if you feel that we're not exceptional even if it were exceptional it's a bit as the saying goes it's a long fall from the top and it looks like the american ego may be taking a plunge with only half of americans believe in the u.s. is still on top we'll take a look at some of the motives behind this changing mentality. obviously muslims would be would be someone you'd look at absolutely those are the folks who are the radical muslims are the people that are committing these crimes throwing the p.c. playbook out the window looks like g.o.p. presidential hopefuls aren't afraid to get their hands dirty if it means winning the party's nomination so with twelve debates down countless more to go we'll take

a look at the boulder is better republican mentality and the outlandish comments coming from the right. from start to finish just as quickly as a nuclear disarmament treaty was signed russia and the u.s. are back on the defense and neither side seems to be backing down so in this chess match over missiles are we at a stalemate. believing it is november twenty third seven pm in washington d.c. and christine for watching our team. i want to start by taking a look at the mood around the country right now it is of course the night before thanksgiving people are traveling to spend time with their families many of those people soon will be shopping at least that's what retailers are hoping for but something has changed in terms of the way people view the country and its ideals i want to show you the results of a new report released from the pew research center this is part of the global

attitudes project now when asked the question our people are not perfect but our culture is superior to others there's a change in the way people of answered you can see there in two thousand to sixty percent of people agreed with that then in two thousand and seven that number went down to fifty five percent and today just forty nine percent of the people agreed that's less than half so in other words when it comes to the idea of american exceptionalism and sir changing r.c. course on honest work and i want to talk to folks about this just regular people to get their thoughts on what this could mean. sense of exceptionalism traditionally a big boost to american patriotism and pride in the u.s. but these days something is off with this major survey for the first time in years that feeling is in decline less than half of americans and forty nine percent are holding on to believing in their country's exceptionalism let's go find out what's going on here are you feeling in fact. are you feeling exceptional today

but. do you think american exceptionalism is alive and kicking. exceptional new york i mean. is anybody feeling exceptional start today. no you're not using the u.s. is exceptional well. i feel i don't feel so good why don't those on the. overall overall how do you think the country is doing these days terrible are you feeling exceptionally. well i have a job do you think the was exceptional. here why. you get a lot of trouble why should we feel if we're not exceptional we never were exceptional exceptionalism stems from strength at home and abroad a booming economy allowed americans to proudly carry themselves and let politicians lecture other countries but with an economy turned upside down and foreign respect

when doing this what's causing the women can feel about the state of affairs for people getting the blues. probably. what's going on. too many people right to work and i think the general. spread. to the small since the reagan era the country has lowered intellectually considerably by employment. growth quite upsetting it's extended period of time so many people are on employed . very many there's a lot of laws that should be in place but what solutions do american see to their country's woes let's see what people say about how do we fix this this is a serious problem. get in here so we can all work he was like. we need to support things that are made in the u.s.

so much stuff doesn't go overseas. you know. the world many analysts are saying people spirits are not going to be lifted any time soon americans are preparing for things to get worse before they get better. so things are going to get worse before they get better certainly something we've heard before and we want to examine this further and put it in the context of what's happening right now both on our shores and off from occupy wall street to the new revolution in egypt and i was joined earlier by author and historian william engdahl i started out by asking him about this notion that american exceptionalism is on the decline. well i think americans are feeling more and more depressed economically so that they're hardly feeling like they're the leading nation of the world. the united states is in a situation i've said this in my books comparable to that of the british empire

before the first world war the decline has begun years back perhaps twenty five thirty years back but it proceeded very slowly because it was artificially covered over through money from asia and other places and now with the financial crisis and the collapse of the home mortgage market americans are finding themselves in middle class americans are finding themselves in a desperate situation america's role in the world is not the pillar of democracy and freedom that it was once seen to be it's regarded as the brute force that comes in and bombs countries like libya or those things in asia or all around the world that are not exactly the kind of things that people expect from the united states so i think that sense the exceptionalism doesn't seem to be working but i think it's also safe to say on you know with the internet with this twenty four hour cable news that people living in the united states of america have just more of an

understanding of what life is like outside of america i think a lot of people have been looking at what's going on in egypt with a sort of second uprising there's increasing talk of the u.s. relationship with countries like iran and syria i want to talk to you about how all that relates to occupy wall street and the movement to sort of revolution that's actually happening on our own shores what is your take of the occupy wall street movement as you've seen it over the last two plus months. i think the focus of the occupy wall street movement isn't a very very important one because for the first time since the financial crisis broke out in two thousand and seven the attention has been put the spotlight is being put on the source of the problem the fact that wall street banks or six giant banks banks who sues biology is larger than the gross domestic product of most countries of the world these six or seven banks kuhlmann sachs citi bank j.p.

morgan chase etc bank of america are literally taking over the policy of the united states of america the senate the congress and the white house and that start to be reversed so i think in that sense no matter who from the white house is trying to create intimacy groups within the occupy wall street and what police provocateurs have been sent in there to give it a bad name i think the focus is very very important to the protest movement and i support it entirely from that's regard i think it's interesting to just sort of the increased talk about subjects like income inequality you know a corrupt system that favors the wealthy and powerful an order to keep them wealthy and powerful but what about you know i think it's important as you say just changing the conversation and changing the dialogue but what comes next what do americans need to do those who consider themselves you know in the ninety nine percent i guess you could say what do they need to do to bring about actual change

. well this is the question we have a presidential election year coming up in two thousand and twelve and up until now it's been tweedle dee and tweedle dum the same wall street money goes in whether it's a democrat or republican and it's you know it's like a horse race where the game is fixed before you get out of the gate so i think if the population of the country wants to wants to really have change it's got to be grassroots it's not going to happen if it's done by something like the tea party where you have money from the cop foundation and different groups like this who have a. very specific agenda and they use that the frustration of the population in spirit and very definite directions that their special interest so it's got to be a grassroots based thing it's got to have an economic agenda which it doesn't yet have and one one that addresses the fundamental problems of the out of control federal debt the out of control private household debt of the country and the fact

that the economic policy of the last thirty years has let the industrial base of america go into the scrap heap and allowed outsourced by large multinational corporations to asia and elsewhere that is simply destroyed the the productive work base of the traditional american economy back at the brought back to real infrastructure not not when build projects but real infrastructure building rebuilding the highway system the water system is in dire disrepair the bridges of the country the electric grid these are these are things for the basic infrastructure of the country that could provide jobs and really get the country back on its feet that tie in the few things that you. sort of the crux of the system and the upcoming election i know just last night we had another g.o.p. debate there seem to be just about one here in the united states i want to talk about on your concerns based on some changes that happen. over the last year i'm

talking about the citizens united supreme court case that basically allows proportions to give. and do so in an undisclosed way and also i mean we just see every single day dozens of super pacs popping up you know on both sides of the aisle how do you think this will shift both the direction of the elections and the power of whoever is in office in trying to. well in reality written a book on this called gobs of money wall street in the death of the american century in reality the united states over the past thirty years with the deregulation of the big banks wall street banks done by by the congress and by the white house that tim geithner and larry summers top economic and financial officials of the obama administration actually wrote the legislation in ninety nine two thousand that

opened the floodgates for the banks to do this criminal enterprise called asset backed securitization that they didn't hoots with the insurance companies like g.e. the credit rating agencies so that's got to be rolled back. and we have to get back to. the basic focus on the real economy. we can leave it at that i know you have a sore throat today totally understandable when. winter is coming i guess you could say william angle joining us. here. so much appreciate having you all right let's talk now about the thousand and twelve election and about the g.o.p. candidates they are realizing very fast that the world is getting smaller and that understanding the relationship between the u.s. and other countries like china and iran and yes herman cain even can stand is important and there are new questions about what has been done regarding the

national national security and foreign policy and also what should be done in the future eight candidates where it off last night just down the street from our studios here in washington d.c. and r.t. correspondent was well takes a look at the policies and the politics of those who hope to be this country's next commander in chief when it comes to foreign policy but they asked me who is the president of. the biggest names they're going to say you know i don't know you know g.o.p. candidates appear to be stumped now with the president he put us in libya he is now putting us in africa we already were stretched too thin any put our special operations forces in our region you're good as well michele bachmann for libya is in africa cain is at a loss of words when asked about the situation there president obama supported your grounds crew president obama called for the removal of. so what we're talking about the same thing yes i.

know what the president is going to hire lawyers who will focus up the thank you things but you want somebody who can challenge those advisors if they say things that are stupid or stupid or destructive foreign policy was front and center during the g.o.p. debate here in washington d.c. aside from ron paul the republican presidential candidates of blood consider going to war with iran we are fighting a war against radical islam and what radical islam is telling all the radical islamist leaders are saying is that just wait america out syria is a partner with iran in exporting terrorism all across that part of the world and around the globe the meal ticket for the republican party is who can our heart the other person who can play in a more grandiose way to the military industrial complex that's the ticket more

controversial statements from the g.o.p. on the interrogation of terrorist suspects this is one thing we know about barack obama he is essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the a.c.l.u. to racial profiling obviously muslims would be would be someone you'd look at absolutely those are the folks who are the radical muslims of the people that are committing these crimes as we but by and large as well as younger males bold statements made by candidates determined so be the next commander in chief but with serious implications for the nation and the world if elected they will of course try to steer the country further to the right further in the direction of militarism taking away any possibility of a reduction in the military budget ramping up sort of racism against people of color in immigrant communities and some say obama's best chances of getting reelected are his g.o.p. rivals while it's a sore point rare for incumbents got. reelected when unemployment is above seven

percent with some of these extreme statements and embarrassing performances by the republican candidates some say they could be obama's chances of staying in the white house and washington was wall art see all right so there was so much that was said in last night's foreign policy national security debate lots on the patriot act on immigration even the role of the t.s.a. just to name a few but there was also quite a bit that wasn't said the crisis in the euro zone were specific talk of china north korea or iraq so did a little deeper into what got on me and i spoke earlier to someone who is no stranger to presidential politics and foreign policy former reagan administration official and columnist paul craig roberts i asked him to give me his take on the latest year g.o.p. debate take a listen. well it was a comedy show you know if any of these people ugly ron paul he's the only one qualified to be president but the american public doesn't have the sense to like him if you know those or were elected to be like him you know and idiot and the

superpower. i mean it's such an amazing collection of stupidity he knew these people would be an absolute cold a danger to just americans but to the entire world what do you mean a danger in what way well they all they all want to go to war you know michele bachmann wants to but she says pakistan is war their exes and she threatened she does he know what that means. but it sounds heavy you know like she's an intellectual and all of them want to attack iran we have a mccain saying. jurors want to kill us all well they're not having any success on it and gingrich says we'll live in fear for the rest of our lawyers well actually he's right about that rule lou fear from the american warmonger

police but not from the terrorists hope somebody who are these terrorists who are the only please ever do anything here talk about you know the different mentions of the idea of going to war i know one of the issues that's really been out there in terms of foreign policy is this issue of iran and there's been an increased talk of the need for a plan to deal with iran especially after the release about i.a.e.a. report that suggested that iran is still developing its nuclear capabilities i know we spoke to you about that last week or the week before about you know many of the candidates say more sanctions are needed but i want to play what former utah governor jon huntsman said and then we'll talk about it. we had a discussion earlier tonight about sanctions everybody commented on sanctions sanctions are going to work i had to break it to you but i don't want because the chinese are going to play ball and the russians are going to. play ball our interest in the middle east is israel and our interest is to ensure that is written that iran is not going to clear all right so iran is the only not going away as

a political issue huntsman and ron paul i think tend to defer a lot more of them with what should be done about iran than the other candidates what do you make of what was said was there any good idea that was mentioned last night in terms of how to deal with iran. newbie mean do the right ones who. has been using. the homes just like so there are hussein's weapons of mass destruction just like today if used missiles and weapons of mass destruction which they can't for. israel the whole groups will get to first figure it out of syria syria is next in the list it wants to maisie is only these arab countries the superior who are there. after the leader you would have thought it long before now they. share a common threat in order to elicit very. americans to get in

syria is next and. i'm sure that will be the question for one of the future debates let's talk now about china harsh rhetoric from many in the g.o.p. including those on stage last night in a nutshell according to them china is a job killer china needs to have more pain inflicted on it on the other hand these ideas about limiting trade to china that some of these candidates want to impose and these go against the very views of the majority in this country because it could hurt businesses now i should mention china was not discussed in last night's debate until literally the last two minutes i think but it has been discussed in previous debates and will be again that's roberts what do you make of what is clearly a case of flip flopping on china at least in terms of rhetoric versus action. was just. you know the threats you know everywhere. there all of the middle east the arabs and muslims the chinese the russians the threat is everywhere and it's just part of threats right it doesn't really have any basis in anything you know china

is america's largest creditor they're our biggest banker and certainly will be american corporations which now could use their production that they sell to americans abroad in china they're not going to go on any sort of strictures on china because it means restrictions on their own travel bits and emerging corporations are far more powerful than the government because the governments in their pocket so there's not going to be any true strictures on china it would mean restrictions on american corporations are there i want to play another clip from the debate this was in the report we said i got a fight again this is in regards to the patriot act and the role that the t.s.a. said half of the folks who are most likely to be committing these crimes if you look at i mean obviously it was people obviously muslims would be a would be someone you'd look at absolutely does the folks who are the radical muslims are the people that are committing these crimes. all right so this is

a debate that's being a theme by people around the world. how does this type of response fare internationally well it shows that care and its forward presence here idiots i mean. the t.s.a. wastes eighty billion dollars a year they haven't caught a single terrorist they're not any terrorists for them catch morgan they don't focus on muslims or people who look like terrorism focused only everybody. that was former reagan administration official and columnist robert. let's go now to a potential change in u.s. russert russia relations the u.s. and missile defense system has been a sticking point between the two countries for quite a long time but just today we heard some very strong words from russian president dmitry medvedev aimed at the u.s. and we can talk about this in a second but let me play you what russian pres what the russian president warns

quote to happen if the u.s. continues to move forward with missile defense plans along russia's border you're going to play contemporary straight systems in the west in order to prevent damage from the u.s. missile systems would it look like in europe and this is the deployment of the it's going to miss an interesting accounting when i mean it will be one with such a snap if the situation develops in a way from russia will reserve the right to cease for the. moment and arms control of it given the unix treatable linkage between strategic offensive and defensive weapons reasons could emerge the russian withdrawal from this country's economic reduction treaty so russia says oh well paul out of the start treaty signed back in april of two thousand and ten and stop nuclear disarmament if the u.s. continues to deploy its missile defense shield in europe so what's going on here well to answer that i spoke to times correspondent pepe escobar i asked him to give me his thoughts on this latest announcement there's a sec. forget about reset there was a p.r. coup and the russian leadership has just understood over the best few months that

it was a p.r. pull every single interlinked what happened in libya what nato were splitting for syria the nato planted don't we need to mediterranean these what used to be some interceptors the czech republic they're now in roumania twenty four interceptors in a huge radar station in turkey the american version it's berretta the cast you run which is completely absurd every jew political analyst knows this is directed against russia and this is not the obama administration this is the pentagon program it's part of this so-called full spectrum dominance which is the official better go go button since at least two thousand and two so all these should have a mechanism to discuss this as adults in the natal russia council they're going to meet each soon weeks so let's see after two weeks if they really can discuss this

because the russians are correct that they know this is that can stir russian territory it will be the same as russia spelling missile defense system in cuba all over again below because of the all over again you know it doesn't make sense at all they're one of the biggest present coming out of russia and from other countries is the fact that you know on the u.s. already has a missile shield in many other countries afghanistan. israel has plenty as well thought why does the u.s. need to have that initial sale in europe and particularly our long russia's border i think that seems to be one of the biggest criticisms and very true way you say how from many of these things are connected and i want to talk about several other geopolitical issues while i have you here let's talk about syria and how moscow and beijing have warned about the use of any military action how is how that will be acceptable in syria what do you think is the main. interest in western countries on syrian human rights and why moscow and china the opposing factions look.

ok there are human rights of was in syria of course it is a very dreadful police state that's not in question what's in question are the messages employed by the europeans and the americans to bring down the assad government it's certainly bia two point zero it's the same same effect if you go back to the beginning of this month's evil daalder the us ambassador to nato he said explicitly the rule met what is the route map for syria basically is to recognize the opposition the syrian national council which is already a call in effect a few minutes with the french r.c. they're going to do exactly that and try to create the impression that assad is going to call for a human assoc or in homes or in hama in syria get a thought for the just see in the arab league which nowadays is the same same

single group so rebiya all and their best hopes that point that they're not going to get the message to some kind of consensus when this means russia and china and china are ready bolted and they say well no people read stops in syria and that the russians what that says a lot like libya to point out well deja vu here a lot of people predicting a lot of people predicting you know what if if something does happen with area you know well what's next well iran is next i want to talk to you about iran and the renewed talk about increasing thank sions on iran i know without secretary of state clinton speaking about this much of this of course the fall out from the release of the report from the international atomic energy agency i want to get your thoughts have an if there's an area that you've covered and you know a lot about your concerns about the u.s. reaction here regarding iran that the i.a.e.a. report was burked cool. by some of the past jim political analysts that we can find

anywhere including symbol kirsch's who writes for the new yorker of course our friend gareth porter who writes for i.p.s. we try to be sure times on our side is off look it's both us it was a mano yukiya amano the japanese which we hear leaks cable ready said already prove that he's basically a yes man for us designs at the i.a.e.a. and people who work at the spectre's themselves and physicists they said this is scoop leaky upsurge ye ye es being diverted doors of political role and we are a pack nickel a body which is completely absurd ok so the piece that i wrote recently for the asia times is basically if you want to get the children you have to go through the muscles and that's the plan no it is because everybody knows that the u.s. is not going to launch a war against iraq no wait and not in an electoral year number two israel cannot do it by themselves and your votes mr she's against it and most people the pentagon

are against this war so the only way he would be ok let's try the mosque was first to stop the lies the regime which to study lies as well as well wish to stop the lies to speak their own damascus axis and then we think about iraq's probably after here presidential elections and if you're a lot if you watched the foreign policy plates of the republicans yesterday and you saw all those eight wattle saying what they're going to do the first thing that going to do is war against iran it's beginning of two thousand and twelve adeline i think trying both as valid left campaign facts and i think jon huntsman things to be a little wary of that as well. yes we got our own ad foreign policy when i won with you right here on r t a times correspondent i i often. and that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered that are to dot com slash usa or check out our youtube page youtube dot com slash r t america you can follow me on twitter on christine for example we will be back and have our.