ten years ago today the u.s. invasion of iraq began a decade after the war started what did the u.s. learn during their time in the country and was it worth it. a decade later the way the u.s. fights conflicts around the globe has changed dramatically look at the evolving techniques the pentagon uses to wage war around the world. and the un is coming down on the u.s. for their drone attacks in pakistan will have or import from new york on what the united nations says about the drone strikes and why a violates pakistan's sovereignty. it's tuesday march nineteenth a pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our. ten years ago today the united states invaded iraq and on this anniversary about

a dozen car bombs and suicide blast killed at least fifty people a deadly reminder that iraq remains a dangerous and unstable country moments ago senator john mccain spoke at the american enterprise institute about the iraq war anniversary here's what he told our t.v. about why you rock isn't the state it's in today. i. want to get you into commentary as to what we can expect ten years later i don't really say that's right but all. that sort of transpired yesterday. fortunately for the. united states is no player since. he has. received letters received some strange don't let anybody take. ten years later hundreds of thousands of lives trillions of dollars spent what is the result of all of it earlier i was joined by a former alaskan senator micro valen sara flounders co-director of the

international action center she's also the author of the book war without victory i started out by asking senator gravelle was it worth it it was a criminal act i mean if we adhere to the nuremberg principles united states committed a criminal act we know who the criminals are and for some reason we don't prosecute them is really something wrong with our national morality now sara what do you think are we better off today than we were ten years ago and is iraq better off. iraq is much worse off and i this was an horrendous crime against humanity against the people of iraq the total destruction of iraq which had the highest literacy in the region and today the lowest the destruction of health care of the standard of living on every measure of

a quarter of the iraqi people today dead disabled or dislocated millions of refugees that is a crime and yet it was also a complete failure for us strategic interests hollings wonder on every count and these criminals who launched this war based on total lies they should be prosecuted now when saddam hussein was toppled some back that and still today say that saddam hussein was a dictator that systematically tortured and killed his own people and those that defend the war in iraq say the world is safer and better off without senator what do you say to them. it's foolishness saddam hussein was a thug just no question about that he killed a lot of his own people but he was not a threat to the united states and he was not a threat to the world this was part of a neo con plan could deploy our conservatives who wanted to one develop

american her gemini across the world starting with it rock afghanistan libya now syria and we're repeating this same lead up to a war with iran and it's being led by none other than the president of united states who who felt we don't look back so we don't prosecute the criminals and now we're about to repeat the same thing over again when the president says that that we could do anything we want with iran and everything's on the table most americans don't realize that there's a doctrine was in the presidency the white house that the president can launch a nuclear war on his own decision without the congress without anybody else he has that kind of power and it's been stated so. and you know i here are during this anniversary and a lot of times we see these things in retrospect i want to take

a look at the newspaper headlines ten years ago today when the war was started the first one there is from the chicago sun times says war by show opened with surgical strikes at iraqi leaders from connecticut air strikes target hussein bush describes actions as opening stages of a broad and concentrated campaign to free the iraqi people and another cover there in north carolina missiles of rain from north carolina that says missiles rain on defiant saddam so i want to ask you sara did the media give the invasion more credibility. well the invasion the shock and awe was really on every standard terror terror against a whole population an effort to create a total collapse the very fact that it failed that is an important lesson for the people of the whole world but today is also the second anniversary of the us nato

war that destroyed libya this week it's a second anniversary of the war for regime change to destabilize syria the drone attacks that take place every single day against pakistan and a whole number of other countries caesar all assaults on the sovereignty of countries around the world and it's a crime that is continuing and the emboldened us was actually emboldened that they staged a war that was clearly criminal by its very nature and no one here was charged for it so that aggressive appetite in different form in libya different form in syria new threats on iran but very very dangerous for the people of the world and the people right here in the u.s. and we should take note along with the tyrell destruction for the iraqi people the the exposé this week of the u.s.

role in torture in the death squads in the civil war openly from mentoring it these are the kind of crimes that were committed and that that there should really be a responsibility for today and the crimes continue in another way to forty percent of the more than one million u.s. soldiers who served in iraq today suffer from post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries that's a horrendous toll right there the cost of the war over two trillion dollars when medical care and long term care are considered so we're paying an enormous a. mounts and the people of the world are paying highly for these criminal wars yeah we're seeing the human cost and the enormous financial cost senator here we are ten years later do you think that there should have been more alarm alarm bells before invading should we have heard more cautionary critical voices whether it be from government officials or from the media well our entire institutions the media the

congress the white house all failed the american people and the american people themselves are not free from culpability in this regard because when when we saw this violation this invasion of another country as a criminal act it didn't take long that was within a year you knew that it would this was a criminal act the american public did not react to that the american media right now which which marginalizes any thought of a serious investigation of nine eleven which triggered this entire situation for the neo cons to be able to pursue american her gemini in the world matched with our physical power and our control of energy around the world is what where what are americans doing you know there's a no cliche in that is if you kill one person it's murder if you kill a million what has foreign policy that's exactly the way we act there's

a gap between american morality as individuals and between the morality of the nation as a whole and we don't seem to react to that and that makes us culpable as americans into crimes that we see we just have a minute left i want to ask you i guess after all there isn't what lessons have we learned none well i think we learned the better too. sorry. senator saying that there was there a what do you think what lessons have we have we learned hopefully one our a couple something have we learned anything from all of the never never to trust the corporate media which is actually aligned with the banks the oil corporations the military corporations in this country and to ally on mobilizing the people themselves millions of people opposed the u.s. war in iraq in huge demonstrations worldwide in the us literally millions thousands

and thousands of actions were organized i was very much part of that ten years ago and still continuing to this day we need to do the much more forcefully we can't accept this and we have to resist it and we also have to resist the lies of the u.s. corporate media that is really a public relations arm for these wars and i appreciate you both very much for coming on and your insightful remarks on this on the ten year anniversary of the war in iraq that was former alaskan senator mike ravel and sara flounders co-director of the international action center. on the bush administration announced the u.s. was invading iraq and mapped out a plan much different than the way the war actually played out the correspondent meghan lopez takes a look at the rhetoric going in versus reality. my fellow citizens at this hour american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.

a speech that laid the groundwork for years of war and strife the iraq war was described as a necessary war one that would ensure the stability of that region and the world's numerous human sources tell us that iraqis are moving not just documents and hard drives but weapons of mass destruction to keep them from being found by inspectors we know they have weapons of mass destruction we know they have active programs there is there isn't any debate about how. the u.s. promised to unseat a rogue leader find in obtain all weapons of mass destruction and rebuild a broken nation ten years later only one of those promises was kept a war to end the alleged deceptions of saddam hussein's regime muddied the reputation of the world's most powerful nation the iraq war was supposed to be a lot of things cost effective for one office of management and budget estimated it

would be something under fifty billion dollars how that side estimates say up to three hundred billion baloney but there was more meat to that argument than economists and the bush administration thought the latest estimates put the total cost of the iraq war at eight hundred twenty three billion dollars with reconstruction efforts in the country totaling over three hundred billion but it wasn't only the financial costs the bush administration underestimated it was also the human toll some of the higher end predictions that we have been hearing recently such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand u.s. troops to provide stability in post saddam and iraq are wildly off the mark a decade later with four thousand four hundred eighty four american military personnel dead more than thirty two thousand physically injured and. tens of thousands of others suffering the mental impacts of the iraq war those predictions proved to be right on point as for the damage this war caused the iraqi and american people do you think the american people are prepared for

a long costly and bloody battle with a significant american casualties i don't i don't think it's likely to unfold that way tim because i really do believe we will be greeted as liberators anywhere from one hundred twenty five thousand to one million iraqis died the u.s. went into recession that cost millions of families their jobs and homes and the notion of a noble nation writing in on white stallions to liberate a depressed people turned out to be smoke and mirrors so ten years later with the iraq war behind us did the u.s. earn anything from this unpopular war we see that change washington as much as what . if nothing else the bush administration said was true about the war in iraq perhaps as official declaration of war was a prelude to what was really to come a campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as california could be longer and more difficult than some predict far away from the battlefields thousands of american military personnel who

lost their lives were laid to rest here in the arlington national cemetery it's a silent reminder of just how costly this war really was. a price that no american was really expecting to have to pay. in washington meghan lopez r.t. . meanwhile islamist insurgents appear to be gaining ground in iraq in the past twenty four hours a string of car bomb blast killed at least fifty people r.t. international correspondent lisa cavanagh joined us earlier from erbil iraq and i asked her about the conditions on the ground in if she was feeling safe. well as the area where i'm actually located is in the autonomy this region semiautonomous region of iraq you kurdistan is probably the only area in iraq that has really benefited and seen growth and improvement since the invasion much of the country unfortunately remains mired in strife sectarian divisions as well as other political and human problems the attacks in baghdad today are quite symbolic in the

sense that iraq in many ways has seemed to close the painful chapter of the past ten years much the same way that it began explosions over baghdad we have seen massive losses all across the country there have been there have been reports of sectarian strife and almost every place you go and while i feel safe here i certainly do we did spend most of the day in the city of kirkuk now this city is a very good sort of microcosm of iraq as a whole there's all different types of sectarian and ethnic populations there that have lived largely in peace for many years but unfortunately they're seeing an uptick in surge in violence as well and where we went i mean it was it did feel quite dangerous not because of the people but because of the growth in the potential of terrorist attacks and in fact some of the forces that we were with who had escorted us for safety had said that there was to expose explosions small explosions in the city of kirkuk which really shows that almost no place that you go in iraq except for

a purpose and at the moment is quite safe now can you describe you guys i know you just mentioned you were traveling around some of these air other areas of iraq what the conditions are like there does it still look like a war zone. you know it's interesting having not been to iraq before you think iraq war it must be a terrible situation of conflict and while people do live with daily strife it's quite fascinating to see the resilience of iraqis the way that they've been able to move on despite the oppressive conditions that have taken place both from the invasion the occupation and the subsequent sectarian strife even in the city of kirkuk as we were driving by we saw schoolchildren walking out people walking around people sitting in cafes and talking to us on my colleagues who are in baghdad it's the same sort of situation and while it is an optimistic situation it shows that perhaps iraqis are able to deal and move on beyond the circumstances that are been handed to them it also indicates perhaps

a normalization of the levels of violence something that's something that is quite unfortunate to see you describe the resilience of the people there how would you describe their mind said would you say that they are more hopeful that things are going to change and things are going to get better or more hopeless that change will happen. today as opposed to their mindset ten years ago. i think almost every iraqi that you speak to or at least ones we've spoken to do hope that things will change but very few are pessimistic or optimistic that this will happen in the immediate future iraq in the immediate moment is dealing with the numerous political problems there's tension on the ground between the sunni populations in the shia led government there's also tensions between baghdad and the disputed region here near the autonomy kurdistan area there's conflict over oil deals of frustration with the political system accusations of corruption and strife

and of course the daily insurgency the attacks that of course have gone down significantly since the height of the war that still continue as evidenced by the blast in baghdad and so i think many iraqis that you speak to will say you know what yes we're free saddam hussein is gone but at what cost is it worth it to have these daily attacks of violence one man that we spoke to in the city of troop to today said yes i'm free to go out of my house today the question is whether i will return alive and i think that's quite a lot about the situation in iraq faces today yeah i mean when president bush announced that we would invade iraq one of the reasons justification was to liberate the people there but i mean ten years later do you think people there feel any safer. i think that unfortunately people don't feel much safer people feel that they're dealing with a different set of problems they've exchanged this is one comment that i've heard as we've exchanged one yoke of oppression for another one they're not necessarily

happy with the direction that the government is taking they're not necessarily happy with the services and the employment situation nearly forty percent of all iraqi adults at the moment don't have a job a quarter of the families live below the world bank's poverty line these are statistics that aren't much better than what we saw under the crippling u.n. sanctions of the one nine hundred ninety s. and so while i think everyone here wants to see the country move forward there is a lot of pessimism there is a lot of disappointment in where iraq is ten years later and not to mention the fact that almost every single person in this country has lost somebody they loved it's a nation that is moving on but is completely traumatized and scarred by ten years of bloodshed war and sectarian strife for iraq with a future really remains uncertain at the moment lucy thanks so much for your reporting there and stay safe that was our to international correspondent lucy catherine of on the ground in erbil iraq now to the economic cost of the iraq war

when all is said and done cost estimates of the conflict from invasion to reconstruction are in the trillions are too gloria harshness takes a look at the financial impact and the all new style and format of the resident. happy ten year anniversary u.s. involvement in iraq that's right this month marks ten years since we invaded iraq american special inspector general for iraq reconstruction stuart bowen made his final report to congress to celebrate our anniversary and he was pretty clear about whether or not any mission was accomplished he said that it was

a cub list but the size of the funds expanded shocker i know right overall the u.s. has spent in iraq in ten years wait for it ready can you guess how much seven hundred sixty seven billion dollars that translates to over two hundred million dollars a day two hundred million dollars a day trying to make a born country in the middle east to be our slave but here we are squabbling over providing our own citizens health care and retirement income and basic necessities for the past ten years we've been spending two hundred million dollars a day in iraq that's not cool. and the worst part is iraq is nowhere near being first lady it's not anyone to sleep with near daily bombings infighting and government corruption all over the place a quarter of the country's thirty one million people live in poverty electricity and clean water are not something everyone enjoys there so where do the two hundred million dollars a day go well here are a few examples we began building

a prison in two thousand and four but it ended it because of violence around it that cost just forty million and still that's an rubble with no plans of being finished we've looked. bridge during the invasion every oil and gas pipeline despite a geological studies say their plans to build a new pipeline wouldn't work we went ahead and try to build it anyway because my old of course we spent seventy five million making it and then another twenty nine million when it failed just like the studies that it would we also spent tens of millions of dollars i think back in other projects and activities resulted in criminal convictions of twenty two people because of course there's going to be fraud when millions of dollars are being spent it was seized with a bureaucracy to cover up where everything is going. to hundred million dollars a day when the numbers are that big they almost begin to lose their meaning we all glaze over because we can't even comprehend that much money or that much of

anything and that makes us feel powerless and that's when they get that's what they really got a job screwing up over glazed over that when the clerk could get rich it's not the iraqi people not we the taxpayers we get it. so it's pretty busy that the traditional get for a ten year anniversary is ten because right now we could all use a little good for the deductible need to rattle around whatever change we have left of our tax dollars tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the red. from the initial ground invasion to a more covert war fought by unmanned aircraft the face of war has evolved over the decade art to correspondent margaret howell takes a look now at how the war tactics have changed since iraq. since the iraq invasion

u.s. military tactics have switched from boots on the ground to robots in the air the cia and pentagon first drone strike occurred in yemen in two thousand and two and since then we've ratcheted up our drone activity under this administration the pentagon spending of unmanned aircraft has jumped from two hundred eighty four million in two thousand to nearly four billion last year the number of drones owned by the pentagon rocketed from less than two hundred in two thousand to seventy five hundred males while the bulk of these drones are small shoulder launched ravens heavily armed predators and reapers are also used to having accumulated one million balls in the skies over afghanistan and iraq insurgents don't have the ability to shoot some daylight and they're controlled remotely so even if they crash american soldiers don't die this makes them quite popular for the u.s. drones provide twenty four hour patrols over hot spots and gather intelligence by

pulling in millions of terabytes of data and hours of video feeds. right now predator and reaper drones are completing a fifteen twenty four hour combat air controls per day mostly in afghanistan and pakistan the standing order is for the air force to increase the number to sixty five a day by may have twenty four teams the staffing commands the military drone use has dramatically increased we now require nearly seven hundred drone pilots and twelve hundred sensory operators to keep up with the u.s. drone activity. general mike hostage commander of air force combat command said that the current number of drones patrolling the skies over seas may already be more than the service can afford to maintain however the air force discussions are focused more on whether the military drones what is the right size and composition for future conflicts this is been an insatiable appetite within the military for unmanned hunter killer drones particularly amid top combat commanders around the world let's face it killing by remote control is quite popular. drone warfare work

for the u.s. while we own the field of aerial strikes now other countries are catching up with us we'll see just how popular the u.s. drone policy remains amid new laws that require clearance for sovereign air spaces in washington margaret howell r.t. . the letter r t the un is coming down on the u.s. for its drone strikes in pakistan but the united nations as about the drone strikes and why have violates pakistan's sovereignty after the break. look pretty down the field good luck you won't find it here if you're looking for relevant stories unique perspective the tough questions sorry.

let me let me are going to we're going to let me ask you a question. on this morning is what we're going to be we have our night show. with you this was the right thing there if you're even going to be i don't want to talk about the i mean let me. the united nations is now speaking out against the u.s. drone war the un special rapporteur tour on human rights and counterterrorism is calling the drone program in pakistan a violation of the country's sovereignty u.n. official ban emerson said the drone campaign is being carried out without the

consent of the people of pakistan this after investigating the u.s. drone program by meeting with representatives of tribal areas in pakistan that have been hot beds for drone strikes it's the strongest statement made by an international official against the us is targeted killing program back in january emerson said he would investigate twenty five drone strikes in pakistan afghanistan and other overseas drone targets the white house has yet to respond to emerson's findings as we've reported in the south here on r t the drone strikes in places like pakistan have anger at local people and stirred anti-american sentiment in the regions where civilians have died as a result of the strikes. but one obvious benefit of drones for the military is that it keeps u.s. soldiers out of harm's way one tactic used by the iraqi insurgency are improvised explosive devices or.

these fascinating images of these homemade weapons you're looking at these weapons are blowing up they're designed to detonate when a vehicle drives over them they're typically placed on the ground inside animal carcasses soda cans or boxes. by the end of two thousand and seven the weapons were responsible for sixty four percent of coalition deaths in iraq may of that year was the deadliest month by ideas. the tactic killing eighty nine coalition forces while the bombs claim thousands of lives deaths by i.e.d. has appeared to decrease dramatically after two thousand and seven and we are going to leave it off there but for more of the stories we cover tech that are used to channel used to dot com slash or see america and follow me on twitter out was wall for doubts have a great night.