rights are threats to gun rights in a way that makes them feel like all their rights are threatened are you proud of your country and want to stay in school or was you know you probably are worried you thought you can't do. without we was america and we really don't thank you very much for thousand francs thank you thousand their target audience is conservative white gun owning men and they feel pinched and they feel sort of displaced in our society i've been fired up since the last election i got enough change already and again only more if you have the losing the country to others they feel like the minority they feel like you know immigrants and lesbians people of color are taking over the country and these conservative whites are now the numerical minority so they're going to act the n.r.a. offers a message that not only are going to be taken away but so are your core beliefs

your identity your values your status your power is that correct my interpretation of what you said is that the right insurrection against the federal drug is a god given right that you're protecting you sure that is correct. our founders did they have this political propaganda theme that essentially the federal government is depriving americans of their free and that they are resistance there shouldn't be any federal gun control or the federal government has no authority should be no federal jails there should not be a you know lifting i just out this is a movement that has potential radical if not revolutionary. intentions self-defense is a benefit of being able to shoot the government. that's why we have a second amendment that's what we did with it we shot the government when the government broke the contract with the american colonies we shot up and we pushed them out issue. i call this the insurrectionists theory of the second. and it's

very dangerous it is an idea that is a threat to the very foundations of our democracy it's a foul it's a threat to the rule of law itself it's an invitation to vigilanteism it's an invitation to take on literally against public officials if you don't like what they're doing. if you have any doubt about how dangerous that is reflecting back on the oklahoma city bombing. it is a devastation and on certainty in a small city that has never before been touched by terrorism timothy mcveigh nine it was an individual who absorbed this. ideology and he acted it out he concluded that the time for revolution had come. to the federal building. and he knew that one of the agencies in that building was the bureau of alcohol

tobacco and fire which was the government agency that he thought would be the one to come for the guns in ohio citizen soldiers trained for carbon comp while snipers in michigan practice with high powered weapon. this insurrectionist idea which is also what motivates these militia groups formed back in the ninety's and reforming again a report out today claims fifty new militia training and sprung up in less than two years as one law enforcement source dangerous mix is brewing at all but. the founders were very clear about this it wasn't for honey that we have the second amendment they fear they feared big government and that is why the people should be armed it doesn't mean that we're agitating for the use of these arms but it always holds government in check we can't continue expanding the domestic anti-woman.

system so the time will come hopefully we will never have to use the weapons for self defense but we should be prepared but the most important thing that we do is to understand the importance of defending liberty so that we can preserve the greatness of this country i thank you very much. the rest of the world has figured out that they can do something about gun violence other countries have taken steps to license guns to register guns require training and i'm not saying all those are things that should be done here necessarily but there are things that we can do. since we don't think bad guys should have guns we should do background checks and find out if those who are

buying guns are bad guys or not we do that for some sales we don't do it for all of them we should do it for all of them it's just that simple guns should if she stop selling guns to keep like. a straw sales are one of the most common ways they can to get into the hands of criminals why with in congress give foresman the resources to do undercover inspections if thirty percent of the trafficking cases are connected to gun shows why would you close the gun show loophole. the way it works here is that congress is so afraid of everything else the n.r.a. can do to them that they won't make the simple gesture to make all of us safe so you've got to try to find the middle ground in the gun show loophole is the thing that the public really want to get. through this year was if you. i think this bill has any chance i mean the air as opposed to this

status strain that they created the supreme court here on capitol hill d.c. voting rights i mean it's worse to be going up but get this out this is this is really bad today. ok i'm sure at a. background check. no background check right. because. i. fact is congressman i wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today if it weren't for the events that happened i do want to sixteenth two thousand and seven immersion in tech i wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today if it wasn't for the ten minutes of hell that i survived on that day and i wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today if our federal gun laws had been stronger the existing brady act as it is written is too weak to protect future americans from from another some reach zero or other predator birch cers i can think of no reasonable responsible

logical reason why that should be the fact is congressman i wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today if i didn't believe with every part of me that might like that officials will do what is responsible and reasonable to protect their citizens. thank you very much for your time mr goddard i'd just like to say that your testimony is compelling is a testimony i've heard here on the hill i would hope that all members of congress could hear that could make a big difference clearly with this particular issue so i want to thank our all i would assess today form is concluded. thank you there's still another college campus shooting this time northern illinois university in dekalb in them am a northern illinois is that it's shooting at public schools and colleges in just one week what's it going to take when columbine happened people thought if coal mines not enough nothing's enough well columbine wasn't enough a couple of years ago there was

a whole string of shootings on campus virginia tech certainly most horrifically and people said if this isn't enough nothing's enough old virginia tech wasn't enough not even in virginia let alone a federal law so i frankly don't know what's. wealthy

british style. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max kaiser for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our.

it's the beginning of the end of the war leon panetta says u.s. troops will leave afghanistan by next year but as the u.s. looks forward to the end game will take a look back at a decade of war and question of what's exactly going accomplished. and. the big the big the big the big you stand stand i'm going to say you know i don't know. americans say the darndest things unfortunately these people are the politicians we elect to lead the country i guess ignorance isn't always bliss.

it's thursday february second or pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t. well the end of an arrow on the horizon in afghanistan u.s. secretary of defense leon panetta has announced that america's longest war is coming to an end by next year the u.s. and nato aims to draw down troops and end all combat in afghanistan with this pullout and the official end of the war we want to take a minute to look back at what this all means and what has actually been accomplished there while the last time the u.s. ended a war without a decisive victory was in vietnam for many of the fall of saigon left a bitter taste in their mouths it was in many ways an end to an extremely unpopular war and the early hours of april thirtieth one thousand nine hundred five the capital of south vietnam fell to the communist north two americans were killed and thousands fled to the u.s. embassy and were evacuated it was the single largest helicopter evacuation in

history. well this may be exactly what the u.s. is trying to avoid as they plan their departure from afghanistan the way the u.s. leaves afghanistan has the potential to define the entire war and if you remember the last people to exit the country were the soviets back in one thousand nine hundred ninety here they are with their heads held high as they depart the country . now as the u.s. prepares to leave afghanistan with thousands dead billions of dollars spent was a decade of bloodshed and war all for nothing former u.s. marine an r.t. blogger jake deliberate joins us now for more welcome jake so violence in afghanistan at its worst now since the u.s. went into the country over ten years ago now afghanis are bracing themselves for the taliban to return back to power this seems to be a far cry from a victory for the u.s.

was the war than a waste of time in your opinion. it's good to see you and. good job kudo's r.t. for picking up the story a lot of the mainstream media is not covering this that this news revelations i think i think we have to take the war in two parts first the united states response to nine eleven i think was reasonable was done just that i think that us performed relatively well that afghan support at the very beginning but when we chose to go into iraq the u.s. got totally got sidetracked we missed the boat and capturing bin laden we totally totally took our eye off the ball which led to a series of problems that we had to deal with in afghanistan later on and when obama came into office there was a series of other dilemmas to deal with and i think that the second part of what we've been doing late recently this nation building is is the part that the problem

and that this far has not been justified it's not been worth it had we taken bin laden out when we had him at tora bora ad we done the job at the very beginning and gotten out we wouldn't be in this problem we would have spent all those billions of dollars and also i think that you probably wouldn't have had the iraq war it had gotten been had we gotten bin laden in two thousand one. hundred second half of this has been a big big mistake. and now with the impending drawdown of troops in afghanistan and as the us reflect on our time spent there over the past decade what would you say was really accomplished there. well you know i mean i was in afghanistan in two thousand and nine i just returned i was a part of a series of u.n. delegations that met with taliban leaders and u.s. officials and afghan leaders and i say that. the departure comes at a time where the united states has a recognize that its military can only do certain things that the real crisis the

real problem that can withstand is a political problem resting inside of kabul with you karzai i've essentially been you know the the government abuser in chief the mayor of kabul and the pakistani i.s.i. continuing to fund the taliban and the haqqani network and i think that as the u.s. leaves are going to see an increased taliban influence i don't think the taliban ever going to be what it was in the one nine hundred ninety s. but they're certainly going to be somewhat of an influence. for the foreseeable future and do you think with the pentagon making this announcement that they have come to the realisation that a war in afghanistan against the taliban is not really winnable at this point. you know i think that i think that the pentagon has seen that they need to change policy you know what secretary gates left he made

a couple remarks saying that basically the real problem in afghanistan the political problem is not the military and that we just saw. the deputy secretary michel foreign ways leave and i think the press there is some in workings within the pentagon of arguing about what what needs to occur and leon panetta said essentially that nation building and counterinsurgency is not what the u.s. should be doing so i think that it's more about less less about winning and losing but more about the u.s. making the decision that it's not in its interest in a more to be nation building and i think that the profound move from the inside the pentagon and jake i also want to talk about this highly classified report that was leaked michel's that the taliban backed by pakistan will rise back to power so this decade long western intervention i mean what has it done to curb taliban influence

in the region. well a couple things first of all nobody has heard. heard or seen from mullah omar since two thousand and two and so the leadership of the taliban of the quite assured valid and the old taliban is essentially become in consequential what we have seen an anti cars i movement grow there has been a growing movement that's anti western and of course that's what the west the west wants a government favorable to itself so there's some problems there and also i think the big big big problem is that we still haven't had pakistan come on the side of the afghans or pakistan really a real partner with for the united states so i think you're going to see a continued arise in power from the county network specifically and i think that the taliban idiology is still going to be stronger with costumes regardless of

whether the u.s. is there or not because we haven't had pakistan drop its support for the taliban and the u.s. has been trying to build some kind of an alliance with pakistan in an effort to help fight against the taliban in afghanistan and light of this recent report that's classified report that was released i mean is that going to show that with this kind of american sentiment that it that is spreading there that at that at any time a relationship with the with pakistan is going to be as unlikely. yeah you know this this is a great question it's a great point what's going to happen to pakistan god only knows pakistan is. it's the moon with gravity it's so chaotic with simply like ten militant movements that no one has control of the us has continued its drone strikes and as a result there's been an increase in punjab the violence pakistan is just an

absolute mess it's. no way of really dealing with it so i think i think basically that the u.s. is going to try to take its hands off and hoping that with a less footprint that perhaps the violence and the increased militancy amongst those and different militancy is you know the t.t.p. and economy and pressure a taliban that perhaps less of a footprint might make these movements decrease i think that's what the u.s. is betting on and lastly jake just want to ask you as an iraq and afghanistan war veteran yourself how does a feel to see this announcement that troops after a decade of fighting are finally leaving these countries. well i think i think that this is one of the best things for us because you know when we started this thing in two thousand and one you know we had no idea that this would take ten years twelve years and it's been our most the longest war in history and it's

totally exhausted the u.s. military suicide rates an all time high divorce rates and at eighty percent the u.s. military certainly has taken a drain and withdrawing from these nation building operations is really really good for the morale of the troops i also think that overall it's good for america's concedes again just because now we don't have our military bogged down in a nation building campaign god knows where halfway around the world for a decade and some so it's it's good and from our point of view i think that we're happy to see afghans take charge and the u.s. not to be in charge of the fate of that country cake a pleasure to have you on the show as always that was our team blogger and former u.s. marine. well still ahead an artsy everyone has a floridian slip on occasion but it seems us politicians have more than most from

lose becky becky becky stay out of fan to our north korean allies are politicians really that ignorant are they just sticking to popular talking points that story next. r t is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. at first break that just burns your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything you'd be by

a lot of. thousands of times stronger than any kind of ever put you know. well campaign season is in full swing as the g.o.p. presidential candidates now hone in on a vat of what the caucus coming up there this weekend and from embarrassing debate performances to be will during interviews when it comes to foreign policy it seems some of the candidates don't really know what exactly is going on abroad and this as one of these men quite possibly could be the next commander in chief of the world's most powerful country r.t. correspondent we're going to pour in i explores how the bloggers by past and present u.s. leaders could be affecting america's image abroad. every four years

america's top job is up for grabs. with each new election comes a new batch of candidates with compromising foreign policy credentials when i asked me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stan stan i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border you can actually see russia from land here in alaska africa was a country on the brink on the brink of complete meltdown and chaos geographically illiterate us candidates have supplied comedians with and lists material but all jokes aside some presidential hopefuls vying to lead the world's most powerful armed forces know very little about america's military intervention you agree with president obama libya or. libya.

forming a cohesive sentence on geopolitics can be a struggle i do not agree with the way he is the father riis. you know that's that's a different line differentiating between friends and enemies it's also a challenge obviously got to stand with our north korean allies in the case of republican candidate mitt romney mixing up presidents and prime ministers can be common i think that president bush represents a real threat to the. stability and peace of the world the overarching ignorance on international affairs has caused american political commentator bill maher to conclude i think anybody could be president in this dumb country ok sort of like at this point now where i think if you're gonna be it when you register to be a candidate you also have to go take a test about foreign affairs and if you fail the test we might get you one chance to take it again and then i'm saying sorry go run you know for city

council in your little town in alaska if a country with the world's highest national g.d.p. is being represented by politicians with a deficit on international affairs the biggest consequence is likely to be america's credibility around the world and even who we target and let me finish this i just get lost in a blizzard of words there this is where it gets really dangerous for united states of america it's like wait a minute how could they possibly be right about terrorism how could they be right about north korea are going to be right about iran so-called nuclear program when their candidate doesn't even know that there's a north and south korea i think the u.s. is why and so then the world has this very paranoid view of the united states because of the candidates not understanding basic facts or understanding basic principles of international law which unequivocal you prohibit torture and if i were president i would be willing to use waterboarding i think it was very

effective for me when i read the consistent streak of foreign policy blunders made by u.s. presidential. hopeful's is quite humorous but it can also be considered a national tragedy if most candidates campaigning to be leader of the so-called free world simply don't know enough about the world outside of america's borders. well those were just a few examples of some of the silly things politicians say so our our leaders really this ignorant about foreign affairs and what is behind some of their talking points well joining me here now in studio to answer these questions and more is abby martin journalist and founder of media roots welcome out be good to have you in the studio so it has been at least an entertaining campaign season so far watching these debates also an embarrassing one for some of the candidates from

perry blanking out on which government agency cuts a basic geography mistakes i mean what does it say about the pool of candidates well it doesn't say much seems like in america we play by different rules than the rest of the world here we like to develop personalities behind candidates where people can relate to a candidate oh i want to have a beer with this person why don't want to have a beer with the president and it's i'd like to him to know what he's talking about so it makes me feel really uncomfortable and embarrassed and i think a lot of other critical thinking people in this country feel the same way i think they're just trying too hard to relate to middle america and to relate to people when really they should be focusing on their knowledge of the world and foreign affairs and if that's what they're trying to do portray themselves as a candidate that hey we're one of you come out with a beer for me come out come out and have a beer with me i mean does that then affect their talking points and and what kinds of things they choose.