but i don't believe his move was also met with mistrust. a top level investigation is ordered by russian president dmitry medvedev after the brutal attempted murder of a leading investigative journalist in moscow police say that's the comment sounds newspaper reporter like most links to his work. also around between moscow and told here president dmitry regret it was told to russia's far east real islands has eased as japan's ambassador returns to moscow than expected after he was recalled while japan lays claims to the islands russia says the ownership is beyond dispute and promises more investment in the remote region. for the democratic party with major defeats in elections and loss of control will be also representatives but some say it's big business rather than the american people which has the biggest say. on with the balance of power among u.s. lawmakers shifting toward the republicans after last week's elections will still

close spittal about his guests if america american strategy in afghanistan could be affected. hungry for the full story we've got it fixed the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers. to take a. stand. alone and welcome the crosstalk i'm peter lavelle a new and invigorated republican party will soon make itself felt in washington how

will this impact u.s. foreign policy in the ongoing war in afghanistan it could go either way obama could stick to his withdrawal dates or see his political opponents demand victory in a country that knows nothing of peace. and can. discuss afghanistan after the u.s. midterm elections i'm joined by kelly layoffs in washington she's an analyst with antiwar dot com in philadelphia we go to justin quinn he's an award winning journalist and in dubai we cross the dina hum not a professor at ziad university and another member of our crosstalk team you know on the hunger and justin if i can go to you first i haven't seen too many people actually talk about the issue we have a triumphant victory for many tea party candidates closely aligned with the republican party obviously and they didn't talk much about foreign policy

journeying the campaign now they're going to be inaugurated in january what do you think speculation because we haven't heard much from the tea. our leaders themselves and the republican party actually what and let's focus on afghanistan how are they going to affect obama if at all are they going to make of the republicans going to say look you know in the house we have the majority we don't want you to stick to any timetable like you've wanted to do you think that they will him have that kind of power on obama go ahead well from what i've heard the people that i've spoken with in washington they don't really believe that there's going to be too much impact on the afghan war at all in fact from what i understand most of the. most of the issues going to revolve around domestic issues and that's why the afghan war is really going to be on the back burner for a large part of the of the next two years ok we'll talk about how to keep funding

these wars later because that does impact a mystic politics how about you kelly in washington what do you think i mean we have the review coming up in december this could be an opening for obama to go one way or another i think the american public opinion would like to see him stick with deadlines and finally get out of this useless wasteful and ultimately tragic war for all involved in afghanistan. correct i think you're right about the public opinion i do see this is a little bit troubling in terms of of sticking to the deadline and of the review when democrats are in charge in washington they are typically upholders of the status quo they typically give the military what it wants we've seen that in the last two years under obama and the current military brass general petraeus the military is generally gotten what it wants the democrats are very loath to stand up

to the military when you have republicans in charge however they are more boosters of the military and i think you're going to see a big push for obama to relax on his deadline and also to give general petraeus what he wants whether that be more money more resources and more time so i think what you're going to see is the rhetoric ratcheting up in terms of support for the war at least coming expression way from the house of representatives which is now in control of republicans ok do you know i'm not going to ask you to be a military expert but i'm going to kind of ask a rhetorical question how much more money does the military need and how much more time does it need to figure out it's they're never going to win it and i guess i'm showing my stripes right now but i mean how much more time how much more money because we could stay there for a very long time and i'd like to bring in mr karzai a little bit later in the program i think he would just love the american military to stay there for a very long time go ahead. yeah i mean i don't think that there is

a particular way to answer this question obviously even the smartest of the militaries and all the analysts in washington are not able to answer that but in my particular opinion i really don't think that it is very smart to cite a particular date because we don't know it depends on how progress what progress is made so i think it's a bit silly how there's a particular date that is set up but to just address kind of your earlier question i don't think that we will see much difference now that the republicans are in power and we need because sure they have control over the house but the senate is still in the hands of the democrats and of course congress the senate really have that much sway in terms of foreign policy issues besides. trade agreements and maybe foreign aid so i think that you know if even if we look at ninety four and in two thousand and six when clinton was in power and he had houses

that were controlled by a public and then it was george bush had houses that were controlled by democrats clinton was able to of course pass his. troops in his strips the boss and george bush was able to work through the surge i think it was kind of i think there's a big difference there don't you think there's a big difference there i mean. and afghanistan are really different and i'd like to go back to a point that i mentioned earlier you have everyone come in and you know we've talked about a little bit here. american attitudes on afghanistan finds all that only twelve percent of all adults are confident that u.s. policies there will be successful and fully sixty percent or not confident what's going on here the tea party isn't listening the democrats aren't listening the republicans aren't listening is anyone listening to the american people about afghanistan go ahead keli first. well i think it comes down to

this and i think i made this point a little bit before. actually i want to take a different tack we are looking at a presidential election in two years i firmly believe that from this moment forward everything is going to be framed by that election the republicans tea party are not are going to have to define themselves and and typically as we've seen the last ten years they have defined themselves as war hawks as aggressive on national security on terrorism interventionism building the military supporting the military and they are going to do everything they can to embarrass and overwhelm president obama's agenda on foreign policy so i think they're going to see them fall back into a position as to where they are not only supporting the war but supporting greater budgets for defense they might not have the legislative authority to do what they want in terms of maybe ratcheting up the war or you know attacking another country

like iran but they can ratchet up the rhetoric and convince the american people that we need to be tough have the fortitude for war and basically we'll see what they you know what they had done during the bush administration in the last election they will make barack obama look weak on national security he doesn't have the stomach for war and i think that's that's that's my prediction that they will go into fall back mode which is hawkish and aggressive just if you go to do you. write that's a pretty pathetic way of looking at politics i mean people are dying here innocent people are dying in afghanistan young men and women in uniform are done just to destroy ruin the obama presidency that's prophetic if that's true and i tend to get it that's you know i. i i i completely disagree with kelly i do not think that that's going to happen frankly my opinion on this is basically that as long as.

things keep going the way they are going i don't believe republicans are going to be obstructionist at all when it comes to afghanistan certainly you know i said earlier that i don't think much is going to change and i think the reason that that much isn't going to change is because again i believe for the next two years the focus is going to be on domestic policy i think the harris poll that you quoted earlier i believe the reason that that is the way that it is is because people just in america are just are not paying attention to what's going on really in afghanistan you tend you know if things were if the economy was better i think we'd see a lot more push from republicans to ratchet up the strategy there but you know as as far as that goes i really do believe that what's happening now is going to continue happening now that said if obama decides that he wants to up his his departure and move the drawdowns further along then i think you will see some

sparks fly down there in washington but i think until until something like that happens things are going to remain pretty much as they are i do agree with dana on that and i think that i think that's really what we're looking at ok i'd like to go to dana now i mean again kind of a hypothetical coming for me it seems to me that afghanistan the whole issue of asking afghanistan has nothing to do with afghanistan in a sense it's all about washington politics and kind of extrapolating from what kelly had to say no american president sitting president wants to be responsible for a quote unquote failed war so you just keep going along doing it to you you just keep going on and you just don't lose ok i mean i think most people don't have any idea what victory would really mean here ok but we all know what it means to lose so he just keeps going on for at least two more years ok again i if i can throw in my two cents here that's quite cynical go ahead dana. yeah i mean i honestly think that the most like we don't know of course is all of this is hypothetical but in my opinion i definitely think that two thousand and eleven withdrawal is the

most likely scenario i think that i agree one hundred percent americans are really . basically tired they are this is the longest running war and u.s. history surpassing vietnam and the two world wars americans are concerned with domestic issues just like there always are really to be honest but i think more so now because of the economic crisis there is fear of all taxes rising there is issues with the deficit so i think all of that is really going to translate into more resentment towards any extra money that would go to afghanistan and why did the republican even when now i think a really big part of it is that they were they address issues of concern to americans fears that obama's spending spree or some of these they say is driving the country economically in decline so i think that why would they if they want to win the presidential elections in two thousand and twelve why would they want to

basically put to the table a prospect of prolonging the war even more and so i think yes that it publicans have traditionally support the issues regarding defense but to be honest with you even though they're not all are speaking the same line sarah palin and others are saying that we want to continue prolong in the war beyond two thousand and twelve they would like to see that certainly central republicans and more conservative democrats would like to see that as well but in general i would really have to say that many republicans would sway away from taking not. bring up an interesting paradox there thank you very much and after a short break we'll continue our discussion on washington's approach to afghanistan stay with thirty. eight.

in some pieces but. grunter tell you're a grand hotel emerald marco polo with a club small town so close hotel in the big old hotel. corinthian escaped on its radisson s.a.'s royal kempinski twenty two look you. can. now so. if you. want to. come back to cross talk i'm peter look i'll remind you we're

talking about the situation in afghanistan. but before let's see what russians think about u.s. strategy in the region and war that appears to have no end and they're still a response to the nine eleven attacks the u.s. led war in afghanistan is now a decade old change was expected this summer when general mcchrystal was replaced by david trails as a commander of u.s. forces in the country in two thousand and nine the russian public opinion research center all citizens if they approve of the u.s. and if the actions and again a system seventy three percent of the respondents expressed strong condemnation and only seven percent. those polled approved this strategy it seems however that the more we hear of change and it gets done the less it. ok just and i'd like to

go to you again we only ended the first hour of the program with the word paradox i'd like to ask another paradox i think that's in play right now the tea partiers and a lot of republicans that are echoing tea party part of the tea partiers. you know through the campaign you know get rid of government and cut taxes if i can as a caricature of their point of view how do you pay for wars then ok and again that's something that really hasn't been brought up is in your mind in again i know there's so little information out there about it because the election was just only a few days ago but is defense going to be off the table you know get rid of social security but you can't touch defense i mean what's your sense of it because at the end of the day there's going to be a contradiction if you want to cut government there's a lot of fat you can cut from the military even even the secretary of defense has said that. yeah i don't think that i really don't believe that when you look at the military budget you know that you're going to cut that dramatically i believe like

all budgets there is a lot of fat in the military budget but you know when you talk about the tea party as tea party people you've got to remember that they they are constitutionalists mostly and so you know defense spending is actually one of the things that is in the constitution i mean it's one of the things that the constitution is there to do to protect the people you know in title and programs you know you know the endowment for the arts and p.r. funding for these programs is going to be really looked at after to after january two thousand and eleven and i believe it's clear from the political reasons really don't you think mostly for political reasons ok i mean those kind of institutions are considered fact by the right ok obviously ok kelly what do you think i mean absolutely but i got to tell kelly what do you think i mean do you think that the as he's going to be a sacred cow i mean keep the war is going i mean to keep spending on to you know support the troops type thing and all that i mean in just

a couple more countless billions of dollars into in again i want to talk to mr karzai in a little while but into war that we don't we're not getting any return on. well i think before the even before the election you saw a great hesitancy by members of this so-called tea party movement to talk about the fence cuts it seems like a popular notion behind the scenes but publicly there is a great hesitancy to talk about defense cuts within the republican party. and i think after the election now that republicans are in control of the house at least there is going to be even greater has a tendency to talk about cuts congressman bob mccann who is taking over the house armed services committee came out with a sort of short list of what he plans on doing and it was a strong suggestion that he plans to give the military whatever it wants to quote

unquote win the war and afghanistan and the war on terror overseas so i'm i'm not too optimistic that we're going to see some real reform on defense spending in the next two years i mean if i can go to you one of the new in physis on the in the in dealing with the counterinsurgency in afghanistan is nation building are to your knowledge to what level is that succeeded because we keep hearing about you know the u.s. military can clear out one part of the country or region and for temporarily and then the taliban just simply come back i mean how much it can be done the money it seems they want to be cured the money we can you create a nation building circumstances there considering this the security situation. you know i think that's more like an advertisement slogan to be honest you know i mean i don't know maybe some in washington to have the best intention but to be honest with you i mean you don't you don't make them you don't import democracy and you don't just create it's not

a project you know it's not like you know i stand project that you work on for a few hours i mean nation building is something that takes a long long time it has many components it's not just simply yes let's set up a government through a couple of thousand woman's and she always then say yes we are supporting women's rights which is really what you see and it's quite side again maybe this time have the best intentions but i can tell you i worked in washington d.c. and i worked with some of those organizations and i can tell you that basically they just want to give money so that they can say that they're giving money towards you know organizations that promote democracy and organizations that work for women's right but at the end of the day i think that this change has to come from within and it is important and there are no easy answers so i'm not suggesting suggesting that there are any but i can tell you that the republicans and the democrats on afghanistan really seems to be talking the same line even though they don't admit it and they would like to say so the politicians on either side but i think that the democrats would like to throw money and say that they're working you

know to contact terrorism and to fight al qaeda and then you have you know all of course the democrats saying oh we're working on peace building and promoting democracy but really it's all the same thing ok just i mean we heard the term best intentions twice so is mr karzai america's best intentions to give the afghan people he's illegitimate is election was so fraudulent i mean everyone has admitted that i mean we saw a fraudulent didn't even have a recount i mean because there was just a mess ok i mean what kind of you know what kind of stooge do we have there ok can he be and he's taking money from iran and he's dealing with the taliban on the side i mean is anybody waking up here i mean is this guy who supported i mean my goodness and you have a counterinsurgency i mean it's the worst of all possible worlds isn't it. well i'll be honest with you i think you know we have to work with what we have there when we pointed. out and we put it there didn't we did you know did ok we did we

well to to a degree i mean you know obviously the elections were fraudulent you know beyond what we can do as helping on the ground i don't think really you know what are we going to do put another person there you know i do want to address another issue that she mentioned earlier that excuse me that you mentioned earlier about nation building you know the reality is that. you know when you put an arbitrary deadline on troop withdrawal you know that's going to hurt nation building frankly you can't really help a community thrive with if you tell people we're going to leave at this specific date and allow the insurgents and al qaeda and whoever else. basically give them a timeline of when we're going to leave so that they can come in and take over and basically you know put people together and then can't you say that the opposite is just as logical using your reason we are going to never leave so why would there be any nation building because there were always going to be occupied i mean you can

flip it over on the other side and you get the same result ok i mean somebody has to take you have somebody has to. say take responsibility and say we do the best we possibly can and then we're going to have to leave ok because you know like i said earlier in the program cars i would like to have i think that over the next twenty years when we're going to. ok we're certainly i should be i know you don't only you know. these problems are going to stay there is long as we're there they're going to get worse and worse from what i can see ok or i'm talking about kelly what do you think about this situation i have to agree with you i think. i think we're seeing a situation we have an active and emboldened insurgency in afghanistan right now so it's not like germany where we are it is just true nation building strict nation building we have an active insurgency which you know given all of our power and might as the united states military has not been able to wrap its hands around and

to expel from that country so i think militarily there are a lot of issues and the military does not want to leave right now it doesn't like the timeline and my prediction is that the the new and bold and republicans in congress are going to help general petraeus and the military leadership to. further soften that timeline you're going to see hearings in the house you're going to see general petraeus likely brought in to talk about why we need to stay there we are already seeing an emphasis on two thousand and fourteen rather than two thousand and eleven as as a as the more viable timeline so i'm thinking that the republicans in the congress are going to fully support the military and seeing that that timeline does not stick or at least to reduce it to the point where it is meaningless and that's that's my prediction i mean if i can go to you and it's already meaningless joy

just go right ahead go ahead jump in that's the whole point of the program going just going to say it's. it's already a meaningless deadline that we've set so i mean you know to a degree but whether it's two thousand and fourteen or two thousand and eleven you know. you're very logic that's you know what we're what we're dealing with what you want i actually agree with you just because america is an iraqi anymore we're not in iraq anymore right. well you know you're drinking last night i mean. i don't think we've left i think you are very small only that's my very point whenever you say there's a meeting and however you call it ok. but when you put in when you put a deadline on it the way obama did in iraq you know it again is basically the credibility there is already shot because you know he said ok we're going to leave iraq we didn't leave iraq so you know there we there we go i went i heard people in afghanistan and iraq. we want to jump in there i agree i like to jump in for just

a second i agree with justin i think obama failed to assert his authority in this situation he was trying to to make everybody happy he was trying to placate his progressive base by asserting this soft timeline and he was also trying to placate the military by making it a soft and not a hard time line so he's trying to have it both ways he's not pleasing anybody and like justin says it's meaningless what does a soft timeline mean anyway what it means to me and many other people is that this gives general petraeus and the military more time to lobby congress and lobby the white house they say we need more time and make it as soft as possible so when this review comes up they'll say we need more time to beat the insurgency we more time to create this security space for the nation building. but we've run out of it all

but all of run out of time we'll see what happens after reviewing december many thanks to my guest today in washington dubai and philadelphia and thanks to our viewers for watching us here are to see you next time and remember prost are. hungry for the full story we've got it's. the biggest issues get the human voice ceased to face with the news makers on.

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