the race isn't over yet we'll take a look at the long road ahead. and we think are wrong the title of them are you just hollywood your drive and yet hordes of middle class americans are lining up to support this small multimillionaire so as many americans beg for scraps and a man who is still out of touch with the economic hardships really get the country back on track. it's wednesday june january fourth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching r t well it was considered at one time the one thing that would never happen would never even be considered but now it appears it's out that that leaders from the united states are negotiating with the taliban the reason is in part the desire to end the war in afghanistan but what else is at stake here as are to correspondent was wall reports this new report this new

approach could actually be a major victory for the taliban. to go shooting with the taliban something the u.s. under president bush vowed never to do some seem to believe that we should go shoot with the terrorists and radicals. as if some ingenious order to. persuade them they get been wrong all along. we've heard this foolish delusion before when i said no negotiations i meant no negotiations but that's exactly what's happening today after more than a decade of trying to defeat the afghan fighters the u.s. has reportedly agreed to release high ranking taliban prisoners from guantanamo bay and an effort to start peace talks those sets of be released include mohamed fossil the former taliban deputy defense minister accused of commanding forces that kill thousands of shiite muslims as part of the deal the taliban will open

a political office in qatar a safe haven for talks i say this this marks that point or there is a mission maybe not openly that we're not going to achieve that military overwhelming dominance of the taliban. so with the u.s. giving in to their demands to be seen as a victory for the taliban i think the idea of releasing these individuals without understanding what we're getting in return we being the united states i sat it's not really a good idea and i think it's almost an act of desperation so how does the average citizen feel about releasing the terrorist suspects either out of high profile. to be. right so i would say that they need to be. detained should the u.s. be negotiating with the taliban and i don't think so. but i well i mean they bombed our country and. they should pay for their for their sins so to speak i

think that everybody has come to the conclusion that valid taliban is there to stay so if we ever expects the bill it be in afghanistan they've got to be part of something the deal can be seen as one of the biggest breakthroughs in the ten year conflict in afghanistan but the fact that the u.s. is still trying to negotiate with the taliban shows that the u.s. is far from declaring a victory and washington liz wahl r.t. . all right so not only is this something to think about the idea that the u.s. would negotiate with the taliban but it's also important to think about the agenda with afghanistan and look at the fact that you know the troops are now gone from iraq and will someday be gone for the most part from afghanistan journalist and writer neal say just returned from afghanistan as present time watching as u.s. troops told some of the villagers there that they should get ready for this impending departure hey there neal i guess i want to ask you first what was their

reaction and i was hoping you might be able to kind of describe for us the role of the taliban in afghanistan today i christine sure well i was there most recently don't remember i would ask. citizens how they felt about the impending departure of nato forces and most of them told me that they were very concerned about it. they felt almost without hesitation as soon as nato forces left the taliban would be able to sleep because they didn't have much confidence that the afghan government would be able to handle things on their own so i think there's a lot of worry among afghan citizens about what will happen when those troops begin to leave when we talk about nato and the u.s. leaders negotiating with the taliban and to me at least on one hand it makes sense trying to be diplomatic and speak with your enemy as opposed to just trying to kill him but something this as you know a total capitulation on the part of the u.s. government want to get your thoughts on that. well i think that capitulation is the

wrong word because you know that serve a victory in the very traditional sense of we killed all of the enemy and now there's no one left to fight and really when was the last time that happened in any war western congress don't fight that way any longer and particularly in afghanistan where the taliban movement has shown an ability to sort of reform itself and grow back even after our so-called military victories you have to begin to work with a power like that in a different way and that's what the u.s. has really been doing for the last two years trying to find a way to talk with the taliban and reach a settlement that doesn't depend on total victory i mean i think that's an important point to bring up when you're not simply talking about winning and losing but afterall i mean when we think about who the taliban is what they stood for it's pretty significant that leaders would be you know talking to them i mean these are

people who swore to continue to fight against the u.s. people who claimed responsibility in victory for the terrorist attacks of nine eleven. and they've even been known to terrorize their own people their women so i guess my question i mean is this a sign to the rest of the world that the u.s. is tolerant to that kind of behavior absolutely not i think that's really kind of a big leap to make obviously those things are not conditions that we would allow to stand in the united states itself but really the u.s. hasn't been saying that it's been trying to turn afghanistan into sort of a miniature united states for a long time so we have to remember that the things the taliban hold dear are really . quite common in many parts of afghanistan the idea that women have a certain place the idea that there's this very strict interpretation of islam those things are not it's strictly taliban beliefs they've run throughout the

entire country so it's really it really gets tricky you're right we are in a way saying that the afghans should be able to do whatever they want to their people but that's nothing new we've been sort of on the track the last eight years or so let's talk about some of the other sort of aspects of this deal afghan insurgents will open up sort of an embassy like office for peace negotiations in qatar and in return the u.s. is releasing or has released as several high ranking taliban officials so talk about these sort of aspects of the deal what will this office for peace negotiations actually be for why is it in qatar and what does all this mean i think one of the reasons that this office has been opened up is to give the two if we just say there are two sides the nato side and the taliban side a legitimate place to meet and talk about these ideas. you know the the

united states and nato have been trying for a few years to reach out to the taliban but they've been in some cases fooled by people who posed as taliban intermediaries who were actually working for the tell about and then we've had cases where taliban. supposin taliban members came and actually were hiding suicide bombs in their clothing as we sew the assassination of burned and burned the bunny back in september so i think that this office will give the legitimacy to the taliban government or to the taliban officials in any case and it will give people a place to meet outside of the war zone a lot of mixed reactions when we talk about afghan president hamid karzai especially by those who actually live in afghanistan what is your sense i mean especially just having come back from there what is this deal this sort of new found relationship mean for those who live in afghanistan. yes which relationship

to me with a good humanizing ship between the u.s. and the taliban i think that this is karzai has been saying for a long time that that's how he's called the taliban our brothers in the past so he's no stranger to this idea that the taliban elements of afghan society is going to continue to to exist i think that for many afghans particularly those who live in the north and sort of the central parts of the country where there hasn't been traditionally a very strong taliban presence those are the people who are really going to be looking at this and saying what is the united states doing what is nato doing you've been fining them for ten years and now you want to talk i think for those people who are not part of the pash to an ethnic group and who generally don't have much relationship with the taleban they're the ones who are going to be confused by this you know what surprised me the most i mean you were in afghanistan as a journalist and not as somebody you know with a mission or fighting what surprised you about what's happening right there that

people should know about. well one of the things that you mentioned earlier i think that if most americans understood the way that afghans live and work and what's afghan society looks like they'd be very puzzled as to what american forces are still doing there what are they trying to accomplish with this culture that is so wildly different than our own and as you mentioned. in a way our presence there subsidizing behaviors that we would never tolerate back in the united states such as the the oppression of women in the treatment of children . these are things that are very strange to american audiences and for a journalist they're really difficult to talk about because partly people are no longer interested in the war but also very touchy subjects that don't get a lot of coverage so i would guess that the big huge cultural gap between the united states and many afghans is something that really struck me and is very difficult for journalists to get across while we certainly do appreciate you

weighing in your perspective having just been there a couple months ago journalist and writer neal say talking us from boston massachusetts. well there is no turning back now on the madness has started it for real now people are actually voting i'm just talking to pollsters and with those votes counted the results from last night's iowa caucus are in mitt romney came in first place with thirty thousand and fifteen votes rick santorum got just eight fewer votes with thirty thousand and seven and then ron paul came in third with twenty six thousand two hundred one thousand votes so in total about a hundred twenty two thousand people voted in last night's caucus the first real test of the voters will hundred twenty two thousand people isn't that much and when you think about iowa and the state of iowa it's not only an extremely rural state it's also about ninety one percent white according to u.s. census information from twenty to ten it's also traditionally conservative and when

you put all those things together it's extremely non-representative of the rest of the country and yet it's the reason one candidate michele bachmann has already battled out of the race and according to the mainstream media iowa is always crucial to setting the path of the campaign well to talk about iowa's political weight earlier i spoke to conservative radio host t.j. mccormick as well as the director of grassroots political consulting l.l.c. daniel for achi and i started out by asking t.j. why not make our political system a little more fair by changing the order of primaries every four years. i think it makes a lot of sense to you know sort of look at that but it's it's tradition it's tradition you see the way these states all fight each other for that position you have states pull in little last minute. begins and then passing different machinations in their in their legislatures to to ensure that it's all goofy i had made and it's

not very substantive at all but you know i would be fair to you know rotate it sure but it's old school traditional american politics old school american politics daniel let's talk a little more about this you know critics of this system argue that constantly having iowa first encourages extremists like for example pot robertson who did pretty well in one thousand nine hundred two and historically speaking doesn't often choose people who actually end up winning the nomination talk about this aspect of why iowa well i agree with t.j. talk about the tradition and how things or as far as the process is concerned and i don't see it changing anytime soon but there are also other examples more legitimate when you had to dale's and what george w. bush you have two thousand and eight with barack obama so on both sides there also has been that candidate who has won but traditionally i would does not pick the winner and interestingly enough the process i have

a problem with the caucus process it is one that when you have that lackluster motivation not having a jeb bush paul ryan all the rest and here you just take a look at expenditure from two thousand and eight to right now mitt romney spent seven million on the air in zero eight among all the candidates five million was spent on the ground back in two thousand and eight you have a million and a half plus super pac expenditure from that one candidate alone this last time plus i can't wait to see what the analysis was of the street so literally in the caucus process if you don't have that. huge motivation for that really strong candidate you could make sure you pay the right people to get in that room and oh did i know that it's so shocking that money can actually buy votes in florida right now. all right let's talk about what we saw last night i know one person certainly not pleased about the results was it newt gingrich speaking of money here's a full page ad he just took out in new hampshire is union leader new hampshire of

course the next day it's called the choice and says only a bold reagan conservative can defeat president obama of course in bold colors and that romney in black and white t.j. what's going on a is this kind of the kind of campaigning that we're going to see from now on are they going to continue to be a little bit. of chorus of course of course they are and you know and it's it happens republicans hate that part of the primary process when they see their own tearing each other up democrats hate it when when they were in there in the primary process it's unnerving for the electorate to watch this thing because at the end we don't want all this garbage out about our guy in terms of newt gingrich is interesting gingrich you know the it's going to take the reagan conservative who's going to beat barack obama i think the thing about newt gingrich that has gotten any momentum at all was the idea that one conservative republican saw him in that first bunch of debates they all imagined that guy on the podium at

a podium across from barack obama and literally vis orating him destroying him in a debate now cool lines which would have happened who minds have prevailed and now people are realizing newt gingrich is not going to get past that personal baggage he is not the most electable people are now starting to settle and they're going for the guy that will that has the best chance of beating him in terms of votes because also don't forget a lot of people don't always remember everything that they hear and see from a debate and it's real briefly dan i want to talk to you before the cameras turned on you and i were sort of talking about an interesting. part of i with a lot of people don't know that you can actually if you're i will resident register on the evening of the iowa caucus no matter what party you're with is that right correct as a democrat or independent and vote republican for the evening and i'd like to see a lot of the after analysis to see i mean there is a lot of motivation for many in the democratic party if they wanted to get into

influencing this to make sure that romney pulled off that victory in iowa and ironically to i i'm not as convinced on the field being settled here he had seventy five percent of the republican electorate going against the presumptive nominee who spent multiple millions of dollars in two elections in order to secure victory and i well i want to talk now about ron paul of course last night's results left a few people surprised a lot of people thought he would finish first or second but it also showed this is a candidate who is extremely well organized you know as usual you know when i was in covering the straw poll over the summer people drove from near and far just to shake ron paul's hand and you still have that. ron paul thinks he can garner support from young people and that he draws excitement t.j. ron paul says he's taking his campaign all the way to the convention how does this feasibly have. well i guess he could take a bus to the convention as

a non. but i look you're you we could we could summarize ron paul in the first part of your of your. love of the of the paragraph you just said ron paul is extreme leave it there leave off the l.-y. and everything else ron paul is extreme he's even wanting to sound a bit extreme. knowing is all according to this people right here but you know he's a guy with a lot of his libertarian stuff his his bring him home save money and the fed that resonates with a lot of regular people but you know when it comes down to national security let's forget it so what if iran has a nuclear weapon so what if iran has and that alone would sink them before we even got out and out of the carolinas and let's talk a little bit danielle about something that happened with ron paul again we talked about his organization he had people that actually you know one of the tactics included getting his supporters not only to cast their votes for him but to stick around afterward to become

a delicate delegate for the republican convention in august and apparently a bunch of them did is this kind of normal now he has some of the most motivated volunteers and apparatus nationwide out there he also ironically has the funds and the sustainability of that network and that movement to be a major factor in this election not saying that he'd secure the nomination but to be a major factor in this nominating process and in the election of itself because the caucus is not are non-binding so if he gets these delegates to go and show up at the convention and vote for him that could possibly there are a lot of scenarios that could play out also we're watching you know another factor for him which will be interesting to see is when this selection gets down to south carolina now that rick perry decided to stay and we look just like we did back in zero weight when huckabee and fred thompson split the vote and it up with mccain as the nominee whereas if there were

a little fewer people in that field you could have seen a rudy giuliani huckabee race in five seconds or less t.j. mccormick who wins new hampshire. hillary clinton no i think i think i think romney i think romney takes the day he's got is that's where his machinery is and has been for months that's where romney romney romney will have to think and leave it at that conservative radio talk show host t.j. mccormick as well as the director of grassroots political consulting daniel for watching. well it's been a broken record since long before last night that mitt romney is the only candidate that's moderate enough that smart enough and actually has a shot at beating president obama in november but here's something you're not hearing about mitt romney is rich very rich more than estimated two hundred and fifty million and in a country with a near nine percent unemployment rate and many more just struggling to make ends meet is america ready for a multimillion dollar per hour multimillionaire president artie's own andriano said

i went on to the streets of d.c. to get to the bottom of just that. so are americans ready for millionaire mitt well as the race for the white house heats up so i decided to hitch a ride with a couple of d.c. insiders to get their point of view how long have you been here in d.c. oh i've been driving b.n.c. ninety eighty four eighty five president clinton. did bush you know andy did you know did you think americans would be ready to have mitt romney as a president i did my to let you know yeah people usually when you're in politics do you think that money plays a big part in politics here in the united states. yes it does at the dose show you know they don't. know yet why not just but do i mean mitt romney to win now but spent a lot of money is over i'll just play it over time you know the people vote don't

go for rich people they don't have rich reporting married i always think. it was jolly don't like it but. you see what they do most of this research people contributing a lot do is dump it and yeah if i were a politician i wouldn't care whether it guys in my party or not it's. well everybody's proposed is right always good for an issue. well there you have it will make it well the time will tell but one thing is for sure once you're here the nation's capital sure to take a couple of tips from the cabbie after you give me yours from washington i said oh are to tell you whatever i was right those cab drivers know more about what's going on than just about anyone you talk to on the streets so of course meanwhile president obama is also looking ahead to november today he spoke about the economy and about his decision to make a recess appointment richard cordray will head the consumer watchdog agency and i

think it's safe to say if the president gets a fight about it well that's a fight he'd gladly have and it's no accident also that he was in ohio today a high of course a battleground state. because folks here in ohio and all across the country. want you to know. you're the reason why room for this office in the first place. well we are still fighting for our well things are not quite expected to go as smoothly as they did for barack obama back four years ago where he once he clinched the nomination the fire and the passion followed him just about everywhere he went to correspondent marine important takes a look at one group of people in this country that seems to be growing people who want to spend all their free time volunteering and campaigning for obama who this year have decided not to. three years

ago one historic campaign turned us politics into a pop culture phenomenon and. experience for the democratic candidate achieved unprecedented support international fame and a record breaking six hundred fifty million dollars in donations. thousands of new yorkers celebrated the victory clutching an enormous american flag hand sewn by obama supporters but the winds have changed and the very same democratic symbol waved in honor of the president elect in a way each straight from a straight has been donated to them lou find that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven other about twenty people holding out david moffatt organize the flag project after being inspired by obama rhetoric a dream shattered by the subsequent years of politics as usual curly what's

inspiring me as up as over to us like that that's the thing that's inspiring you know like that's why i brought the fight oh w. us and the thing that inspired me about it is the fact that it's a grassroots movement. that had a like a very clear and transparent process artist shepard fairey seems similarly disenchanted releasing an updated version of his iconic hope poster replacing obama with his now clear support for occupy wall street with an economy still in crisis wall street largely unregulated social programs slashed and over forty five million citizens on food stamps it all starts with you making a decision to get involved obama's familiar prose may not be enough to win back his familiar fan base he didn't produce what people wanted him to produce in two thousand and eight professor and author dr cornel west was one of obama's biggest supporters i think he's got the vision he's got the newness he's. the freshness taking part in more than one hundred campaign events but last april the prominent

intellectual told r.t. that obama has failed he's the friendly face of the american empire abroad he's in the process actually of becoming very sadly a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business and any politician here knows they are in trouble when the hollywood a listers start turning their backs are you happy with the way that obama has been running the country. you know now and i think i really think he misinterpreted his. yes the approval ratings show voters are even more turned off with the alternatives leaving obama seemingly the lesser of two evils america's president clearly enters the twenty twelve race amid a growing band of disillusioned democrats most will still back barack obama over his republican rivals arguably with heavy hearts in two thousand eighty was the

unassailable candidate of choice this time mr obama is likely to stay in my default arena. new york. all right and we're just about done for this hour but coming up in thirty minutes the alona show so let's check in with hollowness to see what's on the agenda today what you got cooking for us there alona well christine we actually have a great show tonight we have some really big guests glenn greenwald is going to be on and give us his opinion on what it really means when american officials and some of the people from the foreign policy community here say that they support democracy in the arab world basically he says that it's all a sham now we also found out is that the taliban is now opening a political office in qatar and reportedly the u.s. in exchange for negotiations is going to give up some detainees from guantanamo bay so matthew hoh is going to join us to talk about what that might mean for the war in afghanistan whether this is really the final capitulation on the part of the

obama administration that means that we want to get out that we give up and you know whether this is in its essence is a really big loss and also a lot of people complain that the occupy wall street movement doesn't have any concrete demands tonight we're actually going to talk to a man that founded a group full of bankers hedge funders and all people that are financial experts that are going to tell occupy wall street are working with the group to try and tell them how we can fix the financial system all right i want to and i'll see you on a happy hour at the end of the show thanks so much all right and for us that's going to do it but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa or check out our youtube page at youtube dot com slash r t america you should also follow me on twitter at christine freeze out once again the show coming up in thirty minutes.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.