of greece's future. greece athens well another big international story we're following in many ways has become domestic at least the part of the story much of the mainstream media and u.s. lawmakers would like you to believe i'm talking about iran and its suppose that involvement in recent planned attacks that israeli embassies and about iran's threat against israel and the united states about the supposed development of its nuclear program for non peaceful purposes despite a lack of any concrete evidence now in this regard facts are being blatantly ignored and about you know millions of people are being deceived as a result take a look at this. defiant iran taunting the west iran is calling it a major achievement its nuclear program scientists have loaded nuclear fuel rods into the core of a research reactor tehran is fueling its centrifuges with nuclear fuel and that is stoking fears that the rogue state is indeed one step closer to an atomic bomb is

this another step potentially on a road to potentially making nuclear weapons it is certainly a step down the road towards a nuclear weapon escalating nuclear tensions with iran this morning president mahmoud ahmadinejad is shown supposedly loading nuclear fuel rods into the tehran research reactor it is a huge source of pride for iran but should it be a source of worry for the west around has ballistic missiles with a range of about one thousand miles obviously putting israel well within reach this is iran doubling down on moving down the path towards a nuclear weapon. something may sound a little familiar to you if you rewind about ten years replace nuclear weapons with weapons of mass destruction replace iran with iraq there are some eerie similarities here and i spoke just a little while ago with david swanson in charlottesville virginia david is the author of war is

a lie also the founder of the website david swanson dot org and i asked him if he too was experiencing a little days on through. almost identical my god i'm glad i don't watch television the newspapers are bad enough i had to sit through that you know it was nuclear weapons weapons of mass destruction was a way of luring the line between less dangerous weapons and nuclear weapons and the public was convinced in the united states that iraq had nuclear weapons dick cheney would occasionally say it outright condi would warn of mushroom clouds and they would in various other ways imply that iraq was about to hit us with nuclear weapons and was behind nine eleven we even got our buddy over in egypt to torture a man until he said iraq was linked in linked up with al qaeda and behind nine eleven it's the same thing we've recently heard that iran was actually behind nine eleven iran has nuclear weapons we have the majority of the american public believe me iran has nuclear weapons while in reality they avoid saying so they fudge they

talk about its possible nuclear capabilities and so forth it's almost identical and of course replace dick cheney who as you said a vice president at the time going on and on about the threat now even in the family still his daughter is of course on all the networks saying the same thing it's so interesting we see these pictures pictures of the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad in a lab coat and all the sudden the case is made you know the i.a.e.a. report said there may be reasons to believe but again no evidence and i want to play something here's dan an opponent of the homeland security secretary testifying last week on capitol hill right now we have no specific or credible threat against any organization or or target in the united states but this is certainly a situation that bears watching all right so a situation that bears watching as an official you know educated source is

a little bit different to me then you know an attack is imminent. what's going on here. and they they all say every single one of them the president the secretary of so-called defense the homeland security secretary that there is no evidence that iran is developing a nuclear weapons program there is only evidence that iran has a nuclear energy program which it iran's says it does there is no evidence that iran is violating the nuclear nonproliferation treaty all of these facts are in contrast with israel and the united states by the way which if these were justifications for war there would be justification for war against us but of course they are not and this crazy media madness leads us down this same path where we all begin to assume that if iran does have a nuclear weapons program then we need to know get it nobody can prove it doesn't the president himself claims not to want war with iran but suggests that it's up to

iran to cease its probably not existence nuclear weapons program and to prove a negative to prove that it does not have what there is no evidence it doesn't have or the blame is on iran and we should have a war whereas of course there is no such thing as a justification for a war based on what weapons a country has a lot of course bring israel and have as israel of course invited our vital part of this discussion being such a close ally with the united states general martin dempsey chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff said over the weekend that you know it was not prudent at this point to attack iran and a strike at this time would be stabilizing but he also admitted that you know israel might not be convinced of the same notion talk about you know the role of israel and. you know why there is such a huge tug of war going on right now will the u.s. government right up to the president cannot continue to give israel billions of dollars worth of weapons promise israel to veto all measures of accountability for

its abuses and crimes at the united nations and pretend. to be trying to persuade israel not to strike iran the united states has the obvious capability to influence influence israel and is choosing not to use it while continuing including through the president's own mouth to push the same propaganda that makes the war more likely it would not be prudent to start the war today it would also not be prudent to continue down this path that allows the momentum to build with threats back and forth between us and iran that makes the war more and more likely as the months go by the only prudent wise moral or decent thing would be to take steps now to talk to iran to negotiate to scale back and to actually threaten israel with something israel cares about and as one final point david i mean. i think it's very easy to

make this iran iraq comparison between you know the leading up to the iraq war based on false premises and what's going on now but we should mention to this negative talk this fear mongering about iran is not new it's not new in the last few weeks it's not even new under obama it's been going on for decades has to say this is just sort of more of the same well iran was on the list that tony blair said dick cheney had that wesley clark said the pentagon had a decade back it's been on the list of the project for the new american century and the neo cons in this country it's been a target since the one nine hundred fifty s. and since the revolution in the late one nine hundred seventy s. it is not at all new that iran is a target but we have successfully persuaded the american public that it would be another iraq that we were being lied to for many years now and this campaign to get us into iran again has failed in public relations terms for several years now all right we have to keep up that campaign david swanson author of war as

a lie joining us from charlottesville virginia thanks so much. well to move on to syria now where violence is continuing and in some parts of the country it's getting worse and the international committee of the red cross is trying to negotiate a humanitarian ceasefire between pro and anti-government forces in syria to bring in supplies like food and medical aid to those most in need now to senior members of the united states senate armed services committee senators john mccain and lindsey graham have called for u.s. and western help in aiding the syrian rebels to supply those rebels with weapons and other aid came in graham are in afghanistan and they said that to do so would not only help those rebels but it would help washington in its effort to weaken iran and the situation on the ground in syria still very tense and dangerous and as marie if an ocean now reports the violence is expanding far beyond damascus and also taking a toll on entire communities throughout the country. to kilometers

northwest of damascus lebanon just over the border once relaxed luxury mountain resort the town has recently been the scene of brutal clashes between assad's forces and and to government groups there was a lull in the fighting and as we approached the city we have a choice who's of control at the checkpoint they are happy to see a russian television crew as somebody who's in charge here russia is among the few countries to talking to assad and calling for others to have dialogue with the regime along with china to be towed to the u.n. security council's resolution and voted against another one at the general assembly which put pressure on assad to leave this town nobody home to around twenty thousand people looks abandoned. the reminders of recent turbulence tell their own tale of what happened here on these walls you can see the story of the conflict how

it was developing here in the city of several dunny initially there were some graffiti here about president bashar al assad then when the armed groups operating in this area took control over this town new graffiti is a period of course and to government one of the army regain control of his adani they destroyed the mall they tried to destroy them all at least but some still remain where we are in town we can hear sounds of shelling some turn a deaf ear to it would always find a shooting but i don't know those who agreed to talk and don't want to show their face. the army intervene and it's killing us they're shelling random houses searching arresting people there's f.s.a. an armored groups on the ground too few. but not everyone here says the situation in the same way was when armed people came here we asked the army to stand up for us now they are controlling the city at dulles shop is an area where much of the

fighting took place. the so i was away when i arrived the army told me there's been a big battle here says the army is now here is no groups anymore no tents most of the caledonia all the clashes between security forces and the armed opposition groups here near the town of the dunny have been very severe how it all stopped the locals tell us that their town has a unique story when the violence started the residents decided to intervene and there has allegedly been an agreement between the army and the opposition that both of them leave the town although the military officer we have been able to speak to didn't confirm that and we can still see. many miter and machinery inside the city we had a look around and counted at least thirteen tanks but to tell us they were only used as protection on the way back through the checkpoint and officer keep

supporting everyone suspicious of this nation refinish nasty. syria well that's going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa or youtube dot com slash r t america and you can also follow me on twitter at christine for. sure is that so much i can which of course you might want to hear it is the trials and tribulations of the middle class long considered the failure of the west political and economic order is now the victim of a long term. limb issues three cretaceous three sons four charges three arrangements three. three stooges free. download free broadcast quality video for your media

project free media down to r.t. dot com. play. live. and you can. play. below in welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the trials and tribulations of the middle class long considered the pillar of the west political and economic border it is now the victim of a long term downward mobility why is this the case our government policy is to blame or is this due to what is called the politics of dependency. plain.

and. plain. to cross talk that a client of the middle class i'm joined by in new york he is a sociologist professor at and invited professor at columbia university in chicago we have david psychotic he is a professor of philosophy at loyola university chicago and in los angeles we go to tony katz he's a tea party organizer and a radio talk show host all right gentlemen cross talk rose and if i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it tony in los angeles you got up early as for this program so i'm going to go to you first why why has the middle class been suffering so much over the decades is it government policies that have done this to the middle class or is the middle class itself it's changed its values its structure and this is just the way of capitalism it's the still way it works that's there's been a myth about the middle class for a century and it's just something that's changing. first of all it's good to be

here and let's not engage a conversation where we're blaming capitalism capitalism is not the problem capitalism is what allows people to thrive and survive and grow and allows for opportunities i'm never going to allow anybody here anywhere else to have an attack on the open markets and free markets and that just that's just for hardy nonsense but i think there are interesting conversations as to what are the forces at play and that are making making a living difficult right now how do you change those forces those are conversations about taxation those are conversations about what it is that a society needs to offer what it is that government is supposed to do for us as opposed to do to us those are the real conversations i don't even think that they're political i don't even think they're right left or or or anything like that they're about what are the constraints of government what are good tax policies government policies that allow people to thrive and survive i think that once you can gauge those conversations a big deal when you know what is going to be living nonetheless i think we would all agree on this program in our view my viewers too is the middle class has taken

a real clobbering over the last thirty years and particularly since the advent of the financial crisis in two thousand a david if i can go to you the fate of the middle class i mean it just gets worse and worse and worse and i will part company with tony i think it has something to do with capitalism i think it is an important conversation david go ahead and chicago. well i mean i certainly think so too but yes the middle class has really taken a hit as joseph stiglitz nobel laureate in economics remarked a few months ago we can no longer pretend it isn't true the upper one percent now owns forty percent of all the wealth now takes home twenty five percent of all the income the average income the median income in the united states household income is fifty thousand dollars right. there four hundred billionaires in the united states if you get a five percent return on your on your billion you know you get fifty million a year doing nothing. you know a million times more thousand has more. but the root cause of this i think really

does go back it's not something that's just come about because of the financial crisis it really goes back to the mid seventy's a striking thing when you look at the data is that household incomes have been rising steadily through till about one nine hundred seventy five and they have flat lined since for the middle class this would seem to create a problem because if people aren't making more money you know yet more and more stuff is being produced how come the economy hasn't been in crisis since then and i think we know the answer the answer is people have been borrowing the money in effect the wealthy capital is classes instead of raising wages regularly let's so you can buy our products will loan you the money so you've got this massive debt that finally exploded finally gave us the melt down but even then what i think the root cause goes back to something earlier than that the new technologies that were

coming online that made it possible to offshore production to set up factories abroad so that you do get around the globe global wage competition which is you know if anything is david it's interesting i mean with the things that tony said and what you've just said and i'd like to go to green right now in new york it should we even speak in terms of terms of the middle class anymore i mean because of the technological changes and because of the way the economy is involved in this the financial ization of the economy is a very good point to the credit. crunch that that was just mentioned here i mean it has the middle we should be keep using this term should we be using a different term because middle these people are not in the middle anymore they're in the single digits at one end. yes the men lose their lives you know you. go into the you are the worst there had been going to new york first yes yes in

fact it's very clear that fifty fifty years ago the western countries where the civilization of middle class the middle class neuroses technicians and engineers and the sky and of of associate professionals where as a center also says we does ation of western countries in europe in the us to. know is that we have a shrinking middle class and the kind of explosion of middle class in two parts a well meter closet is sinking and on the middle class of professionals increasing in incomes in impact in political command of society and we all know we are no more able to to to to to to create new dynamics of middle class the problem is not simply technology it's a problem is that investment technology could easily investment new businesses and

new will be arsed from is more in the market in china in india in buzz euna and inertia are less in less in the western countries and zoo loo where we don't class the western countries are completely sin king they are first hated they face political problems and difficulties and seats we are a problem for they were crises in most ways i want to hear what i want to do with it whatever you think of it ends in the second half of the graham david you look a little perplexed if you want to jump in there yeah well there's two things first of all the middle class is dissolved in but it's not that fifty percent are going down and fifty percent are going up no it's about eighty to ninety percent you know are seeing their incomes stagnate or go down in the upper twenty ten and above all the upper one or two percent you know are doing well but the other thing there is this political dimension. it's not just technology there was also the polish move to advocate to push for free trade to dismantle any kind of protectionism so that

our workers had to compete with workers everywhere else in the world this was a political decision that was unable to buy the new technologies that now made it profitable for companies here to do all this outsourcing of moving their factories and so on ok tony if i go to you the most important and greatest export of united states is jobs apparently and that's destroying the middle class whose fault is that ok is it just technology you know you know snooze you lose or is it on more people with capital saying it sees will can make easier money in the bric countries for example is it a political decision. again we will not be attacking capitalism or the open market around but if we can being gaijin the side that would have if you intended ology god god god god forbid we should have the automobile we could just go back to the horse and buggy wouldn't we be all better off it's like dan rather saying that there should be protections in the us house of representatives amongst the federal

government i should say for newspapers because newspapers somehow need our protection technology is a good thing advances are a good thing sometimes things fall by the wayside new things you hear tony is just a little crash landed on not just the middle class man if you for a moment because rich people benefit from these you know they do but just the middle class behind the conversation about jobs in america for example isn't so much a conversation about technology take a look at fracking technology take a look at all we can do to get the natural gas right from underneath our feet but we don't seem to do it it's a conversation about regulation in america that keeps things from growing and thriving and prospering so there's only going to talk about. the benefit of all of us if we don't take it david jump in your hands on that technology go ahead david yeah i mean tony mentioned the automobile now that was an interesting technology but what was peculiar about the automobile technology is that it was a technology that generated far more jobs than it replaced ok yes the horse and

buggy industry took a hit but you got automobile factories you got gas stations you got auto parts the new technologies that was an historical accident the new technologies may be wonderful but they do not magically generate anything like the number of jobs that they are every placed in in fact the newest technologies the big. hospital dish offshore sure those jobs ok larry and we're going to know when they come and i do your i want to go back to new york chance please you know whenever we have an affair time here we do you see you see. what we call the middle class in the west recovering i mean what's going to take two for the west for the middle class to regain what it's lost over the last three or four decades. in trying to he gains indeed status first through question is. of work it's a problem in many countries and in though your bill western europe and countries of

two strong welfare states is that so work the basics of work is disappearing but it's not simply that it's also investment in new businesses investment in and here universities and formations of development of a new intermediate professional class that is does it is that has been disappearing over the last thirty years so the problem is that thirty fifty years ago all associate professionals proficient or away or kind of in the core of the west of western countries the problem now is we have more of them are kind of not could anybody to see going contrary is in front of the economic poor technological poor and poor of china and of is to an asia our problems is that we are focused on investment and the problem with investment is that it's not simply capitalism or big governments that are able to to to to do everything so

polemic over the last thirty years is that both the big governments and both capitalism have forgotten a lot of science and technology is that we need in order to recreate the middle class if it is ation such as does a pro inquiry to know all right interesting point gentlemen we're going to go to a short break and after that meet our break we'll continue our discussion and downward mobility of the middle class stay with r.t. . if you want to.

welcome back to crossfire people about to remind you we're talking about the prospects of the middle class. ok david i'd like to go to you in chicago mention before we went to the break what he didn't say it exactly but he was talking about what people say the politics of dependency and how the state has made the middle class dependent and because of the the rise and maybe we see it we're seeing the fall of the welfare state do you think that's a mitigating factor in the fate of the middle class because no i mean i think i had to go ahead and think so go ahead that that makes that make it makes no sense in the i don't see how anyone can blame the fact that there's people on welfare that's not what is responsible for the fact that with the jobs are the number of jobs are less and less available more and more people are losing their jobs it has nothing

to do with a cultural defense dependency it has everything to do with the fact that the invisible hand of the market given a free rein will not create enough jobs in a very curious way marx is coming back marx remember predicted that when wages go up the capitalist will replace skilled workers by machines this will generate unemployment ok mark so you can reserve army. downward pressure on wages it's not. worse a fuse with a fuse went off and. let's make sure it was the fact let's make sure that we're all talking about a couple things karl marx was a first rate hike communism sucks so let's never engage the idea that karl marx is someone we should look up to second of all it is a thrill to hear people say and recognize that.