with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is the weekly on r.t. it was a tragedy that claimed the lives of thousands in an instant and later brought to wars with an even more devastating death toll united states is marking a decade since the nine eleven attacks terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the twin towers of the world trade center in new york and the pentagon in washington the fourth plane came down in the state of pennsylvania remember being held at ground zero in new york and all across america it was the worst strike on u.s. soil in history and united nation and its determination to seek out the perpetrators and prevent more deaths but the american that invasion of afghanistan that followed nine eleven has claimed thousands more lives in what's now the longest conflict in u.s. history as artie's going to reports the killing how do you stop their lives there. it started as a war on terror spawned by the deadliest terrorist attack in history you know

whether she with the enemy that's clear but the circle of america's enemies grew quickly and included nations that had nothing to do with nine eleven they were defined by george bush as the axis of evil some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since september eleventh. but we know their true nature. north korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction. while starving its citizens. iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror while an unelected few repress the iranian people's hope for freedom. iraq untinged dishonest hostility toward america and to support terror two years after nine eleven the us invaded iraq on the grounds that he had weapons of mass destruction and was doing business with al qaida grounds which proved to be false hundreds of thousands of iraqi civilians have died since the invasion they used the moment in in the wake of nine eleven to divert from afghanistan our real target should have

been our real target and go to iraq it also was the low hanging fruit north korea was far more dangerous but too difficult one hundred thousand casualties were predicted by the political on both sides so would be destroyed iran was too difficult seventy million people not fractured like the iraqis and the sunni and shia and christian and other as for the motives behind invading iraq some talk or oil iraq right now is sitting on probably two hundred billion barrels maybe three hundred billion barrels that's correct zone or report mohi plans to be a thirteen million barrels per day production capacity in seven years that surpasses saudi arabia now you know why dick cheney went to war in iraq others blame america's self assigned role as the world's policeman the driving idea behind it is that it had to monex debility the idea is that the but world is going to be more secure place overall if there is a a unocal or world

a sole remaining superpower much of what has happened post nine eleven in the name of responding to nine eleven has been a pretext as terrorism was no longer the only reason for landing on washington's enemy list the us had even more far reaching plans on the table former vice president dick cheney says he urged the bush administration to bomb syria at. one time because of its alleged nuclear weapons program a move which experts say would have had disastrous effects on the region president obama was elected on hopes that he would and the endless wars overseas which most americans are opposed to but he continues and adds one more another oil rich nation libya and this time in the name of removing an evil dictator some worry syria could be next we have a an executive power that is beyond any check by the people by the congress or by

the courts for war we can go toward the drop of a coin we've reached the point now where the president of the united states can kill people for state purposes any time he or she feels the need since nine eleven america's war on terror has crossed many borders from pakistan to yemen and other countries that chase for a handful of terrorists has turned the lives of entire nations upside down we're talking about hundreds of thousands of innocent lives taken by the decade of constant war and many worry that a tragedy as great as nine eleven has served as a pretext for an even greater tragedy one that has no end in sight i'm going to check our reporting from washington r t. the u.s. war on terror is back fatah muslims across the globe leading to a rise of islamophobia political scientist and former u.s. national security adviser zbigniew brzezinski thinks that washington made a mistake in mixing politics with religion. response should not

generalize this. particular religious phenomenon but it's a political issue in which our objective ought to be to isolate the terrorists from their political cultural national context and required avoiding stigmatizing the phenomenon as a generalized islamic phenomenon but view it as an aberration. against which we can mobilize most of the support of their epic. i think we didn't do that we also enlarge the theater of war from the gander stand to iraq and as a consequence we have become embroiled in much larger regional political conflict not some sort of the religious crusade. a suicide bombing in afghanistan is wounded more than seventy american soldiers and killed two civilians it's being seen as the taliban's way of marking a decade since nine eleven the movement issued

a statement after sunday's attack denying it had anything to do with events in the u.s. ten years ago. nearly ten years after the u.s. led coalition invaded afghanistan it doesn't seem any closer to winning the war there with the taliban still relentless the conflicts estimated to cost over ten thousand afghan civilians their lives as they're often caught in the crossfire and as u.s. combat troops begin their gradual withdrawal from the country most locals don't even know why foreign forces came in the first place. helmand in southern afghanistan is the province that has borne the brunt of the fighting between the taliban and coalition forces what would afghans in this war torn province think about nine eleven and its consequences. while on patrol with the marines i get a first opportunity to ask a couple of young afghan men what they know about nine eleven but. can you show them a few more and can us do they know where it is even. we don't know so that's

because because we were former we never heard about the need to gossip or the world big time or stop coming through. the two young men that clearly never heard of nine eleven. but maybe the elders of the local sure would have more to say yeah no i didn't see it in. this ng i just can see the smoke from the buildings and that's a house only thing i can say when you guys show this picture then guys saying it so i think that was a call what if i just got here i would been surprised but having been here now for six months this is premised stone ages where we are and what to do about the reactions i thought best me so that what the guy who said it was kabul was clearly never going to kabul and it just shows you how isolated they are even in their own country beat them on them without understand a. thing i would have done that i don't know about you but don't think you know we're going to america afghanistan come to this point and then get the airplane from here to attack in the united states but you know how much power that. go to

those nice to go from iraq to then here is a lot easier to understand you know why you're here and what a dream so yeah definitely going to good picture of mine yourself is what you're there to see after looking at it in this context while wearing the uniform of carrying a rifle. to your back that was a prisoner for the top what was i going to make and saying we're going to help you to decide one building and did a survey asked how many funding and this is we going to help you where is the help but not the pecan work your way down with the missing to give it to our kids again and to fighting and they do it to their own kids in a paper that i don't indeed and. i do sympathize or understand what your some are saying it's even just from the weather we had recently people losing their homes and nobody to help them so you know when you have when you can feed yourself or early house yourself how are you going to care about somebody you know six thousand miles away. so i can understand that i just set it up i thought that if i never thought to ask those questions of if anybody here that's why we're here amazingly in a can. we were for ten years

a war has been fought with nine eleven as its root cause and justification it turns out not only were the villagers oblivious to nine eleven but so were the afghan police and even some of the translators working with the u.s. military and you don't know that is for you to. see in these pictures before. a survey taken in twenty ten by the international council on security and development found that ninety two percent of afghan men in helmand and other afghan provinces had no idea what nine eleven was with american troops start withdrawing this year it seems likely that they will leave afghanistan without the vast majority of afghans ever having really understood why they came in the first place from afghanistan for. more on the legacy of the nine eleven terror attacks live to the u.s. and talk to historian and professor stanley kutler thank you very much indeed professor for being with us here on our team now you said in a recent article i've got it here in front of me off the huffington post that the

tragic events ten years ago have nothing to do with the wars in afghanistan and iraq could you explain what you mean by that. not quite not quite. i did say that it was understandable that what up power is attacked it will retaliate and it was clear to us and from terms of all the evidence that to tell it that the taliban had been harboring al qaeda. so it is understandable still argue whether it was wise to go into afghanistan to rid the country of the taliban and try to draw and let another government take its place but you know we did get rid of the taliban in a couple of blocks and now ten years later we're still there that's what i question iraq there is no correlation none between nine eleven and going to

war with iraq going to war with iraq was the cause of a certain element power for america or a. policy clearly the president of the defense secretary the vice president or urged dog out war. oh it is our current president who called it a dumb war he of course now as continued if not widen the war in afghanistan. and there is something to be learned from history. we have before us the example of your country in afghanistan we have before us the example with afghanistan and if we can go back a little further in time we can always turn and look at the outset of the great and his the bako in afghanistan and i just ask you then that fall what something like of a six thousand two hundred americans have already died fighting in iraq and afghanistan

would you say they've died in vain or perhaps could we see this as a poff to potential democracy in those countries in the future well. diety bait is kind of tricky turban i would i prefer to avoid it i mean i i think that. the. nine years of casualties after initial invasion of afghanistan. could have been avoided you know what we have here. russia is a superpower the united states is a super power. what superpowers have. to do with this day and age is to manage a little war with limited object instead of the populace the nation is. turned into a full scale war. ad people do not or cannot or will not understand the

idea of limited object no we have to have betrayed now what exactly did korea's i don't know but you know i don't have to talk about examples before so. britain. is great all we have do is look at our own experiences. for years we had other government telling us some of domino theory that if we did stop by the communists. the d.m.z. and vietnam they were going to roll. to the philippines across the pacific to y. e and who knows we poor before long they'd be on the shores of california well that proved to be absolute nonsense or absolute can i just quickly also give them we have got a great deal of time it is. now to talk about libya is it not because have lessons been learnt from the likes of afghanistan and iraq where some would say there's been a nato victory there where the goals of regime change been achieved with the help

of foreign intervention but will we actually see future stability there in libya or will we see a similar situation to what we see now in iraq in afghanistan. week we responded in a limited way to libya limited to. air strikes and it stayed that way has resulted in the toppling it appears of the gadhafi regime where should we go be outmatched you gauge they should build a well those experiments certainly don't work very well we have limited success to such lengths and more than that we are to day and age of that mission resources and it's a question of whether the united states could continue with lord so i should benchers really interesting it in your perspective on this thank you very much indeed sadly that's all we've got time for historian professor stanley kutler joining us live there in the u.s. really good to talk to you thank you thank you. a terrorist attack

that became synonymous with. the senseless slaughter of. people stop the. vision of. ten years on t.v. . to. look back at nine eleven see. this week russia sporting world was rocked to its core when one of its best hockey teams was all but wiped out in the blink of an eye they died on wednesday when look what if the us levels plane crashed on takeoff on saturday thousands gathered at the team's stadium to say final goodbyes to the victims and r.t. sean thomas witnessed a city in mourning. waves of emotion poor through jaroslav as residents realize the full weight of the tragedy that country ordered the lives of some of the city's brightest stars but ended up with an fans of this team for many years our whole family including

a little child that went to all their games crosses their operable loss it's like losing a family member. i knew one of the players he was my neighbor and he was a great person he's got two little kids left how could this happen when we saw the news on t.v. i just burst into tears. at just after four in the afternoon on wednesday the charter plane carrying almost the entire jaroslava locomotive cage no hockey team crashed shortly after takeoff bursting into a ball of flame after clipping a runway antenna forty three of the forty five on board perished soon look at mostly so it's just we heard the plane takeoff so we told our granddaughter look there's going to be an airplane then i heard a bang and my daughter told me mom it's falling down to the side but then came the flames and the smoke and we wanted to run away but we didn't know where to run and then we went to the river and saw the plane which was in the wake of the train. putin ordered an immediate and thorough investigation as president medvedev led

a country in mourning visiting the crash site and paying his respects. meanwhile fans of the three time championship winning jaroslava lokomotiv team made their voices heard in a show of solidarity and support. as you can see from the flowers and candles and left here at the stadium the loss of. was a huge blow to this community but international nature of this team it was a larger loss of for russia and the rest of the world as well. my friends with. the guys a couple years ago because it's just want to give my condolences to. all that stuff but the ceremonies to honor the players were held in minsk in bratislava with somber reflections from those who knew the players well. as the title demitra told me he actually wants to quit hockey that he wants to play a little bit more and then leave and spend time with his family so this last

conversation came back to my head when i heard about the crash and i want to only him at least by lighting this candle not only him but everybody who died i would like to express my condolences to his family to his children and wife. saturday marked the end of an official three day mourning period as thousands poured into the stadium to view fourteen coffins on display and say their final goodbyes we should have posted it we have buried our friends people who brought us joy and played for our country this is an irreplaceable loss for the people of years and. years level sean thomas r.t. . well still to come this hour a threat to national unity have a look at what drives some parts of the united kingdom and their desire to get away from london's rule. but first twenty seven people reported have been killed by syrian security forces backed by troops in several towns across the country this

comes as the arab league announced it's reached an agreement on a president bashar assad promised before the plan outlines proposals to bring an end to the bloodshed release prisoners and hold elections within three years the us and e.u. of imposed sanctions on syria and according to the un security council to condemn violence in the country united nations says more than two thousand died in the uprising since mid march one authorities in damascus blamed for the. meanwhile russia resulting both sides to start to avoid another libya style conflict. and a fact finding mission to syria to get firsthand information on the areas hit by a decision was announced after members of the syrian opposition visited the russian capital requesting foreign help speaking on the sidelines of an international policy forum in the russian city of nablus level prism of it have said he's concerned about syria but the situation is far from simplistic. the resolution which we would approve to send a strong message to the syrian regime should in fact be addressed to both sides

things are just black and white the antigovernment protesters in syria are not followers of some refined european models of democracy some of them are to put it straight extremists and some might even be called terrorists the situation is not that simple and we have to take into account the balance of different forces and interests russia may support certain moves but only if they don't boil down to the one sided condemnation of the government. we should send a strong message calling on all the conflicting parties to come to the negotiating table start talks and stop the bloodshed. in libya the head of the country's interim government has arrived in the capital tripoli for the first time since it fell to read. forces most of the countries not controlled by the national transitional council but gadhafi loyalists have been putting up fierce resistance in bani walid one of the colonel's last from the house of leader is on the run and now on interpol's wanted list he's claimed in recent all the messages that he's still in libya the fighters have been given until saturday to surrender to the new

leadership in streets across the country celebrations over the end of the old regime have been replaced by fear as artie's minister national report. a city celebrates for more than ten days and even capital has been read joisting in the dictator's fall. he wanted to hand he's portrayed here in the central square for his rules forty second anniversary but we put our flag up instead we want we are so happy without it it seems in the last weeks rebel fighters have fired and after that some people here were shot during this hold on tripoli. already be a fino very very well with. mr gaddafi. duffy's victoria. he told old to be would love me would that be we know you would see loved him and of course we're out of freedom is that we don't know

a good deputy and where they are right where they are care but away from jubilant crowds we meet those who are not so pleased at the man leaves in chief police district historically pro khadafi when the rebels arrived his sister was badly injured she's still in hospital in tunisia. abdurrahman doesn't want to show his face on camera and ceased when i had no location for the interview he says revolution has brought much fear in its wake. there is no peace there is no safety in the city we don't let our children outside when it's done we are afraid and we always wait for something bad when gadhafi was here at least we didn't have to sleep a wink what we do know. of the man says he also wanted change and a brighter future for his country but not they sway. and people are dying on both sides of the cities destroyed and no one cares do they seriously think that they

changed it for the better don't lie to yourself just look around is that what you wanted. and what is around is a scene of widespread destruction and social chaos the badly damaged buildings matched by the rise in stink of garbage and decomposing bodies youngsters roam the streets barely old enough to understand that what they carry are weapons not toys many shops schools and hospitals are closed while the city's symmetries growing bigger and bigger. shortly after triple deferring to rebel hands the national transitional council libya's new authority claimed it was more in here from benghazi but weeks have passed and there is still no sign of order being restored the city functioning by itself and treading a fine line between freedom and anneke. river national.

tripoli libya. with immigration rates reaching record highs experts warn the sense of national identity in the united kingdom is on the wane it comes at a time when scotland's ruling party the s.n.p. has been pressing hard for independence since coming to power this year and wales is not far behind with growing calls to break from london's are all your image explores these small nations ambitions welcome to wales part of the u.k. and a proud nation with its own language and customs and the latest voice to call for independence plied comrie which means the party of wales has always argued the country could be better off without the u.k. and it seems increasing numbers are starting to see their point of view our economy as we move from london with the interest and priorities of the south east of england to the fore and independent wills of course will be able to chart a different course based on our needs and priorities wales is

a long way from declaring independence but it's no longer just a pipe dream of people here voted overwhelmingly earlier this. in favor of handing the welsh assembly full law making powers that was considered a turning point in welsh nationhood and couldn't read the party of wales have undoubtedly taken heart from the surprise victory of the scottish national party that victory in may gave the s.n.p. an outright majority in the scottish parliament which has many powers devolved from westminster the party's promise to hold a scotland wide referendum on whether to declare independence according to applied comrie that marks the turning of the tide for a unified u.k. . i believe they're beginning to to use the word independence in in a welsh context which they say they wouldn't of jennifer use our last debate develops i think the people in where's are going to see that they're to scotland

becomes independent the next logical step is for we're just becoming dependent to of course separatism is nothing new to the british isles and the thousands of victims of the troubles in northern ireland are testament to how high feelings can run both in the present day and for centuries past while national sentiment may not be a new phenomenon the reasons for it have changed over the years and in these current turbulent economic times money talks scotland has oil and gas but while wales was a proud coal producing nation its minds are now closed and it's got some of the highest unemployment levels in the u.k. because of that the older generation is reserved when it comes to independence but young people are filled with national fervor for them independence is less about money and more about nationhood and identity wales needs to be independent because it is a great country and we do we do in it like being because we're really patriotic i

think we're more patriotic than england definitely we have a lot of culture there we shouldn't forget. just seem to be a bit better here at the moment but you can get free prescriptions. education seems to be a bit better plights comrie says it's going to build on that support providing not just emotional reasons why wales should be independent but concrete economic reasons too and it says wales does have resources particularly land and sea for green energy if the scots vote for independence wales might not be far behind it's all t. . well now to brings up to date for the moment. with the week's headlines in just under a couple minutes from now stay with us live here in moscow. more

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all day.

if you just joined us. from the russian capital top stories now that america marks a decade since the tragedy of nine eleven which united a nation brought about two of the bloodiest rules of the twenty first century. which was invaded by the us shortly after the atrocity of the. bombing. most. don't even know why that country was ever occupied troops. rushed. into the country's top national ice hockey team wiped out in a plane crash in the blink of an. international community not to take sides in syria's internal it's pretty limited.