coming up this hour on r t we've heard presidential candidates talk about everything from abortion to the economy but there is something missing from all these political promises like a plan for the war in afghanistan more than a decade and two thousand u.s. military deaths later has this become the forgotten war. plus several inmates of the guantanamo bay detention center in cuba are finally getting their day in court but talks of torture to extract confessions are strictly off limits for defense attorneys are to take a look at this case of trial and error. president obama and western leaders offer condolences and praise for a deceased ethiopian leader a man described as some as a gentle sidle tyrant so why the diplomatic double speak from bahrain to libya syria to ethiopia we'll show you how military interests have the power to crown both kings and criminals.

it is wednesday august twenty second four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for zero and you're watching our tea let's begin with this with a look at the subject you're not hearing about on the mainstream media we're going to talk about the war in afghanistan and the wars in both iraq and afghanistan central to the discussion this time four years ago as candidate bronc obama and candidate john mccain laid out in detail their plans for ramping up and then winding down the wars there are still a few months left but this is a topic neither candidate seems to want to touch shortly after coming into office president obama announced a surge of thirty thousand troops and that surge was to be followed by this plan we will pursue the following objectives within afghanistan we must deny al qaeda safe haven. we must reverse the taliban's momentum and deny the ability to overthrow the

government and we must strengthen the capacity of afghanistan's security forces and government so that they can take the lead responsibility for afghanistan's future so when will that future be upon us by the time the voters go to the book voting booth this november the war will be and its twelfth year for more on this i'm joined by david swanson campaigner for it's action hey there david i know you know some some of even said not since the korean war of the early one nine hundred fifty s. has an armed conflict care captured so little public attention why is afghanistan just not a hot topic anymore. well the media likes to blame the public or the media goes for the u.s. corporate media the newspapers the new york times days for years and years without serious coverage and then blames the public as if this were some sort of public generation of lack of interest i think the media doesn't cover it and so the public doesn't talk about it and as you mentioned the two parties than the two

presidential candidates agree on it so there's not a dispute there's not a partisan disagreement so there's nothing to be mentioned it doesn't factor into elections never mind that in every poll about three quarters seventy percent of americans say get out of there all they would let me let me stop you i wanted to put some of those numbers up on the board you were talking about the public and their take on the war will if the public if the public may not be quite as interested but they do have. some and you know some ideas about the war and we want to talk about troop casualties as well the first thousand troop deaths was reached eight years and five months into fighting and that translates to nine point nine soldier casualties per month but the troop casualties surpassed two thousand the two thousand mark twenty seven a month later that's thirty seven deaths per month or one a day so these are numbers that are also affecting the public david these are you know people you know family members people friends what do these numbers tell us.

well when you said that obama served thirty thousand troops he actually sent in over thirty thousand troops before he sent in thirty thousand troops about which there was a great deal of news coverage he more than tripled the presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan he campaigned on that is fallacious people feel that promised he's now talking about another two and a half years and then some produced presence for ten years after that and then we'll see so this is this is without end in sight and that two thousand mark it's about two thousand and ninety one in fact officially if you include nonhostile that is friendly fire and suicides in action it's about thirty five thousand five hundred if you include the wounded from hostile and non-hostile causes and then it's many times that if you include those veterans suffering and often committing suicide back home so it's far surpassing what we're told and yet it's leaving out

ninety five percent of the victims of this war who of course are not american trait that we only hear about the americans we only hear about them every thousand death mark or so. but it probably will over ninety percent of the victims of this war who are advocates yeah and a lot of times those numbers even are really sort of played down by the u.s. media certainly wiki leaks was able to give us a better picture of the civilian death tolls a lot higher than has been reported by our leaders both military leaders and political leaders so that's i'm going to think about as well let's talk david about some of the pictures that we do get of what it looks like on the ground in afghanistan you may remember an article back a while back in rolling stone written by michael hastings that article called the runaway general and it led to general stanley mcchrystal is resignation and also painted a different view for americans i want to put up a quote from a private first class interviewed in the article he said we should just drop an f.

ing bomb on this place you said and ask yourself what are we doing here david what is the u.s. still doing in afghanistan. that well it's still loves to have bases and weapons there afghanistan is strategically positioned next to china and russia and the middle east it's still hopes to have a guest place wind run through afghanistan and pakistan the president thinks that for political reasons miscalculating as he is that he is better off continuing that presence or the escalating very very slowly it's the same nonsense. the in listens that have kept this going for years and years i mean there are those profiting there are those in the military and in the military industrial complex with an interest in keeping every war going but the american people are against it only in the polls they're not against it in the streets i wish that the

new york times that included some of the resistance among the troops who are refusing orders some of the veterans including veterans for peace working against this but the resistance isn't there the way it would be if obama were a republican. you know as far as becoming an election issue though what dan demands a should and the american people make of these candidates i mean even if as you say romney and obama have a similar opinion and therefore it makes that kind of a less of a contested issue what should americans ask of these candidates complete withdrawal from afghanistan a cease fire a date for withdrawal a commitment to get out quickly and follow through and similar policies on our other wars including our drone wars and our secret wars i mean this is this is the american position we are we are out of money not to mention the immorality of what

we are doing and if we don't in these wars and scale back the war preparation the pentagon war machine dramatically we will not be able to pay for anything else and of course that is the bipartisan plan and why they are. after mr xi security post election we have to take this message to both of those parties they are now that you branches of our government regardless of the election down the road and demand a dramatic shift david in the beginning of this segment we showed a clip from the white house this is president obama laying out the plan in four minutes or less about three minutes or fifty five seconds that he did that back in two thousand and nine and one of the things we didn't show you is what president obama said about pakistan he said that the the u.s. pakistan will relationship that the role of pakistan in this war with inextricable in ixtapa cuddly connected to any sort of potential victory that pakistan was needed as

a friend as an ally things have changed since then significantly we saw several pakistani civilians killed by u.s. drones we've seen the park pakistani officials you know closing borders to the u.s. for a while so that they couldn't get supplies into afghanistan things have changed immensely why has that not shifted then you know the the u.s. role in the war or hurried the u.s. is calling to end this sooner well i think you're looking for logic and you're not going to find it there there is no indication that this war is going to be worn whatever that might mean they have yet to come up with a sensible definition of what that would be. the relationship with. spinny and shaky i mean this is a war that the united states taxpayers are paying for both sides of we are paying not just afghanistan but we are paying the taliban in afghanistan for safe passage

down roads that's no advance number one source of income when you're paying for both sides of the war a war without end a war that is brewing and generating hostility toward your country in afghanistan and in pakistan you know to look for logic is focused this is that this is the momentum of the military machine that eisenhower warned us about fifty one years ago and it shows no sign of letting up but shouldn't the u.s. and you know whoever the next president is be concerned about you know if as you say they decided to completely withdraw from afghanistan i mean that could leave that country you know externally volatile extremely leaderless not that the u.s. is a leader right now but really could leave it in a very chaotic place don't you think that they need to sort of lay this out of the officials the military officials have suggested well we have left iraq in libya and numerous other countries in a disastrous chaotic place but they have not become and that the iraqi nation did

not be calling dramatically more dangerous and more chaotic when the u.s. and nato troops left contrary to all of the warnings on fox news year after year after year why we must not leave in fact violence begin. and to get intense for the iraqi people to find a future that is the case in afghanistan as well it will be a disaster when nato leaves of what the disaster will be greater the longer it takes nato to get out certainly we should work diplomatically to the extent that u.s. credibility will allow it to to try to find a peaceful international solution for afghanistan but a commitment to getting out militarily is the fundamental first a tough tough no matter what when you're talking about a part of the world a region where it's very different from the way things are done in the u.s. it has always been much more tribal based and you know the way things work are

simply very very different david swanson always great to have you on the show david as a campaigner for roots action for another major campaign issue four years ago at least from barack obama was the subject of torture and the fate of guantanamo bay today though the prison is still open pretrial hearings for five notorious inmates those accused of helping plan the september eleventh attacks were supposed to begin today but they have been postponed until further notice when those proceedings do take place however attorneys for the inmates say they've been banned from bringing up the subject of torture in court they also claim that a number of other legal restrictions are stopping them from building a proper defense in cases that could result in the death penalty are to correspondent marina portnoy has more. as the saying goes everyone remembers their first one time or will be closed no later than one year from now and us president barack obama's first executive order delivered on a promise cemented over the years as president i will close guantanamo reject the

military commissions act and it here to the geneva conventions i've said repeatedly that america doesn't torture and i'm going to make sure that we don't torture nearly four years after america's change took office one hundred sixty eight detainees are still being held at guantanamo awaiting their day in court before a military commission but even then the obama administration will not allow them to testify about the alleged torture and harsh interrogation techniques some claim to have suffered according to the government there is no scope. to the evidence to defend its account of his torture in the course of treatment the government's justification for that is that disclosing that information in court could be damaging to u.s. national security interests at a pretrial hearing at guantanamo bay the defense attorneys will challenge u.s.

secrecy groups and a litany of other restrictions that experts say undermine the right of detainees to receive a fair trial and defense counsel may want to communicate or send a letter you know provide the current updates on news and information to inform them of certain things that that may apply to their case and every one of those pieces of correspondence is then run through a vetting system where the government is reviewing all of that to determine whether or not it's proper material the confidences are being contaminated directly by the u.s. government over the years the u.s. military has gone as far as dosing detainees with high levels of psychotropic drugs . according to reports released by the pentagon good most prisoners were forced to take mind altering drugs often against their will before being interrogated a story first broken by truth out's lead investigative reporter jason leopold what

the inspector general said was is that detainees were interrogated while they were on drugs that is known to produce or will end up producing unreliable information so then you have the government going into the d.c. circuit ok and arguing that all of the detainees statements are true critics accuse obama of following in the footsteps of his predecessor george w. bush by continuing a system that revolves around censoring defendants in the name of national security this is not a legitimate process how do you prosecute someone years after the crime when you have full control of their body and the evidence for that and entire period of time nearly eleven years following the september eleventh attacks the us military commission at guantanamo bay is set to hear the first set of arguments in

preparation for the trial of five suspects the u.s. president meanwhile is campaigning for his second term apparently forgetting about the monumental promise he made when he began his first marine upper nile artsy me or. so i had here on our to amanda's crime as a genocidal tyrant is now being praised by western leaders for military interests in the country a possible reason for this diplomatic double speak up next will question the u.s. what how it separates kings from criminals in this geo political chess match.

longtime ethiopian ruler and u.s. counterterrorism ally mellows the now we has died the news of his death has caught our attention because of the international response that it's created un secretary-general ban ki moon said mehlis will be remembered for his exceptional leadership and advocacy on african issues within and outside the continent president obama added that milly's deserves recognition for his contributions to

his country's development including his uncle in commitment to ethiopia's por jose manuel but also president of the european commission also offered his condolences praising him as a respected african leader so what's interesting about the statements made by world leaders is a lack of attention to a darker side of the now is legacy a side that includes ethiopia being criticized for years by human rights groups for the government's strict control i want to speak more about this with the answer coalitions that might surprise her hey there mike first of all your reaction to some of these other reactions that we're hearing from world leaders about this death. well it's not surprising at all i mean the u.s. government is very very good at telling us who our friends are and who our enemies are which countries and which leaders they shower with praise like in this case and which countries leaders they denounce and target for regime change based on you know so-called human rights violations and so what we're seeing here is not out of

character for the u.s. government but really the standard where a leader or country is a friend an ally of the u.s. government not based on the nature of their government or human rights record but based on whether or not they cooperate with the control of resources in the region and another thing mike i mean that he has been praised for is getting ethiopia sort of a little bit out at least of the economic slump he's fast tracked economic development in that country you know every world leader it seems has its flaws i mean what do you think is really being hit in about an hour. sure and at the same time political leaders who are actually fighting for real changes for for poor people in ethiopia and real distribution of the vast wealth of the country in the resources of the country they're in jail right now it's political prisoners i mean the jails in ethiopia are flooded with people who did nothing else except stand up

to the government speak out and try to organize for real justice for the poor people in that country but you know the u.s. government has a lot of interest in ethiopia and so that's human rights records really wouldn't matter i mean massive military base drone outposts in ethiopia as well and really look at the whole of africa because we can't look at this just in the context of the ethiopian but on the entire continent there is a war going on and that's a war for the vast minute mineral resources of the continent one that's been going on for centuries of colonization by by western powers of the continents you know the same colonizers you cared so deeply for the human rights violations in libya and they had to start a war in libya but look at the entire continent right now i mean the u.s. government had a very big campaign you may remember about the dar for region and the so-called genocide out happening and our foreign you know these top pro imperialists from groups like amnesty international you know took up this cause. dark further they're

saying you know hundreds of thousands of people were being killed although with no evidence when just a hundred miles away in uganda it was the biggest u.s. military base in africa from whence the rwandan popular front came out of and these ugandan were and rwandan bullish shows that were funded and trained and backed by the u.s. government were carrying out the greatest brutality in the entire continent in the democratic republic of the congo where over five million people have been killed in the past ten years but for some reason that didn't qualify as a human rights violation even though the numbers look like you know thirty five times the so-called genocide that was being committed in dar for it all comes down to. who is cooperating with the big banks and with wall street about control of resources and the entire country as you may know my washington d.c. has one of the largest ethiopian communities in this country and we did go we paid a visit to that part of town earlier today and got some differing reactions take

a look. he's a hero. so he's a day that he had voted for me and for my family and for the. what do you think it means for the people of you know oh my god i'm. going to be tough going to be hard and the last. night because. he completely destroyed can't he just to depend on. he and. he does so interesting mike i mean just within this one neighborhood in washington itself we have tears the country is going to be terrible without him and then we have somebody saying he destroyed the country talk a little bit about this sort of differing of opinions in the u.s. . sure well in any country there's going to be a spectrum of political ideologies and tendencies and one way or the other i think it would actually be interesting if we asked people from somalia what they thought

about is that there's actually a big community of somalians who live in d.c. as well because it's a people of somalia who had ethiopian troops under the orders and backing of the u.s. government come into their country if the people in somalia who are enduring drone strikes on a regular basis that are coming from. and so you know it's not even just within the country if you see opium where you can see you know the human rights violations and crimes but the entire region that's now under domination and threat of destruction and definite tax because of this u.s. bastion of interest in ethiopia and we should mention that one of the reasons that those troops went into somalia for the u.s. was in order to try to help fight al qaeda members in somalia so a lot of different kind of things going on there but let's make of one more broad mike i mean this is a country in which security forces have been known for killing hundreds of people imprisoning thousands of others including on the night of militias and now as

election in two thousand and five. this is not the only country where this happens that you mentioned a couple other african countries talk a little bit about the double speak though that goes on overall. sure well overall if you look at a list of what countries and leaders the u.s. says it's allies and which the u.s. says is its enemies and they say it's about democracy and human rights but all it takes is a simple look see that's absolutely not true and so the closest allies of the u.s. government are israel and colombia and saudi arabia and bahrain countries with the worst human rights records on the planet and some actually have no democracy whatsoever but the enemies are cuba and iran and north korea. but you know the similarity is that they have is one is a group it is independent refuses to just give away all of its wealth and resources to u.s. corporations and others collaborate and cooperate with the interests of wall street

and i think we should look particularly to right now where this is most significant and this is in syria where the u.s. government is using this idea of human rights violations to say that syria the syrian government must be overthrown and there must be a new government that comes in its place and who is this alliance of countries who are lecturing syria about human rights violations it's the united states government it's saudi arabia and qatar here that are the main proponent saudi arabia and qatar are somehow lecturing syria on democracy and human rights both countries that are hereditary police state monarchies that are some of the most brutal and repressive dictatorships on the planet yet they're somehow able to lecture this other country about how they should run their government and be sending weapons and potentially bombs and soldiers to those countries to to overthrow its government not to mention the u.s. government which is the greatest violator of human rights on the planet with a vast empire occupying multiple countries out war with multiple countries bombing

and carrying out drone strikes in multiple countries expose for carrying out illegal rendition illegal torture that continues to this day and within its own borders a prison population over. we're two point two million people the highest on the planet that's not just even per capita that's by number so you have the greatest purveyors of human rights violations lecturing others about human rights but it really all comes down to who is controlling the resources of the region and somehow using this liberal type of language to provide a pretext for imperialist intervention i think it's interesting mike that you brought up bahrain talk a little bit about you know when you contrast bahrain with syria there's not that much different except one is a friend and one is an enemy. and what we go by train is home to a very significant major u.s. naval base and military interest in a very strategic reason and this is. you know the arab spring really expose the

hypocrisy of this support for human rights and democracy that's what the united states stands for and it really put down to the test and it really exposed to millions of people around the world the reality where we saw you know all the sudden countries like egypt with this you know strong u.s. backed dictator in the country you know the u.s. funding that's brutal military police state in the country backed mubarak up until the very last day basically and this is the obama administration right back in its brutal dettori that cater to the very last day. these countries have strategic interest for the global domination for the. prize know what the answer coalition thanks as always for weighing in thank you and that's going to do it for us here for now but for more on the stories we covered check out youtube dot com slash r t america or our website our team dot com slash usa and you can always follow me on twitter you can find me at christine.

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