america's war in iraq will be over. it may be over but will it really be mission accomplished as the commander in chief promises to withdraw all u.s. troops from iraq by the end of the year what does this mean for the future there and our troops only leaving because iraq's leaders have told the u.s. it's overstayed its welcome. whether. for external intervention or you and your role of nato. rebels in benghazi the problem able to achieve the objective. what happens in to those original objective in libya to protect civilians not to kill gadhafi but now that libyan leader the libyan leader is dead that will the new government be what these external forces had in mind r.t. is on the ground in tripoli. there's a bad state of civil liberties some of the administration a state some say is even worse than under the bush administration so while the

former president sent for prisoners to guantanamo bay where many were tortured is this president stepping up again by skipping the torture and going straight for the kill. it is friday october twenty first five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine freeze out there watching our team all our top story today the united states will withdraw all troops from iraq by the end of this year president obama says all troops other than about one hundred sixty active duty soldiers attached to the u.s. embassy will be out of iraq before christmas the last american soldier will call cross the border out of iraq with their gold itself proud of their success and knowing that the american people stand united. in our support for our troops that is how are americans military efforts in iraq will end. all right the decision

largely a result of iraqi leaders refusal to give us troops immunity from prosecution in iraqi courts and the americans have refused to stay without it there had been talk that of the forty thousand or so troops in iraq right now and not three or four thousand would stay to help with training but iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki told president obama there just weren't enough votes by the iraqi parliament to allow such a thing getting out of iraq certainly a promise made by candidate barack obama one million people thank propelled him to pass hillary rodham clinton back in the primaries who he constantly reminded people voted to authorize the war in the first place but we want to dig deep into the both the history of this and to look ahead to the future and what it means on a global scale and joining me now for more is michael o'brien he is the author of america's failure in iraq and michael i know that you were also a contractor for the department of defense in iraq several years ago is this war

actually over. well americans not all americans will be out of iraq that's for sure the the announcement says that most american troops will be leaving iraq which is you know not a bad thing obama promised that. he's coming through with his promise although as you said a moment ago there's a lot of debate back and forth between our government the government of iraq for us to stay put many many americans will remain near zero there have been reports over the last year or so of thousands of security contractors there will be here for the state u.s. state department providing security for about five installations u.s. state department installations around the country of iraq so i i feel like i don't see any doubt that there's going to be thousands of american contractors of all different types security farm tractors construction contractors you name it and there will be remaining in iraq and again as i mentioned in. brought in as i've

said repeatedly on this program or we ever hear about is the soldiers they are the ones wearing the uniforms there are many thousands of americans that will remain let's talk about this decision and this relationship between iraq and the united states as as we've just said and you know it seems to me the u.s. actually wanted to keep a few thousand troops there and they did not get that wish granted by the iraqi parliament by iraqi leaders of course it's hard to say what went on behind closed doors but i want to play a little piece of what president obama said today as of january first and in keeping with our strategic framework agreement with iraq it will be a normal relationship between sovereign nations will equal partnership based on mutual interests and mutual respect a normal relationship an equal partnership is this possible no it's not it's not possible because the fact remains that. paul bremer disbanded the iraqi army in the

rear iraqi national police here for invasion in march two thousand and three it will take its for the iraqi security infrastructure to be back on their feet as they were you know before our invasion and that was the main reason why we wanted to stay there they are you know years away from being able to defend themselves it's going to really be a wait and see that is why we wanted to stay even though barack obama as the candidate as you mentioned said he promised that we would he would pull us out of iraq but then if we became president all of a sudden started to back pedal and i can only imagine that was because once he became president the lights went on and he was told we're now ready to pull out no way no how not only are we not ready is iraq ready or not is the security of our country ready i do want to put up some figures for our viewers about the actual

cost of war take a look at this those serving in the u.s. military in iraq since two thousand and three thirty two thousand two hundred came home injured in some way early two thousand as i think amputated. limbs amputated u.s. military nearly forty five hundred and of course the most staggering statistic iraqi civilian deaths this is taken from two thousand and five to today fifty thousand a lot of reports say that number is closer to a million on the monetary costs of war certainly very high from war between eight hundred billion a trillion dollars what should we take from these numbers if you look at all of those numbers and i again you know i mentioned this extensively in my book if you look at all of those numbers that you just showed up on your screen what would the numbers have been if we hadn't invaded iraq in march of two thousand and three they will be zero. none of those people would be did none of those soldiers would be injured and when i talk to people and i'm

a former army officer or graduated from west point and everything but. i've had two classmates that are three storage intervals friends of mine but when i say to people you know when people say year but you know things have turned out great right now and i go well that's that that's really that's that's you know reverse logic what about when we invaded in march of two thousand and three why did we invade and they say well weapons of mass destruction and i go that were never found and they go well we thought they had them and my retort is so we invaded on an assumption and all those numbers are based on an assumption or based on bogus intelligence of one iraqi that george tenet the head of the cia wouldn't even allow his own agents to interrogate in germany and then that iraqi recanted his entire story. curveball say what remains to be seen i think where the biggest questions for a lot of people too is what lessons will be learned from this will more assumptions

lead to poor decisions like this in the future of course only time will tell michel bryant thanks so much for coming on the cell thanks for having me. on the libya now where many libyans are celebrating the death of a dictator colonel moammar gadhafi of course killed yesterday after forty two years in power western leaders they now gadhafi is dead the transition to democracy can now again but what's next in that region is anything but certain and even though nato is expected to end its bombing campaign in libya as are to correspondent and it is you can reports their business there may just be beginning. hillary clinton on a surprise visit to tripoli days before the killing of the ousted leader leader where she was quoted as saying the u.s. hopes to see khadafi killed or captured sunni they captured scenario might have put that off in that awful the egyptian leaders true or those of iraq's saddam hussein

but a trial over colonel gadhafi down here even more confident that they're saying that he was very clear for the biggest competitors for the what if he went to the hague he would spill the beans about older dirty deals there are the stuff the real politics it's really the last in a developing country like libya nobody wanted that median transitional government official say funnel could be out he was born adding a grain underneath the road in all countries right near the city of sirte please don't shoot was allegedly heard at the site many when our similarities to the capture of saddam hussein he was discovered in a small underground hole concealed next to farm buildings near his own hometown but unlike sadam who was captured alive by u.s. forces colonel gadhafi was reportedly shot dead by lead in transitional authorities not without the help of the u.s. and american defense official claimed a u.s.

predator drone along with a french fighter jet hit could obvious convoy thursday morning as they were trying to escape effectively handing them over to the lead in forces on the ground there are still unanswered questions about what happened to bring up about the how was he killed the guy but clearly i think what a lot for external intervention and the role of nato. and what fortune. nato's view when mandate was to protect libyan civilians but it quickly became to get rid of gadhafi and prop up a government which is now in power only thanks to the. support of the allied forces and i think we'll see. not a new democracy in libya but a new reorganization of the libyan political and economic. institutions for the benefit of those who brought the national transition council to power it will be for the benefit of the united states oil companies for the benefit of the british

and the french or perhaps the italian oil companies are the big winners here in the meantime western leaders are celebrating league is transition to democracy putting a single u.s. service member of the ground we achieved our objectives but the us president did not mention in his celebrated where the speech was supposedly given still the needle strikes widespread violations of human rights are reported. there is no water. there is no. medication even oxygen in the hospital they don't have the situation in syria. because i feel i can assure you. if you say. to the city no it's it's it is disaster it's supposed to free. libya is now brimming with weapons experts seeks premiss of most likely gotten their hands on

the vast armories left on tainted as foreign leaders transition to democracy the people who are now in power there have not been chosen by the libyan people and many libyans fear that when the time comes to vote the choice will have already been made for them i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. well this is short time ago our own unease and now we arrived on the ground in libya she is in tripoli and joins me live right now hey there anything i know you just got there a little while ago but i want to get your take what are you seeing what's the mood like on the ground there. well the mood is so it works for you last three songs of horns on a fornes being honks lots of as a song but i have to say it's definitely a different feeling than when we saw barak in egypt ousted were people were out on the main square singing playing their guitars crying on their knees here it's people out with semi automatic and automatic weapons plainclothes people sitting in

the air and there's still a feeling of chaos here at the n.c.c. which is the national transition committee announced that the official liberation ceremony will take place later today on saturday at least here in libya in benghazi which of course is the rebel stronghold not here in tripoli and there are rumors that perhaps perhaps because just a couple of days there were shootouts here between and to see troops and loyalists in that we don't see the i was out in the streets there are critics who do feel that they are some are hiding and that it's not quite a very secure situation here in the capital like i said but really the mood certainly is suburbs where lots of people here in tripoli happy that daffy is finally got certainly an interesting time there i want to get your take and he's that president obama has made sure to point out that the u.s. was by no means in charge these last six or seven months that this was a unified front and if anyone is taking the lead it was taking the lead in this it was british prime minister david cameron and french president nicolas sarkozy however it seems to me the u.s.

has certainly spent a lot of money on this lot of weapons whose war was this really what what is the mindset of people where you are. well it of course and so you ask a lot of people here are fans of obama in the west obviously because they're being told at least that's who saved them really that's who provided them with weapons i think it was vice president joe biden who said today that some two billion dollars went into this so-called humanitarian mission here and obama today kind of praising the fact that there were no ground soldiers here in tripoli and in the rest of of libya during this mission but a lot of money has gone into this like you said a lot of weapons and certainly the experts and analysts that we've been speaking to around the world are talking about the libyan oil there's no secret that it has the largest oil reserves here in africa and it's not an accident but the west of course is is now going to be doing very well it's expected with the national transition committee a lot of those leaders are probably going to be perhaps elected or somehow come

into office so this is far from the end of the mission even though the u.n. security council is now looking into officially end the no fly zone the question of what's next for libya certainly remains far from answer yeah really really interesting point i mean i want to mention you talked about people firing weapons into the air people honking horns we can hear that all the way here so so it is certainly a loud and chaotic situation let's look ahead to the future of course this is still very new but what do you expect as you have been covering the arab spring for us going from country to country you mentioned you were in egypt what do you expect things to look like when we think of where the arab spring started we must remember it was in tunisia a lot sions there for this weekend and a ninety ninety one percent chance really that islam is will win in these elections talk about that i know it's loud there and what you may expect is what the world may expect to see happen in libya in terms of

a future government there. well first of all i just want to point out that it will be interesting to see how global media covers the elections in tunisia because of get out these killing and i think it's fair to say that the mainstream media won't be talking very much about those tunisian elections they'll be talking about it after you throughout the weekend or up on throughout the year really in terms of tunisia they're certainly into music each of them maybe if you take three countries completely different atmosphere is one thing that they all have in common is chaos that can happen after these so-called democracies begin their new life it's unusual like you said it's expected brahimi five percent of hard line islamists will take control of the country in egypt it's expected that the muslim brotherhood who are russia's declared a terrorist organization will get thirty percent of the parliament in november and here the main fear not so much out about the islamists although certainly people are talking about that with the maid fear is that we're going to see some kind of tribal war break out and a power struggle so people here on the streets of tripoli as you can hear are

celebrating with their automatic weapons certainly not thinking about what's next for them how is this destroyed infrastructure of the country i mean the standard of living here in libya during gadhafi was one of the highest in africa certainly the highest in north africa so how are these people going to live once they realize that gadhafi is gone but perhaps democracy and stability hasn't come to the country if it does come it's certainly not going to come quick i think that's a pretty fair statement oh right and he's now a giving us her take what it looks like on the ground also letting some good perspective there about libya about the arab spring r.t. correspondent lisa now eat joining us from tripoli and as you just heard there are celebrations taking place all across libya i'm sure most of using those pictures and videos of gadhafi is death and broken body and because they were so graphic many are now questioning why that footage needed to be put on air for the public to see arcee correspondent i've or ben reports.

his frenzied mob is about as far as it gets for my trial at the hague. for the death of gadhafi is now being cheated around the world yes we came we saw our guide. even by those who champion democratic justice. people in libya today have an even greater charles after this news of building themselves a strong and democratic future and i'm proud of the role that britain has played in helping them to bring that about like a tribute to the bravery of the libyans who've helped to liberate their country we will help them we will work with them a long way from cameron's insistence that gadhafi be put on trial and sisi fighters were even dissuaded from the shoot to kill policy and bring in august they'll take him alive i don't think it is god particularly for trial. in any case but i mean nevertheless the what is pricey i guess

a kind of summary execution of what may well have been a summary execution is a kind of fairly barbaric and what i believe was a very popular operation from the start and as i say you know this was never you this was never supposed to be about regime change this night of operation but that's that's really what's been the outcome of it the backslapping is being fueled by this gruesome footage of kidnappings bodies splashed across headlines pleaded for world and people power is not going to be put back here in libya thanks to the u.s. and its nato allies but this video shows gadhafi was still alive when captured clearly didn't last long some suggest an execution and question why this is now being applauded he was assassinated after he was caught when the this is a very heavy us crime against a one hundred man and the other public will see a such i've talked to people who dislike the graphic this is like. the way he was killed they think of the stones you something the world the moral of the of the so

called rules for me is this news also shared by many on twitter there are several posts already concerned about the coverage questioning the need for such graphic images and why did effie's death bring tator or not is the reporter with such jubilation the images have been labelled her reflect these tweets is the b.b.c. wouldn't have used the images for anyone else another suggestion also having a competition sally bercow a prominent activist in the u.k. says she sees where the same wasn't done for bin laden back then a bomber refused to release the images saying it could incite more violence or be used as propaganda for good laughing the vultures are too quick other than its arty . let me of course one of many examples in which a dictator was taken down was killed with the help of the u.s. government but how common is this and why not instead capture gadhafi or for that matter some of the loddon we're all lucky why not question them try them and then

decide on the punishment that is what happened after all with saddam hussein and with other prisoners still being held are to correspondent or in a point i had takes a look at this change and what it means. long before he became us president or a nobel peace prize winner brock obama was a constitutional law professor. thank . a civil liberties champion turned charismatic candidate who vowed to reverse the abuses and policies of his predecessor george w. bush nearly three years later many civil rights advocates who once cheered yes we can are finding themselves saying no you can't only has their bomb administration blocked torture accountability and refused to investigate and prosecute but entente a most open there are one hundred seventy one men still there it's been more than

eight months since someone has been released from guantanamo and that's the longest time since the time i was opened. he's he's basically maintained indefinite detention has revived military commissions. and as we've seen as well he has expanded targeted killings so they've increased under the obama administration many fold and he's even authorize the killing of a u.s. citizen so you know i think yeah we're in a you know there's a bad state of civil liberties under the obama administration renowned author and scholar you know chomsky believes the obama administration has changed gears and excel rated illegal practice into overdrive. bush's problem. with bush policy was to pick. whatever.

and put them one time or. in a room. for. almost there. the killing of the war. another is the targeting drone killing of anwar locky an american born cleric u.s. drone strikes during obama's first two years in office have exceeded the total carried out during bush's tenure president obama described the walking as the leader of external operations for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula when u.s. journalists asked for an explanation of the allegation the white house spokesperson said this. human rights groups which voiced international opposition against bush counterterrorism policies have quickly condemned the killing journalist ermey scahill says obama's policies have drifted far from his political roots

a president mccain doing the exact same thing that a president obama is doing would have been denounced by a lot of liberals and so we're at one of those dangerous moments in in u.s. history and we saw it a bit with clinton in the ninety's where a democrat who campaigned on a pledge to change you know the country in the world has actually pushed a right wing agenda further forward than a republican republican could have if they remain in power or they took power or expanded power as obama gears up for his reelection campaign civil liberty groups that believed his words the first time around are now left to judge the commander in chief on his actual americans to marci is represented by a president who studied and taught the rule of law and is now armed with a duty to carry it out but critics say as long as obama raised by his own rules the constitution and his promise to change both i mean compromise or not artsy new york . often there are ways to look at this and things to talk about just

a little while ago i spoke to lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer a senior fellow at the center for advanced defense studies i asked him to weigh in on this change in strategy under president obama. well you know it's the last report was exactly right there are huge violations of law and this is just getting worse and let me be very clear i'm i'm a conservative and i am against the targeted unmitigated killing of individuals will they be u.s. citizens or not for the very fact that if you kill them they can't talk and let me tell you some more a lot he would have been a treasure trove of information and let me say this to be very clear there's no reason we could have not captured him yemen there's a purpose of environment that is military terms or we can do whatever the heck we want there and folks i've talked to the special operations community have told me they prefer they prefer to capture these guys for the info but you're right we kill them so why on earth would president obama be authorizing the summary assassination

of u.s. citizens let me give you this little blurb there are at least four other u.s. citizens on the kill capture list so you've got to wonder what's going on and i guarantee scales. it friday when they were in office i suspect refused to be completely right if this was a republican president we would have everybody up in arms about it the fact that we have a liberal doing it somehow makes it ok which really in my mind makes it it's just terrible why you ask the question why why are these leaders and these people not being captured certainly a lot of theories out there one of which is that well we can't find one to guantanamo we're trying to shut that down a lot of different theories about this but i do want to talk about this in terms of libya but a little while ago we showed a report in which asia times correspondent have to ask are said gadhafi i mean you say a lockie a doll he also knew a whole lot. was what he had been put on trial he could have married a lot of dirty laundry a secret deal perhaps between the west and libya

a lot of details still murky about exactly how he died about how gadhafi died but it seemed to be the goal why do you think the u.s. didn't try him well look there was a turn a change. part by gadhafi after nine eleven and this was somewhat repealed in the we can to stop in this war there was a clear relationship between western intelligence service that included the us intelligence and libyan intelligence and obviously the libyans are trying to gain favor by helping us with the war on terror and my judgment that meant they were doing things like an enhanced interrogation things that we still don't like talking about and obviously he would have said look why are you trying me when i try to help you in this regard not to say something you didn't want come out and frankly you know i'm not going to shed i'm not going to lose any sleep about khadafi big he is a bad guy he was a bad guy you know madmen but with that said either we stand for rule of law and process or we don't the other thing it's very inconvenient is for one time i hold

here in my hand the current suit against president obama for violation of the war powers act is as determined by congress i was on the hill just yesterday talking with the staffers involved in this action so clearly there are a whole range of things which obviously as president obama could and should know as a quote unquote a constitutional scholar but apparently it just doesn't matter which again to me is is something we all need to be concerned about as citizens of this nation we need to you live by the rule of law if you don't and if you don't there's a stripper slope which i think we're going to pay the just president obama go through i mean making this decision to kill these people from going lot into locky too because i mean is that president obama has is that under his jurisdiction and does he and he alone has his finger on the kill button well yes the answer the simple answer is absolutely having run these operations at least sort of what we

call black operations for twenty five years you don't have anything that at this magnitude without clear signature authority by the president was going to die unless president says a barely go do it now what i find frightening is there's no legal there's nothing in congressional law title ten title fifty any of the titles that this will titles which allow us to do essentially their warfare or intelligence collection or sas nation and i think gives him the story. that was lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer senior fellow at the center for advanced defense studies and that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa also check out our youtube page youtube dot com slash r t america you should follow me on twitter i'm at frowsy i'm christine for the alone a show is up in thirty minutes.