think the story that supports. sixth place down to do so remaining a trace were great the weeks passed off to coming from behind to the want to work the team c.b.s. but when you challenge gave the visitors a surprise lead off going out but with a six minutes the first to take the lead having to run quickly pleading never known to the numbers we've been listening dentical had to make it so you want the race then wrapped up victory with four minutes to go outside the us and get off this on target to make it three one of the strictest sense shots out of the four right cos it's a different. all over england liverpool are looking to move out of the relegation

zone the reds coming out one no winners i'm bolton roy hodgson's side he just appointed me but stating to rise we face is to. that much he went through this late going to make sure they got three points but not one that's just finished there were two dogs in england kevin nolan scored a hat trick washout on me i'll be added a brace as newcastle's rush ten runs sunderland five want to james's park the black cats have tried to scramble sent off off to fifty three minutes and grabbed a late consolations or darren bent while aston villa against birmingham finished oldest. tennis and kim clijsters has won the w t a championships off to beat your welcome one count on both counts in the final and up close and how it's true the ice was sacked to take it six three and was praising for the second one forcing us to find a hole and eventually to get seven five to level the match but the belgian came to dominance again in the final set to take it six three because the trophy. and in the meantime metallica crucial in came to surprising victory over form which i'm going to call usually in the finals this in petersburg because i had lifted the

trophy after starts at six three seven six when the question of the second place and as it stands with a team title and then gives success and come back at you this year. let's move on to the ice now and that was a stunning result in the kontinental hockey league as rookies you grok came from two goals down to win three two on penalties at defending champions abbas and there were also big results on sunday nights also increases got one full three a western conference leaders u.h.c. deny most of the visitors with two goals off for the first period that was paid back and then she took a detour and penalties got netted the visitors were never in overtime as god wanted to one of them to be used next to him explored twice in the third period when my straight into various spots at moscow were never behind and one three one thing to set us down walls in minsk and in the league and that's that's the rephrased every minutes. later i was shot three one defeat for looking at you and me to go to go

open for the hosts want to end the first period. so it states the second period had been on the combat combat of power play to double and was the vantage however it was close to the power of the blue line to the impact. but martin zipless needed only a ministers to amherst to go advantage in quick counterattack. disco did give a lot of hope of saving the game despite his back to not precisely got into victory through camel. russia g.p. now a world champion told iran's i held off a strong challenge from the yamaha team might fall into you know rossi to win the portuguese major g.p. for the third year in a row there and so i was so rossi with eleven laps to go before speeding to ask for an eight six italian leagues here so grab in the wind a storyline in the announcement race of the season was the funniest first patriot

in months. when i'm fairly certain volunteer next summer. but the budget was there and i've been almost crushed many times i think like everyone by you know in the lab a then. i thought it was going to win the race but little by little i was simply my lap dying he was just filling in the same pace so i got him. ask him and then then go. meanwhile russia's preparations for next year's rugby world cup have suffered another setback after they were thrashed thirty two points to six by argentina's reserve side their second loss to that team in as many weeks as much about profit. as less many years ago till the two thousand and eleven rugby world cup gets underway new zealand and then putin's russia have a lot of work to do no one is expecting miracles but the newest nation to take part in rugby showpiece event needs to improve fast if they're going to be competitive

against marks of australia ireland in italy and says russia's new banks commission report. there are you know they do the right through the world cup oh no i still want to be devolved to showtime but it's hard for the players they know themselves they need the front so they need to work hard to contact them so they pretty much everyone everywhere the checklist needs to be text and you know we're slowly going to go through the process that is a specific making here to make about who's going to go to the world cup so you know those are things that you know obviously a diamond in the choli will work on myself i'm going have to work with the guys on technique and skill work to continue their preparations for the event in new zealand russia been playing two tests against argentina second string the russians trust me if i encounter him over forty points last we can and we're hoping for a much improved performance seven days later i'm for the majority of the first half they would give a good account of themselves and would have been in front but we would go kicking

and opportunistic troy from of this to strum half thomas to benny and. were trailed by just the points going in the whole time frame. despite applying some early pressure falling resumption russia would soon find themselves further behind as visitors no problem also managed to bundle is way over the line from close range and the home side were left on the mountain to climb just minutes away turn despite being down to fourteen men the certainly didn't individuals and one published stand is was on hand to. slick move apart argentina into twenty six lead russia needed to combine two tries just to draw level those to be no way back for the russians who are beginning to tire and argentina's great of fitness would prevail as they would run into many schools to secure a thirty two point six victory. in the first office particles of the thing the year of power from the try against a run a play by as you came in the first ten minutes we go see control most of all we had

most of the position we were in small wooden and those off the it's a negative so that's the thing that has something to work on but i think way we keep the cells in the game we were able kick his ego has been working all around you know a lot you know with my style i'll fly off there on that one fly off but the last two games we've given a few guys are on the for in general prefer a lot of game time and that's great for the development and improved performance by the russians you know ways to kind of make continue then build on the ball count but in reality the team needs to become much beaten stop making elementary mistakes a big and on the chance of even competing on the same level with some the world's top sides in september two thousand levon richard bank if you don't see this going . on that's all the sports news for this one isn't i think our.

technology update here. we've got the future covered.

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images cobalt has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. admiral hume. a passenger liner sailing in the black sea. of this thirty first. ship. twenty three twenty. four kilometers off shore. crashed into another best. four hundred twenty three people. rushing by turn the.

brush will build a vietnamese first ever nuclear energy plant in a bid to further economic cooperation. the deal was during president reagan first visit for all the details of the trip they were. also in this week's top stories a fresh rift allegedly arrests a network of twenty gathering classified information for russia. tightlipped about the quick. end to russia and the us reach a united success as the first joint operation destroys four drug labs in afghanistan.

you're watching r t coming to you live from the russian capital welcome to the program now russia will build a vietnam's first ever nuclear power plant in reaching a debt have said the deal will help vietnam develop as a powerful independent and modern state other washing president's visit to hanoi comes as moscow looks for closer cooperation with southeast asian countries. reports from the vietnamese capital. many deals were signed today during the russian president's official visit to one oil but this deal is perhaps the most important and it still is said to be worth over five billion u.s. dollars and will certainly help vietnam and stablish stability in its energy sector vietnam of course suffers from a lot of blackouts a lot of electricity shortage help as the russian president himself said help the country as stablish itself within the twenty first century world arena.