and as we say farewell to two thousand and eleven will reflect upon the most significant events of the year and i will discuss the impact that the occupy wall street movement has brought to the u.s. . it is friday december thirtieth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out there watching r t well it is the end of december the end of the year and also we are told the end of the war in iraq throughout the day today will be taking a look at what was left behind the site the more than one hundred thousand troops that have come and gone but first a recap of some of the most significant aspects of operation iraqi freedom and a look of where it all began my fellow citizens at this hour american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq to free its

people and to defend the world from grave danger. it started with a campaign called shock. and are designed to be rapid and power. at first many americans were on board with the plan in part because of this earlier announcement by secretary of state colin powell one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence far we have on iraq's biological weapons. is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents weapons of mass destruction a key factor in selling the war. combined with the idea of bringing freedom to the iraqi people this gesture. largely symbolic and discovered later to be staged and directed by u.s. troops but still it was presented as a win for the americans and a sign of

a free iraq just twenty days after the invasion began. a few weeks later president bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared mission accomplished in the battle of iraq the united states and our allies have prevailed . it was a short lived victory speech that withered in the shadows of reality that the short war that was promised became one of america's longest with more than four thousand american deaths and nearly a million iraqi civilians estimated killed as well along the way america's reputation increasingly soiled by images of americans humiliating iraqi prisoners. or helicopter pilots shooting unarmed iraqis video game style still many stick to the story line they hope will show up in the history books going into iraq was the

road to the progress in iraq has allowed us to continue our policy of return on success i don't. think that it damaged our reputation around the world i just don't believe that i think it was sound policy that dealt with a very serious problem and that he limited saddam hussein this image another graphic and memorable one iraq's former leader being hanged on december thirtieth two thousand and six even president obama who is anti iraq war stance helps propel him into office he's asking others now to leave iraq alone other nations must not interfere in iraq. iraq's sovereignty must be respected iraq now home to the largest u.s. embassy in the world and while the combat troops are gone sixteen thousand will stay to guard the embassy today we mark the end of operation new dawn now the flags are being lowered now the story colors will fly no more they will never fade the memory of all who have sacrificed so much the bases cleared out to bring the promise of freedom to the people of iraq it was

a freedom never asked for and came with a high price for both iraqi and american citizens the war was neither painless nor prompt it loves the people of iraq with a country destroyed by a decade of war teetering on the verge of sectarian chaos as to change the nations try now to look ahead christine for our tea. there are of course not just the events of the war but the results of those events and the implications of had on the past present and future of this country and its place in the world i want to put up a survey of opinions in iraq now that the combat troops are gone now when asked who benefited the most from the war with iraq iraq iraq iraq to be able they were allowed to give two responses and the most often answered iran with fifty four percent of people saying and forty eight percent said the united states benefited most from the war in iraq forty percent say the iraqi elites did and just four

percent say the iraqi people benefited the most from the war so i showed this chart a little earlier two to two of our guests iraq war veteran jake berto and michael o'brien who worked as a contractor in iraq here's what they had to say and a bit of our earlier discussion you know i'm surprised that iran is not at the top of the list because i want it we're going to fifty four percent of iraqis say iran abetted them benefited the most. ok well yeah i mean and then i missed that point you know this this shouldn't be surprised at all i mean the this year in the south have totally you know hand over fist had partnered with the iranians and prime minister maliki he and macdowell solder as well as the iranian special operations forces should pat themselves on the back because they hoodwinked hoodwinked the united states in this this situation and it wasn't obama that did it

this was an agreement that the bush administration screwed up again so now i'm not i'm not surprised by this and it's it's it is just a sad sad tragedy and i think it's a thank god that the things over with though we can say that much michael you're sitting here nodding your head that in that jake said that that sort of resonated with you agreeing with everything jake said and all i can do is add more to what he said both his first segment and the one that the just ended look at the the disparity top of the list is is iran's at the very bottom of the list with four percent is the iraqi people the iraqi people are the ones without a doubt that suffered the most up to a million iraqi people are dead and the whole the whole thing is that what are we going to learn we obviously didn't learn anything from viet nam. we went to iraq so we didn't learn anything from viet nam it was an illegal war in your in your segment in the piece you did which by the with it was excellent you said it was

a freedom the iraqi people didn't ask for you nailed it when i was there they would say mr mike that's what they called you they called you mr or ms by your first name we understand mr bush wants to fight the war on terror why does he have to fight it here they were saying the thing i could say in response to that they're the ones that are the big losers and dick cheney and those guys can say whatever they want it's all smoke and mirrors i think that's a really good point i think it's also a good point that you brought up. what did we learn what did we really learn and i think back i remember where i was when that announcement that i showed at the beginning my report was made by george bush on march nineteenth two thousand and three i was living in d.c. i was celebrating st patrick's day you know at an irish bar and there were hundreds of people in this bar watching the guy playing tunes on this little guitar and just a couple of us were looking at the small t.v. on the other side of the bar and it was the president announcing something that

would change our world forever jake you were there will you ever be the same can americans understand what exactly you went through without having you know the ones who didn't go like you did. now this i mean this this iraq war and this afghanistan war has been the bloodiest war that united states has ever fake not in terms of casualties but in terms of the amount of deployments i mean we've gone on you know i mean i went on two combat tours in to chip in two years and a lot of these guys are in there serving now in their tenth and twelfth and some of them fifteenth tour in both iraq and afghanistan and that amount of trauma is incredible i mean divorce rate in the military right now is that eighty percent we've got an astonishing number seventy percent of the force deployed have gauged in combat some form so it is. it is beating the military to pieces that said as

you said about you personally how has this war impacted you personally well you know i wrote a post for r.t. it that there are two blog and i talk about the talk about basically what what for me what it was and it's total distrust in our government die i feel betrayed i feel that the bush administration lied us into this war and that obama is doubling down on the lies and that it's just it's just ruined a lot of what i think about the great parts about america because it's a great country and i lost a lot of friends there i was at a lot of friends that were killed and nobody can take them back and if you look if you're in iraq or if you're a muslim and you're thinking about the afghans pakistanis and iraqis up and killed it's unimaginable the amount of trauma that's been caused by this war. and that was jake albert hall iraq war veteran and our team blogger along with michael o'brien

author of america's failure in iraq. so we want to talk more about the legacy and look at this from more of a historic perspective and put it into a little bit of context so our team is shon thomas traveled to iraq to find out more. packing up to head home it may be easy to overlook the total costs of war at least one hundred fourteen thousand iraqi civilians killed as well as four and a half thousand american soldiers millions displaced from their homes not to mention a one trillion dollars financial burden still the former occupiers leave behind some words of encouragement i can say that with confidence that in the next twenty or fifty years iraq will we do here in the in the gulf region that rivals any country inside of the gulf region i think that iraq now is a safe and secure environment it's not a safe and secure is as it should be or it will be but it's it's progressing very

well the american occupation of iraq saw the fall of the badness regime the capture and execution of deposed leader saddam hussein and the implementation of a democratic government but now nearly nine years later is the country better off a little these are the below and also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and their grief mystique recommitted made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the u.s. military leadership especially in managing civilian aspects here this had a negative effect because i said that in fact many here say it was the american mismanagement of iraq and that led to the rise of sectarian violence in the country all people if you ask them who brings the interest to iraq he said yes it. damage to the infrastructure of iraq he said. so i think. we on american must cooperate in order to. put up this.

culture that hate. between two peoples the timeline for u.s. troop withdrawal was set in two thousand and eight and while the obama administration initially tried to extend the deadline the official transfer of power came sixteen days ahead of schedule on december sixteenth two thousand and eleven we hope that the future. all of us many good things if they can look to the iraqis in equal a balanced not waver view with see. iraq he not follow america must have been in everything on an american. soaps is not sources and also mind. many people who. love. our country right now the u.s.

and iraqi governments are working on a new type of diplomatic relations building a new type of trust if you will but now the next step is in the hands of the iraqi government to move the country forward as america's influence waned political infighting and sectarian divisions in the iraqi parliament have diminished as well giving iraqis hope for a strong future among them without as regards other aspects civil life the political and parliamentarian aspects as well as the economic aspect lets me see that iraq has good keep abilities but to be put to become one of the developed states but as iraq prepares to move past this dark chapter they have a message for their former occupiers to our friends american. the police don't another atomistic in the because you're a mystic is a great mistake. but it's teach.

your child relations and friends are few right now in a region in which america's reputation lies in shreds in the eyes of many in iraq sean thomas r t and now with me to dig a little deeper and figure out some of these broader implications of the war in iraq stevens yunus professor of politics and international studies at the university of san francisco you think santa cruz california right now president has how do you see iraq being explained in the future in the future history books certainly one of the greatest tragedies not just of american policy but american foreign relations certainly in the history of the middle east as well as many of us predicted prior to the invasion it comes on at least across the dinner. not sunni's in syria and iraq was certain to spend well over elsewhere it was radicalized a whole new generation. of extremists. terrorists

going away similar to the soviet invasion did not have a storm back in one thousand meetings and i think many of my you suppose though you're going to mock receiving a bad name and sense that it did not receive the stalin did the socialism or the samsung. idealistic concept of the store didn't even the name of our creation and militarism and expansionism. now there is real you. who are studio movies it's only recently on the past year we see the story through over through the pro-democracy struggles kind of like for some of those iraqi people and we were talking about this earlier in our show. as you say from their perspective if this is what democracy looks like we don't want any of it let's talk about the white house certainly a celebrate a celebration or a tone out of the white house in the recent weeks i want to play a part of a recent speech from president obama and then we can discuss one of the most

extraordinary chapters in the history of the american military. to want iraq's future will be in the hands of its people america's war in iraq will be all so professors it is when we talk about you know this future being in the hands of the iraqi people it wasn't even a few days that you know the last of the combat troops were out of iraq and we saw you know prime minister nouri al maliki basically kicked the vice president who was a sunni to the curb you know blaming him for all kinds of things there seems to be i would argue brewing some would argue it's already in the works a civil war happening between the sunnis and shiites and kurds there we have left iraq the u.s. has left iraq with kind of a big mess. very much so when the united states in our most responsible history of this i mean prior to the u.s. invasion. of iraq was under brutal but stable secular government you

have. shias and sunnis both in high positions they are as they have been for me are an american citizen see this is common especially in urban areas in small towns that there was only one mosque in the same seals work together about the united states and some of them other than an act of the policy the rule. exacerbated the sectarian differences in the united states some followers the vast by some resentment society that is the iraqi armed forces and most of the iraqi civil service so the armed forces is now a collection in the militias that are probably more loyal to their particular party or character unity and they are to the state and probably the single server depending on the department has something to the fiefdoms there and it is competing . sectarian groups and it is it is not even

a as much the cerium conflict as it is around because because within that both sunni and shia communities you have both nationalist and sectarian is which are also. struggling against each other but in many ways parallels northern ireland where the conflict was not its positives versus catholics per se but the protestants were genocide with the british occupation other catholics were irish nationalist and so the sunnis you know who had been to iraq suddenly find their country in the hands of of the shiite parties which came to power as a result of invasion of the us and spend their exile years and have very close ties with the with the rest are ready to break enemies let me pick your brain that you're poly five hundred your brain for just a second and switch gears a little bit. we're just a few days away of course from the iowa caucuses and all the g.o.p. candidates ron paul seems to be the only one saying enough is enough not only and

the war in iraq but end all wars and they don't start any new ones now in many ways this sort of philosophy has been you know dismissed not only by the other candidates but by the mainstream media and yet he's the only one that served in the military what do you make of this sort of dismissal when you have a candidate running for president who says you know words are bad and they're dismissed. it is ironic isn't the. strongest agreements with congress on paul's position on a lot of domestic issues but he is one of the few people who have parity seems to be speaking common sense around the united states is overextending itself and he's not saying it's out of any great moral philosophy a commitment to pacifism more or human rights or international law or anything like that he's just saying it's simply in terms of america's own self interest in the way our own country has being hurt by this kind of imperial overreach and the other

republican candidates have been rather resilient saying that obama shows kept the troops in a rant kept the troops and iraqi anyway in other words violating the treaty that was signed by president bush and that and then essentially go to. make a new occupation we're going to disaster on a whole number of fronts particularly since they are not the army totters group promised to launch their armed struggle against us if we did so again you know the side this idea where you know republicans are not only is paul wrong but even obama is somehow being too moderate just his indication of how extreme the most the republican party has been certainly extreme and they're also probably hearing some things from defense contractors who are speaking to them in terms of money i can only imagine a professor of politics and international studies at the university of california san francisco you perceive them as go u.s.

ask stephen dana thanks so much for joining us. well still ahead here on our t.v. saying goodbye to two thousand and eleven after the break we'll look back at how the protest in new york sparked a movement called occupy wall street. to leave. iraq. beyond my. primary. which. was.

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 sorry welcome to the big picture. do you like our keep the show with you the world go online and check out our brand new internet store with official hard cheap products. question more with our team. well as twenty twelve creeps closer we continue to look back at the stories that dominated the past year this time it's occupy the occupy movement that exposed to social and financial injustice and the most unexpected places are losing half an hour takes a look back. i

remember at the start of the so-called so-called arab spring we saw so many mass movements from europe to the middle east people rising up taking to the streets protesting and the question we kept asking ourselves over and over again is why not here why not in the united states i mean for years we've covered stories that touched upon social inequality economic inequality the overdue undue influence in fact that politics has been the money has in our financial system and i never thought that this kind of popular outrage would really come to the united states that it would really hit home. when the occupy wall street movement began my initial impression i have to admit it was

utter skepticism you know it sounded like some american protesters saw what was going on in the middle east and thought it would be i meet sort of symbolic way to emulate what they've seen for example into where square. one of the biggest things that really sort of woke me up as an individual was that that night in times square in october this was right after the supposed to be announced raid by the mayor where about three thousand if not more protesters had gathered around the park to to defend their space and they succeeded they weren't raided and we saw literally thousands of people marching into times square which you know the physical contrast of the sort of a temple of consumerism which is times square in manhattan these flashing lights these logos these expressions of corporate power and consumer culture in stark contrast. with literally thousands of people who have gotten together to speak to

shouts to feel the physical presence of of other americans who are just no longer content to sit back and watch society unfold in the direction that it's taken me. i was just feet away from the area where several police officers mountain of course facts out of the out into the crowd hurting some of the protesters seeing with my own eyes for the first time the excessive level of force. old gentleman who looked like he was probably in his sixty's slammed down to the ground his arms and back women of all ages men of all ages carried away for doing what for sitting down on the ground and not moving or making a point quietly. standing there with my camera man with this line of police officers several hundred of them armed to the teeth you know what pins out

sticks out a line of protesters behind me you know i thought i was there as this protected almost impartial observer there to tell the story but when these lines of police started moving at me it started moving forward towards me starting shooting towards our direction started tear gassing my cameramen was tear gassed i was injured and that's when it really changed for me there are at least hundreds in the not two hundred three hundred police officers in full riot gear as you can see advancing behind us right now on the occupy oakland movement now one of the other interesting experiences i think for me was sort of seeing the contrast between occupy wall street in new york and in oakland in oakland where there is such a radical history of activism where the people there the protesters there were so much more outraged so much more ready for a radical fundamental change of this in this country. but at the same time. one of the experiences that really stands out to be in my mind was the day of the

port shutdown on the member second you know there was a house of thousands or tens of thousands of people who were gathered who were marching around seventy to eighty is not a lot of police presence that there really felt that perhaps we had turned a new chapter in this country perhaps this was going to be an opportunity for these kinds of expressions of political discontent with the sort of crackdown that we've that we've seen in the past and what happened that evening really really shook me to the core i have to say the contrast between these peaceful marches and. seeing firsthand the streets of oakland turned into something i might have seen on the news and as you can see there are marching. sticks their hands baton thing and i don't know if you can get any closer on that shot i think that really galvanized this country and really woke us up to our reality. the reality is that

there is a lot wrong and there's a lot that needs to be changed but instead of sitting here and inviting experts to go and talk about it we're seeing people physically participating in what democracy really should be all about. and an american citizen i feel that i am here to tell the stories and i have a right to tell the stories and that is part of what this country is fundamentally founded on and sort of experiencing firsthand the the loss of the the inability to do anything the feeling of powerlessness and smallness. that's something that i think i'm not going to forget for quite a long time. and for this hour that's going to do it but for more on the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa or check out our youtube page at youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at christine will be back here at seven

pm. well. science technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered.