i seemed to know almost i didn't then fifteen years ago you see she asked me what do you want us to see and i don't i just want i'm just was that should should not think one distance. then some other sort of discussions then again if you ask me and say months then again she asked me then i lost my temper. you have met yet i like to have been this dead news here we've been at it good. luck. it's like thank you always good day to take a look at the bow to me about to take a thanks to my guests his holiness the dalai. cross

talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. the shells are force. plane.

and the finish line of the boston marathon. well it. was probably. going to break in the set i'm abby martin so this past weekend tens of thousands of activists and countries around the world took to the streets to protest the continued israeli aggression on the gaza strip and paris demonstrators were met with tear gas and rubber bullets as they defied a recent van on pro palestinian protests and not by the french government and five thousand people surrounded the israeli embassy and pasted photos of dead gazan children to its walls in south africa thousands marched in capetown in durban demanding that the government expel the israeli ambassador in the wake of the

country's ground invasion of gaza that has locked scores of civilians dead and in the us thousands of activists rallied from washington d.c. to salman sco to condemn the ongoing scene and call for obama to put an end to the three plus billion dollars in military aid this country gives israel every year so as we continue to hear the horrific news coming out of gaza remember that perhaps nothing is more powerful than a global demonstration of solidarity because the stronger and the louder our voices get a venture lee our leaders will have no choice but to listen now let's break this up . they believe very. well you heard how bad would that hurt they're looking.

at least. lately. at least lately. with so many global conflicts unfolding around the world the growing unrest in iraq has largely been back paged which has something to do with the perception that america's involvement in the country is over whelmed fact still playing a military role in the path to in the chaos and back more than five thousand five hundred iraqi civilians have been killed in the first six months of this year alone according to the u.n. additionally another one point two million have been displaced by the violence so

how did it get to this point this unraveling is the subject of a recent article by journalist staff reporter with the truth out dot org and one of the very few on and better journalists to report from the ground in iraq during the u.s. invasion in two thousand and three or earlier dars joined me and i first asked him to break down exactly what events have taken place since the u.s. withdrawal that have led to iraq becoming a near failed state. is really all started with maliki took power because since that time all he has really been launching organized are going attack against the minority sunni population there's been reports on massive amounts of torture taney . being about he's been seen in government forces in the private primarily sunni neighborhoods of baghdad as well as in towns. allusion to detain sunni's and holding them in secret prisons a lot of this is come out over the years many years since he's been in power human rights watch has done reports on it as has amnesia and the senior national on his

secret detention facilities around baghdad and this escalated to a place where beginning in late two thousand and twelve sunni populations in our province as well as parts of baghdad and much of the rest of iraq every friday started holding demonstrations against the government they were peaceful demonstrations but maliki decided to start sending in the military and security forces and actually killing a lot of the protesters. isn't that where the by the middle of last year we had attacks against government forces start in these same sunni areas they weren't able to keep a lid on the resistance that was growing within the sunni population and so that escalated things to a point where we had a very large amount of the sunni population that was completely politically disenfranchised not getting their voice heard at all in baghdad and the persecutions from the maliki regime continuing and so we had a

a giant percentage of the population ripe and ready for armed resistance against the government and then bring in a group like isis who was. came in and started taking over towns and going against maliki and that's why we have a situation that looks the way it does today and in a recent article you just wrote for truth really great article you describe daily life in iraq during the height of the occupation as being a walk in the park compared to how violent the country is that paint that picture for our viewers and just an average iraq what they deal with on a database. there's a man whom i quote in the article who is a sunni man who's married with three small children living in the middle of baghdad in a predominantly sunni neighborhood and he quoted it linked in the article because his story is so telling of so many cities now living as a minority population being persecuted by the maliki regime in baghdad and he said that we literally can't go north south east or west because there's fighting if we

go north east or west if we can't go south because the area is completely controlled by shia militias that are basically hunting sunni at this point we have the mahdi army the badr brigade that are other shia militias that are literally going around trying to find sunni's the kill they've taken the orders of grand ayatollah sistani the basically the shia religious leader of the country and are banding together but instead of just fighting against isis they're trying to find any sunni. they can't so because of that sunni's living in baghdad and wanting to leave the country trying to find safety for their families can't go anywhere and so he said look even if we try to get a bus ticket to get on a bus to take us to some other part of iraq let alone exiting iraq altogether you can't get a bus ticket because the prices are too expensive and plus there's a two month to month wait so he's literally living a day at a time in fear not knowing what's going to happen not knowing if his homes going to

be raided not knowing the fate of his family and literally there's there's really just nothing he can do course this is all the vaster baited by the fact that if you're in iraq you try to get a visa to go anywhere to leave the country it is just about impossible it's truly horrific it sounds just absolutely nightmarish i want to talk to you about i says i'll be back are al baghdadi a leader talk about the aims of this group how they've been able to accomplish so much because i was speaking to a rocky dullea last and she was saying that there's kind of the fear mongering about isis that they're worse than al-qaeda almost trying to resurrect an offensive by the u.s. to combat them however on the other hand they can't have gotten to where they are without the help of the rockies on the ground. exactly and i think if we talk about isis we have to talk about the syria component because of the u.s. and qatar and saudi arabia funding and backing and arming these radical groups on the ground in syria who are going against bashar al assad that is where isis has gained a lot of its strength so in a sense we also have

a modern day catch twenty two where on the one hand you have the u.s. dumping massive amounts of money arms and backing into rebel groups in syria and a whole lot of this directly or indirectly going into isis and then on the other hand you've got the u.s. backing maliki in baghdad whom they've given they've sold over twenty five billion dollars and counting of military training and weaponry so the u.s. is literally pouring fuel into both sides of the conflict on a daily basis. but isis isn't as strong as it is without that direct and indirect u.s. support on the ground in syria so when they come into iraq where there's a very fertile sunni population extremely angry completely politically disenfranchised their leadership is not asking them to fight but then you bring this radical group in who's taking the fight directly to any shia they can find. particularly maliki's forces in baghdad so that's why they've automatically had

this grassroots support so huge cities like call a far others like lose your ramadi samarra and then all the smaller villages in between are just literally they're being welcomed in because people are being attacked by the government all the sudden there's this force coming in and it's fighting back so of course they're having popular support over broad swaths of the country right and earlier this month secretary defense chuck hagel said that the u.s. won't take part in fighting in iraq but are we know that several hundred u.s. troops are special advisers and everyone economy running on the ground u.s. ascent drownd missiles arms is this a slippery slope for u.s. military involvement again. very much so last count that the pentagon admits to we have at least seven hundred fifty soldiers there they're saying that they're not going to take direct part in direct actions of conflict they've already been slated to fly apache attack helicopters that the u.s. already is sold to baghdad pentagon's already pushing for them to have more more

quote unquote freedom and latitude to take part to do what's necessary so that you look at these things in addition to the amount of hellfire missiles being rushed in . obama going to congress asking for more funding of the maliki regime all this together it is a very very slippery slope and we're always seeing these trends continue and like you just said i mean the congress is even more astounding you look at the funding of the syria rebels and how it's flooding in and embolden and isis and here we are getting arms to the maliki government to fight isis is just i can't follow it because it's just so extraordinary between iraq's parliament unable to govern isis is take over is a part of the country and the kurds calling for a referendum to form their own independent country what hope for preserving iraq is there and what can we do to help iraqis on the ground. because he is literally in a state of disintegration the kurds are absolutely taking advantage of the instability to go autonomy as they've been planning this for years and they're

getting support for it we have the us building massive new cia complexes and military establishments in kurdistan probably as a backup for baghdad which they might see a repeat of saigon the way things are going these days so that the country is disintegrating what we can do i least as journalists just keep reporting it accurately and honestly which is certainly not what the u.s. government is doing and not what much of the mainstream media is doing and keep giving the iraqis a voice in reminding people that the u.s. is implicitly involved in this and that the situation in iraq is hellish is it is today because it's a it's directly the legacy of the u.s. and in the invasion and occupation of that country crucial story bringing to light thank you for doing it dar jamal staff reporter truthout dot org an author of beyond the green zone really pushing your insights thank you. coming up all the all the latest on the ground from gaza stay tuned.

oh.

this weekend saw the bloodiest days since the start of israel's nearly two week long assault on the gaza strip operation protective show on saturday night i.d.f. forces crushed the residential neighborhood of shy. killing at least sixty people in just one hour in fact the shelling was so severe ambulances couldn't even access the area to assist the dying and injured left line in the streets now israel's launched a media campaign justifying the atrocity claiming that rockets were being kept below the village and just this morning the i.d.f. bombed the hospital killing three people and wounding fifty more this wasn't the first. time israel specifically targeted a medical center since the siege began the bloodshed has brought gaza's death toll

to at least five hundred thirty seven people killed at the time of this broadcast according to bloomberg and three thousand three hundred more injured according to the international middle east media center the majority of the casualties are women and children it's not just the extreme disproportionality of the aggression it's also israel's use of controversial weaponry during the attack not only is the i.d.f. using bandai and weapons against civilians the micro shrapnel according to guardian the military is a point for shells to release thousands of potentially lethal metal darts into the air in the past the organization human rights watch has pointed to the indiscriminate use of these weapons as evidence of war crimes look at the on the ground perspective earlier i was joined by suhana sharp palestinian resident this been in gaza city throughout operation protect the badge i began by asking her how exactly israel warns palestinians of these imminent attacks and where they can go to fleeting incoming violence. she declares there's different types of warnings

some of them they call them here's the one which is like c.b.s. so there are immediate messages that you get on your phone to consistently call like every day they're like you should leave your area but those doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to check your home don't typically do an entire area so my family the majority of my family is from japan which is directed to camp in the north and it's under a lot of fire so the entire area all of. these entire villages get these automated messages but these people don't have anywhere to go and then there's other other types of things some of them are missiles so they'll hit like a warning this on the how on the house called knock on the door. kill. dozens of calloused indians and typically goes on like a one minute minute warning to leave their house and those are the ones that people you know those are the scary ones that i've seen right. my house ok and then there's others sometimes they take over they have the new stations here and they'll tell entire areas to leave but the problem with those those warnings is that

there's actually nowhere to go and so all of us is one hundred thirty nine square miles and they've already told all the villages and cities near the borders to leave and come to the extent to which is where i live now. i mean there's just so many people they've already filled up basically there's no more room in the u.n. schools these schools hold up to like forty thousand people and i when i visited one those people there are people sleeping on the floor or people in the classrooms there's just nowhere to go right i mean the borders are closed even though they keep saying that they pulled out troops and years ago they're still controlling the border egypt's borders closed and it's like shooting fish in a barrel at this point i want to play something that israel's economic minister said in an interview with sky over the weekend when he was asked about the deaths of innocent civilians. sometimes yes in wars there is collateral damage but i'm not going to. ask forgiveness for defending my four children that have rockets shot up

my home in iran on this very moment morning this morning so what. does that affect the genocide there in that county the local fashion place in there women and children as shields killing them and then coming to sky news and other outlets and saying israel is killed ok so what is effectively saying there is that hamas is committing self genocide because apparently every woman and child in gaza is a human shield on one hand it's a good thing i guess that is that many that's genocide but on the other hand why do you think this talking point is work so well to absolve israel's responsibility every time it kills civilians you know i think if somebody were to go i think they're using the human shield. that they said to i've seen them videos of like how many people not leave their homes but i think it's not been using human shields it's the fact that people don't want to leave their homes i mean i know. and i thought if i can speak i can be considered being used as a human shield by him because i'm an american here and i'm staying in my house but

you know when i got the phone call and i got a phone call today from as you're on i refused to answer. telling me that i have to leave my home and i have to evacuate i say no i don't want to because this is my home and i'm not going to leave it and then and then what israel does is uses and says well see hamas is telling people to stay in their homes they're using them as human shields but this is something that's coming to people it's their right to stay in their home later commenting and i think. those who are saying human being is the israeli soldiers when they take over buildings and they leave they keep civilians inside the buildings as they shoot from the top and they snipe other people according to obama and israeli officials the ground invasion of gaza was gaza was to quote minimize civilian casualties i mean considering the rise in the death toll since the invasion what's your response to that claim. it's absolutely absolutely i mean every time there's a ground invasion people i think people all of us there were since the beginning of this offensive is sort of it has been warning bells palestine and warning the world that we were going to have a ground invasion and it was delayed for like an entire week before they actually

did it. and that's what palestinians are people because they feel the most because gun invasions are known to be much more are even though of course missiles are extremely her big but gun invasions are are much scarier because after going to vision there's typically an occupation because it's under siege but we've got to be just comes occupation there comes an extreme fear for soldiers' lives so a lot of shoot to kill policies so it's and as we've seen the massacres where they just start any sort of movement that they see from any palestinian walking it's immediately shoot and kill just like you after heavy bombing of gaza's power grid as you just mentioned you have a generator there there is very minimal electricity i was with three in the gaza strip right now is left with about two hours a day what access do palestinians currently have to basic resources like water and energy and what can someone do with just two hours of electricity. there are already places that water has been cut off for good so a lot of places near the border between israel and

a lot of those places they don't have water the other day yesterday we were trying to get bread and there were extremely long lines and one of my brother's friends who works sort of been like importing so you need to be prepared to go buy flour because it looks like we're going to be cut off from a lot of a lot of. imports that come into to us there and have no electricity what is so you will do a garment is electric facility and then palestinians have to wait and get an ok from israel to go and fix it. and sometimes that ok and given that's what happened to me for. sort of my area one of the options facilities got barbe and then we had to wait for the three day that didn't have access to internet i didn't have access to anything until they were able to. so electricity water. food there's shortages of everything. in the entire city and i know john kerry's had indeed cairo today to negotiate a cease fire and talk about egypt's role in the violence and what people can do here to help palestinians on the ground in gaza and the bloodshed. yeah i think

egypt has been just as complicit as israel i've seen with my own eyes when i look up the window the f. sixteen jets flying into israeli air space i mean is there space as they turned back around to tell us that homes egypt is not even allowing doctors it's not allowing food it's not it's closed all its borders so there's a siege from all sides to be used to give a little bit early june cast lead they were kind of pressure to open the border and they did do that but this time around. has has been just as complicit and i would say in agreement with what israel is doing. and in terms of what people can do i mean i don't i mean i study from the u.s. i just i just came here like two weeks before this all happened. i think it's pressuring our government pressuring calling the white house calling representatives and not on a more long term boycotting divesting and pushing for b.d.s. and sanctions against the state of israel until abides by international law and.

storage areas the rights of palestinians thank you so much for the insight on the ground stay safe out there ok. gaza resident appreciate it. thank you so much. unfortunately the debate over the israeli palestinian conflict is so disingenuous in the western media that simply criticizing the israeli government under the title of an anti-semite or terrorist sympathizer but amidst this crass and distant from asian campaign a group of israeli men and women are undermining the staunch zionist narrative from inside their country one that compared to its continued military occupation of gaza on the west bank it's an organization called breaking the silence it's a group of veteran i.d.f. soldiers speaking out about their experiences in the israeli army and exposing the reality of everyday life and occupied palestine earlier i was joined by the media spokes person for breaking the silence god our yahoo i first asked him to describe

what life is really like in these occupied territories. well. as. a religious nationalist israeli so i went to a religious high school and i grew up in them in an environment very much urged me to join the army. and i have to say that i did it with a lot of enthusiasm. when i think about what pushed me to breaking the silence it's pretty simple it was just meeting the reality of occupation. because even though i saw myself as an intelligent young individual this reality which is actually very close to where i grew up and very close to every is really because the whole area is very small was something that we never talked about it was sort of having a backyard that you never visited and let's talk about that reality it doesn't your website that you hold lectures house meetings in israel to quote bring to light

that reality of life in those occupied territories what does the. life consists of and what the but the reception from fellow israelis and the government when we talk about an occupation we talk about it from the bottom up from the boots on the ground where you meet and still control two and a half million people by force in the west bank and one point eight in the gaza strip where there's a military occupation look like and the nature of occupation is very simple i mean it's nothing new it's not so uncomplicated when you control people who do not want to be controlled you have to do it with force and what i encountered was basically that. israel has been you know doing this for forty seven years now and there's been ups and downs and peaks and lows and we're in the middle of one of them right now parisian and gaza. and i served at the end of the second intifada from two thousand and four two thousand and seven and basically

a lot of what we did. police. policing the population controlling the population to try to imagine a police force that isn't policing civilians spread that out to say they have a full out and a right to go to their representative and file a complaint against this of the it's right there is a system in the west bank which is called martial law which is the military occupation which basically means the army controls the palestinians and protects the israelis and that's basically what i did i think entering or invading gaza. is a mistake. i think that. even though we're not a group of pacifists and we definitely recognize israel's obligation to protect its citizens i'm one of those citizens and i deserve my protection we have to ask what are the what is the moral price we're asking or that we're actually doing or paying

to be more accurate. and this. second thing is the context we you know we're in two thousand and fourteen two thousand and twelve it was and there was an operation pillar of defense two thousand eight thousand and nine defensive shield i can go back we've been doing this over and over and over again it's about time and this is what we tried to do tonight call out our government and our society was for it's about time to think of a different route in trying to. end this horrible and illegal shooting of missiles on civilians in israel only by force but we know from our service that using force only brings in only fosters the next generation of hatred. and this is something we know too well from our experience but sadly the red line that i felt i was crossing as an individual soldier we're now crossing

them as a society and we're crossing them at you know with government orders and with the army's action. that was media spokesperson for breaking the silence avner god are you whom thanks so much for watching you guys tonight follow me on twitter at audi martin drumming and tomorrow when i break the set all over again. thank. you. for said. we're going to. get there which i would. guess the.

least. crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want to. i'm the president and i think a society that. big corporation kind of can do that to consume consume consume and the banks are trying to get all that all about money and family that are politicians write the laws and regulations that bankers.

there's just too much is a society. that. bit frustrated. over the place holder doing the job did you know the price is the only industry specifically mention in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck call for us. to make you know i'm sorry and on this show we reveal the picture of what's actually going now and we go beyond identifying a problem. rational debate a real discussion critical issues facing america i'm ready to join the movement then welcome to the big city. but on thom hartmann in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. secretary of state john

kerry is in cairo today trying to hammer out a cease fire to end the now two week long gaza conflict one of the origins of this current eruption of violence and what can we do to create lasting peace in the holy land more on that in tonight's bigger picture analysts question israel palestine in just a moment and as more and more drug companies refuse to sell drugs that are used lethal injections death penalty states are turning to new unproven and potentially dangerous drug combinations should that be a sign is time to do away with the death penalty in america that and more into night special conversations with great minds with actor and activist mike farrell. for tonight's bigger picture discussion we go to the middle east where the death toll keeps mounting as israel's invasion of the gaza strip continues with no clear end in sight although there.