on the good. video on demand cheese mine old girls and streets in the palm of your. job call. there it's time for a look at the headlines now here ality europe follows the u.s. instructing sanctions on syria's top officials including a travel ban and assets for its official reasons a crackdown on anti-government protesters and some analysts believe the west is often regime change in control of the region. and european union is to vote on whether it wants a center and u.n. security council while giving the bloc more control of world security issues some member states think the move will also threaten their independence. also georgians

have to turn to the international human rights call to get justice for murder committed by high ranking officials exposing an inherent flaw or the country's much trumpeted legal system. the next artie's crosstalk examines how the us policy in afghanistan will be transformed over the death of some of the. it. was. a little welcome to cross talk time peter lavelle with the killing of osama bin laden u.s. president barack obama has an historic opportunity in afghanistan will he use it and what is the downside if he doesn't. keep.

crosstime u.s. strategy in afghanistan i'm joined by bradley blakeman in washington he's a former member of george w. bush's senior staff and currently a professor at georgetown university and in islam about because the shop i view is a risk and security analyst all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's take a look at some of the issues and opportunities facing president barack obama when it comes to afghanistan. more than a week following the killing of al qaeda leader osama bin laden the question that is gathering steam is whether the u.s. will now change its war on terror strategy a decade of chasing the specter of bin laden has marred the u.s. in a war against an enemy that is state less and it seems ubiquitous without gracious and afghanistan iraq pakistan and yemen the cost of the war on terror and mounts to a staggering three trillion dollars the death toll is the call to estimates but

hundreds of thousands of afghans iraqis and pakistani civilians are believed to have lost their lives and most of all we're making progress in our major goal or central goal. that is disrupting that despairingly we are going to ultimately defeat ok but this begs the question since they vowed goal of invading afghanistan to find bin laden is now complex what is to be done about al qaeda which though many argue is no longer relevant as franchise to sell out across the region last week it issued a response to bin ladin skilling say his quote blood will be a curse that will chase the americans and their agents a curse that will pursue them inside and outside their country despite all this the bomber seems to be sticking to his guns promising to move forward with a plan to withdraw from afghanistan. the white house too has reaffirmed obama's stance saying the drawdown is on but the operation against al qaeda will now be

relegated to the afghan army the focus of that operation of the u.s. personnel in afghanistan is on al qaeda the operation continues the july two thousand and eleven transition date for the beginning of a drawdown remains. very much in place the pace of that drawdown will be determined by conditions on the ground but it is still very unlikely that the west will leave the region tiredly especially given the much glossed over suspicion of pakistan's knowledge of bin laden's presence in the country i'm not long ago general david petraeus himself cast a shadow over the prospect of withdrawing from afghanistan while the security progress achieved over the past year is significant it is also fragile and reversible nevertheless what bin laden's death could surely do is help pave an easier way to negotiations and then out of afghanistan a way that would allow the u.s.

to walk away as a victor as even iran hails the success of its operation against bin laden say now it has no excuse to stay in the region russia china for across party. alright i fiddle with our guest in islamabad first bomb is that the united states after ten years could get osama bin laden kill him without anyone knowing about it in pakistan least that's the official line how will that change the facts on the ground in afghanistan because the effectiveness of al qaeda is still relatively unknown but we know that the insurgency is quite strong one how is one affecting the other. well actually because a lot of them would we won't discuss the. alleged clue from we've been killed exclusively with us let's tick over the top the the ground situation of go to town is going to be no different there is an ongoing insurgency and the insurgency if you understand it correctly if that is what should be called

a one freedom struggle from occupation by foreign forces is struggled a bit wild in the eighty's of when the soviets were occupying them it's a lot of there are now involved in against the american occupation force so that struggle is an ongoing one and it's not going to end the american unfortunately the way they have conducted their operations and quite a thought have alienated themselves when they came in in two thousand and one is the head conducted themselves as if they were saviors of the overrun people would have welcomed them would have volunteered to but they didn't and today the situation on the ground is that they're fed up with the americans they want to go out so that's not going to change now your second part of your question which relates to al qaeda the al qaeda presence in afghanistan has reduced to a bare minimum there are perhaps about ten or twelve people there they're

still hiding out in the caves of tora bora the last that i ever heard of anything happening with al qaeda with when we call it out to the opposition and with leaders start to talk with you will start. in two thousand and eight. and. most who called nine folly a bigger problem are the muscles pulled out and when the muscle pulled out they had to go to the caves of tora bora to get peer. tended to the outside of people and they were only about people they were due for that since as your commentator mentioned the relevance of the given circumstances and the fact very very questionable ok ok but it would i don't have a bradley about that i mean after we did what we just heard here i mean right now and it was the death of. bin laden that's just a really good excuse and having nothing to do with really facts on the ground for obama to say to start pulling back from afghanistan he found

a peg to hang his story on his his narrative because from what we just heard what happened last week outside of islamabad has really nothing to do with the war going on in afghanistan. it may or may not i think it's time for the president to be cautious you've heard his advisor his military advisors well his political advisors say that we're on track to withdraw however conditions on the ground will really determine ultimately what american policy will be so i think we have to work very closely with the afghan government their military the pakistan government and their military in order to come up with a regional strategy by which america can withdraw but after the killing of osama bin laden now if ever is the time to be cautious and see what comes of his death who's going to take his place if anyone what kind of attacks will be made in retaliation so america must act patiently and cautiously and the president is right

to keep on his timetable with the out that if things on the ground changed their policy will change ok riley back in stay with you what does it mean to you to draw back in afghanistan because a lot of people say complete withdrawal is the only option for the americans right now absolute complete withdrawal not you know to take fifty thousand troops home and keep the other fifty there for another five years or something like that and heaping bases there and backing up karzai i mean where do you fall and how far the poll out should be i think it all depends on what our military and political and state department people evaluation in concert with the local officials government officials up in atlanta stand i think that's in their best interest and we have to evaluate what's in our best interest in our allies as long as al qaeda is operating in that region as long as the taliban is operating in that region i think the united states has an interest in preventing for the future harm to america and our

friends and allies ok i've got to back to you buy into that. you know i'm afraid i don't my you perception is that from the for a long time well us foreign policy at least as far as it relates to this part of the world is dictated not by the white house or made on capitol hill it in fact made in the pentagon and langley and by. once again posting. offering that cia job who are ex military officers they would prefer is who fight recall correctly in two thousand and seven when he testified before congress about a surge of the surge in iraq had he got it approved from congress and the congress later learned that he told lies. he was called little little couple who nobody could with the slogan not betray us betray us. so you got to know

us not to save us money so that is bred for our friendly pride the jive jumpin war this is true this is prostitution a good league radley zero forty truth bradley go ahead and manufactured propaganda general petraeus is actually a revered on both sides of the aisle republicans and democrats and if anybody thought that he was telling the congress an untruth he certainly would have been brought before the congress and public and brought down a bad it general petraeus a strategy in iraq and a good play is already gee if somebody if somebody were to put out before p.d. ad in the newspaper the us which read this and you know what i was curious and either it was it was it was a it was a democratic it was a tenor craddick operative group called move on dot org and you know what i know about it is because i put it in the paper denouncing it in the new york times so

don't say that it was the guy who united states who portrayed portray us as a liar oh it will be general rats who try to demonize him and were proved wrong so get your facts right not just not you not not just the democrat congress all true it was my duty to elizabeth you write it rather let him speak let them split speak to him let him speak i had. in the congress also the slogan were raised whether you would like to accept that what you told them. that everything today is followed on the internet you have to turn around this and you can there lies you believe everything that's on the internet ok so i really i could yeah i believe i do something only in event i mean i i don't really want to go outside either one of us had to go to pull out level. we're not going to pull over well we're not making allegations by the way i mean people again and it's totally baseless and then back it up by the internet it shows how and how ignorant you are to the facts i know the

facts as i was also elsewhere into the you know how i have job i. mean i'm pakistani i'm ignorant you're an american boy you don't know what you're talking about no but i have well i have no i do on this issue i do your show right gentlemen let me jump in here and jump in here after a short break we'll continue our discussion on afghanistan post we'd like to stay with r.t. . yes my name is daniel schmidt this is julian assange we're here to make a short presentation about the we can fix project. the first step in the for the day is to get information out about the real world. to hear.

yeah i'm here. because there's a because we're going to be able to offer to you. if i have ever put in the sauce this is in danger here what hunted me down and kill. this is exactly one of the reasons why we left the culture because it has become a war of all this all james bond. then all the actual information. but thank you. so all the people around the wold. pay me. hungry for the full slate we've got paid for. the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers.

to keep still. and. welcome back to cross talk i'm here a little to remind you we're talking about obama and his new afghan strategy. to kick. start. ok bradley and i to go back to you in washington. what about just direct negotiations between the united states and the taliban on terms and conditions for the the drawdown and leaving afghanistan and i suppose the cabby out there is that they're not they don't want any more troops staying in afghanistan. complete evacuation is there and over time ok is that possible is that a scenario that can then can be brought out because the american people are tired of the war it's extremely expensive and goodness knows the people in afghanistan

have had enough war to well i think the mirror americans are worthy of work but we're not weary of being attacked and we're not weary of defending our country so i think we have to work with the karzai government and they are the elected government of afghanistan and figure out what is in their best interest what is in our best interest but one thing is for sure that we've seen out of the can and the killing of osama bin laden is both the afghan government and the pakistani government played both sides of the fence and the united states must get tough with both of these governments you know they're going to be with us or against us and if they're if they're going to be against us then i think we need to get out of the region and do we have to do to protect ourselves just like we did in going into pakistan without their knowledge and taking care of business so i think it's a time now for our governments to get tough with the afghan and pakistani government and actually find out where they stand with regard to american presence in their countries ok it's cool about the islamic god here we used to be here the

term asked pak meaning america thinks its convicts its problem in afghanistan and it has to do with pakistan after this unilateral act and people would say the be a violation of pakistani sovereignty how can that happen because pakistan really does play a key role here in resolving if it is resolvable the issues in afghanistan at least for the americans. you know what we just heard from. the washington post which was tough and for us old would have been to get food because it's the sole superpower that thinks it can get away with it i think it's five o'clock on an account and also to look at options i think perhaps. the only people if that is to be a solution because we have want to talk properly and i think that's already underway that is to be a good money an issue which began last year at the end of your disability of which

you dip out of the back from the pocket then you keefe army chief and if that addition to his work had been to do a centrally planned solution with exclude both crocker thought and the us but of course for any negotiation with the world of problems and taliban there has to be some facilitation done by progress support i would perhaps have that group of police facility no more i think that would have perhaps begin to be what we would be looking at the us could start going to get off of that like we poor fellows you know we've got weak guys of swisscom from the white old both the cowboy they want to come down probably whatever they want to do you know i really feel bad are really just bad for pakistan right right right if with corruption and rife with harboring america's most wanted in the world's most wanted terrorist how is it possible that pakistan did not know or was complicit in hiding this guy either way

either answer is totally unacceptable and you can't tell me that pakistan did not know or was totally incompetent and in a military town crawling with retired and current military of your largest bases they are tight and this guy has been living there a lot of resource years i thought we were going to move on to talk about of lot of thought and so i let you be and i thought we had no one helped. because then i just because that is a pakistan if you go without a back people you can't do one without the other all right all right i have is whether you want to go back to parker. let's talk about pockets or whether this operational credit odoi forces by themselves or by the would be assistance of the i.s.i. has apparently quite recall correctly president obama in his speech what do you addressed the public and made known as fact knowledge that without the assistance of the pocket of intelligence services this operation would want to be possible

what is more than likely he said you said the other day on sixty minutes that that pakistan had to be complicit in hiding him after the fact they might have helped us but are you going gentlemen i doubt i'd like to stay with you i'd like to stay where you just can't stand gentlemen i'd like to stay with afghanistan but really i'd like you i think that's most readily. bradley i to ask you you know we've been this is ten years going on the united states has been in afghanistan for ten years and its coalition of the willing to do is dwindling all the time but it looks to me you know the insurgency is just it can afford to wait it out ok i mean the united states is i mean i was reading an interesting article coming from a military source u.s. military source just today is it is such a psychological fatigue of the military after ten years these were these people didn't expect to be there for a decade ok and take that's taking its toll as well i mean my point is is that if you don't make a pretty negotiated deal pretty soon on terms that are appealing to the people on

the ground it doesn't matter the united states will just be bled dry over just a year after year tens of billions of dollars i agree there are now. there is fatigue and there's a question as to what the end game is sooner or later the pakistanis and the afghanis have got to stand up on their own it's their country but i having said that i think after the death of osama bin laden we have to be more cautious than ever i think the president is smart to stick to his timeline publicly but with the caviar that we're going to evaluate the situations on the ground which will determine our ultimate policy i think that's the only rational policy this is ministration are going to stray ssion and our military can take at this time but it's certainly it's up to the afghan people themselves to determine their ultimate destiny and if they want our help and it's reasonable we should give it ok and i go back to islam and i mean and looking at these two countries i mean is karzai

a partner that they can be dealt with other than with the americans i mean is he a legitimate force within afghanistan to make negotiations happen with the insurgency and to deal directly with pakistan if he's strong and if we get him in and i regretfully regretfully not you know i think if we go we go back a little bit of trouble because i can recall. the. president. collusions who called the world who would do the elections and that bad period of time between the us and the world at the moment well of course he was pulled back let it be but they had lost his whatever credibility he had a call it's not. good for a number reason we don't need to go back is to treat all that but he lost credibility with people all across trip my own gut feeling is if if the us packed up to go because they would be a lot of the excess baggage to be live but they would have to be as i said before i

don't know who arms who should go from islam and it's not going to be a taliban solution i can assure you that i think whatever that i think that is the relation of honest on as well as in pockets but we want we want a peaceful look on a stock market we want to. people. and it can only come about if you get together and collect two solution which could make it work it would not be a car those who it will perhaps be something else it will perhaps be a national government or some sort something that would make it work because the longer the one who started on stable we're unstable the longer we are unstable of honest ongoing people who grew up waterways and their fortitude our interest in something something meaningful begins to work but it will gradually what do you think about that i mean we didn't hear the u.s. in that in that i mean i mean what role i mean if you read the afghans and the pakistanis they deal with the problem themselves because a lot of people say and looking at the insurgency on a number of people and these are legitimate polls that have been taken but the

bottom line is is what's called occupation of afghanistan now that's just it can the united states afford to completely withdraw from the country because that's the single most important demand that many members of the insurgency have. it remains to be seen i think as time goes by in a very short period of time because we're up against july when we start to make major withdrawals let's see what happens but i agree that it's obviously up to the pakistani government and the afghan government to solve their own problems both individually and collectively as they share a border so if if i the best possible scenario for me would be the administration actively engaged with the afghan government of pakistan government and other credible allies to help them stand up on their own i think that's a great solution whether it's possible or not remains to be seen but let's be

hopeful and cautious and not let not just act out of a knee jerk reaction and a date certain means that we have to withdraw regardless of what conditions are but you know if i go back to islam of a little boy look ok let's also don't let's all sort of threaten each other let's sort of course let's be hopeful and let's not just you tripping each other let's not be pulling out guns to say i can do this you know on the big bad. yes you had a question you know i know what i'm very interested in looking at here is that i want to stay with islam and it's just colic from a pakistani point of view is this just politicking is this obama looking for reelection ok he's got national security credentials now that no one can really question ok and you know he looks like a powerful guy and americans like that when they go to the polls you know how much of this in your mind and in the timing of it all of this is politicking and really it doesn't matter about the people on the ground ok it's about how americans feel

about themselves go ahead. well the the truth of the battle is everything everywhere is about politics when it comes to politics and nothing politics so it's. the action of the raid. in the first when people didn't really fall all over that on someone obama gained about ten points. seventeen points so yes his game and if you let me jump in here bradley we're almost out of time bradley i want to give you the last thirty seconds of the program is it all about politics it's all about the election two thousand and twelve go ahead a look at the era lection is going to come down to the economy we are light years away from. the election in political terms so when people go into the voting booth are asking one question are we better off today than we are four years ago the answer today is no regardless of this national security credentials it's

all about the economy all right gentlemen thanks to my guest today in washington and in islamabad and thanks to our viewers for watching us here are to see you next time and remember crosstalk rules.

in taiwan multis available in the landis typee hotel miramar gulden typee the how it falls a hotel tonight be sure sometimes the hotel hotel one shall his the groom photo the show which has shown some wolfenstein typee hotel kuvasz photo photo from the hotel the resort evergreen the hotel typee grand victoria hotel and glory of prince who town hall springs resort and spa tycoon hotel while she plans on bus in the town you know just her town the west in taipei evergreen close a hotel in thailand thailand just hotel time.