as if the situation in afghanistan wasn't problematic enough the u.s. military has taken fire on two problems for support on the home front is that an all time low and the afghan government is planning to downsize their own military force is there a way out of a quagmire well it's floor space to q. and a chance you. will still simply. that's an ideal world but in reality non-government organizations may have a bigger dog in the fight than you think feeling bloodshed as well as intervention

we'll show you the dark side of an. other kind of animal altogether. the media industry is mortgage interest. and as the saying goes if it bleeds it leads to chaos in syria is no exception but many syrians say media outlets are showing you the full picture of the situation in their country. it's thursday april twelfth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our team oh another blow to the u.s. military strategy in afghanistan it turns out that the afghan military is too broke to sustain its current size so afghanistan has announced they'll cut about thirty percent of its force this will happen after nato mission there ends in two thousand

and fourteen and this announcement comes as the approval rating for the war is at an all time low let's take a look now at the ratings over over the years back in two thousand and seven fifty six percent of americans said that the war in afghanistan was worth fighting while forty one percent disagreed. well support for the war went up significantly in june of two thousand and eleven just just a month after president obama announced that a navy seal team had killed osama bin ladin but that support was pretty short lived in march of this year we saw that number adapt this was right after hundreds of afghan civilians began rioting and protesting american occupation of the country this was all in response to an american air base burning copies of the islamic holy book the koran. now a new poll out today shows that american support of the war in afghanistan has taken get another depth reaching an all time low at

a thirty percent approval rating and sixty six percent disapproval rating that's even lower than u.s. support of the warning rocket in iraq at its lowest point so with most americans i'm happy with the way things are going in afghanistan and in the wake of this recent announcement we asked was the war ever sustainable joining us now to talk more about this matter retired u.s. marine an arty blogger cake they'll of airto welcome jake nice have you here in the studio so first want to start off with that poll we saw that approval rating for the war in afghanistan at an all time low why are americans so i'm happy with it today well for an infinite crisis i mean there's no way that the united states citizens population you know domestic support can sustain a war effort in any possible way considering all the failed domestic issues i mean we've god fifteen trillion dollar deficit we've got a. national infrastructure crisis we've got. emerging energy

crisis we've got financial woes with the federal reserve the entire the entire system that holds the united states as a state as an enterprise is on the verge of collapse so americans are tired of it now look at work and we cut and it's afghanistan. so no afghanistan has announced that they're going to cut back on their military because they simply can't afford it what does this mean for the u.s. mission well a couple things first of the afghan army is largely supported something like ninety percent of it is funded by the united states and nato so when they say afghans are cutting it back to afghans are cutting back just whatever tiny marginal piece of it but i think what it actually means strategically poor. afghanistan is that they have succumbed to the idea that the taliban will take over the south and east in the end which anybody can do with anything about this issue knew that was going to happen sooner or later so the afghan government is capitulating to the taliban

there capitulate to the insurgency and they're going to allow them to have the south and the east and the afghan army is going to largely control the north and the west so as you as you said earlier afghanistan gets so much of its funding from foreign countries and when nato leaves and when the u.s. leaves that money drop their troops in twenty fourteen. afghanistan if there is no way that they can bear the burden on their own. afghanistan i mean let's be honest i mean afghanistan is the moon with gravity it is a it is a place that has huge mountain canyons caves and illiterate population you know a tribal society that has never been governed and so the idea of propping up being a state being a government with justices and lawyers and this sort of thing was a fairy tale for a long time and the way that the united states and nato was hoping to bring

a state about was first building up an afghan security force and then second having the regional powers support that effort well the second part the regional powers pakistan india was never going to support says stable afghanistan and then again you've got the crisis of affairs and not being able financial industry an economy to develop itself from inside out so this is won't this is a long time coming and so we're seeing it now and afghanistan is realizing that bad that they can't sustain themselves then why then would the us spending billions and billions of dollars building up afghanistan military that the end wouldn't be able to sustain itself well you know there's a lot of conspiracy theories there's a lot of ideas you know some people talk about oil pipelines some people talk about us you know what being an empire some people talk about nuclear weapons of pakistan regional stability i genuinely think that within the united states. our policy

leaders have failed to realize we are the crisis that we are again and we are policy leaders when obama was elected thought that somehow surging inside of afghanistan and recreating the iraq that we had that whatever marginal successes in iraq recreating those in afghanistan was a good thing for america they lied to the american people they distorted reality and so therefore we are shooting ourselves in the foot all over again so. would you say that this is another sign of a failed military conflict. is the u.s. is afghanistan afghanistan going to be any better off once the u.s. pulls out that before the u.s. intervened and afghanistan is screwed there's nothing we can do to stop it there's nothing that the coalition can do so nothing that anybody can do because there's tribal factions that go back for generations in afghanistan that we have nothing to

do we can't control we can't stop so yeah afghanistan screwed and you just went into. some of the that the hurdles that have always been in afghanistan and some people argue that it was a war that was never win a ball to begin with the. wars that wars have to be won not just on the battlefield with troops and bullets and band-aids not with not just with be the bullets and panties but wars are done by politics in the closet etc but war is politics by other means war is an instrument that states use to accomplish some sort of political goals the problem with afghanistan and iraq and the whole global war on terror is that there is no political clarity started from the bush administration and carried on by the obama administration we don't have political clarity of what we're trying to do and the reason we don't have political credit clarity or a grand strategy for america is because our foreign policy is it is a

a represent. ssion of our failing domestic policy americans and senior policymakers american thinking that by going abroad overseas and fixing that out there can somehow fix the problems here the problems at home are the problem and our foreign policy is a representation of our failures back at home now you said earlier that you can't solve your problems just eyeball at seven five war. some would argue that the taliban is not necessarily a group that you can negotiate with and that you can deal with several magically shoot him i mean you can negotiate the taliban they there's all sorts of negotiations that happen all the time i just give an example so there are some people make the same argument about opium trade all that so you just get rid of opium somehow the taliban you know that would fix the problem in the haqqani network for something like thirty to forty percent of the haqqani network funds come through illicit trade of pine knots pesto pine nuts ok so the war the fire

operate of the operation taking place is that the taliban the insurgency is about they are a political group they want money the same way but also as they want power they want all those sorts of things and use have to find the resources of the negotiations to make it feasible for them because the same thing about iraq you know that and more problems all those shakes are never going to join they're never going to put their guns down to cuba can and just takes time you have to be creative the problem with the united states is that we've brought relied too much on the military to accomplish these things we've put too much pressure the wrong places and we've trusted corrupt leaders inside of kabul that's why we can't fix this problem and now you kind of point it seems more of a diplomatic solution is a diplomatic solution an answer a possibility to get well now there's on as we continue the same process we're going i don't see the united states changing its policy i don't see the obama administration changing for

a variety of reasons basically this is what's. the world needs to get this in the brain. is going to stay till toward the middle twenty thirteen to twenty fourteen where you continue training the afghan army and then we are going to leave and then we're going to leave afghanistan to three hundred fifty thousand people that we've trained and the future of the future apparently will be with the afghan army and the current government but we love our. pleasure to have you here in the studio i learned something new had no idea about those pine nuts going to look into that a little bit more thank you for your take on all this that was. so retired u.s. marine a and r. t. a blogger. lol we've got some breaking news coming in and u.s. officials have confirmed that north korea has just launched a test rocket this launch of course has been highly controversial it is in violation of u.n. regulations and a previous deal with the u.s. and well of course bring you much more on this as more details become available but

still had an r.t.a. disguised by good intentions non-governmental organizations are accomplishing a lot more than what they were set out to do so do these groups actually have the power to push pro western policy if some answers next. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions break through that sort of thinking and made who can you trust no one who is you. know with a mission that would see where we had a state controlled capitol. sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. argy 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. we just put a picture of me when i was like years old when she told the truth. i am get a sense that i was driving. yesterday . and very. simply.

pepper spray that just burns your eyes right i mean it's like a derivative. it's a product essentially. it's much stronger than anything you'd be by. thousands of times it was stronger than any one of the ever put. i want to take a look now at the role n.g.o.s play and possibly shaping foreign policy and libya western funded non-government organizations highlighted the bloodshed in massacres incited by them with the libyan leader moammar gadhafi and at this information that helped justify western military answer bench and on the public that these reports by these organizations and the mass media led to support the toppling of dictators

and the subsequent chain the subsequent changing of regimes but once gadhafi was killed what happened was some of those reports were proven to be and correct and it's possible a similar scenario is playing out now and syria so what happens on non-government organizations are in fact quite cozy with the government are to correspond a marina point and i reports that sometimes consequences of misinformation can be deadly. it was billed as a necessary humanitarian intervention requiring nato warplanes to bring bombs on libya before the u.s. led attack on moammar gadhafi forces. came unconfirmed allegations from western funded non-governmental organizations you know who knew from the use of you whenever these. nations.

these mercenaries. and. also you. according to a new report by the center for the study of interventionism many western n.g.o.s exaggerated the circumstances in libya to expedite the campaign led by america britain and france some admitted mistakes after the damage was done. but today we have to admit that we have no evidence that gadhafi employed mercenary forces or for that. we have. scene. a very cozy chose relationship building up between certain big powerful engineers i'm thinking of human rights watch a ministry international they're supposed to hear an objective quality which knowledge of standards equally and of course doesn't play excites we see these organizations as i see entering into an excessively cozy relationship with for example the united

states government but also with other powerful western allies over libya and over other issues. currently the most pressing issue is syria after more than a year of violence critics say western funded n.g.o.s appear to be following the same pattern the equivalent if you like of libya leaks from human rights which is called the basket center for human rights has played exactly the same role they've made statements to the human rights council they've alleged crimes against humanity they call for safe havens and armed intervention in that country and they are quite cute little dogs who are trying to secure a military intervention against syria along the lines of the one that was voted or at least approved last year against libya in order for carney to be arrested this year this infamous connie twenty twelve movie came from california based ngo invisible children it said the film aimed to end the use of child soldiers and

promote peace in the ugandan civil war but according to the u.s. embassy cables posted by wiki leaks invisible children provided uganda's authorities with intelligence in two thousand and nine that led to the arrest of several regime opponents willing to work. to believe but was not the one time invisible children provided information on the ground of origins what are we not know in terms of their relations with being around the government. we know that . for the. prominent politicians they knew which supported their position in terms of support. to come here and help promote. the bill was passed it was sorry but the president and it paved the way for the introduction of. n.g.o.s are not currently held

accountable for the information no matter how much collateral damage. make left on regulated critics believe some non-governmental organisations will continue being away for conflict rather than leaving school solutions or not artsy new york . earlier spoke to middle east analysts about how n.g.o.s can almost play a part of lobbyists in my us seems to insist on intervening abroad and sort of focusing on its own budget woes take a look. and you have a very critical role in that specially of the are operating in under fatality and regimes like in libya as this story highlights a. if we look backwards a little bit. i don't think libya has as an example the libyan people and the libyan government itself does not allow any n.g.o.s. locally funded

or internationally funded to operate under any circumstances so the experience itself is you know if we want to. achieve transformation of a country like libya or elsewhere we have to rely on the n.g.o.s rather than relying on government agencies consider it as an outsourcing some tasks that we have to do specially in the area of creating a environment where if you cation and educating your population about democracy freedoms and human rights when you have a very important and critical role to play in that area and you can play a very important and critical role as we just saw in that report there when it came to libya for example if another report they turned out to be exaggerated are one

sided or are maybe they don't always reveal the full picture ahmed to what extent are n.g.o.s held accountable for the information that they put out. these should be held accountable since we are going to empowered them we we expect as the public there to receive credible unbiased information if their reports will actually cause collateral damage then they would be considered accomplice in that tragedy if it if it happens so the accountability is an important factor as well as transparency not on the donor side and on the receiver the recipient side it's interesting how you use that word accomplice fair on matter that they are a should be used for a force for good n.g.o.s but how can they also be used as a tool to support

a government's agenda. that that's a very difficult question liz but i'll try to my best ability to answer. we have reviewed that you can be used in good to to promote. values of freedoms human rights and democracy and also the can work on the social front but if we allow them to operate without an oversight then we are just giving them a blank check or your a.t.m. card with your pin codes without any control so that is the danger there because n.g.o.s can as we've seen play a very big part in shaping foreign policy. i agree but one rotten apple does not mean that the whole batch is rotten we just have to separate. there might be some. not adhering to an ethical standard

first of all in the sake of gaining financial lead benefit that we have to review with and we have to institute practical for each of these organizations so we can monitor it and then for those who are proven to be bad we have to segregate the possible to eliminate the funding to do it if it is and i agree with you there are certainly one bad apple doesn't mean that they're all bad and perhaps the answer is more oversight or more regulation but about oftentimes in politics that it comes down to money and when you see so much money being pumped into influencing governments abroad i beg the question how and why do these agencies continue to spend money on foreign affairs at a time that the u.s. is trying to cut down its own budget and dealing with so many problems of our own

here at home. nothing can happen or any of these people to us can take place without financial backing if the countries that these n.g.o.s operate inside. were. courageous enough to allow them to operate. set rules and regulations and measures for transparency in terms of the financing the received the projects need the undertake and the outcome at the end libya did not have any type of freedom of expression did not have any type of. democratic organization or culture for a culture of democracy so it was difficult so if the international n.g.o.s decide to use

a local organization to undertake sometimes their choice is not an optimal choice as we have seen prior but this if we are speaking about transparency of if i can use an example with the religious fundamentalist groups that prevailing throughout the middle east and be reputed to be receiving millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in financing from the rich states with absolutely no oversight and no transparency on either side this also presents a dilemma for any public worker or for any political activist one rotten apple does not mean it was rotten. thank you very much for weighing in on this that was middle east analysts. the world watches as a un push cease fire provide some calm in syria chaos that's replica part for over

a year it's difficult to get an accurate picture of what's really going on there are dishonest churkin reports on how many syrians are disenchanted with what they see as biased media coverage. for over a year syria ripped apart by clashes. with media ripton enfolds are just as intense oppressors and the oppressed in a frenzy to prove a point not answering questions as simple as who what when and why you're going to a country for four or five days what story what are you saying. so i think generally become a nother kind of animal altogether. but the media industry is more about entertainment news yes for nuclear come out of the country the american public treated to a simply scripted blog buster in a faraway land it's where all the people who rise up against dictatorship and base thought that it's very quickly within three weeks and then baby is happy ever after

so they do not want to even think about the mess that is the thing is in a position while syrian certainly do. and as you can see a syrian living and working in los angeles says western media have blindly adopted the official line of their government's chicken it did not check in the sources of their stories and there is a lot of these education the syrian government is presented as evil and the opposition noble but who and how very they are is left out you sort of take the path of least resistance and that often leads to distorting news and information the public doesn't really get any context or background that's what's scary. the west and qatar in favor of regime change will not acknowledge the presence of armed forces including al qaida on the ground in former war correspondent for al jazeera. says his qatari base channel refused to air this

reality we want to make cause you know moglen to this that syrian media was launching so i took my decision on how we cause what's going on a power game it's the owners of the. a couple minutes you know a couple resolved to going to the gambling in this syrian crisis but only one can use all possible to topple the regime of assad in damascus the voices of syrians who are cheering for this are kept off i mean stream t.v. screens we are told was. trying to sticks against was the poor that evolution under me of course there are many other syrians who do not support the division who are here from the possibilities. for. the way the american media is covering the situation in syria brushing aside alternative news the mainstream media was quick to accuse russia and china of being responsible for the bloodshed media chanting russia is killing our children some syrians countered

that media outlets in fact increased b. tallies on the ground through misinformation for example that the police syria just about to collapse so people that isaac and on the other hand that is used in stronger and in not calling so i won't be giving deceptive information like this it's killing people in the street while the world works to hash out a plan of action for syria the media need to provide facts and context the syrians wearying of a potentially risky future for their country distorted views will only deepen and prolong the crisis they see churkin at r.t. york. and up they now on the breaking news that we have brought you a little earlier in the show u.s. officials have confirmed that north korea has launched a multi-stage tasks rocket there is video of it on the launch pad yesterday the rocket but watch that seven thirty am local time and pull out a blue overthe booth out over the yellow sea over to philip.