an earthquake a tsunami and now an evolving nuclear crisis going to have the very latest on the situation in japan. and police brutality right here in america hip hop artist groups riley is going to explain why he thinks this country needs another revolution. we're turning around the war in afghanistan are we now and which way would that be and here's another question for you why are we where in the first place. you want to get off the streets or. the work. and life after afghanistan and iraq we're going to take a look at a valid up more veterans seem to be fighting this one about homelessness.

good evening it's tuesday march fifteenth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy catherine of anyone watching our t.v. now feeling our focus on the latest situation out of japan officials have confirmed that radioactive material materials leaked into the atmosphere following an explosion and a fire at a reactor at the fukushima nuclear power plants there now the fire is said to have damaged an area used to store spent nuclear fuel dangerous radiation levels have flourished upin to order some one hundred forty thousand people to seal themselves indoors now just how this crisis will unfold remains to be seen but when you fear and scrutiny over nuclear power is of course certain but what happened to investment in science and innovation indeed it seems like we're only willing to spend money on new technology in times of war join us

a little later this evening as our t. explores how corporations may be to blame for america's technology right. now today marks the international day against police brutality and event that's hardly on the radar screen of politicians or the mainstream press now we often hear about police and justice in those other countries but very little attention is focused on the growing problem right here at home now there are certain names that stand out in our memories like rodney king on the d.l. oh even oscar grant but countless nameless americans have suffered injustice at the hands of the police so this a blatant abuse of power or does it all fall under the mantra of protect and serve well the resident dot net laura show host laurie harkness took that question to the streets of the big apple and here's what she found. march fifteenth is the international day against police brutality is it ever ok for

the police to use force this week let's talk about that have you ever had personal experiences with them. and you feel like they were just using force out of line yes i mean if you're on the floor where we were i would report you for there's no reason. whatever happens you were there you are not. because the point you were using first do you think policemen have too much power some of them yeah especially when you have family members that are higher in rank it can pick and get away with when i really want to go in a new car and run policeman burial is stupid stuff to do to people that's what happened to me though you fell victim to an imbalance of power with a policeman oh definitely they're going to run off the force why does the people view them as bad to me do you think. i guess sometimes it's. the authority thing you know people don't like to be told what to do is it that they are come with the

power or is it that they are just frustrated with facing criminal all day long there we go again to determine you know i mean you know the sort of murders he got he killed that's what they want to do so distorted caught you can be a good cop we could be better you know you know we want to do it where you're from they had too much power you know what have you ever had problems with police i'm going to probably listen to them why it has a ripple go over really mine and they can pick and bigger it is likely that you didn't have anything to do with the fact that you're a white man that looks pretty trustworthy and just you know from a profile going to be that's why you're not scared of them i think that probably has something to do with it as someone with police experience what is it that pushes a policeman over that my case might have been frustrated and not wanting to be there you know but no one wants to be at their job and that doesn't allow them to be the new source policeman olczyk on the whole would job you know they like it

like we're that bad out we have to prove to them so to the public out there that it protects which is all nonsense anyway is real you know whether or not you think it's ok for the police to ever use force the line between course and brutality to be pretty clear and it's never ok to cry. well we decided to shine a light on this issue by turning to somebody who is often in the spotlight himself raymond which reilly is an outspoken activist and renowned hip hop artists and of course also the front man and producer of the coup as well as a street sweeper social club now earlier i talked to him about why the united states may be in the need of yet another revolution and why they need it putting the wrong people in jail the rest. if police really wanted to cut down on crime they wouldn't be looking in poor neighborhoods obviously they'd be looking and

they'd be arresting folks that are running the banks and these major corporations also of police work just to stop the crime that does happen when. they be working on getting folks stopped to read about the latter raith. they too are intertwined right. the working class is divided up in fighting each other based on race and race is a tool ruling class uses to keep the working class there but now is part of that tool means to create black folks in savages to. tell people that the reason that. people of color are poor and out of work is because of their culture and because of their mind in the you know how wild they are and so there's all these stories that we see and we take into our

subconscious as being the reality of how. poor people and people of color act and we want one when we hear the stories of police brutality compel it seems. we. subconsciously feel like well maybe those folks were acting a little too loud maybe they were doing something wrong because we've heard all of these stories that are meant to tell us that the reason that people are poor and oppressed is because of them selves and so even when you know you have. programs in the community that are supposedly. helping to uplift the community it's always based on changing the culture of that community let's make people be a little less violent as if violence this is the problem of violence stems from the

people themselves when we know that the problem of violence in our communities stems from the fact that there is an underground economy that has to happen in order pro for people to survive what. better underground economy is drugs there are no jobs that people can survive and when i say no obviously i'm exaggerating there are some some jobs or very few jobs that people can survive or people have to make a living people have to pay the rich the rich which is skyrocketing the cost of living which is skyrocketing the point is is that we have a system in which a very few people. on top most of everything michael moore quoted a statistic that said the top the top four hundred families in the u.s. the top four hundred richest families in the u.s. . have more wealth than the rest of the u.s. combined the rest of the u.s.

population combined. that's a staggering wealth difference and yet it doesn't seem to be that one that people really know about i mean how do you as a musician you have this you know public attention on you know how do you get people to wake up and feel through this and not take it anymore i think that the only thing that's going to change many of these smaller problems that we talk about is a change in the system as it stands we don't have real democracy here we need something in which we control the wealth that we create and until that happens you're going to have police whose job it is to protect the being. the status quo to keep things the way they are you know to protect property of the wealthy. and the police are never going to be on our side and how do you get people

to believe that they can do something i think first we need a radical militant labor movement and not by a radical militant labor movement that counts most of the unions that are in existence out. in what we need. are places in which these radical militant labor movements are not only. crip you not only fighting for. to keep the pay of the jobs that exist but but taking places like mcdonald's making them pay twenty thirty dollars an hour you know which they can afford to do taking places like a martin wal-mart and making them pay more those sorts of movements are what gets at the heart of what people are thinking about every day once you get movements like that going in you can you can build support for an even more radical movement which says hey you see who's on our side and you see who's not let's make even more

changes and let's you know and let's change this whole system that people are fighting put food on the table pride in fighting to pay the writ fighting to not be homeless in we're doing it individually. now it's time for radical organizers to collectivize that struggle and then take it to the next level it's not just about people waking up and realize because people wake up and realize our time when they have no idea what's it's about organizations. having their finger on the pulse of the people and be involved in campaigns excite people's imagination and it's about people joining organizations that's the key organisations are the key people rising up that was musician and activist raymond it's riley of course to be like to watch that full interview just head over to our

you tube page and see you tube dot com slash our team america. our top man in afghanistan is back on capitol hill where he spent the entire morning assuring lawmakers that the war effort now in its tenth year and he's had forgotten is going just fine general david petraeus told a senate panel that u.s. and nato forces have halted the taliban's momentum in much of the country but he warns that the gains are fragile and reversible are correspondent christine christine for us our was at the senate armed services hearing this morning 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 then 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 is 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 as progress remains fragile and reversible but in the same hearing room just last week a bit of a different tune was sung we have enjoyed. tacitus' he's an operational successes against the taliban however the taliban does remain resilient and will be able to threaten u.s. and international drove me afghanistan through twenty alone although at the hearing and intelligence assessment about the future from national intelligence director james clapper i think. the concern. is.

after that and the ability of the afghan government to. pick up their responsibility for governance 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 i'd like to begin by joining general petraeus in offering my personal apology. for the accidental killing of bath 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 wanted not reduced they want to stop president karzai 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 in 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 it 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 what fred 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 the mixed messages what they're hearing from general petraeus continues to differ immensely from what they hear from reporters inside and outside of afghanistan in washington i'm christine present on r.t. . r a 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 the ghana stand and yet 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 that the afghan effort is not worth the fight but here to help us make sense of all this is j. dilla barito he is the founder of veterans for be thinking afghanistan and our team 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 part of the job ahead of portray 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 in 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 wolfowitz 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 about a lot of who do you blame me blame gates you claim could create us who do you blame in the 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 operational and there's a tactical breakdown in terms of directing our efforts so the top of the class the you have to go into the politics you have to look at it with the supreme court sanction this you have to look at where the congress vote giving 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 well the thing is it seems like us politics is so often driven by fear right. we say that hey if we pull out of ghana stand the terrorists are going to take over and then everything is going to go to hell and so politicians seem to cave to that because nobody wants to look like they're weak on national security and defense lawmakers caved to that 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 because in the benefits of being there right now it doesn't look like it's adding up in our favor that's right you know 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 they've been hoodwinked in terms of how much afghanistan costs how much it costs not only socially but economically and in terms of our international clout and it's because basically the american population cares they really care about what happens the troops they really don't want to be involved in service 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 petraeus 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 brought obama has none rock obama does not even have the equipment so what general petraeus has in terms of looking at the overall strategy and what not so basically we have a president who i think in many ways is is for concerns of foreign policy is is i

didn't say i think is incompetent i think he doesn't you know i don't think he has the skills to control the pentagon to the political objectives and to just push forward because he's been a strong armed by the pentagon so 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 look at when we focus on the treatment of the troops once they return home from these wars know that money is not going there so when are we going to start investing in a new. erica 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 has we're going to see a. basically a strategic arms arrangement in which 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 or can come from

the black sea area and different areas like that i think that's that's the general apparatus we're going to see if your prediction turns out to be true long term long term troops in afghanistan the picture might not be so rosy when we look at what actually happens to those veterans when they return home now he's among the lindo took a look at some of the most difficult situations that are returning veterans are facing once they come home from i joined the army to fight for my country to make a better life for myself there were no jobs forever so if we're always 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 after my choices are going to be wide open so we were the promise of a life full of action a step up on the career ladder or even the dream of u.s. citizenship this is the pitch of the army but every critters being completely honest about what we servicemembers in the battle. or

what they can really expect when they come off it and so they trick them with all these promises of a better life i don't need people end up going in throwing their lives away in iraq and afghanistan and then coming home in a situation described of homelessness of 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 consequences of growing number not just of veterans but of homeless veterans you know that when i had a job i got laid off and that was it i was 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 try to go to be. and they said was on take time like two or three years for your five years back to school. i mean you start thinking about the veterans day come back. these days veterans are ending up homeless sooner than ever so if you want to get off the streets. yeah i was just. four years ago barry 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 he's used force oh interview we hear a guy handcuffed to a bed. you know. as i wonder when he said he gets by with some food and extra clothing from the nonprofit group national veterans foundation their outreach efforts fill the gap where government agencies like the v.a.

have failed before and you can only see like one every. but every three or four months and now every time we go we see somebody from iraq or from the first gulf war some people join the armed services in hopes of having financial stability was tricked out 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 policy is just expected to get even worse as more and more service members return from the war to a dire economic situation with very few top prospects if you join the military for a paycheck if you do the wrong thing to the right place freddie cordova a marine served four tours in iraq as he helps homeless vets good job 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 in 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 state to. the world. america is nothing. in los angeles but i'm on the lino archie well a lot of money spent abroad but not that much when it comes to our own veterans can

i get some of the numbers here twenty percent of iraq and afghanistan veterans. were job jobless unemployed last year and a staggering sixteen percent were homeless in two thousand and nine point where we don't invest and the men and women that we sent abroad to fight our wars well we got to this point because largely the united states we didn't understand traumatic brain injuries vietnam we should have learned the lesson i mean that fifty percent of the people in the streets today that are homeless are vietnam veterans we should have learned that but we didn't and as a result what we've got today is a is an afghan and iraq veteran force can't find work place because it can't find workers employment spout they have. post war issues they're not in them for grass yeah all of those are the same so that's that's basically by the government establishments pump a lot of money to do the v.a. getting the veterans to the v.a. it's a difficult process and that's why his vets haven't gotten there from misplaced priorities

yet again now i want to get back to a point that you brought up before we look at the story and you said something interesting you predicted that you think that u.s. forces will actually stay in afghanistan for years to come and i mean well 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 at a strategic arms arrangement where the u.s. is going to have permanent troops inside of afghanistan in some projections of twenty seventy five and this is an rumors this is general these are d's are general policies that are being considered at this point if any 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 the geo petroleum experts are considering that it's going to the end of oil if you will so this is that's 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 afghanistan is going to be the new korea and the. in my opinion this is incredibly problematic and the only way to get us out of afghanistan thus far is the new way forward afghan 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 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 suffered afghanistan how are we going to be able to justify this permanent u.s. presence in that country well 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 the united states and now president obama is through 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 american people too and that's the only way this is going to get happen by electing getting new faces inside of washington that will change the paradigms and get our forces back home all right well hopefully the people well won't 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 but we're covering of course that was a deliberate of we think afghanistan and our team. a lot of our guests calling out for the people to get on the streets that does it for now unfortunately for more on these stories and other stories that we've covered today please go to our team dot com slash usa and of course check out our you tube page at you tube dot com slash r t america and also feel free to follow me on twitter it's absolutely kept up with the write back in half an hour an hour and how. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who made the decision to break through get through to me who can you trust no one who believes you.