today on our t.v. if a picture's worth a thousand words and how many pictures would it take to show the toll of a decade of war of the soldier well the answer may be one on one picture that embodies the reality of just how desensitized some more troops become more explain . plus they're teaming up to take down yet another attack on your privacy rights activists and lots of us are taking on a new frightening anti-piracy bill called sis but this time silicon valley giants aren't on their side but could this mean the end of the free and open internet. or you would see one squeeze the water from six raindrops conserve natural resources caring for the farm it just sounds pretty good to me but maybe the question

shouldn't be what g.m.o. companies are trying to do but how they're doing it pulling farmers i not politicians and genetically modifying what we eat are some of the targets we're going to explain why this may just be the food fight for your life. and welcome back to school wednesday evening april eighteenth five pm here in washington d.c. and lucy catherine of watching our team. well we begin today we get another military scandal coming out of ghana stan involving u.s. soldiers photos and afghan corpses yes again and today's revelations come from the l.a. times which published a grisly images of troops from the eighty second airborne division posing sometimes grinning next to the remains of afghan insurgents now the photos are from twenty ten but it seems like almost every single month a new scandal emerges that somehow involves u.s. soldiers or nato forces committing one atrocity or another in the field of war

marines urinating on corpses accidental burnings of the koran shooting sprees the list goes on now in this specific case the military response seems to be to place some blame on the press more or less and the pentagon made the usual noises about how this doesn't represent the conduct of the military as a whole and then it should be usual warnings about how the release of such images jeopardizes u.s. lives by leaving a bad impression on quote the minds of local afghans because local afghans have such a favorable view of america after a decade if war night raids torture and civilian killings now these acts were despicable yes but the discussion in the media and among the pentagon officials seems to miss the point america is that war has been a war for more than a decade soldiers have been sent over and over again to foreign lands to do what they are trained to do to fight and to kill and what this has resulted in is a generation of american men and women who have fought who have some who have died

some who have lost limbs and some who have watched friends die all in the name of war and they come back and when they come back they have scars seen and unseen and we thought run through some of the statistics that my explain some of these behaviors a u.s. soldier dies every single day and a half on average in iraq or afghanistan u.s. veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every eighty minutes and more than six thousand five hundred u.s. veterans suicides are logged every year now just for background that's more than the total number of soldiers killed in iraq and of. on a stand combined with the start of the wars now we can debate about the role of the media and the effect that these photos may have on local afghan for the blue in the face but we'll stop treating them as isolated incidents and that myth that this is what war that is now i haven't seen war firsthand about my next guest hassles fought in both iraq and afghanistan retired u.s. marine jake welcome back to the program it's great to see you in the flesh thank you jake or someone who knows what we're talking about not in the abstract you've

been in war zones and you've seen what a conflict does what's your reaction to this latest honor why says is something to keep in mind here there's two distinctly different things occurring i think that these most recent pictures the peeing on the corpses and the burning of the korans as well as the incident with robert bales is a broad list of things that have happened in every single war and i think that the viewers of this program would be wise and american people would be wise to know that the behavior is bad as it has been this is not as nearly as bad as it has been in previous wars when we in the afghans were engaged in the one nine hundred eighty s. they had a lot of bad behavior when the americans were engaged in vietnam the vietnamese had bad behavior the nazis in world war two the rule for brings about the worst of human behavior and i would say the things i've seen worst haven't been when i was in the military in serve in the military but as

a civilian working in places like israel in lebanon in afghanistan seeing to be seeing what goes on to civilians on the civilian side it's much worse than it is on the military side for instance every bomb that's dropped there are so minute civilians that get killed and that brings up all sorts of problems for the society at large and then that the soldiers that are engaged in war as well dehumanization process that takes place the psychological damage kurds can only take that for so long and we're seeing this point i think within the you. that's right it's a breaking shattering of discipline and i think there needs to be some general rethinking about this whole thing about open ended war and these men and women are coming home eventually i mean how should we be concerned about their ability to readjust that if this is what a decade of war has done to our men and women in arms we're is no doubt that those who enter the civilian life coming from the military have the hardest psychological

challenge to enter back in civilian life and you know i was sir for years the marine so many regard my services is nothing compared to some of the people that have been doing it for the much longer but even for as only serving four years i can say that it's so hard for us in turkey late back into civilian society learning basic things humor jokes cultural norms the kinds of things we would say in the military we would never say in the civilian world. and also it's being able to parse out. how to be critical of policies for war and then also how to be able to support our brothers and then be able to reflect on this entire political nightmare known as the war on terror or the long war with whatever you want to use and that's that's sort of the issue here because whether we're talking about you know chinese troops you know soviet troops in afghanistan american troops war is ugly and war does you terrible things and i'm sure that these photos don't even represent the slightest half of what potentially goes on in the field but the problem is that we

as a. unfortunately have been engaged not just in afghanistan but in iraq and yemen and libya and all of these other countries and you know we have a society that for example movies video games all of the sort of desensitizes and engages us in this perspective you know kill or be killed yes ma'am you know that you know. it's interesting you know america america in all reality starts out as an idea the idea of the constitution these ideas that are space powers by the founders when we start having a nation that is color of torture were political class here that's tolerant of open ended war war. society gets removed from what our soldiers are doing abroad when you start to have those sorts of side of breakdowns america lose its identity so what the founders and to subpoenaed isn't there anymore. and we're going to have we lost our way. america fortunately for for better or for worse has forgotten

its identity we have capitulated into a new to a new generation where the nation that the founders identified doesn't exist anymore the society at large is engaged in what our soldiers are doing abroad and washington seems to be so broken that no one knows what they're doing they're so far removed from the day to day crisis is that's occurring in cleveland ohio or seattle or wherever else and not what's worst of all that the people that are in seattle in cleveland are removed from what our troops are going through in kabul and and baghdad. everywhere else you know but the thing is the military doesn't consist of ten thousand people in it were talking you know if you combine veterans and active service men exciter of millions of people millions millions of americans right here and you're almost pitting these two separate cultures you know the society part of a society that's removed from all this warfare and a society that's been forced and exposed to these horrors could there be a potential for some sort of clash or some sort of difficulty in readjusting down

the line well maybe that's the case but i think even a bigger crisis in the sea when the draft existed before nine hundred seventy six the nation was forced to engage in what what washington d.c. i did we were forced to because the draft was there to keep us in check with the draft and to get one hundred seventy six there is no way that the nations force to be engaged in grow so it's easier to go to war it's easier to stay at war and it's almost impossible to end the wars whatever war is going to get started we still have troops in bosnia we still have troops bases if you will in iraq maybe not uniformed soldiers but we still have this thing in afghanistan going for better or for worse and i don't really care what the nation opinion is about the war because we're brazen totally different opinions but the nation needs to be involved and gauge in what we're doing and it's not engaged because we're not it's not forced to and it's only when incidents like this come out that we even pay attention to this

now take i want to ask sort of a more personal question again you've served in both conflicts i know it's not necessarily as long as some of our men and women have but you've seen this firsthand and i also know that you fought in degree in theology of turn to religion i'm curious i mean has what you see on the ground. forced you towards more of a spiritual populace to try to deal with what you've experienced i think that i think that religion faith whether it's muslim christianity doesn't matter how the way unifying people as a way of connecting and see that there is a creator who connected people from my point of view and. i find human rights abuses the only untolerable in any way shape or form and religion has been a form of therapy for me i think and so certainly for me it's fundamentally changed my life and i think a lot of soldiers are veterans are coming back from these wars are turning to it just as well as they did before people can say religions are reason for wars and

maybe that's the case but all religions also profound way of peace and reconciliation you saw this with martin luther king so i was with gandhi that sort of thing so. yeah religion religion means a lot to me you know perhaps when you don't have the option to turn to the v.a. or the pentagon for help when you return spiritual help might be what what works for something i really want to thank you for spending time with us and sharing your personal experience thank you thank you that's a pilgrim retired u.s. marine an arty blocker. and first there was the actor than sopa and pipa and now cispa if you're having a hard time keeping up with the tabs on the latest cyber jibberish acronyms let me simplify the issue at hand and these are all legislative efforts in the name of cyber security or copyright infringement that have a potential to do one very scary thing to destroy internet freedom and privacy as we know it now the latest iteration of your worst privacy nightmare is the cyber intelligence sharing and protection act of two thousand and eleven system now

doesn't sound very scary but the bill would effectively let us companies spy on your emails social networking posts and other online activities and pass that info long voluntarily to the u.s. government and that is if something that you write or google or post is deemed to be quote cyber security threat information so what is cyber security threat information is that an online plot to take down the pentagon is it downloading brianna's latest album from pirate bay but i don't ripping your emails or using a service that lets you browse anonymously posting your political views on facebook perhaps sending an e-mail to a friend and the answer is that we don't know and that's precisely the problem the book the bill is written so broadly that almost any online activity could be deemed a threat and that has the potential to hurt whistleblowers destroy journalism silence free speech not to mention erode the basic premises of democracy now the legislation is coming up for a vote in the house next monday but there's no shortage of scary sounding bills on

the hill so you know which don't often even have a stand chance of becoming law so should we worry about cispa well dave seaman has been covering the issue and here is his take. well for one reason you should care because it stands a very good chance of becoming law has more than one hundred co-sponsors in congress and on light sopo which had a huge online outrage from the public and tech companies alike this one actually has the support of key companies with sopa which failed there was a petition that was linked from the home page of google and major web properties including read it and we can pedia went dark to protest it they're probably not going to do that this time around says pose a very real threat and at this point it very well could become law within a matter of it with a very short period of time and the white house has expressed concerns but don't let that reassure you too much because they also expressed concerns about n.d.a. and then obama signed it into law on new year's eve and expressed concerns about other bills that have become law yeah i'm glad you mentioned being the white house

because there's been a lot of article three of thing while the white house has come out against this but i mean if an n.s.a. flack is there a problem to have the big guns to to oppose legislation i don't really think that we can sleep soundly but. you know let's focus on this issue of sort of activists gathering behind or against our in favor of but why is it that facebook for example google why have these companies not come out against us what's in it for them and it's not just asian. well i think whatever you're gathering data that's a potential business model i think it's a sleazy business model but you can sell i mean you can sell that to the government and make money off of it so it's a revenue stream and furthermore i think these big tech companies love the litigation immunity that the government or other agencies or even companies you know a private security company can seize your information under cispa and we're talking about very private information the websites you visit the searches you make if

you're doing research on a personal medical condition if you're sending private e-mails to your spouse your girlfriend or anybody else these are emails that could be seen by a number of people and that litigation unity protects these companies from being sued so i think they like that aspect also i think internet users individuals hate this for the same reason there is really no recourse if your information is abused i mean i don't argue this is a bill that is designed for abuse that litigation immunity is completely absurd so congress you're saying that congress is intentionally trying to screw over american freedoms of speech privacy and information. it's been a legislative twilight zone really sense and it was signs that it was signed into law we saw that and then we saw a bill that literally criminalizes certain forms of peaceful protests that was signed into law and then we saw sopa which was breathtaking in its scope and in its

audacity and in the extent that it goes against everything america stands for and that only failed not really because of public opposition i think it failed because big tech companies were against it this time around we the tech companies don't have our backs so it's up to the american people to speak out and for people that i've spoken to online it really sounds like when you contact your member of congress and you say you know i don't want to start this is not something we asked for this is not something that's good for the internet it's not good for the economy it's not good for our privacy obviously when you contact these members of congress their response is something that approaches a detached amusement they don't really care what you think at this point so it's definitely i mean it freaks a lot of people out and with good reason oh you know they might not care what the average joe thinks but i guess money talks then we do also have the addition of this horrid essentially defense contractor a lobbyist on the hill pushing for this legislation talking a little bit about that. that's exactly right this is not

a bill that the american people asked for they didn't say hey government we need more regulation over the internet the internet works pretty well this is something that was pushed by for profit spying companies and it was pushed by a handful of tech companies and it's totally counter to what would be in the best interests of the american people in nearly every possible way and we've seen this time and time again where congress our supposedly elected officials are no longer representing our needs they could be focusing on a number of issues that would help the average person far more what about increasing you know transparency and liquidity in financial markets what about bringing people back to work any of these things would be a better use of their time then these crazy spine bills that make us look like a joke on the world stage now that we're talking the internet one of the areas where america excels and innovate so why are we trying to destroy it is that makes zero sense it's actually shooting ourselves in a foot i think that's

a good point to make that really briefly for those who aren't necessarily tech savvy you know they read the average american and say well you know i'm not going to send out terrorist sounding e-mails i'm not going to google for you know terror threat information i'm not planning cyber attacks could average americans who don't do bad things careful to spell. you really have to ask yourself even if you know terrorists or whatever and by the way soap are they used you know we're stopping online piracy is the red herring this time around they've pretty much doubled down they're saying now we're using this to stop cyber terrorists whatever the hell that is. so for the average person you have to ask yourself do you want strangers that you know nothing about people and local police departments people privately run security companies do you want them to be poring through years of your e-mails every single google search you make late at night and that is going to go there if you want all of these private things being in the hands of strangers and then having absolutely no accountability no to turn around and use that information in

the worst way possible you can then you can even get a lawyer and sue them because they have litigation unity it is certainly scary and if you do want to figure out a way to get in touch with your congressmen and freedom foundation a.c.l.u. do you have a ways to go and do that thank you so much for clarifying us on the issue david seaman journalist and the host of the d l show now in many european countries the idea of genetically modified food isn't as i pour into say euthanasia now in india's ongoing crisis a farmer suicides is often blamed on the increased use of santo's g.m. crops and the resulting death that those farmers suffer and apollo massive protests broke out after the tories monsanto forced its seeds onto the country's farmers and it's not just monsanto in taiwan a country that has a vested political interest in friendly ties with the us the mere mention of a u.s. beef that it had called rock opening is enough to send thousands of farmers to the streets and violent protest of our products but what here at home why aren't we

outraged about what we eat do we even know what we eat during know that what's in our food what's in our scenes and what we're buying on the food shelves with here with me to discuss these issue is christopher cook he is the author of the book diet for a dead. crisper thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. it's such a broad issue that it is sort of difficult to figure out where to begin but let's look at this divide between i guess the rest of the world and u.s. consumers here at home it am i mistaken in having the impression that we're just not as up in arms over g.m. owes us as europeans for example are. well i think actually the movement against you moe's in general and also for labeling in the us is actually quite active in vibrant and you'll see comments posted u.s.d.a. to the government. in the millions there's actually very widespread concern cross the u.s.

about the spread of genetically modified foods for instance but eighty different cities across the country of trade or towns have tried to ban g.m.o. those within their locality and the state of vermont had a ban on g.m.o. this you know they continue the corporations continue to battle this abuse in court but you know the reality is that what people are up against is a large but it will system in congress and presidency if your party is very closely tied to the agribusiness complex which includes months and so there are big companies like syngenta and current and other big corporations that control most of our seeds and so it's very difficult to get. people in the federal level in the national level to pay attention but there's actually very well it's great concern across the u.s. about this issue there may be a growing concern about the issue but the problem with the u.s.

is that this is something that's already in place that we're fighting to overturn so i'm curious about the divide how is it that this country sort of sausage is for a farm and stands on some what type companies to sort of spread and operate the way they do whereas other countries have been able to block. yeah i mean unfortunately since g.m.o. products to misstate began to roll out in about one thousand nine hundred six. they really just like wildfire and the government the states and agriculture would routinely just ok months and one other corporations applications to expand use of these seeds and so for instance we now see ninety four percent of the soy crops in america are g.m.o. and it's somewhere between sixty and seventy five percent pending in the crop for cotton and corn last year the obama administration ok to expand this into could be

just sugar beets and alfalfa. they have you know g.m.o. wheat in the pipeline so there's a lot of you know part of the reason is just phenomenal level of corporate power over government policy noted states which stems from the fact that these companies have such control over the market so that so for instance month center. you know along with two other companies controls how out of the world's seed supply so you know and then we see it especially power from the u.s. with those crops that you just mentioned you know there's no santorum more powerful than the u.s. government and. i don't think we should pretend that they are i don't think i don't think that we need to overly demonize them just to see that what they what they're doing any other company would do and i think we have to be clear about that and it's not just an evil company the food industry what the group doesn't and industries frankly do. they try to turn

a profit and they become as big as possible and control as much of the market as they can and once they do their part if you're read it for country politics and we'll regulatory process and so it doesn't seem to matter which political party we have both president bush and president obama have been perfectly equally friendly to the g.m.o. industry you know and the danger is not just you know. that we don't know what's in our food and the fact that there are allergens that have been introduced into our food system it's also as you mentioned earlier the control over farmers ability to survive and to produce the crops they want to produce and so even if farmers may start liking you know months into products. they're suddenly completely unable to control their fate and so money started out i mean i sound like a drug pusher essentially you know i used analogy before where if i'm donald sort of putting crack and in their burgers and hooking customers on their specific

burgers and then also having to sue anyone i went to you know burger king for an alternative i mean that would be gang drug warfare. so yeah i mean in the first decade of g m o's in the u.s. months and. sued over twenty three hundred farmers claiming that they had stolen their sea when in actuality many farmers found their organic crops were non g.m.o. crops could be polluted by the seeds blowing through the wind and yet months into will turn around and sue them anyway even though these farmers don't want those crops you know and again the very technology of jim rose is very troubling because the whole point of it is going on replicating non reproduce so you have to go to the company to get their seeds and you have to go to the same company for the past so it will be used to radically the rest of the pests and the other in the weeds

and rest and so these crops are not just they're not good for the environment they are there they enable the use of more pesticides in many cases and they're also a real threat to both farmers and biodiversity by wiping out taking over other crops and press before we run out of time i'm sorry just really you know. it sounds kind of bad right but what what is the actual effect of g.m.o. food and human people i mean there's. i think was an alternate article that said that monsanto doesn't even serve its own products in its capital i don't know how true that is but it should the average american be concerned about health effects from here most were absolutely in the studies are still being done but there are a number of studies showing again that they introduce crossing different introduced allergens into the foods. and some people are very allergic to certain things and when you don't label. it enough to do. you know what what was the case. just into this food that never had before so that's just one example of

how is it you know the rest you know again there's a lot of scientific study being done both on the biodiversity very much so a structure that is certainly labeling very least but even that's not enough because we still won't know what's in there well it seems like a battle here american people versus goliath although i don't really know if it's the political system or the companies are or who is really the goliath in this case but i do appreciate you taking the time to speak with us that's chris pretty quick the author of the popular diet for instead planet. well yesterday hundreds gathered in florida maryland virginia and washington d.c. to mark another historic moment in america's space program but this one wasn't greeted with as much excitement for the future so much as for the past and the discovery shuttle strapped to a plane flew over the skies traveling to its final resting place and smithsonian

museum here in washington and this was for many a sad moment where some spectators even wiped away tears and remember the great feats of this orbiter accomplished it was the first of the shuttle fleet and made a total of thirty nine trips to the outer reaches of space but it's not necessarily the shuttle itself that the people reminisced about when they looked up into the skies yesterday for many it was a concern over the future of america's space program or rather the question of whether there is a space program anymore now we have a clip from c.b.s. a c.b.s. affiliate here in d.c. washington where the reporter is speaking to a former astronaut who actually flew in the discovery shuttle but here's her advice to young one of the astronauts take a look and if you die or even an aspiring actor not that he rushes back but you heard it you want to be an astronaut kids dream big and learn russian and all of this is said in jest of course there is a hint of truth in the statement at the moment u.s.

astronauts have to pay russia around sixty three million dollars per year per seat to apologise to reach the international space station and last year the chinese a launch more rockets into space than the u.s. and all of this is happening while nasa suffers its deep budget cuts all because it seems that it seems now to present companies dreams of reaching the moon first have been achieved but the government's focus is planted largely on issues here at earth perhaps your private companies are taking over so taking over in this arena space x. for example says that it will blast the orbiter into space as early as april thirtieth but we'll see where the future takes us. the bigger question is whether we are comfortable in taking a backseat in space exploration and apparently the answer is yes. that does it for now for more on the story to go with our vet web site r g dot com you tube channel or follow me on twitter the handle is at least the coughing up for the fact that some.