coming up on our t.v. ten years ago the u.s. invasion of iraq was just beginning countless lives lost and billions of dollars spent so was this war necessary our special guest today is former ohio congressman dennis q. signage an outspoken critic of the war. and what is life like for those inside iraq arts he has a correspondent inside the war torn country we'll have a report from the ground just ahead. and an industry of eco friendly products sounds like a great way to boost american business and reduce pollution but is this market really in the green or will it turn red we'll tell you more later in the show.

it's wednesday march twentieth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our tea. we begin today an iraq where an al qaeda affiliate took credit for a series of bombings the blasts resulted in at least sixty dead on the ten year anniversary of the iraq war it's a war that killed nearly five thousand u.s. soldiers hundreds of thousands of iraqis and estimated to cost trillions of dollars the bush administration told the public iraq had weapons of mass destruction turns out that wasn't the case but from the beginning there were a few voices against waging a war in iraq among them former congressman dennis q senator if you can recall he called for the impeachment of president george bush and dick cheney liars are weapons of mass destruction lies are also an impeachable offense so this isn't golf you don't get a do over the resolution articles or impeachment of george bush president of the united states. go to consider chat us and sign the impeachment petition

the former congressman joined us earlier in our studio as we reflect upon the past decade and i asked him looking back on the past ten years what is on his mind and more than what goes from my mind i can feel this in my heart you know i'm heartsick over the loss of our troops over the deaths of perhaps as many as a million innocent iraqis the destruction of that country the destruction of our own priorities here at home the rising debt borrowing money to wage a war the city has been a nightmare and frankly those who made the decisions to take us there have not yet been held accountable yeah and i want to bring this up yesterday i spoke to former alaska senator mike gravel and here's what he said well our entire institutions the media the congress the white house all failed the american people now i know that you from the very beginning were outspoken about this war and i

want to ask should have there been more critical voices should have there been alarmed bells going off whether i've been whether it be from within the government or from members of the media. we know and i say we myself and members of congress knew back in october of two thousand and two that the call for war was not fact based people the media knew that too but there was everyone got pulled into this tremendous movement towards war. make no mistake about it the president and members of his administration involved in the decision making have the first responsibility here members of congress in top positions have responsibility as well but we have to move. to a place in america where we reconcile the events of the last ten years against the fact that it was not based on truth that's horrendous when you think about the

consequences lying to take a country to war it is mind boggling when you think of the impact this lives had you say that many people did know about the tree tops and yet we didn't hear much warning we didn't see as much resistance how do you think that's able to happen well my experience in congress was that the minute that you start to beat the drums for war war has kind of a hypnotic magnetic effect that maybe it excites the lower limbic system or something but people just get drawn into it they don't they don't think anymore it becomes an emotional thing and people stop thinking and as a result we sent our troops over there as a result we ended up with thousands of them dying many of them coming back those who survived p.t.s.d. . and the iraq we laid iraq waste to waste we you know all these people killed and injured the country destroyed oil being one of the

underlying things that was involved here. those who made the decision that took us there again they have to be held accountable which is why i suggested a whole new process that could bring people forward in the public get them to confess to their misdeeds and give our country a chance to lift this scourge of a war based on live from our conscience do you think that whatever really happened it needs to america can't live a lie. that's the truth such as for then we must stand upon the truth to free ourselves from the lies that took us into the iraq war and the only way you can do that is sort of public process where those who made the decisions a president the vice president secretary of state the secretary of defense and all the people involved in those decisions are brought forward where they are subject to public question and where there's consequences if they if they lie but we need to we need to move past iraq but we can't do it as long as we're fix

there almost in a number like a specimen in time and space because of lives and the lives are devastating to our country because there are so many americans who have no idea that we did not have to attack iraq and you just mentioned oil a moment ago and there are many people that believe that we went to iraq for oil bush wanted to bring fair free markets to iraq and that meant getting rid of these state owned operations but want to bring up these figures. has to do with china and it turns out that chinese control of iraqi oil production today fifty per cent and added by two thousand and thirty five it's expected to be eighty per cent so what's surprising is that we're not getting much oil the chinese are the ones with the big oil companies there why is that well first of all. china was able to get that oil without ever understand. a single soldier. they

capitalized on america's. miscalculation. whether or. the thought was that. the new government would just cave in to the us. there was clearly a calculation that our movement over there was going to benefit our access to oil and cheap oil i might add. more as the tragedy and we we have to deal with it is not based on the decisions that china made you know it's interesting about we borrowed money from china to prosecute that war i think think about this thing is it's so it's such a compounded tragedy on so many levels that we borrowed money from china and were such so in that in china their economy is growing and ours is tanking and the war is one of the reasons you know the there's

a line in our in our christian bible that said that which is crooked cannot be made straight everything about the iraq war is crooked and it cannot be made straight until we have a process of truth and reconciliation here in the united states much the same way that south africa had to free itself of the lies that brought it to apartheid and a subjugation of a whole group of people and you have also been very outspoken against some of the tactics that have been used in this war among them the use of torture and rendition right now at guantanamo a bag of there is that this fake hunger strike that's going on among the detainees there do you still believe that that they should be shut down such as president obama promised still absolutely it's extra constitutional. one of the problems that came pursuant to the war is that some of the most cherished constitutional protections that involve everyone who the united states comes into contact with basically set aside suddenly you could put people in secret prisons or you

could imprison them without attorneys or you could subject them to torture and it was beyond the reach of any civil authority here. and that sets the stage for drone policies which are used can be used to attack american citizens abroad we have departed from our constitutional tradition and any time you do that you're looking for real trouble now congress we don't have that much time but i do want to ask you because there was a press conference today between the president and benjamin netanyahu and do you fear that the u.s. is moving closer to war with iran will iran be the next iraq. no i don't think we're headed towards a war with iran. iran has the ability to defend itself. and there would be a catastrophe if there was a nuclear strike on iran because of the effect of the fallout across the

subcontinent but there would also be a catastrophe because or iran has an ability to retaliate and retaliation would be against israel. we have to recognize that we're in a new era which requires us to settle our differences without killing each other and without threatening mass destruction against one nation against another and so we have to use diplomacy with iran we have to we have to build a relationship there and they asked me based on trust you know we can do this communicate frequently and we haven't done that yet but we need to sinister really great to have you on terry unfortunately we are at a time but that was a former congress ohio congressman dennis q. senate. well no one really no one really knows the reality of war more than the men and women who serve overseas nearly five thousand u.s. soldiers died and thousands more injured members of the military know what it's like to be on the front lines and lose friends in combat one of them is directing his anger right at president bush and dick cheney the man you see there thomas

young was paralyzed and satyrs city in two thousand and four when he was dying and what he believes to be his final days he has written a letter to george bush and dick cheney he says it's on behalf of the thousands still living in pain and grief here's a part of his letter to the former leader he says quote on every level moral strategic military and economic iraq was a failure and it was you mr bush and mr cheney who started this war it is you who should pay the consequences well as the ten year anniversary of the iraq war passes and remember the ultimate price the company a country has paid throughout the conflicts. the tenth anniversary of the war in iraq has many wondering if the country is better off today than it was a decade ago can you walk down the street of iraq and feel safe or is there the threat of a car bomb exploding around you our teams or national correspondent lisa casanova's on the ground in erbil iraq to tell us what she's seeing hi lucy so can you give us

a said of what life is like on a day to day basis in iraq. well one of the things that strikes you first driving through iraq we spent most of the day in the northern city of kirkuk which was one of the most dangerous places at the height of the six area and strife there is the checkpoint massive checkpoints almost everywhere you go iraqis aren't too free to move around because of the security situation which can soon used to be quite on say for them as we were driving through kirkuk one thing that i noticed though was you know daily life does continue despite the levels of violence we saw children out on the streets people out in cafes we actually arrived to cook just as the news of that massive series of car explosions and shootings and bombings came out that took place in baghdad people were aware of that and yet they didn't really let that stop them from carrying out their daily life at the same time what we heard from iraq after rocky is that their daily routine is determined

by fear of the security situation they can't necessarily go to certain markets because those might be considered aren't safe neighborhoods have become much more fractured whereas at one point iraq used to live together in a more harmony now the sectarian divisions the ethnic divisions the religious divisions are much more prominent people are much more suspicious of their neighbors which is something that didn't used to be the case at least that is what we heard from the iraqis that we spoke to there and of course the infamous blast walls of something that definitely strikes you as you're driving and walking through parts of those cities so i think visually you do sort of get a sense. but this is a country that still hasn't quite recovered from war but at the same time considering that iraqis have been in a state of war for almost a decade in some sad ways the instability has become a part of normal daily life after the series of bombings that happened just yesterday over sixty people dead lucie is there a renewed sense of fear there in iraq or are people just used to it at this point.

i think it's both i think unfortunately people have grown used to it it's certainly a sense of fear for foreigners entering the country but you know one one of one of the that was the things that you sort of hear constantly is that people do feel that life perhaps has improved for some but most feel like their lives are defined again by the security and stability it's quite mixed the almost don't know how to get your mind around the fact that you know these car bombs are going off in fact actually when we were incurred kook we heard from the local officials there that there was two explosions small explosions that took place there but yet what are people supposed to do they have to somehow continue with their life and so they do but at their peril right now are iraqis treating foreigners americans in particular . is kind of various on where you are for instance where in the air bill right

now it's an area in the semi autonomous region of kurdistan which is probably the only place in iraq that has really benefited and improved and seen conditions drastically change for the better since the war however across most of the country there's a lot of suspicion of foreigners it's not that of hockey's don't necessarily like americans most iraqis probably have no problems with westerners as people but considering the devastating impact of the war that had been launched by the u.s. in association with coalition partners there's a lot of suspicion about what westerners are doing there certain neighborhoods that you walk into it. really not ok to you know walk in with your american gear and try to not blend in with the people because you'll instantly be noticed as a foreigner but you know the sad thing is that it's not just about the foreigners i think there's a growing sense of suspicion among the neighbors and that's really one of the things the tragic things the legacy is i suppose of this decade of war occupation

and sectarian strife and billions of dollars have gone towards rebuilding iraq and we know now following a report that a lot of that money was wasted and that a lot of these projects were abandoned so i mean being there on the ground do you get a sense that a lot of construction and rebuilding is taking place or do you see a lot of bombed out buildings in ruins. here in iraqi kurdistan in fact the opposite is happening this is again a prosperous region there is construction but that's because there's a massive oil boom and the oil wealth of fuels. immensely popular and wonderful economic surge but across most of the country that's a drastic difference here because just forty five minutes away and it is a completely different scenario there's a lot of poverty that continues to plague the country there's a lot of for instance problems with the infrastructure of drinking clean drinking water isn't necessarily available power outages continue to plague the capital of

baghdad as well as parts of the country we're pretty lucky here in erbil but that's not the case for most iraqis and that again is another tragic leftover legacy of the war losing thanks so much for shedding some light on what iraq is like on the ground today that was ours he answered international correspondent lucy cavanagh is on the ground in erbil iraq. well as you heard earlier in the show critics say the mainstream media played a strong role in the united states' decision to invade iraq reporting consistently that the middle eastern country had weapons of mass destruction so did large media outlets learn from this mistake the pew research center's state on the news media report has some alarming findings that show the media has grown even more opinionated since that take imus and b. c. a network gaining in popularity with its liberal spin you found the imus n.b.c. broadcast opinion a whopping eighty five percent of the time but if you watch us n.b.c. that should come as no surprise we were one thing from the last four years and the

republicans will stand on your neck and then stab you in the eye when. you don't take care of your inside what. are we going to do with all that it's not this is early true i wish it were a long way off you know what you said so you know if we're talking about climate change or use well we are at my job or the implication is somehow that i would approve of any racism or discrimination and i don't in any form or fashion but isn't being in favor of civil rights but against the civil rights pact a little like saying you're against high cholesterol are going to be a form of cheese by raising the specter of americans sitting in cafes being struck down by u.s. drones and most people are not concerned about that it seems crazy it seems fringe . well perhaps the takeaway is it's on the audience to always question more. well as the recent horsemeat scandal in europe showed we don't always know what's in our food but here in the u.s.

seven states are trying to make it harder to uncover instances of animal abuse or unsafe practices at factory farms here are the seven states where so-called agag laws have been proposed six states have already passed them these laws would make it illegal to take photographs or record video and farming operations agag laws prevent independent groups from conducting investigations into issues are exposing potential illegality r.t. interviewed a former investigator for the humane society who wore a pinhole camera to work at four separate farms and here is how he explained ag gag laws. obviously i think it's criminal you know these these. and i whistle blower bills are being disguised as and are fraud bills but the real fraud that's going on here is is being perpetrated by these companies that are trying to deceive consumers into buying something other than what they think that they're buying i think most consumers knew about the conditions on these farms they would

want to do with them. so if all of these states new pass these ag gag laws that means the strong majority of americans meat factories will be won't be safe or will be safe from hidden cameras rather and that would make it harder for us to know what's really in our meat and where it comes from. so you've seen them on shelves of green products promising to save the environment and your body even as they give your wallet a beating companies producing green cars houses food and more claim that these products can decrease our carbon footprint just looking at green construction that industry brings in one hundred twenty two billion dollars so the question is are these products actually environmentally and socially responsible or are all of these so-called green companies just cashing in on do gooders to discuss i'm joined now by elizabeth q. senate executive producer of the documentary g m o m g and majority report producer michael brooks in our studio from new york welcome to the both of you so elizabeth i'm going to start off with you can we really trust these labels that tout that

they're green and all natural it depends what labels you're looking at if it's something that certified like us da organic or leed certified if you're looking at the green building then that's one thing if you're actually just looking at the title of a product many companies have just green washed because they know that consumers really want to buy green products they want to feel good about themselves or they want to feel healthy if it sizzle natural in the on the product but the name of a product and actually what's in it can be very different right michael want to ask you i mean do you go out of your way to buy agree and if so i mean do you usually trust the labels on them. first of all liz hi elizabeth i do buy some green products i buy organic products try to. buy non chemical detergents and things like that there are some companies i trust a lot i don't i think you have to look at very specific certifications in order to

you know get the actual products you're looking for but i do i do tend to buy those products yes all right so as elizabeth just mentioned we can't always trust the labels on these products and i know that you know a lot about g.m.o. as your documentary and i mean we saw in california and this last ballot initiative that it was defeated to get labels on genetically modified food so i mean what will it take to get proper labels on our food on our products so we know exactly what it is that we're we're buying and what we're putting into our bodies well you know obviously grocery manufacturers really want to sell products and they want people to feel good about the product that they're selling sometimes those labels for example a g.m.o. label many people don't want to eat g.m. most for whatever reason that might be so they would see that as being disparaging against the product where is i would say that what we eat really is essential to understand who we are going to become and if we can't even decide in a fourth what fashion what it is that we put into our bodies and we don't even know

what that's going to be then really can we move forward is a healthy population right michael in a little bit i just mentioned mentioned earlier that you know we all kind of feel better when we go green when we buy green party products we feel like we're being environmentally conscious unfortunately all the times the labels aren't correct so i mean what do you think do you think that it's going to continue to be is it a fad to buy green products or are people going to be disillusioned when they're not really sure what it is that they're buying anyway and they're spending more money on these products. well i think the real disillusion point and the more kind of fundamental questions to get to is all of these questions about what products we buy are very important but more deeply even if we're buying the right products you know the genuine organic products the genuine more fuel efficient car fundamentally none of our individual decisions are going to really solve these long term problems they can't just be solved through lifestyle ism or brand preferences their policy

questions there are collective action questions there are business questions there regulation questions and cultural and values questions which i think elizabeth was kind of alluding to as well without those issues being addressed were not going to be able to solve these regardless of the quality of labeling or anything else or individual decisions yeah you bring an interesting point up there michel that it's policy decisions over but do you think that there needs to be more standards in place i think standards are very important i think rules and regulations are important but i have to take a little bit of issue with the whole lifestyle issue because you know if we're lucky enough three times a day if we ate then that is money that we're spending to direct to society if we're choosing organic products if we're choosing plant based foods if we're choosing certain things we know that the money is being directed by from our own posts into. develop conversely if we're buying products which are destroying the

environment which produced unsustainably which are not ethical which are hurting animals we know that that's where we're putting our money as well and the thing about food particularly and looking at any of these products is that our own consumer choices really are driving a culture and their driving industry and it's the easiest and most simple activist action that we can take that has an immediate effect are the three food choices we make per day and so buying organic making sure that you read the real labels so it's the official label that says that's what we need to make sure that consumers are looking at right michael what do you think elizabeth made a really good point here that consumers i mean that's the way capitalism works right if there is a demand that that impacts what products are out there but going along with what you said earlier with policy i mean are consumers kind of kind of driven to buy

things based on on the decisions that corporations make based on decisions that the government makes like i mean is there or is there a big impact on what it is their policy wise and what it is that we end up consuming what it is that and upon our shelves what we end up buying well i think that's exactly the point it's a very interdependent process and i think elizabeth absolutely right that if you have the privilege and the ability to exercise your consumer option in certain way you should and i do and i do think that that's very important but that said we know why certain products are easier and cheaper to access than other products because of things like agribusiness subsidies or something like that if we're focusing on food which is incentivize the type of food policies that really do need to be put into place in the long term and if you look at countries. me like germany that have had some genuine success in moving and transitioning to things like renewables you saw a really into. process you saw consumer choice you saw

a social activism you saw a tough regulatory environment and then business and market in addition all of those things need to work together and they're all really important really essential the only time i hesitate is i think in the us because we're so focused on our consumer behavior and rightfully so we can sometimes overlook the much bigger environment that we're operating in which is what your question highlighted i think we just have like twenty seconds but i still as i know you really want consumers to take charge of our behavior what can we do when we go to the grocery store or any store to make sure that we are in fact making wise decisions to make so that you really look at that you that you take notice of the official labels that are on a product that you look at where the product is from and that maybe you jump on the internet and do a bit of research into effective food very good advice there great conversation thanks both of you for joining us today that was elizabeth q senate executive producer of the documentary g m o m g and michael brooks producer of the majority

report thank you and now to drones a subject that has finally captured the attention of americans more than a decade after the first drone strike abroad today the senate judiciary committee held a hearing on drones in america discussing their potential uses and privacy concerns as drones make it less expensive to spy on people and more local police departments and businesses gain access to them privacy advocates are growing concern that americans will be constantly under the cameras watchful eye but that's not the only worry our listen to our exclusive talk with senate intelligence chair dianne feinstein. in many respects it is the perfect kill weapon you can say you won't permit any droom to be armed but how do you see that that's carrying out. their hearing acknowledge that civil liberties were a concern when talking about americans and drones whether in the us or elsewhere

lawmakers were split about drone use listen to senate intelligence ranking member chuck grassley who talked to r t who we spoke to after this hearing when it comes to domestic use of drones and whether it's by the government or whether it's by private individuals yes i have very much concern about is the constitution being violated his privacy being violated those issues don't come up when you're using grown in military action all news has come out however that the obama administration is considering switching the drone program a program from the cia to the pentagon which may give the media more transparency and we are going to leave it off there but for more of the stories we covered check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our to america and you can also had to our website r t v dot com slash usa our producers are working on stories we don't always have time to get to on the air and you can follow me on twitter.