coming up on r t 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 senator an outspoken critic of the war. and what does let life like for those inside iraq r.t. has a correspondent inside the war torn country or harbor a porch from the ground just ahead. plus of the hunger strike of guantanamo bay detainees continues it turns out they're not alone tonight right outside the white house a vigil draws attention to the strike coming up we'll have a report on the gathering.

it's wednesday march twentieth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. well again today and iraq where an al qaeda affiliate took credit for a series of bombings the blasts that 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 estimated dead 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 very 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. lies are weapons of mass destruction lies are also an impeachable offense this isn't golf you don't get a do over but resolution articles of impeachment of george bush president of the

united states go to the senate sat us and sign the impeachment petition the former congressman joined us earlier and our studio as he reflected upon the past decade and i asked him looking back on the past ten years what's been going through his mind more than what goes from my mind i can feel the same 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 saying it's been a nightmare and frankly those who made the decisions to take us there have not yet been held accountable. i want to bring this up yesterday i spoke to former alaska senator mike gravel and here is 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 again whether it be from within the government or from members of the media what 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 lie has had you say that many people didn't 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 a 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. that 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 the rap waste to waste we you know all

these people killed and toured 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 there needs to america can't live a lie. 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 through a 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 lies and the lies 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 free markets to iraq and that meant getting rid of the 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 at 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 soldiers. they capitalized on america's. miscalculation. whether or not 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. we we have to deal with that is not based on the decisions that china made you know it's interesting about that we borrowed money from china to prosecute that war and 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 the 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 bag 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 a 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 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 sub continent but there would also be a catastrophe because iran has an ability to retaliate in 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 asked me based on trust and only we can do this communicate frequently and we haven't done that yet but we need to succeed it's really great to have you on tape unfortunately we are at a time but that was former congress ohio congressman dennis kucinich. well no one knows the reality of war more than the men and women who served 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 now one of them is

directing his anger right at president bush and dick cheney thomas young man you see there was paralyzed and satyrs city in two thousand and four he's dying and in what he believes to be his final days he has written a letter to george bush and dick cheney he says it's on the behalf of the thousands still living in pain and grief here's a part of his letter to the former leaders 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 and it is you who should pay the consequences as the ten year anniversary of the iraq war passes we remember the ultimate price the country has paid throughout the conflict. 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 are national correspondent lisa casanova

is 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 checkpoints 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 arrive to car 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 unsafe 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 of 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 that that you sort of hear constantly is that people do feel that life perhaps is 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. it's 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 iraq is 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 the south 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 the 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 it 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 wells have fueled. 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 our bill but that's not the case for most iraqis and that again is another tragic leftover legacy of the war movie thanks so much for shedding some light on what iraq is like on the ground today that was ours hansard international correspondent who's the captain of 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 or did large media outlets learn from this mistake the pew research center state of the media state of the news media report has some alarming findings that show the media has grown even more opinionated since that taken us n.b.c. and now we're gaining in popularity with its liberal spin found that m.s.n. received 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. coming collapse if we don't take care of your inside what. are we going to do with all that it's not as this is a really true i wish it were a long way off you know when you say so you know if we're talking about climate change. we are at my job was for the implication is somehow that i would approve of any racism or discrimination and i do it 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 american sitting in cafes being struck down by u.s. drones and most people are not concerned about that it seems crazy it seems fringe but perhaps the takeaway is it's only audience who always question more. well out

of guantanamo bay where detainees have been on hunger strike for six weeks they're trying to bring attention to the conditions they face at the military prison and detainees became more upset after they say copies of the koran were taken from them and mishandled while they have some people's attention just moments ago there was a vigil in front of the white house participants want to raise awareness about what's happening at guantanamo bay in artie's margaret howell was there. so i'm standing here in front of the white house watching people protest what's happening in the guantanamo bay prison currently the hunger strike that's happening the past forty days these protesters are highlighting poems that. have read statements of the detainees definitely a lot of information that they're trying to relay on behalf of these inmates and they're just standing there gathering quite a crowd around them actually a lot of tourists taking pictures of them and trying to very successfully i might

add gain some recognition and some awareness about this hunger strike that's happening in the us how to move a prison there about fifteen people who are actually protesting a few of them are in orange jumpsuits with bags over their heads like a signifying what a prisoner guantanamo bay may look like and definitely doing an excellent job of giving the statement of each prisoner a few pieces of poetry that some prisoners have have written you can hear in behind me they are actually reading the statements of these inmates behind me. over on a hunger strike at guantanamo bay i'm joined now by margaret howell here in our studio hi there margaret there are so what do we know about why the detainees are are on hunger strike what are they demanding so i spoke with prominent attorney today david remes who had just come back from one hundred with a march the fifth and six of his clients spoke to him and depth about exactly you

know what they're wanting and the bottom line is they're wanting to know you know are they going to be tried are they going to be held what's happening you know it's that sense of not knowing anything that's really at the heart of this you know they're not in a position to make any type of demands on the asli and they're being held indefinitely there and it seems the feeling that he gave me was that they just want to know when and what is going to happen that's the bottom line and. another thing that he told me some of them would like to know why they're there you know he has a couple of clients who don't even know you know really why they're being held and it just seems to be this indefinite ongoing thing of never knowing what's going to happen i think that's that's what's at the heart of. what do we know about the physical condition that they're in surely being on a hunger strike for six weeks or more is going to take some kind of a toll what do we know about that or so forty days of not eating you know these men have to be very despondent to begin with to embark on something of this nature what

we're seeing their physical conditions they had every type of you know log i hate to say the word luxury but any basic things like betting letters from family correspondence from attorneys have all been removed from them and their response is well you'll get this back from us if you begin eating so very dire conditions for these men and unfortunately liz you know these attorneys are the only voice is we have to these people you know nobody else can speak for them and we don't really have any eyes on the ground there other than what human rights attorneys who go into guantanamo bay are telling us is right and speaking of that i want to play a clip here because ari i understand that you spoke to one of these human rights attorneys let's see what they had to say about the condition that these detainees are in the detainees started hunger striking at the beginning of february they've been on the hunger strike now for six weeks i was there two weeks ago i met with six clients from camp six which is where the hunger strikes taking place all of

them are on the hunger strike they were visibly shrunken lost a substantial amount of weight. so there is the attorney there describing the physical state of these detainees health military officials at the base responded oh my well not well as you can imagine first of all you know he was trying to paint a human face on these people you know because as the american people were kind of taught not to see them as human so when he came in and spoke to me you very much wanted us to know that these are human beings and very very much painting a face on them how they are being treated you know he gave me specific details of one specific case he was actually working on a pakistani businessman who actually living in the united states in the seventy's and eighty's owned a television station in new jersey this man was lured to thailand by the cia and captured in bangkok and then shipped to guantanamo bay this man is the oldest man

in the prison he's sixty five years old his wife is clearly mentally unstable at this point this attorney was telling me and his treatment most of it is psychological and he he obviously you know speaking to the attorney wants to know what's going to happen he said at this point you know he feels like he's living in a in a live grave they just want to know if they're going to live there or die there he said at this point it's quite really doesn't care if he lives or dies he just wants to know what's going to happen. so what do you think margaret might help to bring this hunger strike to an end where you know i don't know if i can answer that i can tell you that. these men you have to be pretty desperate to starve your body for forty days i think that one thing that's going to bring bring this closer to coming to an end you know some resolution for these people who are languishing here some of them for over a decade you know two thousand and two when this open twelve thirteen years you know are going by and they're still there so possibly i don't see

a resolution forthcoming at this point to be honest with you interesting. i want to play this other clip. from the attorney that you spoke to regarding it i guess is the way that the military has responded to this we haven't heard much coming from that but here's what he told us. my own view is that. you shoot yourself in the foot when you try to cover up something embarrassing which is what they're trying to do if they had simply said yes there is a hunger strike there are problems we're looking into them and we're going to solve them might have been a two day story instead they decided to play the heavy. going along with that your bad attorney is kind of lashing out at their response ackland on a mobile bay. calling it a cover up he certainly is with you certainly as you know he's he's a firm of the pentagon he says that because they initially came out and helped this entire thing got started the center for constitutional rights sent the authorities

that get mo a letter in response to what they knew was going on within you know cell block six essentially that's how this broke and the pentagon you know denied it initially they said this wasn't happening and you know they can't deny it it is happening they had to actually reverse their official statement and say yes in fact this is going on and that's it that's it there is no way their statement from them interesting well at least some people today were trying to bring some subset some kind of light on this is as evidenced by your report there from the white house so we'll see what we'll see what happens hopefully it comes to an end soon thanks so much are those are going to respond margaret house. and now to the growing question facing americans how do we deal with obesity artie's the resident explains the link between obesity in poverty.

there are two very bad things on the rise in the us poverty and obesity according to a u.s. census bureau report the number of people in the u.s. living in poverty rose to forty six million people in two thousand and ten the greatest number in more than fifty years for a country with a touch of millionaires and billionaires and all the coolest toys that's pretty gross according to a two thousand and eleven c.d.c. report no state in the union has an obesity rate of less than twenty percent meaning that in every state in our country at least one in five people are clinically obese many states have much higher rates too and according to

a two thousand and nine review of the epidemic of obesity by the national institutes of health people who live in the most poverty dense counties in the us are those who are most prone to obesity meaning pretty much that our poorest people are fat now there are lots of ways to parse the data for instance higher income women are less likely to be obese and low income women but the same might not be true for men but all of this can be filed under one big having a no doc right because we all know this by now we've all seen the pie charts and heard lots of talking heads that yapping about this data for a while now and we all know our food has become clairette because of broken big agriculture and corporate greed our blood has become just another way for fact cat fight intended to make money and the result is that our food is making us all fat which is making us all sick we've all been talking about the correlation. between party disease stroke diabetes certain types of cancer and obesity for a while now what we're not talking about is how we do is sleep crazy it is that we

live in a world where people who have less weigh more it used to be that if you were poor you were skinny because you didn't have enough money to buy food nowadays people or your fat because you don't have enough money to buy food that isn't crap and that is crazy to have fewer resources and more body mass doesn't make sense it's another example of how greed has convoluted truths and sense in our country to the point of absolute insanity and that is insanity tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the end. that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash r t america follow me on twitter.