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russia the international community for trying to interfere in the case of former oil tycoon. moscow said the west should stay out of russia's internal affairs. former business associate. have been found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars . are slowly getting back on track after days of delays and cancellations. hundreds of flights leaving the passengers stranded. travelers were left without information on their flights. two years. killed more than

a thousand civilians palestinians are still living in a state of siege with little access to. those are the headlines i'll be back with an update in less than thirty minutes but now it's over to our washington studio. it was the same of sharks if i feel that it was ok. to say thank you sir because. it's undeniable it exists however how should anti-semitism be defined. welcome the ilona show will get the real headlines with none of the mersey all this

week we're going to bring you the best of the ilona show from two thousand and ten and tonight we're going to focus on america at war the war in afghanistan has now entered its tenth year it began in october of two thousand and one just about a month after the nine eleven attacks but since that america's military missions have spread far beyond afghanistan to pakistan yemen somalia dozens of other countries but has also spread into the realm of ideology not of just nations in battle but religions well earlier i spoke with retired colonel lawrence wilkerson former chief of staff to secretary of state colin powell to get his we have a quick update on a story that we've been following for about a month here in the show pastor terry jones has agreed to cancel burn the koran day scheduled for this saturday in gainesville florida and the pastor says the instead of burning korans he's going to fly to new york to meet with the a mom over the planned mosque near ground zero to the islamic center in new york has sparked

a major upper across the country and there are also reports now that donald trump has offered to buy the building where the islamic center was scheduled to be built now as you may recall we've spoken with pastor terry jones here on this show about a month ago you can watch his interview on why he thought the burning of. iran was needed thank you to dot com slash the loaner ship but again everyone know that pastor terry jones has for now agreed not to burn korans on this saturday and he does for now claim that the mom new york has also agreed to move the so-called ground zero mosque now there are absolutely no officials no official words from now from the mom in new york about any of those plans to move the center but again we will let you know if they do come out. now the longer that the war in afghanistan continues the more negative stories like this we hear the more the public in afghanistan the public in the u.s. and european countries are swept into a frenzy more people in america equate all of islam with terrorism more civilians

in afghanistan indonesia pakistan equate all americans with koran burning pastors in florida so the extremes are now beginning to rub off or at least catch the attention of the media and the general public to where they discuss it every day that we blame this on nine eleven did that one event change the world and catapult us into a global religious war or is this just something that we're now beginning to notice more earlier i spoke with lawrence wilkerson retired or retired army colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell and i first asked him how he thought that that one day on nine eleven in two thousand and one how that one attack on american soil has changed the world did the same thing pearl harbor did in december one thousand forty one shared america her innocence and her innocence was a lot more pronounced and profound because she had won that great contest that happened after pearl harbor she defeated her no need to reason the world other than

the soviet union was preeminent in power fifty percent of the world's gross domestic product was ours in nine hundred forty five again here we are fat dumb and happy if you will and suddenly more people than were killed in her pearl harbor were killed on nine eleven it was very traumatic in that sense it did strip of has stripped us of our sense of invulnerability and we've been gripped grappling with it ever since but you know if we think about nine eleven and the actions that came afterwards you know a lot of people say that well going into iraq invading that country was just you know the bush administration use that as an excuse but we went to afghanistan first and did they ever think that we would still be in afghanistan but now we have special forces and get men in somalia and other countries around the world that it had. it would last for this long so i'm doing some clearly thought of germany and korea and japan and a half century of occupation and bringing freedom and democracy to these countries what they didn't think about was that germany and japan were completely and utterly

devastated the places we're in afghanistan iraq are still very vibrant in terms of the enemies they produce and so forth so it's a very different situation i think a lot of those people are with egg all over their face today's although they wouldn't admit it and it's a traumatic situation whereby america is searching now for a way to remove itself because others like china are stealing a march on america washee he's essentially stuck in the middle east like an america remove herself at this point you know i mean there are there are terrorist attacks there was a there was a bombing and in russia today there are attacks in europe as well but it seems like america is really the one that you know took that and made it the catalyst for starting a worldwide war to combat extremism it did and my old boss colin powell who recently told a group of people we are creating a terrorist industrial complex coined his phrase they're echoing ours and howard

and said look they can kill us they can knock our buildings down we will mourn and it's tragic but we will not be deterred from our system they can't destroy our system only we can do that so that's a very valid point we're doing damage store sales let me tell you how much money we're spending to chase roughly four hundred al qaeda remaining in the fall. if you take the hundred billion dollars we're spending in afghanistan and you divide it out that means about a quarter of a million dollars for each one of those al qaeda terrorists when you had one hundred ten billion we spent last year in the hundred or so billion before it comes to monumental sloan's we're spending for one single terrorist that can't be sustained it's idiocy and we. i have to stop i it doesn't seem like it could be sustained but my question is you know what's the point then why do we keep doing it yesterday hillary clinton gave a speech at the council on foreign relations talking about another century of american global leadership in the world american exceptionalism how america has to

be a role model and so in essence to to keep that role that america needs to act like it's propping up democracies all over the world needs to supply everyone with aid with weapons but at the same time we're going broke it's the irony is just it's a lunacy in many respects just to go back to the afghanistan model afghanistan's g.d.p. is about fourteen billion we spend one hundred billion my goodness those just do that money to every afghan and let them lead their lives no there has to be an in that is and there has to be i agree with the leadership with the model and the role we have deployed in the world but it has to be a row of basically noninterference in the affairs of others and if we do interfere as it were but it needs to be with smart power it needs to be with economic power with diplomatic power with political power it needs to be a concerted campaign to make the american example not one of bombs bullets and bayonets but one of genuine freedom and democracy by our example our example now do

you think also since. the military industrial complex is so large since it's become natural for us to fight things like you said of bombs bullets and bayonets that that somehow reflects on why there seems to be such a drastic change in attitudes right now in the country why we see islamophobia how we see a cab in new york city being stabbed and we see a preacher in a florida wanting to burn korans we sure you can say that these are extreme incidences incidents on the fringes but it's all over every news channel i feel like you know it's really whipping people into a frenzy when the media. is part of the problem here but we have to do with the media is the you. we do it with situation. the kinds of things that florida was contemplating burning korans the kinds of controversy over the community center muslim community center in new york or taken way out of proportion but it's not

like it hasn't happened before i mean joseph mccarthy and jenner and the crew that one against the communists in the fifty's harry truman was forced to initiate a loyalty oath for government employees this is not something new to america now they're taken out of proportion but then you know what's used is that this little example of one preacher or pastor excuse me in florida that wants to burn korans is shown to the muslim world and that's what they think. all of america feels or the majority of what they should see of course again going back to my other point is our example that we tolerate anything that has to do with religion almost to the extent of being absurd but we do that's what our constitution saying that religion is not a state of fear in our country so could we have done it any different after nine eleven i mean i don't know nine years later with so much that's happened if that's this is the question again most but one of the most important aspect of my answer to you would be we could have not done iraq had we not done iraq it would be

a different world. it's want to thank you very much for being here truly. still to come on the show a special encore fireside fridays coming up in just a few minutes and the war in afghanistan got a new commander this year but does that mean a change in war strategy we asked a former u.s. state department official to weigh in and we'll get an up close and personal look at war through the documentary at restrepo our interview with the director that's coming up later. well going into the what needs to be splash in the world of high tech business what turns events science into high gear cheap products they don't understand. is he's got he followed russian innovators to ensure bidders and broaden and their big breakthrough back home spotlight on stoke on technology update here on. we've got the future covered.

the close up team has been to the. way industries are rapidly developing. now watty goes to the homeland of those big strength of mind accountability. to the land developed by cossacks in ancient times and which became the premier destination for nineteenth century political exiles. this is the clique russia claims out on oxy. midway through the year there is a new man in charge of the war in afghanistan general stanley mcchrystal was sent packing after some unflattering comments were made by he and his staff about the obama white house in a rolling stone article so president obama called on general david petraeus to take over and at that point we asked if that would change the war strategy here's my

interview with matthew hoh a former u.s. state department official. all right it's official general david petraeus will now be taking over the war in afghanistan with a ninety nine to zero vote the senate confirmed it but will what obama said hold true but a change in command does not mean a change in strategy if we look back to yesterday's confirmation hearings i'm not so sure but he said the hill take a good hard look at the directives that general stanley mcchrystal put into place to cut down on civilian casualties things like the rules of engagement so if these rules do get changed do we move away from counterinsurgency and back towards counterterrorism and by that i mean is petraeus choosing between the lives of civilians and those of the american troops joining me to discuss this is former u.s. state department official matthew hoh i think for being here so first things first do you think that a change in command here with general david petraeus stepping in means that the

strategy is also going to change right away no i don't think so betrayed in the long run hopefully i've been to speak and his staff will bring his members of own staff as well to play some of the crystal staff i believe will go there make a fresh assessment and hopefully they'll come to understand or realize that our current strategy is counterproductive that it's only recently divisional increase in the schism in the country you know only fueling a thirty five year old civil war as well as fueling support for the time to stop either because there's a few points that i want to touch on you say that perhaps will change the strategy not now but in the long run so does that mean that we're there for the long. right i mean he said himself that indeed they will work around the withdrawal of debt are starting to withdraw the troops and july of two thousand and eleven but that's just to be getting that's just a slow gradual withdrawal so with general david petraeus there does that mean that we're just going to be there for years and years and years if we don't change the strategy and if we continue to resists efforts to negotiate if we continue to

downplay efforts by the pakistani government or the karzai government to go sheikh with the pashtuns then yes we'll be there just a vast earlier today what's changed in afghanistan since he resigned nine months ago and i said nothing it's the status quo is the same it's worse we're in this quagmire it's just larger. this time next year it will be the same if we don't change course we don't change strategy we don't actually. service towards it being there needs to be a political solution to end the war we don't actually do that though if we actually go after a political solution we actually do negotiate if we actually do look at reforming the afghan government to be more inclusive and to bring those who are outside of the government into it then i think we've got a good chance of stabilizing that country next year that is not what counterinsurgency was supposed to machine or are we supposed to build up this stable government or help them become a stable and viable government response to help build up their forces are we

supposed to win the hearts and minds of this population and in fact all the opposite has been happening in the case for counterinsurgency particularly if you're in a counterinsurgency fight that's based upon a philosophical or. idealistic. battle for instance if we are if we are fighting a communist uncertainty so so is it really a war of ideas in this case this is a civil war this is a civil war that breaks down along ethnic along tribal along societal lines along regional lines i mean it's very messy it's not not very clear you know but it is it's work but it's also a case then how are we supposed to fix that what do we have to do where. these ethnic divisions with the fact that this is a civil war why is it why are we there. that that's why i think a lot of people are asking now hey we went there to go after the guys who did nine eleven and nine years later we're in tables in the civil war trying to build government institutions that have never existed before and aren't wanted by

a good portion of the people opposed to what we're doing is we're backing one side in the civil war so we're doing is we're we're backing we're building up these institutions whether it be the army brother be the police whether it be the central government you know in terms of delivery of services that are ethnically imbalanced or regionally imbalance or really just backing one side and so when you hear things like seventy percent of afghans support the u.s. being in afghanistan i would agree with that but there's thirty percent who are violently opposed to our presence because we're backing the other side in a thirty five year old so what do you think it's right for you know with general petraeus is the rock star general he's got a lot of support every lawmaker on the hill loves him and everyone has deemed what he did in iraq to be a success and do you think that people are putting all their eggs in one basket assuming that iraq and afghanistan are the same thing of that he can do the same thing i mean would you even colorado a success there's still completely mired by violence and it's iraq is definitely at a point it's a very important year for iraq right now the process the place there is promising

they had these elections of a few months ago resulted in no winner in their working through the process this thought of violence like you said but they're working through the process of maliki in a while we just met i believe today so they're trying to find a political compromise or trying to find a political solution now that awful part i mean we could be sitting here right now talking about this the whole the whole thing could fall apart so by no means am i going to clarify success nor by any means but it's not stable it's all it's hell and that's how the governments are in all of these countries countries that are involved in so why do we put so much effort and you know the rhetoric that we spent out there is that we're going to build a democracy in iran and it's going to become a stable country. is that an illusion or we did lose a little this point don't get me wrong. i'm not going to declare because iraq has achieved some modicum of stability it's got a political process right now that what we did in two thousand and three was worthwhile what was correct absolutely not you know after six seven or seven years

of a lot of dead a lot of dead people made a lot of waves in the destruction we've reached this point now where there is a book a process that from what you can understand though too is could be horribly corrupt and could be broken you know. so let's get let's get back to afghan your anger of iraq given it's a distraction do you think that general david petraeus now it's a couple years ago you were talking. about now is there a strategy and there i have both equally important but i've got to stand is now the longest war in u.s. history it deserves attention the fact that general david petraeus said that he might now take a good hard look at the rules of engagement of soldiers which we know that a lot of soldiers were exactly fans of the way that general stanley mcchrystal handled that situation but that's because civilian casualties are part of what what turned civilians against the u.s. and europe they're part of what helps recruits more taliban or al qaeda helps fuel

the insurgency more so now if this which is a strategy about to completely dismantle the rules of engagement as they are now if we go back to more raids more air strikes that is going to become even one counterproductive. i've got a view on civilian casualties similar to my view on development and foreign aid that we spend their money to build schools and bridges and vocational training in southern eastern afghanistan among the world pashtuns. we've been there for nine years this conflict has been going on for thirty five years there aren't many fence sitters anymore there are many people who are on the fence who are going to be swayed by either the fact that we've come and done great things and built things for them helped build institutions or by the fact we've done terrible things. woman and children are innocents so i don't really see a lot of fence sitters out there are they going to swayed by spaceways by the fact that we give them money and then we leave and then we lead to the taliban i think. they would be swayed by being include being included in the political process that

brings back traditional power in traditional governments to afghanistan and afghanistan traditionally people have govern themselves at the lowest level possible we had a very stable period so i'm going to keep a civil case of them living in the twelfth century as many would rather fellows and we have a thank you so much for being here but you americans couldn't be farther from afghanistan from the mountainous country where their troops nato forces are fighting every day or a new documentary to viewers on a very close and dangerous journey inside one of afghanistan's most deadly regions i the privilege of interviewing the director of rostropovich tim hetherington the cornball valley it's one of the most remote and one of the most dangerous places in afghanistan there lies a fifteen man outpost named restraint named after a medic who was killed in action and there are two men lived and filmed the day to day lives of these american soldiers fighting what some would call a forgotten war. there but it's all you. feel sorry for you.

this place on earth looks like we're going. to get what we do. where we strip. players. in the middle of the night we put up a fire because they realize once they could not know that we had the upper hand. we're here to discuss his documentary with me is filmmaker tim hetherington ted thanks so much for being here you know there's so much talk going on about this film right now and i actually haven't seen it yet because it's not playing in washington i really can't wait but i first want to ask you because you're someone it's been a war reporter for a long time. you've seen a lot of wars and how do you is this war in afghanistan different where you know especially younger and i direct so we spent a total of ten months five months each in this valley. and we just had this kind of amazing relationship with the soldiers there and i think that was the really unique

thing for us i spent you know weeks or months behind rebel lines in liberia but never was i five months with the same group of guys and so the the access the intimacy of the film is pretty remarkable well five months definitely is longer than most people most reporters get to spend when they're in bed but my question to you is since you got to know these guys so well how does it feel for them when people at home call this the forgotten war even though they're out there every single day risking their lives you know i think what we want to do with the film is bring home the reality of what these guys do to the american audience and to you know why the audience obviously you know i think the american public is in some ways disconnected from the kind of some of the realities of things happening out there we just made the most visceral and immediate wolf when we could we felt it you don't really see that in network news and so you know it's a keyhole to which people here can see the context of the war but are americans just connected because americans don't care because they're so far removed from these wars and because so few people in america really are affected if we compare

casualties in afghanistan to say perhaps the wars of our past or is it because like you said the network media the mainstream media just doesn't do their job they don't have the same resources out there they don't have the same amount of reporters covering the day to day activities no i think the american public really know more about this war i mean people are very confused about what's happening there at the moment i just think that you know obviously no one uses you two or three minutes on the afghanistan and here you can come into a theater for ninety minutes go on a deployment really see what these guys go through i mean there are fifty million americans who are connected to people in the military who served in the military or serving they will know what their loved ones go through and people want to know what is happening in afghanistan and i'll film provides that context but it does not work new news only provides you these two. three minutes if it's because i mean some would argue that's all that the american viewer has the time span for the attention span for i mean you know part to me was so interesting is the fact that you actually put your own money into making the full feature documentary film so

doesn't that show you there's a problem there that you couldn't get other people or the other people weren't jumping on the opportunity to invest in something like that no i mean as you we both know no one uses a formatted way of providing information and you know people do want to know what's happening i was last night in albany and the meetings that we were having following the film the q. and a's in the discussion is like kind of local you know grassroots town hall meeting people are really interested to find out what happened you know and we also people to come to the theaters put the politics aside and for ninety three minutes go and see and understand what these young men go through as a starting point for discussion about the war and the discussions that have followed the film have been very interesting now you've decided like you said in this film to put all politics aside to not put a certain political spin on it but from your personal perspective do you think this is a war that the u.s. is losing after spending five months there in this one remote outpost well as you said i spent five months in a remote outpost it was very difficult for me to get a wider sense of the war i mean you know it's like kind of saying if the carlow

valley is indicative of afghanistan that size in detroit is indicative of america i mean there are things we can learn from what's happening we can definitely see in the korengal valley what happens when you know this is counterinsurgency lights it's like this is what happens if you don't put enough resources into a counterinsurgency war but you know what's going to happen in the future i have no idea i mean you know the critical phase in the war and you know people want to know what will happen obviously but so how do those men feel if they are in this remote outpost in one of the most remote regions and the entire country are they are they tuned into what's going on to what people are saying to what's in the press to what the generals are saying i had how do you know when you're so far away where you don't and i think you know the guys that i was within the car a little valley up on the border of pakistan including you know didn't really know what was going on hellman. i mean their job was to fight and do what they had to do in the valley you know soldiers don't really talk much about politics i mean if they had it would be in the film you know they really focus on going home to their wives and their girlfriends and you know back home loved ones want to know what's happening you know it's very distressing for wives trying to keep their marriages

together but the husbands come home don't we talk about what happens out there and we hope this film will bring some insight into into what their loved ones go through now to bring politics back into it although you live in the states you are british so i want to get your perspective as someone who's a brit who chose to be with american soldiers there or do you feel do you connect with these men like this is the same war that they are your country is also fighting in this war and just today we now have news that the british are leaving the sanguine region a lot of people would say that the brits are abandoning this war effort how do you feel about well you know i think britain is a very complicated time politically especially in terms of the kind of two thousand and one wars that have you know the war on terror you know the you know the the inquiry into the iraq war this is highlighted the the idea of the nation that we were led into the war falsely by politicians you know on top of that today you know david cameron starting in iraq who led you falsely into afghanistan what i'm saying is that tony blair was it was a key for.