they there still believe the option of. what a protest nobody seems to know. that never appropriate the face but hardly argument that they're being overly dramatic. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.

of the capitol and now i'm laura mr.

hi guys it's time for you said it i read it i take time to respond to my brilliant and engaging viewer comments on facebook twitter and you tube because you got something to say i listen now first i want to respond to your the watch our coverage of occupy the ports which attempted to shut down ports from portland to long beach alan becker commented on facebook just seems like the wrong target to me wouldn't be more logical to identify who caused the financial inequality and focus on them rather than have disruptions that affect those not involved and you know this is something that i discussed on my show last night with labor activist and investigative reporter tim sure rock i think that some people were concerned that the port action perhaps didn't target the people that are actually responsible for that financial crisis but rather the middle class support workers another concern was the action didn't have the endorsement of the union that it purported to help the international longshore and warehouse union now the occupiers and cells would

say that they have the support of many rank and file longshoremen and it was the union leadership who decided not to endorse the action although they did express their ideological support for the movement they would also say the goal of the protests were to target the s.s.a. marine a shipping company that's locked in a labor dispute with some port truckers and is partly owned by wall street investment bank goldman sachs so to my viewer i understand your hesitation i have some too but the bottom line here is that the one percent possesses all the tools in the world to get their voices heard more most importantly that's money but the ninety nine percent on the other hand has to go out raise hell even to make a little tiny blip and that's just what they did earlier this week and next on respond to viewer the watch my interview yesterday with rocky anderson presidential candidate from the newly formed justice party madness realm commented on you tube i'm glad someone finally got it however there is little chance for such a party to ever floors given how powerful the mass media is media blackout on occupy wall street ron paul and cetera however i hope that i'm wrong. and that

he'll be able to push his party into the light and make his place in future elections and you know i bring on quote unquote non-mainstream presidential candidates on the program as often as possible because if anybody has noticed the front runners people are actually allowed on every stage to debate and on every network well those are the people that have no new ideas no new solutions apart from maybe ron paul who is treated as just a lovable crank by the media somebody who is in second place in iowa right now he's only given a fraction of the coverage of the other candidates donald trump's fake debate got for more air time than to the fact that ron paul is one point one tiny point behind newt gingrich in iowa now he also has a much stronger ground organization that new a celebrity businessman is clearly more important though but at least they include ron paul the conversation on stage because his numbers are so good that they actually have to gary johnson buddy roemer now rocky anderson well they may not these well excuse me they may as well and not exist to the mainstream media when they're allowed on t.v. their ideas are treated by the m.s.m.

like novelties like fun little by this guy ideas that will never actually happen because the mainstream media simply can't get their head above the sky to see outside of the beltway so i hope that people like rocky embody and gary continue to make noise and share their ideas with the country and i promise that they will always have a platform here on this show to do that and in fact we'd love to get them all together for a debate that we could host here at r t and finally i want to respond to a viewer tone capone who tweeted to us at the lower show i feel like a fool just now discovering r.t. and yourself thank you for the voice of most american media keeps muffled so hey there no need to feel like a fool i'm very happy that you found us no matter how long it took but thank you keep watching and spread the word that's of my ranting today i'll be back with more as usual next week. well this week president obama has been doing a bit of a victory tour if you will of the upcoming departure of all u.s. troops in iraq at the end of this year on monday he hopes to prime iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki at the white house today he in the first lady spoke to troops at fort bragg repeating. over and over again welcome home i mean this war

was a campaign promise of the president's over i think we all know what really happened at the end breakdown of negotiations over legal immunity that resulted in iraq tony has to kind of get out let's get down to what really matters at the end of the day asking what kind of iraq we're leaving behind and who better to ask and the troops that are coming home right now is here to discuss this with me is jon soltz co-founder of vote vets dot org john thanks so much for being here and welcome back i know that you just got back a couple of days ago and so when you left and you know the other people that you were there with that you served with what's the feeling like is it kind of you know do you just want to get out over the burma's people call it or what is it i think you can watch the speech today and you could see how happy. that a lot of guys there from the second airborne division second brigade was in iraq this year they were the last guys out protecting everybody else as as we redeployed i think everyone's tired so from the military standpoint everyone's excited that there was no extension i think for the guys left over which is the mission i was

working on planning for the sale of into the iraqis i was an advisor you know it was eerie i was sitting on my base i was waiting for my helicopter leave and there's a huge explosion and you're just like oh well you know they've blown up a bus minibus right inside the gate of the military base and killed about twenty people and so i think there's a lot of people on pins and needles as the u.s. military pulls out for the americans that are left over but for the troops that are holding now i think everyone inside the military with the exception of you know pentagon brass that sort of tried to believe the white house on an extension i think pretty much everyone is excited this is over but they're happy they're happy that it's over they're happy to be home does anybody feel like something was accomplished you know i mean what was what was the mission in iraq you could say we went in under false pretenses and weapons of mass destruction that we were very well it's fairly successful in iraq doesn't actually mean america safer doesn't mean it was the right thing to do but we captured or killed saddam hussein or the iraqis killed him once we captured him we. topple the government we installed

a democracy so from a military standpoint there's a democracy left in iraq and that's a huge debate about the product of what democracy bring so the military we accomplished everything that we were asked to do which is why i'm you know great for the public the public has not turned their back on the people who fought this war even if they don't agree with it now does a democracy make the united states safer but we're great at instilling the hardware we install democracies ok we have a democracy in the palestinian authority but it is elected hamas we have a democracy in lebanon but it you know has a hair from gaining control of a democracy in iraq they elected a government that's close to the iranian so the iranians have fought us through political software through understanding that just because we have a hardware of democracy doesn't mean that we get an electoral outcome that's beneficial to our long term policy goals and so in essence when you say that it's our own fault that there is now a government that is necessarily very favorable or very friendly to the united states i mean the prime minister in iraq has even said himself that he blames some of ron's influence over iraq on america because the model in other people's affairs

clearly his government is more friendly to iran then the saddam hussein regime was i mean saddam fought them for years so i think we missed our opportunity in iraq politically i mean you know look i think the younger officer corps that's what's coming up in the army now in twelve to fifteen years has done this professionally i think we have a different view than the counterinsurgency crowd in the counterinsurgency crowd believes we can spend all this money and put all these lives on the ground what does it get us i mean this is a fifth generation warfare which means the military is a piece of the political conversation so in iraq we've lost the opportunity to help the nationalists to help allowing the party with the kurds so in reality the result of the democracy is a guy like nouri al maliki who lived in damascus who you know put in power because of his alliance with tato solder who's a big anti-american. they have a hard line shia government that's in place because the nationalists who won the most seats in the election when he would have to build a government we couldn't get the kurds to. we're younger cook so we feel

politically to assist the people who would have been more beneficial to the americans when creating government because we focus so much on surging in baghdad which is still the largest failure of the war because it just simply delayed the inevitable give us a looking at what we've seen in iraq looking at what's going on in afghanistan right now it really does seem like it and list situation do you think that this entire strategy of counterinsurgency is dead are we done trying there's a lot of around. that i don't agree with that that support counterinsurgency look at its liberalism in foreign policy it's build democracy interventionism nation building it became republican foreign policy think that's what you say but does it actually work does it ever. really work it's not working out in afghanistan you can definitely say that you know some people will hail iraq as a success it works if it's a democracy propped up that isn't favorable to the country they decided to go there and try to install it the missions the point the mission the united states in iraq in afghanistan this counterinsurgency support democracy works it doesn't work for us cost way too much money cost way too many lives and it takes years to do so. you

know the administration kind of was throwing stuff at the wall they have a coin strategy in afghanistan they're counter-terror strategy and in pakistan the counter terror strategy has been a strategy that worked i mean going and using the drones i mean you had a guy who doesn't like drones earlier and i mean i'm a big fan i could care less iran has a robot and dick cheney was sort of war over at the bottom line is that the counterterror strategy going after bin laden we don't need to change that so the ministration you know the counter insurgency has been effective in afghanistan in the sense that nothing to do with the operations we're going to get let's go back to that since you made that point you know we talk about drone warfare it's something that just seems so much easier these days right because you don't have to actually get troops lives into the mix there aren't any lives that might possibly be sacrificed there and somebody just pushes a button from farther away by in that sense do you think that it also creates more . more discontent amongst the local populations is it one hundred thousand troops coming in and you know. all over their land or is it

a drone out of the sky firing at a house and killing innocent children other civilians and then you know it's something that the cia or the military will deny us going to talk to question not a strategic question a tactical question is if you know what a terrorist a terrorist is someone who targets a civilian just because you're from a group doesn't mean you're a terrorist a terrorist is someone who purposely just kills civilians or. either of those options it's relative to how they operate tactically so if you have one hundred thousand troops invading the country and they kill innocent civilians with no rules of engagement for instance we saw what happened in who killed. khadafi i mean was there a console to a kill gadhafi that way it would have been a work crime so we have rules that god our military and how we operate we saw in some of those rules broken to become sure about cable's a scene from videos that there were also very dirty. doesn't reflect upon the entire u.s. military but that also shapes you know perception on the ground it does but you can't say that one will be more effective than the it's executed yes

a drone that kills innocent civilians is less efficient than let's say troops on the ground my point is that you have a lot less people exposed and you can go places where you normally can't go no we can't put ground troops in pakistan that's for the world's number one bad guys around so do we invade troops countries with hundreds of thousands of troops and take casualties for years and spend trillions of dollars when we talk about cutting programs that affect americans or we could do it a lot more effectively in a lot cheaper where we have an issue with rules of engagement so we need better human and i don't really have a minute left so i just want to get one last bit in here to you is. there is drone warfare now the troops are coming out also contractors are everywhere right and the same time we also have this heated rhetoric coming up about iran about the fact that they have a drone about covert wars and operations and i just feel like haven't we learned our lesson that we don't need to do this exact same thing again look i don't support starting wars of robots i mean this idea that iran is going to invade iraq so it's completely false i mean they have they basically have a very friendly relationship with nouri al maliki the country most likely to invade

. iraq is the turks they've done it a lot there are close allies in the region so that's that's completely off the table in regards to contractors in iraq i'm aspecific we built these numbers there's a lot of contractors in iraq now because replace u.s. forces with contractors because there was always a lot of contracts in iraq so when the generals came to congress and said that one hundred thousand troops they never accounted for the extra seventy five thousand so there's one hundred fifty seven u.s. military they're going to be left in iraq after thirty one december they are twenty two they do not have weapons they carry passports this war is over from that standpoint they are there to issue a quick end to the iraqi army f. sixteen s m one a one tanks and items there are seven hundred fifty contractors that specifically support that mission all the other contractors that you hear about for that mission are third country nationals people from india guards around the gate from the guy in the butt look we've got a gun in iraq for years getting paid five hundred dollars a month to protect our bases all because we can't afford a counterinsurgency but to you does that not mean that that this war or whatever it is that this conflict was what every want to call it is not entirely over if you're going to have thousands of contractors war is over because the iraqis aren't done

fighting with each other ok now there are people there that are involved in it but this sense of an occupation of iraq is over i mean if you're a member of the u.s. military and you're in iraq on one january you don't have a weapon and you have a passport ok so. you can't carry a weapon unless the iraqi government authorized it so these people are there as a guest of iraq a government that's the huge difference now of course the iraq war wasn't over. it won't be over tomorrow will be over next year it wasn't over when we invaded i mean when we invaded iraq the iraqis we've always been at war ok i mean for a long time you had a lot of violence in the south for your saddam didn't control the terrain so you can't finish a war you didn't start ok we engaged within an iraqi conflict and we saw we sided with the shia and the kurds against the sunni leadership and that's what you have so the iraq war is not over because the iraqis are done fighting with each other and i want to thank you so much for joining us tonight out of time but happy to have you back and thanks very much been a long year thanks for filling us in. just ahead of the show tonight out of the current legislation one former senator. he's doing everything that he can to get

congress on his side here's what isn't right full time and that unhappy our marriage rates are still on the decline and should there be a nationwide cell phone ban was driving call outs and that. internal mirror military mechanisms do not work to bring justice or accountability . i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. but i would characterize obama as a charismatic version of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.

of the capitol and now because i'm laura mr. peterson don't believe the repetition of.

what a test nobody seems to know. that never appropriate to face quite hard the argument that they're being overly dramatic. hi guys it's time for tonight's tool time of war and tonight we're giving it to former senator chris dodd well by now you know that we have been vehemently opposed on this show the stop online piracy act even it is latest form because it simply gives the government too much power to block websites and it essentially kills a first memory it's on the web it's a bill that has been backed most prominently by the motion picture association of america a group that's also what our coveted award after writing a list of reasons why congress should back this bill let's get back to dot after he

left capitol hill as a senator chris dodd has now taken on the new role coincidentally as chairman of the n.p.a. eight and on tuesday he lobbied in favor of sopa while speaking at the center for american progress and he explained their hollywood is pro internet we stand with those strongly who oppose foreign governments that would unilaterally block websites and those deny the free flow of information and speech so i want to make it clear right at the outset the our fight against content theft is not a fight against technology it is a fight against criminals so ok chris we get it you want to get rid of all the super evil pirates that are out there is stealing the latest media coming out of hollywood however your claim that the fight is not against technology just not true of course it's against technology you want to block websites that have any type of ties to pirated material so how are efforts at censorship not against technology now chris does his very best to spin his desire for censorship censorship in the most benign way possible but you know he's not really going after the good ones only the criminals will be affected if you're a good internet user you've got nothing to worry about it's an argument that's used

to enforce censorship by dictators all over the world now the unfortunate truth here is that once the government has the power to censor it can censor anyone not just the real criminals and that was just one of god's ridiculous proclamations made yesterday according to tech dirt he also stated that the entire film industry . of spain egypt and sweet and are gone now we're assuming the dog was implying that lacks a copyright law is to blame for the demise of the film industries however mike masnick prove that wells come it's just not true in fact the number of films produced in spain egypt and sweden in two thousand and i was an increase from previous years according to the un back in ninety five sweden only made seventeen films two thousand and nine forty one feature films and ninety six egypt produced twenty four films but in two thousand and nine that almost doubled to forty six and most importantly space the country with some of the loses copyright laws and an outspoken critic of america's copyright protection laws has also seen its film production triple over the past fifteen years so so much for the piracy killing the

international film industry well now the dogs comments have been officially debunked debunked it's time to remind everybody about what the former senator is really rallying for dot of the n.p.a. are encouraging legislation that will allow the attorney general to blacklist websites engaging the way they think any and any type of infringing activity without any kind of trial they're in favor of the government having three rate over what stays on the web and wants companies like internet service providers to help police the online world targeting sites who share even link to anything that could remotely resemble copyright infringement but despite the growing outcry and opposition coming from major tech companies like google muscle and even the n.p.a. is carrying on with their lobbying efforts meanwhile chris dodd sold out to hollywood and is now arguing in favor of far reaching censorship legislation so tonight the former senator is our tool time winner.

ok guys it's time for happy hour joining me this evening is r.t. producer jenny churchill and chief strategy officer at vision strategies dot com thanks for joining me guys. so let's start with our first to move a little fast today but i think we all know a geyser known for which is basically doing stupid stuff here's a good example. the. yeah all right here's another really stupid and i guess you could say this is just completely insensitive one sigma epsilon fraternity at the university of vermont they're now suspended underdressed a geisha because they passed out a survey asking people the question if you could rape anyone who would it be really

i'm find this surprising and i'm kind of of the school of thought when you get a big group of guys together they do insanely stupid things for example congress or wall street. i think that's fair i was in a fraternity i think there are incredibly stupid things that happen when you do get guys together that's true if you do their thing right i think they would bowling balls down stairs and that kind of thing right but that's what happened in vermont is important but there's no excuse for making light of rape ever and there's just no excuse for it i don't think it's representative of all guys when you get the our promise here but there's just no excuse for that it's just it's just wrong it's just. all right move on to the next one. better think about it this what if nationally you can use your cell phone there was a ban on it in cars i mean this is something that's kind of been a long time coming and in certain states now like california where i'm from you have to use the hands free device but there's been a lot of funny stuff about how that basically just frees you up to do other things

. hey man i'm like it's like do you when you get your my calligraphy. i suppose. so i don't lay a national cell phone ban i think of a hands free device i think that are a way to go if you have the bluetooth this looks like n.t.s.b. striving for relevance to me i mean their argument was totally insane just talking in your car is unbelievably dangerous i'm sorry so does that mean that if someone's in my car we have to remain silent are you going to put like microphones in every car and if we have a conversation you're going to come after us or don't carry your kids in the car when we had run out of process and really really it is acting on force right but it's like some a step to seem so obvious like texting while driving and we're not looking at the road either so maybe we're in the report that the washington post article is based on actually talks about how accidents and deaths are decreasing they're not increasing and so now you have

a government agency overreaching to say we should implement new legislation that's unnecessary we have way bigger problems to prod. ok let's move on to something that we really love here on this show we have another story that. i love living that being. ok so microsoft co-founder paul allen who's also a philanthropist is basically planning a giant airplane that can fly launch a rocket and carry the cargo and the humans into orbit and. using engines from six boeing seven forty seven's. basically if you can just be flying and suddenly say like oh i think an asteroid today we've got a good. girl you know i was that's scary to say i want to think about the first

time we're going to use we have no way to get a human being into space right now we have no way to do that in the private sector making up for it i think it's a tragedy that our generation has no good success stories we have two disasters from our childhood in the challenger explosion in the columbia explosion and our later years but i'm personally i believe that we are on our way to our success story because we have businesses in space travel which wonderful brings a lot more money to go and get all serious about it i just thought it was really really like in the movie. i think it quickly reminds me of seen on girl the twenty first century i had government. with any kind of an art director and i totally watched. forecasts of most governments to work so i really quickly talk about somebody who i just think is one of the funniest men on the planet and that would be ok. some people believe in evolution some people don't believe in it and that's ok i don't think they're stupid but i think most people that argue against

evolution sound really stupid. because most people are actually are you against it . when i. first stars for the viewers if you're not familiar with louis c.k. he's also funny and you know they're going to take him out but i like what he did he had this bold new experiment he released a whole video for only five dollars and guess what he did it all in his own right he didn't go through any middleman any big companies and he's making money off of it hung out of dollars hundreds a couple there i think the coolest part of this is that he put no restrictions on it and you're told time you were talking about the piracy act and he said you know what here it is five bucks do what you want with it and he's seen a lot of success and i think like other artists he realizes that when you you know trust your fans they will reward you really who did this a couple years ago if you remember they made their album priyanka donate money and this doesn't fly straight in the face of soap stars fly straight in the face of the media industry is trying to adhere to old ways they don't want to be free these men

are free and as for can louis c.k. it's just great all right you guys are going to have another you for joining us that's it for tonight's show thanks for tuning in make sure to come back tomorrow mike craig is going to be on any time in our to follow us on facebook on twitter and you tube and coming up next he is the new. it's brand new trisha's and this is product on the price of healthy eating. we need to test these foods for toxicity allergenicity immune response lower nutrition and for environmental contamination don't you feel like a lab brought some consider the experiment each human treatment very highly significant differences between the g.m. fed that they both at the don't g.m. . but they weren't treated so well themselves one question means one career you ask

one question you get the answer and you might or might not be able to publish it but that's the end of your career. culture is the same of jargon code you'll already will most of us all worked up to from submitting radiation fees all powerful financial bullies for profit or necessary evils watching governments and companies i mean grossly stumbled.