and the construction stopped people in the obama administration talking about how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women of afghanistan. the. polls well they often say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and in america's case the whole lot of asphalt but from protests in afghanistan to ongoing unrest in libya it looks like the military mentality might be backfiring so is it back to square one and speaking of backlash over all you need somebody to solve. the wrong most people so you can do this a little it's little new clues to the policing the world can be a tiresome job and the latest round of u.s. sanctions against iran is making

a difference but not in the way politicians anticipated we'll show you how this squeeze play could actually suffocate the american economy. get your buckets ready because bailouts have become a fount of life in this global economic recession but is this really the best way to do business or should we go back to cut throat capitalism. is monday february twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our team. all want to start off this hour by talking about us policies of interventionism in the past present and future this country is notorious after all for occupying foreign countries with the goals ranging from retaliation to instilling democracy to stopping a civil war and quite often the us government and military alike are surprised at

what they find that people in those countries don't want them there and in many cases will risk or sacrifice their own lives to make sure they leave we're seeing a new low point in america's longest war on folding as we speak riots in afghanistan the citizens there protest the accidental burning of korans by u.s. military personnel at the bottom airbase at least four american soldiers have been killed and many more afghan citizens and there's beginning to be a sense that the battle to win the hearts and minds there is unwinnable i want to talk more about this and also about how what we're seeing is part of a larger trend and how that trend could take everyone in this country down a dangerous path of things don't change dramatically dr paul craig roberts is a columnist but also spent several years working as an official with the reagan administration. dr roberts i don't know about you but i've been hearing a lot of people quite shocked at the reaction in afghanistan by the afghan people to this incident of burning the holy the muslim holy books last week despite

apologies issued by president obama and general john allen do you think this is an illustration of just a lack of understanding in this region. where we could be straight with the cameras but. state she's been there ten years you know room in the children village elders aid workers being at schools for. families names i mean. maybe they have. maybe they've had enough. otherwise it's sort of inexplicable that for ten years they didn't mind the bomb funerals weddings but all the sudden they get mad because we would burn a couple of their holy ones well i tend to think it's just sort of like. the found straw in that finally you see what tends to happen these countries kristina's one saturday the other won't the americans to come and put them in power and so the

countries are split if they want split the americans will be able to go in first but it's true i'm going to do you think that what we're seeing in afghanistan right now could sort of prompt a rethinking of how long we stay there i know we were supposed to be there have a significant u.s. presence there until two thousand and fourteen. you said this could be the straw that broke the camel's back i mean do you think they're going to have to sort of devise a new plan here well no one knows what the plan is if you remember one of the early questions to bob when he came into office was you know what is the mission in afghanistan and he said oh no it will have to figure that out well he's never told us so they don't even know why they're there i think mainly due there because the military security complex gets rich off of it and is a great supplier of campaign stops and and that's one main reason they're there and another main reason is it's part of this neoconservative american hey jen to me

i do hear but there's no clear mission and they don't know why they're there and they're not getting anywhere well let's just take it out of afghanistan for a moment and just sort of broaden this a little bit you've seen this sort of occupation thing happen quite a few times since you've been serving in government is there days of you here or you know is it sort of occupation very different. well. usually they don't stay so long except for germany they're still in germany after world war two sixty something years i suppose it is and in japan but that was a different kind of occupation because the troops weren't there and shooting up the country and died in iraq and afghanistan they're shooting up the country and they've not been successful and i the place you know we finally had to get out of

iraq because they couldn't even occupy baghdad and they finally had to put the sunni insurgents on the u.s. military payroll pay them to quit fighting. and they haven't been able to do that the taliban and so where they go stand over ten years and spend trillions of dollars and achieve no result they don't control the country and they're not getting anywhere and they don't you know the mission is it's pretty interesting when you sort of look back. and kind of look at the different i mean there are some similar strategies use i want to look ahead though for a moment dr roberts i know that you've written a little bit about the situation in syria and you write what the ministry of truth calls peaceful protestors brutalized by assad's military are in fact rebels armed and financed by washington washington has fomented a civil war he said it claims its intention is to rescue the oppressed and abused syrian people from assad just as washington rescued an oppressed abused the libyan people from gadhafi talk

a little bit about syria and what you mean when you say this is thanks to obama another country has been destroyed. or libya's destroyed you know that it's that they have these clashing militias terrorizing everybody is far worse than it than it ever was and so nothing was cheap there that is consistent with the claims well what was achieved in libya was a they've messed up the chinese all investments of eastern libya which was brought . the purpose now syria you know assad has come out and held this referendum that. will change the way the country's government or the political parties are going to be able to compete for the presidency it. that means that the likelihood of the continued rule of his party will be over and so this is a positive steps but what did washington do i denounced it. and and they're not

supporting it now and they're encouraging the so-called rebels that they're behind and not to support it because they want to overthrowing so why do they will talk with her i miss may just be they like to exercise power and jory there's humorous an arrogance that goes with the power but there's no real reason to overthrow a system that has been put into the mode of change if they overthrew it what will it be it'll be like libya the all these clashing militias the bills civil war people will continue to die and things will will fall apart the infrastructure will be destroyed people will leave like in iraq you know they had to several million people have to leave and so there's no purpose for washington's position that it doesn't serve any interests that they say so they may either they have a hidden agenda that they won't declare that is washington has a hidden agenda or it doesn't want to do it it certainly is interesting when you

look at from a look at it from that historic perspective dr paul craig roberts joining us from panama city florida. well the question looms large and is often central to questions of foreign policy what must be done to try to force iran to stop its nuclear program for the obama administration often called it weak on its iran policy by republican counterparts the answer is sanctions and this week the latest round is set to go into effect it will target transactions made with the iranian central bank now later this summer sanctions directly targeting iranian oil are set to go into effect as well that law says that if you buy iranian petroleum you'll be locked out of doing business with any financial institutions in the united states for president obama it's a global puzzle how to hit iran where it hurts the most without of setting up other countries especially allies who rely on iranian oil now iran has of course denied that it's seeking to build nuclear weapons and has recently showed signs that

sanctions already imposed are starting to have some major negative effects on the country but there's one area many people are forgetting to take into account when they count sanctions as a solution right here in the united states it could mean a dramatic spike in oil prices here which would not only hurt consumers but could also severely hurt president obama's chances of being re-elected in november let's go now to v.j. for a shot director of international studies at trinity college in hartford connecticut and every day let's just start with this what's the likelihood this policy of sanctions against iran ends up hurting people in the u.s. as well as other countries. well it's not going to be of being the sanctions regime iran produces a very large amount of oil it largely delivers the oil to your ip and these are two big buyers of the oil including turkey and if the iranian sanctions

against iran put in place from your group that is going to mean that the united states is going to put pressure on saudi arabia or iraq or libya to deliver expensive france if you do your bit and do india and if this happens that means that there will be very little expect aggressive for the united states if they want to have more supply on the market to bring all right so it's very likely that if the sanctions go through by the summer all prices in the united states might dutch five dollars a gallon a day i want to touch upon something you said and that is the need to get saudi arabia a saudi arabia involved i know back in the one nine hundred seventy s. there was you know a somewhat similar situation some are pointing to in which saudi arabia was willing to use its excess oil to sort of flooded into the market to keep prices down but today i think things will be different

a lot of people believe that's no longer in the best interest of the government in saudi arabia of course it wants to use its access to oil for its own population to keep them happy to prevent another arab spring from happening there i mean what do you mean when you say having saudi arabia sort of get involved as well. well the saudis have been going on a dual of european capitals and recently the major figure from the oil ministry was in new delhi meeting the indians and there have been making all kinds of promises of excess capacity coming out of saudi arabia to these markets in a sense to bring on board countries like india and brussels on side for the move to shift the sanctions regime into an embargo of course whether the saudis have this excess capacity is a separate question and that is in a sense a national security question you know the saudis have always given very inflated numbers about their oil reserves it's very important to recognize that the shift

from a sanctions to an embargo regime against iran has a great. benefit for saudi arabia to saudi arabia has been playing an active role in trying to bring the world on one side to isolate iran and right now places like new delhi and happens under not convinced that they will be given you know is soft landing if the sanctions become an embargo against iran so it's not the case that these places have entirely or the saudi american position or an embargo on iran will be will be neutral for them i think that's an important point and you know you can talk about other countries that can get involved to help let's talk also about countries that may be hurt by this japan south korea you know they rely heavily on iranian oil russia opposes a sanctions that china works kind of indiscriminately with any country in which it

sees business opportunities and so you know you see china partnering with the u.s. you'll see china partnering with iran how does this play out with other countries that often are on the side of the u.s. in terms of diplomatic relationships. you know there are two very important points one is that it is not the case that most countries are as enthusiastic to join the embargo of iran as the united states and a lot of blended european countries even the greeks of very very nervous the percent of greece's oil usage comes from iran and when iran said that they were going to dream to vliet got of supplies to europe there was a great deal of spending money i'm in athens where there's already an incredibly difficult economic situation and that's the first or it is that many countries are not sold on the idea of the embargo on iran secondly because we realize so greatly

for our financial systems on your account the united states most financial transactions go through something called a swift network which is based in brussels you know when you wire transfer money you abroad you need a swift court it's a messaging system for wire transporting of money the swiss network has said that they're going to know sanction the iranian central bank and twenty some iranian financial institutions so this is a very serious question because what it means is despite the appetite of much of the world to continue doing business with iran europe and the united states are making it harder to do business by removing iran from the international financial markets and that is a disturbing trend now r.t. recently spoke with hans blix the former head of the international atomic energy agency i want to play really quick what he said about her what a lot of the world is hearing are our only options when it comes to iran versus

what the options actually are. yes we have to push more for sanctions that we have run the diplomatic path the sanctions remain now they're talking about stopping oil importing and maybe bombing but i think their last a imagination there are still things that can be done on the reward side i mean what do you think i mean do you agree that there are a lot of other options that some things can still be done as opposed to implementing the sanctions well it depends on what those things up the united states and your pics taken of maximum position which is that iran should not be permitted to enrich uranium now buys a lot by the nonproliferation treaty by the way in which the international atomic energy agency has operated it's a reasonable and legal for iran to enrich uranium as long as this does not get diverted to military purposes but the united states has said that iran can never

enrich uranium you know and so suggestions have come to have iranian enrichment happen outside iran there's a great deal of space for discussion here the problem is that the west needs to back down from its maximum position and come to iran with a very open suggestion that let us actually deal with what are your interests what are your needs and let us tell you frankly that we no longer wish for the destruction of iran a lot of people talk about iran directory visa or israel but what we don't talk about is the west's rhetoric reserve in iran they threaten iran routinely so if the west arrives with less than the maximum position and with a clear statement that they no longer wish for the destruction of the iranian government the iranian regime then there may be room to talk. very interesting they're not just not just about action sometimes that might entail

a way of thinking that's changed all across the west the director of international studies at trinity college. also ahead on r t but that's no street fair this sea of red is thousands of spaniards taking to the streets to protest education cuts or bring in the very latest on the euro part. of the capital account i'm lauren lyster. and what drives the world the fear

mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one. with the global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more. students and teachers in spain have packed the streets of valencia angry it comes to the education system of the government there spain is always see a suffering country and the people in the streets are angry also about the harsh and brutal tactics used by police at previous rallies when dozens were beat down and about forty arrested now spain is facing an out of control deficit and despite many across the board cuts is slated for many more in the realm of forty billion euros or fifty three billion dollars correspondent sara firth is in valencia spain where some of the hardest hit people are she brings us

a look at yet another place where a weak economy is prompting people to take to the streets. there you are a sentiment was riding high off to spain during the year as a back in two thousand and two but a decade on in years of a start he would assume back to us through the economic crash yet against. government policies and we were we were in town. and a question of quality for our kids the latest round of cuts and reforms but nationwide protest in spain led via and it was a student leading the way they took their complaints as the classroom little to the spanish streets and we're spending millions like we're rich but actually we're seeing that we're not rich at all i mean we have high schools without without heating you know there's no money there accounting where they shouldn't they're touching the low income people and. and they just don't see anything that's they

think it's right in the brain not the face of reason all of. them. become the latest country in the grip of the year you write. about. who preyed. upon the population while spain's protests have by and large been peaceful and worryingly familiar scenes last week the spanish riot police clashed with protesters worry about the same thing happening here is happening going. yeah we do i mean we think we have just been released i think it's more or less the same. yes because there's no money spain's not there yet while being a very different country with very different problems it's now facing a scarily similar scenario that's agrees with the press population being squeezed

even tighter we are about two years behind him terms of protest but you see the policy of the troika. the international monetary fund european central bank and european union are imposing on. greece italy spain portugal it's economics one o one is very simple to understand that i mean if these countries. with problems. for. public spending you. push them deep into recession like greece spain billions in foreign debt held largely by germany and france it's money which wouldn't be paid back where spain to leave your schools without heating teachers without jobs came listless and unemployment on the rise makes for a bleak. laces and tips into

a second recession and with more protests planned for later in the week seems like these could be set to become much more common on the streets of spain so. violent see it in spades. well today the parliament in germany passed a bailout for greece about one hundred thirty billion euros or more than one hundred seventy billion dollars we've of course been talking a lot about bailouts and addition to the rhetoric associated with bailouts there's also reality associated with them as well and whether you agree or disagree with that bailouts have become a go to strategy from countries to companies there's no way around it the bailout is also a political tool and on the heels of a presidential election it seems we'll be talking about them for many more months i spoke a little while ago with max froude of wolf a senior analyst at green press crap capital from our studios in new york and here's his take. i mean i think the before we even get to how it plays down the

road we should take a step back from what is kind of panicked need poorly informed rhetoric on a lot of parties side greece is not getting bailed out creditors to greece are getting bailed out the reason that we keep hearing the term fire wall is because you're building a wall around the country letting it burn to the ground and making sure that folks who've invested in residing in other countries don't see the fire leap the wall and get to them so this whole debate has become somewhat reminiscent of the debates we had and never really understood to our detriment around bear stearns and around lehman brothers in which someone else is getting bailed out by giving money to greece which they then turn around and have to pay out to someone else but there's like you think your question don't you think with all this attention paid to greece . you know and i do understand what you're saying that it is creditors getting bailed out but don't you think that. the eurozone and some of the leaders in europe are going to make sure that the people of greece come out of this at least for the most part stronger than they are right now. i would love to think that i absolutely

don't i mean i think that the twenty percent unemployment the forty percent youth unemployment the regular rioting the hemorrhaging of the future of the dreams of a lot of people the near bankruptcy or total bankruptcy of a significant portion of the country's industries the changing of the constitution to make debt repayment a higher priority than all basic social services i do think greece will get through it it's a tough country it will get some help i'm glad for the help they are getting don't think this is primarily a moral decision but i think we should be clear and most of the analysts aren't that what's being done here is you're sacrificing a significant portion of the greek economy in the hopes of keeping the rest of europe and shoring up the creditors it's more or less the same kind of story we saw with the u.s. housing market here where what was shored up was the housing credits not the u.s. households and that's part of the reason we've seen millions of homes go through foreclosure that's an interesting comparison so let's keep it here in the u.s. then tomorrow of course the g.o.p. primary in michigan and the auto industry in michigan of course big business

general motors at one time was bailed out by washington under president obama and guess what the country just announced its largest profits ever despite what many would call a successful bailout i want to play really quick what rick santorum and mitt romney said at last week's debate in arizona he supported the folks on wall street and bailed out wall street was all for and then when it came to the auto workers and the folks in detroit he said no that to me is not a consistent principled position i have one i believe in markets not just when they're convenient for me governor. i think they wanted fifty billion dollars and i brought it up in the paper and i said absolutely don't write a check for fifty billion dollars all right so let's just talk really quick about this issue of bailing out the auto industry i mean do you think it was successful will be seen as successful down the road. well the goal whenever we have that

discussion we have to decide what we think is success i think the bottom line is for a lot of reasons including national security which both those gentlemen spend a lot of time talking about and saber rattling about you need to have an auto industry because the auto industry also makes your weapon systems in your tank something that nobody brought up in that particular discussion the bottom line is the auto worker has not done enormously well the city of detroit has not done enormously well the state of michigan has not done enormously well but there's no way you can say they would have done better with the larger bankruptcy of ford general motors and what's now part of their in the name of chrysler so do i think that the bailout was better than no bailout probably i also think that what history and the study of economics teaches us is there isn't just a choice that some one politician proposes and absolutely nothing that there's a world of gray zone is in there and we should have and could have had a debate and come with a better policy but it was that or nothing that i think it's pretty clear that what we did choose to do was a lot better than nothing interesting and so let's talk also about tarp of course

the troubled asset relief program in many ways it happened years ago but still wildly unpopular quite a few people today say this was there was this what happened basically ensured that all of the too big to fail banks will be saved or bail out what do you think americans should draw the line in their support of the bank bailout. you know i understand why bank bailouts are unpopular and the tarp program kind of over promised and has massively under delivered so it's helped a tiny fraction of the number of people we were told it would help it's spent and lost more money in terms of some of the programs than it was supposed to although most of the money has come back i think the lesson of tarp or for trying to draw broadly here and a lesson of g.m. is we need major industries but we also need them to be accountable not just to their stockholders but to their stakeholders to the communities to the tax authorities that they need to fund we didn't ok job of rescuing some of our big businesses which was probably a necessary evil but we attach no strings so we're now three or four years later

the general public of the united states is poorer people keep losing their homes corporate profits are at an all time high in their all time high as a percentage of national income which begs to a situation of we're better off with our big companies than without them but we should have attach some strings there's no strings attached relationship forged between taxpayers as givers and large corporations as pure takers has left us in a situation where some of us have very little left to give and other folks have got an appetite for taking well certainly for all these reasons you just listed max it's no wonder then that the bailout has become a political tool of max fred wolf senior analyst for green press capital. will be sure to stick around for the alone and so it's coming up in just a half hour he'll be talking wiki leaks and the more than five million private e-mails political and website entertain from the global intelligence company called stratfor that started publishing those over the weekend and the latest down the company has.