joyce well sort of the police are still unsure i think the most logical way through force is. coming up on our team america president donald trump laid out his plan for afghanistan or does he and the trump administration is planning a five hundred million dollars worth of expansion and renovation at the blank on mobile bay detention facility and the famed columbus circle statue in new york city the next on the statue chopping block all that and more coming right up. good afternoon and it's tuesday august twenty second four pm in washington d.c.

i'm on your part you're watching our team america we begin today with major shake up in the ones waning war in afghanistan monday night president donald trump vowed to win the sixteen year battle but offered little detail beyond increasing troops and lifting military restrictions. sario reports his actions not only to contradict his previous stance on the war but also threaten to expand it beyond afghanistan's borders in his first formal address to the nation as president donald trump acknowledged frustration felt over decades of middle east involvement the american people are weary of war without victory nowhere is this more evident than with the war in afghanistan. the war in afghanistan will enter its seventeenth year this fall so far the u.s. has suffered twenty four hundred military deaths now and troop levels in the country have gone from just a few thousand at the start to hitting

a peak of one hundred thousand in two thousand and ten and two thousand and eleven and then slimming down to roughly eighty four hundred by the time president trump took over as commander in chief from monday's announcement we learned troop levels will again rise but we do not know by how much or in what capacity we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities conditions on the ground not arbitrary timetables will guide our strategy from now on seemingly taking aim at former president barack obama for giving deadlines to his strategy in the country it's not the first time trump has disagreed with his predecessor on how to handle the war in the past trump has advocated for complete withdrawal but now that he sits in the oval office he's changing his tune not only is the increasing involvement in afghanistan he's putting neighboring countries on notice like india for help and most notably taking

aim at pakistan pakistan has much to gain from partnering with our effort in afghanistan it has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists. like afghanistan any plan with pakistan is short on detail a regional leaders are urging against pushing the country to heart as for afghanistan its president is pleased with renewed u.s. support as the government loses ground against insurgents. have a clear message to all oppositions you're not going to win militarily joy peace and accept my useful invitation. the taliban meanwhile is vowing to continue fighting in the region until all american troops leave afghanistan for good in washington cmon dollars r e o r t let's get some analysis now with phyllis bennis director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies

and author of understanding isis and the new global war on terror. thanks for joining me today as we were anticipating a plan last night yet we heard almost zero concrete details nor a clear definition of what victory would look like and afghanistan at this point despite a promise to win do you have an interpretation of the president's strategy. i think the strategy is to continue fighting the war as he has been this president has already really reduced the insufficient restrictions that existed before on using military force where civilians were involved he has allowed the generals to make all the decisions saying that they should make all the decisions based on conditions on the ground not taking into account the politics the diplomacy the regional considerations and he's been doing all of that for the last six months since he's been in office in that context he hasn't really made any changes at all

this with without any new information about how many new troops how long they will be there this is a recipe for permanent war. well you heard what simone reported there or last night what trump said about pakistan and afghanistan's neighbor calling them out with some pretty harsh words can you explain for our viewers what the relationship between the taliban and pakistani intelligence services is the end where the u.s. gets it. its began its military involved to the stand back in the one nine hundred eighty s. in the context of the cold war the us was fighting against the soviet union in a bunch of places around the world including in afghanistan and the anti soviet forces they were known as the most. all right it looks like we unfortunately lost that feed to phyllis bennis hopefully we can bring her back to you in

a few moments because we don't want to miss out on her fox but for now we're going to move on to some other news the trumpet ministration impose new sanctions on sixteen chinese and russian individuals and firms yesterday the treasury department and acted these sanctions against entities it says have conducted business with the democratic people's republic of north korea in ways which advance the country's missile and nuclear weapons program among those penalized are six chinese companies including three coal companies to signal poor based companies that sell oil to d.p. r. k. and three russians who work with them a russian company and its director are also being sanctioned for their involvement in deals pertaining to d.p. r. k. metals additional sanctions were placed on entities accused of violating existing un sanctions the spall is a un security council resolution unanimously passed on august fifth to further expand sanctions already aimed at cutting d p r k's ability to fund its weapons

program. safety first it may be an old adage for solomon but for the u.s. navy it's a crucial reminder rescue workers found the bodies of ten missing sailors of the u.s.s. john f. mccain and its damage hall after sunday's collision and response admiral john richardson ordered a one day operational pause for the entire seventh fleet active in the pacific to review safety measures the crash with a civilian vessel was the feck in the summer before the crash off cigna for the u.s.s. fitzgerald rammed into a japanese ship off the issue peninsula killing seventy u.s. sailors in june. four suspects and thursday's barcelona terror attack are appearing in court one of the alleged assailants has admitted that a bigger attacked. was planned at the city's iconix a good adda familia church the attacker who drove the car into pedestrians in last

last week was found and killed on monday as the cut to lowney and police release a footage of the raids conducted in the spanish town of report where the barcelona attack suspects lived the officers searched several apartments and numerous gas canisters were found peter all over is in report for us now. as the investigation continues into who was behind last week's terror attacks that took place in spain that investigation is focusing in on this small town just to the north about an hour and a half's drive to the north of baal solo and they pull is where it's understood that the terrorist cell was put together and radicalized and it's believed that that radicalization was carried out by abdel baccy and now he's understood to have been the imaam who was operating out of a multi faith in the building just behind me. he did have

a criminal past he was sent to prison back in twenty ten for a number of years for being involved in the dealing of the imports of hasheesh from his native morocco into spain and it's during that time in prison that we understand that he became radicalized himself he may well according to some reports have been in contact with some of those who were currently it was serving time who were involved in the two thousand and four madrid bombing which killed one hundred and ninety two people which al qaeda took responsibility for what we are piecing together from the investigators as they give us bits of information is that this was he called for a group of twelve a number of dead some already caught him with those that are in court and those in custody that we're hoping to get more information out of what we know so far is that they were all local they were all relatively young we know they played football together they they were some went to a local institutes and study together but they all had one thing in common and that

was contact with. this particular mosque and that's where the investigation is focusing because this is a very small very quiet town in the foothills of the pyrenees mountains but it seems that this was the by his nest that was able to raise up a group of people and radicalize them in order to strike. and the time into spall solona of the surrounding area killing so many. we apologize for those earlier technical difficulties but it looks like we're going to be rejoined now by phyllis bennis director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies phyllis before our connection dropped out i was asking you to explain the relationship between the taliban and pakistan's intelligence services and where the united states fits into that relationship. the taliban was a local group of afghans but who were quickly adopted given arms and training by

the pakistani military and they became the sort of main supporter of the taliban during the years of afghanistan's civil war in the late ninety's india at the same time was the main regional supporter of the opposing group that was known as the northern alliance and those were the two forces fighting each other in the civil war the taliban won the civil war in one thousand nine hundred six and pakistan continued to support them when the us invaded and overthrew the taliban government in two thousand and one claiming that the taliban was harboring osama bin laden interestingly the guy that the u.s. used to support back in the eighty's the the role of pakistan became a very tricky one because they were now supporting the afghan taliban against u.s. interests by that the same time there was a an a pakistani taliban operation that they were challenging that they were fighting against so it became rather complicated and in the meantime the other group that

was known as the northern alliance more warlords not that different than the taliban they were now created in by the u.s. into the new afghan government and they became the government they still are so you have these groups of competing warlords on both sides both of which have not been very helpful to the people of afghanistan with the u.s. fighting continuing it's the afghans. civilians that are paying the biggest price and what we now know is that in the months that trump has been in power the afghan civilian casualties are sixty seven percent higher than they were a year ago so we know that trump is already responsible for more dead and injured afghan civilians than any president before him i want to get your reaction to what house speaker paul ryan said during a town hall last night after trump speech during which he praised the president's remarks they have the time we have the watches meaning they will wait us out and if

they believe that we have some end date some timetable then they will wait us out they have the time and we have the watches phillis that because the u.s. is trying to fight an indigenous population. absolutely and what this says is the whole ryan is supporting permanent war and permanent occupation there's no question that the u.s. military is more powerful than the taliban if the u.s. is prepared to permanently occupy afghanistan with potentially hundreds of thousands of troops they can win if you want to use that as the definition of victory what it doesn't do is end the fighting what it doesn't do is stop the killing of afghan civilians afghan children women that's the part that is continuing and that's the big problem we hear over and over again there is no military solution it's time that we stopped acting as if there was only a military solution and got down to the real challenge of having diplomacy as

difficult as it's going to be win out over war we need diplomacy we need diplomats we don't need more war and more soldiers speaking of diplomacy while trump talked about targeting the taliban militarily last night secretary of state rex tillerson also has said the u.s. is ready to support peace talks between the afghan government and taliban without preconditions as you know the taliban is currently battling the self-proclaimed islamic state in the country is defeating the taliban militarily a wives goal for the united states. well it's not clear that it actually is the gold part of the problem in afghanistan right now is that the u.s. goal is not very clear the taliban has never targeted the united states the taliban goals have always been to control afghanistan they are a local organization it's not an organization who i would want to live under but i don't live there you know the claim that people like john mccain and others in

congress and presidents have all raised is that we have to continue the war in afghanistan so they don't any longer threaten us in the united states where the taliban does not threaten us and the notion that we are going to continue to fight the taliban in the interest of the afghan government that we created and arm and support and pay for despite its massive levels of corruption the fact that it includes warlords that are almost as terrible towards women as the taliban this doesn't make any sense the real goals of the united states are just not clear is our real goal to get control of the the the minerals that are potentially part of the wealth of afghanistan is that what we're doing there we want soldiers so that our mining companies can get in with the protection of the u.s. military is that what is going on here we don't have any clarity we do know that the taliban is not challenging the united states outside of afghanistan so if the

goal is to protect americans they're certainly not going about it the right way and they're certainly not doing anything that's protecting afghans because they are the ones who are dying in enormous numbers the less i think any president would be privileged to have you as an advisor with respect to the region i'm wondering if you had anybody in power is here at the moment what would you advise as a peaceful solution forward for the country. i would say let's be serious about what we all know to be true there is no military solution withdrawing the troops. is not going to turn afghanistan into switzerland overnight but until we stop the fighting until we withdraw the troops the possibility of serious diplomacy is simply not going to take effect if we want to have diplomatic engagement you can't do that while you are trying to wipe out your opponent so i think that's what i would advise we need to pull out the u.s. troops stop the bombing stop killing afghan civilians and engage with all of that

energy and money and high level attention into real diplomatic solutions in the region director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies phyllis bennis always a pleasure. to trumpet ministration is planning to oversee a tremendous building boom at america's most notorious prison base according to reports the pentagon is requesting nearly five hundred million dollars for proposed reconstruction at guantanamo bay the detention center in cuba are to be important i have brings us the details now marina what can you tell us. well forty one detainees and fifty five hundred residents reside at the guantanamo bay navy base a forty five square mile island prison the trumpet ministrations says it's intent on refilling and by the looks of things even expanding according to the miami herald the us military is planning for nearly half

a billion dollars in new construction at the detention center or over the next four years included in the short term development plans a sixty six million dollars school for up to two hundred seventy five students that breaks down to two hundred forty thousand per child additionally a one hundred twenty four million dollars for new barracks twelve point four million dollars to build a new dining room for prison staff while eight point four million dollars has been allocated for a new clinic for detainees the u.s. navy has requested two hundred fifty million dollars to build a five bed hospital now the last request prompted the republican led senate armed services services committee to ask defense secretary james mattis to conduct an analysis and comprehensive study of the cost of. the request noting the proposed two hundred fifty million replacement hospital at guantanamo would cost fifty

million dollars per bed now in the statement the d.o.d. health agency said it wants to replace the current twelve bed hospital built in one thousand nine hundred eighty six with one that could better withstand earthquake tremors rattling the region now according to a document obtained by the miami herald the barracks would be ready by twenty twenty one if congress approves the funding soon while president trump made a campaign promise to reduce costs at the remote u.s. navy base his about face on the afghan war has shown voters that promises made aren't always guaranteed to be kept. all right artie's rain important in miami for us thanks a lot thank you confederate monuments across the country are being taken down following tragic events during a white supremacist rally and charlottesville virginia now the war on statues can be spread beyond confederate landmarks the famous statue of christopher columbus may be the next to be taken down to chavez is in new york computer at statues are

not the only ones being called into question we are here as. the famous statue of christopher columbus is now in the middle of some major controversy as city officials look to remove controversial monuments the legacy of christopher columbus is a complicated one some believe him to be a brave pioneer who discovered america and others consider him to be a ruthless men who were enslaved abused and murdered native americans the seventy six foot tall structure is only one of the statues on the long list of monuments that will be reviewed by city officials this is a part of mayor bill de blasio efforts to reevaluate quote symbols of hate on city property something city officials are doing all across the nation the deadly violence in charlottesville gave a new urgency to the process of taking down confederate monuments. being vandalized before their removal on monday the president of the university of texas at austin

ordered the immediate removal of statues of robert e. lee and other prominent confederate figures from the main area of campus saying such monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo nazi ism. represent. a system of oppression. against a community community in the black community. the following is a severe thunderstorm watch announcement from the national weather service the national weather service has issued severe thunderstorm watch number four six for effective until midnight wednesday this watch includes the following counties in pennsylvania thanks and become very remember or storm watch means that conditions

are favorable for the development of severe weather including large hail and damaging winds and close to the watch area while severe weather may not be imminent persons should remain alert for the daily changing weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible warnings stay tuned to no weather radio commercial radio and television outlets or internet sources for the severe weather information repeating severe thunderstorm watch number four six four has been issued from four twenty pm until midnight wednesday for the following counties in pennsylvania burks banks and montgomery. ecological degradation genocide and exploitation of labor take a look part of our evolution is the new and ancient systems of democratic it's going to be poor african american men. according to the man featured in

this video the very systems that the foundation of american culture helped to sustain white supremacy and need to be dismantled boom bust is up next here on our team america lindsey france joins us and now for a preview of what's ahead what do you got going on today lindsay got a lot going on at hackers say they've bridge the sony play station system and gotten away with user information also my guest weighs in on the economic impacts of president trump statements on afghanistan operations and the european union is taking a very close look at the massive buyer monsanto merger of that's coming right up all right lindsay will be sure to tune in thanks a lot. and that's it for now for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com for a flash america starting up this upcoming monday august twenty eighth r.t. america will be available on to rectify the channel three to one. question more.

special is our point to show you how artsy america it's been to the greater media landscape is not laughter all right we are a solid alternative to the. liberal or conservative and as you can see in this bar graph we don't skew the facts either talking have left these talking head righties oh there you go above it all so look at world artsy americans in the spotlight now every lead to classify as and it actually took me way more time and i care to admit . all the world's a stage and all the news companies merely players but what kind of parties are in t. america playing party america offers more r t america offers. many ways a new landscape just like to feed real news fake news good actors bad actors and in

the end you could never hear all. the car companies all over the world all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. would you have for breakfast yesterday why would you put the fish. no i did give you take. i think. there is a time of fear and hate mongering going on and i'm media right now and c.n.n. is definitely among them just listen to this c.n.n. recently published an article entitled here are all the active hate groups where

you live which literally has the word hate in the title and inspires a lot of fear because it leaves the reader afraid they might be surrounded by dangerous violent hate filled people so the title alone mongered up hate and fear just to get people to click on there are a couple that if someone did click what they found was a hate map of nine hundred seventeen hate groups spread across the country a map of the u.s. with little red dots all over it indicating where all these hate groups are which again looks very scary not to mention just the number almost the thousand hate groups it makes it sound like there's a nazi hiding behind every street and the article encourage the reader to scroll down to see which scary jerks operated in their own state. the article also provided a list of all the hate groups on which the reader might have expected to see names like nazis or us or if we hate women that kind of thing instead though the reader star names that were definitely on putting but also side names like the american

family association and that's where things got a little messy for at the end because the list of hate groups was not actually a result of their own investigating but just a completely ripped off of a list made by an organization called the southern poverty law center the article completely failed to mention that the article also failed to mention that the s.p.l. the is a very liberal leaning group which is why they include conservative groups who espouse traditional values. as hate groups it's a totally biased list from a completely separate organization who considers conservative christian values hate in other words c.n.n. told only mongered their hate in a completely irresponsible biased way and they knew it because shortly after they published the active hate groups where you live article they actually changed the headliner into the southern poverty law center list of hate groups they got rid of the list and then they linked the reader out to the as the site instead writing

a lengthy editor's note at the bottom about how and why they updated the article now i myself will leave it up to you to decide whether or not you think conservative values are hate unlike c.n.n. who has made their position very clear. it's. the mission of newsworthy it is to go to the people tell their side of the story our stories are well sourced we don't hide anything from the public and i don't think the mainstream media in this country can say that i mean average viewer knows that r.t. america has a different perspective so that we're not hearing one echo chamber that mainstream

media is constantly spewing. we're not beholden to any corporate sponsor no one tells us what to cover how long the coverage or how to say it that's the puti of our t. america. we give both sides we hear from both sides and we question more that journalists are not letting anything get in your way and bring it home to the american people. most people think just stand out in this business you need to be the first one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest race in truth to stand down to lose business you just need as the right questions and demand the right answers.