he says it was almost no coal mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal miners are said that's that it was a laugh to see these people the survivors of disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in a million years i would see that and it's happened it's happened. if you are competing like the auto insurance industry why four thousand dollars a year can i be protected against all these medical emergencies that take place in my car therefore we know that the price of having medical insurance or be a thousand dollars a year about thirty thousand dollars a year they're overcharging by twenty thousand dollars we're going is going to oligarchs american oligarchs. pranking gave americans a lot of new job opportunities i needed to come up here to make some money i

could make twenty five thousand dollars as a teacher or i could make fifty thousand dollars a year with trucks or chose to drive truck people rush to a small town in north dakota was an unemployed rate of zero percent like the gold rush is very very similar to a gold rush but this beautiful story ended with pollution and devastation a lot of people have left here i don't know too many people here in the slowdown it's much they lost their jobs got laid off the american dream is changing that's not what it used to be. and it's a tough reality to deal with. the soon see them so moving. to good use who was before. much of those who heard the food you are most movies. we're going to.

move. move. move should you. believe it's a good. move most of these girls will give you a good pool. to go to shows so look i do the same you know it's good to go. to starts to. get to meet until it was a little the most they'd say look it is it's. just that's not a chance just me it's the mashed up truck stop the president can please control this project until. there's real issues to go to school to snap them up when you look as good as the

girls are with you for your support just to go sure sure sure you should cook door for the one who's doing. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle the drive towards war against syria is unmistakable the pretext is still another alleged chemical attack as usual no evidence is presented as usual conclusions are drawn before an independent investigation but this time there is a difference syria can defend itself and has power. our for us we live in very

dangerous times. my stocking syria i'm joined by my guest joe lauria in washington he's the editor in chief of consortium news dot com and author of how i lost my hillary clinton with the forward by julian assange also in washington we have michael maloof he is a former senior security policy analyst in the office of secretary of defense and to new york we have richard murphy he is a former u.s. career embassador to syria and currently an adjunct scholar at the middle east institute or across the rules in effect that means he can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate let me go to joe first in washington it seems to me that you know we have we have as president somebody very different than rand as president as little as a week ago donald trump made a very public announcement that we'd be withdrawing from syria fast forward up to the last few days or so it looks like he's being forced to stay there even if he

doesn't want to stay there we have an entire chorus of the media driving for war the deep state is on board of course john bolton is in place and i have to make one exception at least tucker carlson over at fox at least decided to express his dissent here where are we joe joe where does of saul stand go ahead well the fact that he wanted to redress from syria makes it even less likely that the syrian government was behind this attack we are seeing what we've seen for a long long time a pattern of deception by the u.s. government the pentagon who the enemy of the day is if you want to go to war against spain they blew up the main. north vietnamese attacked the ship in the gulf of tonkin saddam had w m d russia invaded ukraine shut down a malaysian airline stolen election tried to kill former double agent in britain and now is somehow implicated in this chemical attack this is what governments do.

but there's a there are also two other parties beside government there is the press some people so governments lie all governments laws some worse than others but the press is job supposed to filter that and then the public against government lies that we see in our press that's completely obsessed with its own fame with its career ism with vicarious living through vicarious power of government and they are letting the public down so that these investigations these conclusions before investigations begin as you pointed out at the beginning are being are let it be let to stand and this is as you said also said very very dangerous right now richard a is on the table now a full regime change by use of military forces do you think that's in the cards right now go ahead richard in new york i see no evidence that the administration has gone back to a position that you could say was really obama that it was time for assad to step aside i think it's reckoned this administration is reckon itself that this

president is likely to stay for a while ok michael but that that doesn't really square with what we've heard over the last few days here we have you know nikki haley going off the rail i mean you know i thought samantha power was off the you know had wandered off the road reservation but you know nikki we hate haley takes the cake there and then we also image and i glad joe mentioned we really have the drums of war in the media it seems to me that they really want to box trump in even if he does nothing that he's bluster if he does something it's against international law and he may get in and maybe the law of unintended consequences by getting involved in this war you never know because if you look over the last eighteen years you know if they do these military adventures never end the way they expect go ahead michael now i think you're you're right i think that even though president trump wanted to get out. i think that other people who are surrounding him are much more determined that. that

he stay and actually. the fact that he that he's you that. john bolton is now the national security adviser who was the fellow who who really really wanted us to go into iraq on the premise that there was the i think that the administration is slowly turning toward regime change again i think that that's what they're they're going to go after and the whole idea i think as far as a strategic policy if there is one for the united states ultimately is to divide syria yeah well then that's been you know that's the if you can throw in the turkish angle which of course is a completely different program but you know it looks like is partition is really what they're going to settle on here you know joe the interesting thing is is that you know i've never believed that anybody in the u.s. government politicians think tankers and all of that they don't give a hoot about the syrian people they never have and what i see now is that this is a geo political gambit here we've noticed that russia is being held responsible for

this alleged chemical attack which would there is no evidence pretty presented to the to the public which i guess the public is just getting used to it a evidence free foreign policy to go to war go ahead joe. you know i don't think they care very much about the american public either let alone the syrians mean this is another attempt to drag russia into this and russia we don't know if we have no idea why even if there was a chemical attack that hasn't even begun the investigation we hear nikki haley saying we need an investigation but on one side of her mouth on the other side of the mouth syria did it and russia was behind it this is really really not a not a safe situation as you pointed out i do think that they noticed that russia russian backed syrian government was winning this war was practically over that the suburbs of damascus kuta had been

a phone on the side of the syrian government since the very beginning of this conflict five years ago is really a last stronghold after aleppo and it led so i think that that is really zation in the capitals of riyadh and certainly in washington that this was the last and by the rebels themselves this was the last chance if they were going to try to reverse this tide so the rebels needed to bring the u.s. into it which is why it seems like they may very well have been behind and russia by the way behind this attack on russia warned by the way three weeks ago that this could very this could happen that there was a false flag chemical attack in the works i don't know if that's what happened but i certainly don't know that the syrian government did it but that doesn't seem to matter to people at nikki haley's syria did it and now we're going to see an attempt maybe by the united states to get deeply involved in this to reverse the tide and this is the last chance before the syrian government wins this war which they are on the verge of doing richard what national interest does syria hold

because i mean you know when trump came in almost exactly a year ago there was an alleged chemical incident and then he ordered a ton tomahawk strike against syria no evidence we know now secretary mabus. came out and said well we don't have any evidence that ever was a chemical attack perpetrated by the syrian government i mean what is wrong with these people i mean year ago we and the attack was made illegally against the country soften to here and now i this is like running this bad film i mean why syria has never attacked the united states it is not a threat to american national interest and now we're on the verge of going to war congress doesn't even get involved it abrogates its responsibility to war making i mean what why is syria so important for the united states to get involved militarily please richard in new york and start with your graphic position it is in a key area and the policies it has followed. over the last

few years of opening the doors to. increasing militia let's return isn't that doesn't isn't that the sovereign to write it or isn't that the sovereign right of a state if it can syria have friends there of its own choosing why does the united states the chairman what countries can have friends with whom why. go ahead richard well come on it's not just a matter of smiling at each other and having friends. the government of iran in creating a corridor across iraq syria to hizbollah there in lebanon with the aim of moaning pressure on the israelis. in the tent ok i'd that's really interesting let me go to michael here because. well you know some some sovereignty is more important than others ok i mean syria should have the legal sovereign right to make whatever

friends it wants ok the united states does that all the time ok and nobody says anything about it and let me go to michael you know you know israel is right on the border there one of the largest military said in the world most powerful it is never lifted one finger to fight terrorism in syria actually just the opposite it's aided and abetted groups ok so i mean worried about israel's concerns israel's part of the problem here and i think in saudi arabia is part of the problem here two key allies of the united states go ahead michael. you hit up you hit right on at the end there this this is as a result flowing out of a deal that between the saudis and the israelis and again the saudis actually are pouring millions of dollars into the sunni controlled areas as well as into lebanon because they see it but they see a potential for. iran absolutely capturing them as it is as far as their influence is concerned and the saudis are absolutely against that and you

have the israelis who are trying to help that and they see the they see the forward movement of the iranians and as a direct threat to them and and as a consequence i wouldn't doubt that the israelis could and the an attack on lebanon almost any time share and i know people in lebanon that i talked to are very concerned about that. joe weigh in on that there because it is you know is this policy being driven by tell of even riyadh well certainly riyadh and other gulf states from the very beginning and turkey wanted the overthrow of saud and that brings me to the point that whether you agree or like the assad government or not it's a fact that they were been on the defensive this is an uprising this was an attempt to overthrow a government so you're on the defensive so to invite iran n. and russia to help them defend themselves is a natural act of a government trying to survive this was not iran or russia invading syria the

iranians would have come in if there were no attempt to overthrow the government so they they have every right as you pointed out to invite whoever they are any friends they had to help them survive this is natural and any government would do that now the israelis i mean hezbollah by the way i think is defending lebanon even lebanese christians and they don't know who would agree with much as they hate they may hate that well they may not like them but they realize that the lebanese army isn't worth germy so let me jump in here just let me jump in here we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on syria stay with on. a plate for many flips over the years.