and it's really just kind of reconfirming that it's ok for these corporations to come in and put their profit about well in the environment and community that they're operating in a lesson that holds true today as so many years after that disaster and that is going to do it for the new thank you so much for tuning in. culture is the same of sharks and television is one of the models are the taliban bad guys with the killing of osama bin laden u.s. president barack obama has an historic opportunity on afghanistan will he use it and what is the downside. if. any is believed to be. in the.

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bring you the latest in science and technology from around the world. we dump the future of coverage. well see british scientists. sometimes. markets trying to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cars are there are no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our t.v. . kick. start. a low hanging welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle with the killing of osama bin laden u.s. president barack obama has an historic opportunity on afghanistan will he use it

and what is the downside if he doesn't. take it. to cross the 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 an islamic law because the shock idea 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 or leader of some of bin laden the question that is gathering steam is going to the u.s. will now change its war on terror strategy a decade of chasing the specter of a modern has marred the u.s. in a war against an enemy that is stateless and it seems ubiquitous with operations in

afghanistan iraq pakistan and yemen the cost of the war on terror amounts to a staggering three trillion dollars the death toll is difficult to estimate 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 in pakistan. and afghanistan and that is disrupting and dismantling and we are going to ultimately defeat. but this base the question since the valid goal of invading afghanistan to find bin laden is now comp list what is to be done about al qaeda which though many argue is no longer relevant as french as the sell out across the region last week it issued a response to bin ladin skilling saying his quote blood will be a curse that will chase the americans and their agents a curse that would pursue them inside and outside their country the spiral of this

obama 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 they 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 an al qaeda operation continues the july two thousand and eleven transition date for the beginning of a drawdown remains. very much in place the pace of the drawdown will be determined by conditions on the ground but it is still very honestly. believe that we can retire early 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 must chardonnay for across the uk are. all right not to go into our guest in islamabad first obama is shown 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 what how is one affecting the other. well actually. we won't discuss what was almost a legit clue will if we had been killed the truth and you know us the pickle going

to talk the guns are jewish you don't know we got a ton is going to be no different there is an ongoing insurgency and the insurgency if you understand it correctly it is what should be called a quad freedom struggle from occupation by foreign forces if struggle today woodward in the eighty's when we were occupying them is true that they are now involved it against the american occupation forces so that struggle is an ongoing one and it's not going to end the american unfortunately the way they have conducted their operational conduct on have alienated themselves when they came in in two thousand and one is they had conducted themselves as if they were saviors are focused on we have our own people would welcome them with a garland to them but they didn't and today the situation on the ground is that they're fed up with the americans and want them out so that's not going to change

now your second part of your question which relates to al qaeda the al qaeda presence and of grandson has reduced to a bare minimum there are perhaps about ten or twelve people the little hiding out in the caves of tora bora the last that i ever heard of anything happening with either with when we carried out the operation it would lead to start the told with you will be destroyed. in two thousand and eight. and. look who called nine probably a bigger problem and the most would point out that when the most pulled out they had to go to the caves of tora bora to get there. by the people and there were only about twenty odd people at that time they were due for the sims as your commentator mentioned the relevance of the given circumstances and the fact very very questionable ok ok if you would i would have rather

a bradley about that i mean after we did what we just heard here i mean right now it with the death of. bin laden that's just a really good excuse and having nothing to do with the facts on the ground for obama to say to start pulling back from afghanistan he found a paid 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 a time for the president to be cautious you heard his advisor his military advisers well his political advisers say that we're on track to withdraw however conditions on the ground well that will 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

a 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 change then our policy will change ok if i can 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 keeping the other fifty there for another five years or something like that and keeping bases there and backing up karzai i mean where do you fall and how far the pullout 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 i think again it's and think it's in their best interest and we have to evaluate what's in our best interest and 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 go back to islam and i do buy into that. no i'm afraid i don't my in perception is that for a long time now u.s. foreign policy at least as it relates to this part of the world is dictated not by the white house or made on capitol hill he did in fact made in the pentagon and langley and by. once again posting. offering that cia job who are ex military officers they were contrary as who fight recall correctly in two thousand and seven when he testified before congress about a say he was in it out and he got approval from congress and the congress later

learned that he told lies. he was colored with the him come from a little bit with the slogan you know patris but really. so you got to know us not to say personally so that is right for our friendly friday job better than war this is true this is prostitution they. leave bradley to zero forty truth bradley go ahead and manufactured propaganda general petraeus is actually a revered on both sides of the republicans or democrats and if anybody thought that he was telling the congress and untruths he certainly would have been brought before the congress and public and brought down about it general petraeus a strategy in iraq and good for you strategy if somebody had somebody. put up before ad in the newspaper the us which read the sam you know what i was

curious and he was it was it was a it was a democratic it was a ten a credit 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 government is we who united states who portrayed portray us as a liar know it will democrats who tried to demonize him and were proved wrong so here to facts right not just not you not not just a democrat congress pulsatile it was my usual the leaders of the right rather let him speak let them split i'm speaking here let him speak i had. him in the congress also this will get a little raised whether you like to accept that or you don't on the air but everything today is probably into a map you have got there around this and you can there lies you believe everything that on the internet ok so i really i could yeah i believe i believe something on the internet i mean i i don't really want to go outside either one of us had to go

to pull out the level. you know to go to plough well we need to make an allegation by that would enable occasion it's totally files and then back it up by the internet it shows how at how ignorant you are to the facts i know the facts because i was in tamil you know how child diaries is taught me i'm proud to study i'm ignorant you are an american boy you don't know what you're talking about know what but i have to 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-paid right stay with r.t. . to. start .

cluster mission. inside the container you have a small bomb and you can have anywhere from dozens up to hundreds of there's a huge market right now for battle area clearance because there are a lot of countries in the world that are contaminated by unexploded ordinance. and so you've got these companies and n.g.o.s that have basically sprung up that have an expertise to get rid of. what they do is to go to these places they will hire local train the locals how to do the clearance let the locals basically take ownership because you know they have a vested interest in clearing their homes and they're putting themselves at risk every single day when they go out there to clear areas of. a.

minute. and. a time arriving here broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture. and. welcome back to you all about true mind you we're talking about obama and his new afghan strategy. ok.

ok bradley i'd like 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 drawdown in leaving afghanistan and i suppose the caviar there is that they're not they don't want any more troops staying in afghanistan to complete evacuation is there and over time ok is that possible is that a scenario that can do it 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 one thing is for sure that we've seen out of the cab of the

killing of osama bin ladin is both the afghan government and the pakistani government play both sides of the fence and the united states must get tough with both of these governments either 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 what 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 the pakistani government and actually find out where they stand with regard to american presence in their countries ok let's go back to islam about here we we still we hear the term after meaning america thinks it's convicts it's a 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 get tough and tell us old we could get tough. because it's the sole superpower that thinks it can get away with it i think it's time for politics on and of on its own also to look at their options even perhaps. the only people if there is to be a solution who have a lot of thought and problem and i think that old idiot to be that is to be good money in addition to which began last year he had to go if you disobey. which part of the back from the park on you key for me chief and if that addition to his work because if you do essentially the constitution was excluded both blogger thought and the u.s. but of course for any negotiation with the world of columns and other bottom there has to be some facilitation. so it would perhaps have that group of cli facility.

no more i think that would have perhaps begin to be what we would be looking at us could start getting it off of that like we poor fellows you know we did weekdays of significant problem while ago both they will call boyhood going poorly whatever they want to do you know i really you know ads are really jumpin for pakistan right rice 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 in in a military town crawling with retired and current military and your largest base is nearby and this guy has been living there good resource here is i thought we will go to bill want to talk about of lot of stalin and so i let you be and i thought

we'd move on to help. because then just pakistan is a pakistan if you go back you can't do one without the other all right you are going to have is not all right you want to go back to parker thought. let's talk about pockets of whether this operation was carried out by u.s. forces by themselves or with the assistance of the i.s.i. has apparently quite of all correctly president obama in his speech when he addressed the public have made known distract knowledged that without the assistance of the local club intelligence services this operation would go to be possible what is more than likely all he said he 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 i don't have a great gentleman to get and i doubt i'd like to stay with you i'd like to state of the stand gentlemen i'd like to stay with afghanistan but really i think that's

always rattling i'd. like to ask you what 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 that is dwindling all the time but it looks to me you know the insurgency should 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 that there's such a psychological fifty of the military after ten years these were these people didn't expect to be there for a decade ok and sake that's taking its toll as well i mean my point is is that we don't make a pretty negotiated deal pretty soon on terms that are appealing to the people on the ground it doesn't matter that 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 having said that i think after the death of osama bin laden we have to be more cautious than ever and i think the president is smart to stick to his timeline publicly but with the kaviak 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 an administration 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 to 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 the strong and if we get him in an hour regretfully regretfully not lou i think if we go we go back a little bit of tell you when i think i can recall. the. two most good prudent.

coalitions. closely about having rigged elections and the bad period of time between us and water thought well that of course the us pulled back let it be what they had lost his whatever credibility he had of color thought. for a number reason we don't need to go back to street race hold it but he lost to credibility with people over trust my own gut feeling is if if the us back up to go because they will be a lot of the excess baggage. but they would have to be as i said before i know who are the solution go for the top and it's not going to be a taleban solution i can assure you that i think whatever the i think that is the relation of one is gone as well and parked up but we want we want to peace will come it's not pocket money we want. but then it can only call vote if you want to get together and make a collective solution which could make it work it would not be

a car those who it would perhaps be something else it'll be a natural development of some sort something that would make it work because the longer the one who started on stable we're on a stable the longer we are unstable of honest i love people who cut both ways and therefore it's in our interest that something something meaningful begins to work. but it broke a bradley what do you think about that i mean we didn't hear the u.s. in that in that i mean i mean what brought i mean if you read the afghans and the pakistanis they deal with the problem themselves because a lot of people say looking at the insurgency on a number of people and these are legitimate polls that have been taken that 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 the 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 the act of a knee jerk reaction that 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 closer look ahead let's also don't let's all sort of threaten each other let's sort of course has to be hopeful and let's not just keep slipping into that

list of people who go to guns ok i can do this to you you know on the big. yes you had a question you know i love what i'm very interested in looking at here is that i want to stay with islam which is just policy 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 matter is everything everywhere around the world is about politics when it comes to politics nothing is not politicking so it's the timing will right the actual raid. in the first if you couldn't really fall all over the don't want obama gained about

ten points a day later he had jumped seventeen points so yes he's gained and if he let me jump in here really we were almost out of time bradley i want to give you the last thirty seconds of the program is it all about how taking 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 polling booth or ask themselves 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 r.t. see you next time and remember cross talk rules. and. stood.

close to the issue. and inside the container you have the natives. and you can have anywhere from dozens up to hundreds of there's a huge market right now for cattle area clearance because there are a lot of countries in the world that are contaminated by unexploded ordinance. and so you've got these companies and n.g.o.s that have basically sprung up that have an expertise to get rid of these weapons. once he was they go to these places they will. train the locals how to do the clearance will let the locals basically take ownership because you know they have a vested interest in clearing their homes and they're putting themselves at risk every single day i think the out there to clear areas of.