he's a virtual machine with these remarkable results until the start of the sochi olympics . and with results michael there's a closer to home with the riviera he told the truth since he told me. well an earthquake a tsunami and now on the ball being dangerous nuclear crisis going to have the very latest on japan. and bad boys bad boys and seems that the cops name could go both ways and he is going to talk about what happens when the police are the ones where the criminals. we are turning around the war in afghanistan. are we really and which way is that another question why is the united states even there. so you want to get off the streets or. to do it and life after afghanistan and iraq we're going to take a look at a battle that more better and seem to be fighting this one is homelessness.

good evening it's tuesday march fifteenth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy coughing up in of course you're watching our team now we're keeping our focus of course on the breaking situation out of japan officials have confirmed that radioactive material leaked into the atmosphere following the state an explosion and fire at a reactor at the fukushima nuclear power plant. now the fire is said to have damaged an area that's used to store spent nuclear fuel and dangerous radiation levels have forced to panta order some of one hundred forty thousand people to seal themselves indoors now meanwhile the united states has seen a tumbling of the stocks world stocks in fact tumble in a global selloff so just how will this crisis unfold remains to be seen but we need

fear and scrutiny over nuclear power is certain. you know we have to ask ourselves if this is what because actually happened to all those alternative sources of energy that we've been focusing on and what happened to investment in science and innovation indeed it really does seem like developing new technologies and innovations only is a priority in times of war or crisis will join us later and need me in the evening as r.t. explores humanity's technology right. now today marks the international day against police brutality an event but of course is hardly on the radar screens of politicians or the mainstream press and we often hear about police injustice in all those other countries but very little attention is focused on this growing problem right here in the united states and there are of course names that stand out in history there's rodney king oh and more recently the case of oscar grant but there are countless nameless americans who have suffered injustice at the hands of the police so this is

a blatant abuse of power or does it all fall under the montreal of protect and serve the resident dot net show host laurie harshness took that question to the streets of the big apple. march fifteenth is the international day against police brutality is it ever ok for the police g.'s course this week let's talk about that have you ever had personal experiences with them. and you feel like that they were just using force out of line yes i mean your view on the floor where we were would be pushing for there's no reason. whether it happened to you whether you were not there or of course the point you were in use of sorts of force do you think policeman have too much power some of them yeah especially when you have family members that are hiring weren't going to get away with whatever they want to do and then you are right policeman burial is stupid stuff it into the people that's what happened to me though you

elevate them to an imbalance of power with a policeman oh definitely they got caught they got thrown off the force why does the people view them as the enemy do you think. i guess sometimes it's. the authority thing you know people don't like to be told what to do but is it that they are from with the power or is it that they are just frustrated with facing criminal all day long there we go again a different you know going to be you know just like a murderer he got he killed that's what they want to do so disorder called will be a good crop we'll be back you know you know we want to do it where you're from they have too much power you know what have you ever had problems with police i don't know problems this is the my it has a rippled over who i really mine or they can pick and them big or this is like who are these are you if you think it has anything to do with the fact that you're a white man that looks pretty trustworthy and just you know from a profile point of view that's why you're not scared of him i think that probably

has something to do with it as someone with police experience what is it that pushes a policeman over that i case by the frustration of not wanting to be there you know but no one wants to be at their job and that doesn't allow them to use force policemen halted on the whole would they like it like where that it rally and like they have to prove to themselves to the public out there that it is a protected which is a confidence anyways we'll know whether or not you think it's ok for the police to ever use force the line between force and brutality to be pretty clear and it never ok to cross. well from the streets of the big apple to around the united states countless cases of police brutality have been reported and joining me now for more is one man who has actually documented some of these abuses and self or for speaking to george

cummings or of survive and thrive t.v. in our los angeles studio thank you so much for being here now let's get right to the point police brutality is it hype or an actual trend here in america. well you're one of the few news agencies covering it it's a it's deadly out hype it needs to be covered more and more but why are we reading about this and i don't know the new york times lyon and the sunday c.n.n. fox news talking about this issue. i think the news agencies have a relationship with law enforcement in which they rely upon them for news and for that inside information they are willing to not profile the police in a negative manner at least that's what i see in the local news nationally i'm not really sure why the national news agencies don't report the truth more when it comes to police brutality or police abuse i really questioning that i guess is

heartfelt by adam medication as an advertisement when you have to pressing news about cops beating up innocent people but you know george a that could be it you know in general corporations would support you know firefighters and police officers and if you come out with stories that are maybe negative on police officers maybe that want to appeal to some corporations that you know you know the news agencies in america rely upon you know fortune five hundred companies forever so that could be it but i have to say to play devil's advocate i mean this is america we live in a democracy we have rights that are protected by the constitution and justice can't be systematic in america because we have laws to protect against that is not the case. i believe you and you know that's why we have the second amendment and that's why our primary responsibility for personal safety and security falls on the individual now if i go around to citizens and businesses and i say hey i'm going to protect you you know they're going to put me in jail for extortion but cities and municipalities can go around say we're going to put a law up we're going to put

a group of individuals to protect you and that's called law enforcement we have no choice regarding the police officers that are out there in the way they handle themselves so if you believe that this is in fact happening here you've documented these cases of police brutality and yet we have laws are supposed to protect the think this is the whole concept of the u.s. democracy ally well you know we're seeing a decline in america the decline in the empire of america and with that decline you're going to see a meltdown in city municipalities and you're going to see a stressing of the police force these police officers are not getting the overtime they used to get bankruptcy attorneys that are seen more police officers in their offices so they're bringing the stress to the streets and the response of that stress is you know people are blatantly coming to the conclusion that hey these police officers that are there they're in times of need but it seems that there's

more and more hatred developing on kind of a low level with the average middle class american with these police officers that are randomly giving people four hundred five hundred dollar tickets for crossing over a white line i mean come on guys but i mean fave budgets are broke they got to get the money from where. you know that it's it's crazy but it's actually true and i say if you if you asked one hundred average americans you know what do you think's going on going on with all these tickets these police officer writing builders tell you straight they'll say well you know they got their budgets are melting down they've got to they've got to do fundraising well that shouldn't stand in america you're right shouldn't be denied you should be penalize financially because some city can't pay its bills that's just wrong well don't forget all of our lovely tax dollars are going to build roads and fix up the country over in

afghanistan which we'll be talking about later on the show but you know to get back to this police brutality issue people often talk about the great principles that this country was founded on and i'm not talking about the constitution i'm talking about the entire country original history so if you look at this including native americans black slavery all of these sort of negative marks in our in our past can't you make the argument that oppression in america is just as much a part of our culture our roots. well oppression will always exist even a free country like america were republic founded upon the constitution and the thing is. tyrion any will will go unchecked unless the american people stand up against it so you know we're seeing this in maria california where a woman is standing up she's getting signatures and she say you know what no more red light cameras and she's getting signatures and she's trying to abolish them they abolished them in arizona but even i personally got a four hundred ninety one dollar ticket for going across

a white line so tired any and authoritative abuse by the police will only exist in till we stand up to them so i encourage americans i courage your listeners to speak up because here's what's happening we're having an economic decline like no other and as we go from a first world country to a second world country i've been to thirty the third world police abuse and misconduct is rampant in a third world society will that's what's happening right now we're going to see more police abuse more police authoritarianism as a sea colony deteriorates and i've actually for see police officers maybe getting gauging in illegal activity possibly when their salaries get cut to nothing well and it seems like in front of their unfortunately already doing that that was george hamon chair and founder of survive and thrive t.v. . now make sure to tune into r t at five pm we're going to hear from the we now and

hip hop artist it's riley he weighs in on this issue of police brutality as well as the economic injustice and other important important issues facing this country anyway back to afghanistan a top man in afghanistan is back on capitol hill where he spent the entire morning assuring lawmakers that the war effort now in its topiary number is going just fine now general david petraeus told a senate panel that u.s. and nato forces have halted the tattle taliban's momentum in much of the country but then he warns that the gains are fragile and reversible artist correspondent christine for us our was at the senate armed services hearing today and she filed this report. it was meant to be an honest and open conversation about the state of the war in afghanistan and who better to report and general david petraeus himself the past eight months have seen important but hard fought progress in afghanistan a report card of sorts for those serving on the senate armed services committee like senator joseph lieberman of connecticut nobody's under any illusions sure that

this is turning around the question that seems to have many answers is in which direction it's turning here's one side we're there for a reason we're making progress we have made a great deal of progress in afghanistan since the last hearing of this committee on the subject just over a half a year ago while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant it is also fragile and reversible this line fragile and reversible uttered so many times in the last few days it may almost be worthy of a drinking game this progress remains fragile and reversible but in the same hearing room just last week a bit of a different tune was sung we have been through a. piece of operational successes against the however the taliban does remain resilient and will be able to threaten. u.s. and international growth in afghanistan through twenty eleven also at the hearing

and intelligence assessment about the future from national intelligence director james clapper i think the issue the concern. has is. after that and the ability of the afghan government to pick up. pick up their their responsibility for government over the last few weeks there has been additional hardship in the mission and an increase in anger after nine afghan children were killed in a nato led attack here's secretary gates last week like to begin by joining general petraeus and offering my personal apology. for the accidental killing bad nine afghan boys by coalition forces and here's president karzai talking about incidents like this and civilian casualties as a whole they want it stopped. they want it both reduced they want to stop resident cars i said he actually wanted foreign troops out of afghanistan so not only are

they losing the u.s. supported president of afghanistan now new evidence that the war is losing support from the general public as well this washington post a.b.c. news poll just out shows sixty four percent of americans do not think the war has been worth fighting and a much larger number seventy three percent thinks the u.s. government should withdraw troops this summer as a originally planned michael prysner veteran and member of the antiwar answer coalition agrees there is a sense in afghanistan is a popular uprising of afghans from all walks of life from all backgrounds and every corner of afghanistan who rightfully see the occupation of their country as an empire trying to gain a foothold in a region that's of strategic importance for resources and for dominating the region that in the hearing some signs that transition in kabul could be in the works it is afghan police who are the face of security on the streets is the afghan army

a bit further out. security responsibilities in every given night in that city so what's the purpose of these hearings well what set inside these walls is meant to give lawmakers inside a progress report so they know how to best vote for the future of what happens in afghanistan but what could become increasingly difficult for them mixed messages on what they're hearing from general petraeus continues to differ immensely from what they hear from reports inside and outside of afghanistan in washington i'm christine present on our team. well we may be seeing mixed messages from u.s. officials but it seems that the american people are speaking loud and clear and they want out of ghana stan and you there's new numbers out today that show that u.s. support for the longest war in our history is now the lowest ever in fact almost two thirds of americans say the afghan effort is not worth the fight we're here to make us help us make sense of all this is taking the barito he is the founder of

veterans for we thinking afghanistan and r.t. blogger jake thank you so much for being here and so you know aside from convincing lawmakers that everything's ok and hey give us more money in afghanistan heart of the job ahead of petraeus is to really convince the american people that we should remain here at a time when they don't want to why are we still in afghanistan basically we're still in afghanistan because president obama doesn't know how to control the pentagon. we should have paid attention from what president bush had this enormous leadership step between president bush had had. cheney had rumsfeld had these washington national security elite he couldn't control the pentagon would be going into to the iraq war president obama with very little if no foreign policy credentials has almost no control over the pentagon and as a result the pentagon gets to dictate the political policy and they also get to dictate the operational policy that's why we're still there but i wonder who do you blame if the plane it creates who do you blame in an administration that's actually

overstepping on what should be in terms of foreign policy operations the first thing that has to be set forth is a political objective after politics there's an operation or there's a tactical breakdown in terms of directing our efforts so the top of the class the the the you have to blame the politics you have to look at with the supreme court sanction this you have to look at where the congress vote given the money of the appropriations for and you have to say with the president's specifying a political goal and basically all three of the political branches have been manipulated by the pentagon in my opinion but the thing. it seems that us politics is so often driven by fear and we say that hey if we pull out of an a stand that terrorists are going to take over and then everything is going to go to hell and so politicians seem to play for that because nobody wants to look like they're weak and national security and defense lawmakers case are bad and the president has to look at that as well how do you get out of this mentality i mean of course things may be difficult if you pull out but at some point you have to

look at the way the cost and the benefits of being there and right now it doesn't look like it's adding up in our favor that's right you know it's not adding up in our favor and one of the reasons that we still keep we keep staying put is basically because the american population has been sort of the what they've been hoodwinked in terms of how much afghanistan costs how much it cost not only socially but economically and in terms of our international clout because basically the american population cares they really care about what happens the troops they really don't want to be involved in searches of occupations and this sort of thing but they've been misled by between the media between the pentagon's p.r. task force and in many ways i think also if you look at general patrols general petraeus has a has a national security network that's in afghanistan that's about one hundred people that work for him simultaneously to develop policy and barack obama has none rock obama does not even have the equipment so what general petraeus has in terms of looking at you over all strategy and what not so basically we have

a president who i think in many ways is is in terms of foreign policy is is i didn't say that that he's incompetent i think it doesn't you know i don't think he has the skills to control the pentagon to set the political objectives and to adjust his forward because he's been a strong armed by the pentagon so obama unqualified to be in the white house when it comes to foreign policy yeah well you know you brought up the fact that the fact that american people of course do support the troops and you brought up the fact that this war is costing us a lot but it does look like when it looked when we focus on the treatment of the troops once they returned home from these worse you know that money is now. going there so when are we going to start investing in america and not in afghanistan i don't think that's going to happen i think that basically what we're going to see in the next year or two as we're going to see a. basically a strategic arms arrangement in which the u.s. is going to have permanent troops in afghanistan and i think it's because strategically if you look at the policy wonks here in washington they're concerned

about long term oil revenues that can come from the caucus states that can come from the black sea area in different areas like that i think that's that's the general apparatus we're going to see right well if your prediction turns out to be true long term long term troops in afghanistan the picture might not be so rosy when when we look at what actually happens to those veterans when they return home and our teams are on the lindo took a look at some of the most difficult situations that are returning veterans are facing if they can come from. i joined the army to fight for my country to make a better life for myself there were no jobs where i live so far from home is going to be around forever i joined the army to prove myself worthy of becoming a united states citizen the reason is army doctors are really sought after so my choices are going to be light sweet words the promise of a life full of action a step up on the net or even the dream of u.s. citizenship this is the pitch of the army but every critter's being completely

honest about what awaits service members in the battle. or what they can really expect when they come off it and so they tricked them with all these promises of a better life i don't think people end up going and throwing a life away in iraq and afghanistan and then coming home to a situation described of almost massive unemployment and substance abuse michael prysner is an iraq war veteran he recognizes that war can destroy both body and mind of a soldier something seldom mentioned as the media has tired of showing america's wars americans are becoming more disconnected to their troops in battle and losing sight of the consequence of growing number not just a better ins but of homeless veterans you know that when i had a job i got laid off and that was it i am tossed my wife paul kendrick is lost when he tries to remember what it was that finally landed him on the street the army

veteran proudly fought in the first iraq war and now feels like he and many other vets are being trampled on i've tried to go to be. and they said was going to take time like turn three years or your five years back i suppose. you start thinking about the veterans day phone. these days veterans are ending up homeless sooner than ever so you want to get off the streets. yeah start a nominee who is four years ago mary and robert lee hunter was serving his country in iraq today he is hooked on drugs and living under a bridge. here. i'm going to punch problems his use of force oh interview we here got handcuffed to a bed. you know that choked up. as of monday when he said he gets by with some food and clothing from the nonprofit group national veterans foundation their outreach

efforts fill the gap where government agencies like the v.a. have failed before you would only see like one here every. every three or four months and now every time we go out we almost see somebody from from iraq or you get a sailor from the first gulf war some people join the armed services in hopes of having financial stability watertown with their duty unfortunately some of them end up here on the streets now here in los angeles there are more than forty thousand people without a home on a nightly basis many of those are better ins and that problem is just expected to get even worse as more and more service members return from the war to an economic situation with their few top prospects if you join the military for a paycheck. if you can of the wrong place three cordova a marine served four tours in iraq as he helps homeless vets cordoba admits that

while some recruiters are concerned about the future of the young men and women joining the armed forces others simply see them as numbers well there's a cliche saying in the military every soldier says my recruiter lied to me it's something that we all know you know the reality is you're less likely to find a job when you get out of the military despite promises they are more marketable on the job market the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mike mullen recently expressed concern over the creation of a generation of homeless vets a practical and moral burden for the u.s. for decades to come despite the warning some conservative lawmakers like michele bachmann have proposed cutting funding for veterans that is something that proud american vets don't like to hear take care remember in the case of the world. america's. a los angeles.

r.t. . well a lot of money is spent abroad but not that much when it comes for our own veterans take i got some of the numbers here twenty percent of iraq and afghanistan veterans that were jobless unemployed last year and a staggering i think a sixteen percent were homeless in two thousand nine hundred b. got to this point where we don't invest in the men and women that we sent abroad to fight our wars but we got to this point because largely the united states we didn't understand traumatic brain injuries to vietnam we should have learned a lesson in that fifty percent of the people in the streets today that are homeless are vietnam veterans we should have learned but we didn't and as a result what we've got today is is an afghan in iraq veteran force they can't find work place because it can't find work because employment spared they have. post war issues the road running them surprise us yeah all of those are the same so that's that's basically why the government the establishment pump a lot of money into the v.a. but getting the veterans to the v.a.

it's a difficult process that's like his vets haven't gotten there for misplaced priorities yet again now i want to get back to a point that you brought up before we look at a story and you said something interesting you predicted that you think that u.s. forces will actually stay in afghanistan for years to come we had general petraeus of course confirming that he supports the withdrawal of u.s. troops so what's the real picture yeah this is this is political theater i've been i've talked with white house staffers i've talked with former senior white house position people friends i have that are on the inside of the pentagon and basically we're looking now at a strategic arms arrangement where the u.s. is going to have a permanent troops inside of afghanistan and some projections of twenty seventy five and this isn't rumors this is general these are these are general policies that are being considered at this point i mean five twenty seventy five that's right because this is one of the one of the reasons is because this is where this is where petroleum experts are considering this could be the end of oil if you will

so this is this is one of the ideas but basically we're. permanent u.s. bases in the analogy that peter bergen gave on friday at the new america foundation was. honest and it's going to be the new korea and in my opinion this is just an incredibly problematic and the only way to get us out of afghanistan thus far is the new way forward and study group this is what we've got to do this is what we've got to put together and put in front of the american lawmakers to get us out of afghanistan long term magic real quick i have to ask i mean if you have such immense nonsupport for this war more than two thirds of americans not supporting the suffering afghanistan how are we going to be able to justify this permanent u.s. presence in that country basically i mean right now the american people their voices haven't been heard i mean we should i'm a conservative right always have been and one of the things we learned from iraq was that we lost six trillion dollars because president bush was trying to be the mayor of baghdad instead of being the commander in chief united states and now

president obama's doing making the same decisions so we've got two presidents trying to be the mayor of baghdad and kabul instead of being the commander in chief we've got to step up and get in the streets the american people do and that's the only way this is going to get happen by electing getting new faces inside of washington that will change the paradigm and get our forces back home all right while hopefully the people will will take a listen and decide what's actually best for this country and we actually do know that some folks will be gathering here in washington this weekend to protest against the war efforts we'll be covering that of course i was a full of bears out of anything afghanistan and our team's locker room but that does it for now for more on a story that we've covered please go to our team dot com slash usa and of course check out our you tube page if you tube dot com slash r.t.s. america and of course feel free to follow me on twitter it's absolutely casanova just wondered if i will see you back here in about half an hour thank you.