hello and welcome to crossfire where all things considered i'm teetotal about the parting of ways european leaders talk about a future without the u.s. what is in store for the transatlantic alliance and much much more on this edition of crossfire. cross talking some global trends i'm joined by my guest here in moscow marc sloboda he's an international affairs and security analyst we also have dimitri bobbitt she's a political analyst we spoke nick international and in cyprus we cross to alex cruciform he's the director and writer for the duran dot com are a gentleman cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate alex let me go to you first then in cyprus interesting trend going on we have european leaders speaking out about a future without the united states in terms of the security arrangements specifically nato and with the impending sanctions visa vi the iran situation some europeans are thinking out of the box for jane's for example we have president

mccrone of france talking about aggressive isolationism what's your take go ahead. no chance that they'll be able to do anything without the united states i think it's all talk by opinion i think that you're up to. zero and by the united states and to me this is just this is all about trump you know these these leaders about. these guys these neo liberals what's been left of the obama crew so to speak they just don't like trump they don't like to deal with trump they don't like his rhetoric and so you know they've got a little bit of trouble arrangement syndrome in europe but i don't think there's any chance in the near to medium term that europe can do much without the united states i think we saw that with younger i think you are went to washington and he pretty much capitulated to whatever trump white. yeah but mark i mean i agree with

alex broadly speaking but there are very specific things like energy where the germans and the austrians in the italians etc were going to go down their own power when it comes to energy security they cannot rely upon an outside power here this is what the brass tacks of it all you know european leaders can say yeah we'll spend more money on nato but they probably won't do ok so there are important rhetorical areas but there are certain policy areas that are very real yeah i agree with alex i think that what we're hearing right now is a lot of impotent whining and hand-wringing coming from the e.u. leaders it is personal every other week they're begging the united states to resume the mantle of global military gemini and the transatlantic leadership as they don't have to do they don't have but they intend to wait trump out they think they can wait him out whether it's another year or two years however many years they think

they can wait him out they're going to continue of course with nord stream the germans are not going to back down to that project has gone ahead too far and their energy security is a risk there is going to be no e.u. army that's a lot of hot air they can't even as a nation when it comes to north yet when it sanctions when it comes nordstrom is there as the tested and i think they do not expect that to be carried through sanctions on e.u. companies when it comes to we run that they're having to deal with right now this blocking statue in from one thousand nine hundred six with cuba that reviving they know very well it will have no effect whatsoever of the big european majors told tall mayors. alliance. danielle steel they're already pulling out and they're going to replace them i could be that we could get russia china russia and i they're going to replace it is this really all. and we

look at how the european leaders are reacting to trump because i would agree with you but it really at the center of this i guess is the paris climate accord and importantly the iran deal is they see the united states is not a partner that they can trust because they can the u.s. can change its mind it can pull a lot of internationally agreed treaties and agreements i agree with the market. you know basically the respond point where i agreed that you will not do anything serious to help iran i mean the european commission has just earmarked eighteen million dollars in support over a unicorn and this is when you were mending like you need to melian on a lot of small private enterprise this huge amount of money right. so i don't expect it to be to be a significant all of the north stream to i kind of a little disagree i think it will always be under threat because you need one of the european companies has already said it would pull out of the project if the

united states indeed impose sanctions on any european companies participate in it in general i think if you take a broader look at all basically ultra liberalism is that in the european union that idea a widget can make alliances with extremist nationalists they made an alliance with the nationalists in ukraine they met on the lines with the nationalists in point no they're coordinating with them when the nationalism is directed outwards not anything is largely. yes they're making alliances with nationalists who acted against russia against china against big countries which acted in but which there outre liberal ideology start to get and they can make and i want to is with american national just to my mind you know conservatives the so-called neo cons they are american nationalists and basically if you can make an alliance with them against trucking let's say with the you know that's why there was no criticism over the u.s. centric. russia from the e.u.

that criticism of the iranian sanctions but nobody gives them over russia so i can wrap up this point here alex to me but again we are in broad agreement here doesn't it just end up being empty rhetoric i mean it is just as egg on his face because you can say one thing they can talk about developing a european wide us with system but if they don't do it if they don't and that's why but if they don't do it where's the credibility where's the credibility alex. doesn't have much credibility at this point and i think when e.u. leaders are talking about moving away from the u.s. i think you're exactly right but i don't think there's much to it and i think even an even more important point is that inside the e.u. they can't reach much consensus so while you can have a motto on it or merkel saying one thing you have other countries that are opposed to north stream are opposed to france and germany as policies within the e.u. and that also stretches to migration and other issues so the e.u. just just cannot act as a single unit to muster the strength to move away from the u.s.

again because they can't even talk among themselves the muslim mark. please put into perspective what is going on surrounding syria right now because depending on who you listen to beyond and i don't i'm not talking about the mainstream media as i don't talk about it very much but there seems like a lot of rumblings going on right now go ahead ok so we're heading to a major watershed moment a flashpoint in the syrian conflict which is something we've been talking about the on the show for for well over a year now which is this is this province bordering turkey in the northwest of syria it's a mountainous area that is almost entirely under their control of h.g.'s height to head off which even the u.s. state department recognizes is out or jihadist groups of various sundry alliances that are always fighting amongst each other under the umbrella of all who sues are and. the they've they've all recognized the syrian army has has finished the fight

in the south and they're now moving to retake good live in libya supplied from turkey turkey basically hoped to turn it into another area of turkish occupation and that's proxy rule it hasn't worked so the syrian military russian forces are marshalling their ready this storm this will be the largest battle of the syrian conflict so far there are somewhere between seventy and one hundred thousand jihadists under arms and in the a number of people that are close to the situation here give me see this as a proxy confrontation because we there are reports that elements of the u.s. navy are moving closer in to the onto the coast of syria the defense department denies it but at the same time says that they're prepared for any things like kind of want to have it both ways but is this a proxy intentional confrontation here i think it's something war basically what we

can see in the next few days is a false flag chemical attack in syria which was the russian the ministry of defense and the russian media and russian minister of defense have been growing their politics during the last four or five days it goes no traction in europe no traction in the united states pentagon said that we will strike if we if if chemical attack i can't comment that may happen but it may come from the rebels and the white star operate an activity on that so this is the first danger that it's not only the u.s. ships operate in that two big russian military vessels have crossed the straight with. russian naval girls. in so the there will be more calming and this is becoming more and more dangerous situation but there is also another point that i would like to stress the russian foreign minister raised i think a very important issue the. documents in the u.n.

security council which basically bit the european and american allies to economically help those areas of syria which are on the government control well terror network sites here document entitle to paramount to us and principals or u.n. assistance drawn by the director of political affairs geoffrey that particular fairness over united nations jeffrey feltman this is really cruel because when you're upset us we didn't destroy syria russia destroyed syria you know i read it in front of my notes items that putin wants us to pay for something he destroyed this is just a lie this is this is there are very well we're going to do that's very orwellian we can have another or william story in the second part of the program is about john mccain let me go to alex's finish up iran and syria because it does look to me that this is some kind of final attempt by the western powers to make a statement to be we still have mattis believe or not the defense secretary talking

about a future without assad i thought we got beyond that point but no they keep going back to that same point go ahead downs. yeah they just they just can't let it go and i agree with with mark in the media and to the point going back on europe it's not only the united states that is making claims that they're ready to attack syria you have france and you have the u.k. jumping on board and saying that if there is a chemical weapons strike something that everyone in alternative media is screaming about for us to zero ahead everyone is saying that there is going to be a chemical weapons false flag the mainstream media is not reporting any at all but if there is yeah and if there is that you can france have also said that they will get involved well they filed so we're going to have to jump in here we're going to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on some global trends staying with our team.

most people think to 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 raid in truth to stand down this is just the dance the right questions and the right answer. questions. john mccain and his republican cohorts like the bush

family and others they will break cozy with ken lay who financed the bush campaigns of the bush presidency and when they got caught committing massive fraud on the same scale as the savings along crisis they machinery was already in place thanks to john mccain as a bag man for wall street for decades yeah to bail those guys out and make them all at the expense of the democracy slash economy of the united states which is to celebrate. you know provision of my by going to i want to. get. your for your height oh i lost his boss because i just got the. resources you know . anybody among my fellow those in prison but the best honest i don't mean any of them. so i says you know what i was you're not. you know just i mean what i most

wanted i'm already what it was but the bottom you just got to go. i remember we're going to. give it up as well i must really feel that this will get us out there's a lot of us but those were the. people going to respond on one of those but i was just this but it was one of these i will ask him i will write about him we've got a bomb i just but that's already yes it will be and he thought if you think of it i think with you you seem to mean think it is my thought aloud but let me just quote to you. welcome back to cross talk where all things are considered on peter we're discussing some global trends. right let me go back to alex in cyprus here alex you and i few. days ago i had

a long conversation about what's going on in south africa and then lo and behold again it's our conversation was about the. reported murder of white farmers the x. the seizure of land without compensation and how the south african government is dealing with it grappling with it politically and internationally and then number of sources particularly tucker carlson over at fox news talked about a few other people did well known you tubers you and i talked about it and lo and behold the south african government seems to be pulling back your thoughts yeah they they are taking notice and you noted in our discussion peter that it's the p.r. part that the south african government is very worried about and president trying to tweak it brought a lot of attention to what's going on in south africa it's a very complicated issue but what we're seeing now is south africa trying to explain how the how the land expropriation what other people are calling theft is

going to take place and in their comments they're saying that they're not to be taking all the land from farmers they are going to leave the land that is owned by the tribe members intact and then they're just going to be moving on other land they're about to take a very big piece of property with the first land seizure from a guy named yohann steenkamp and the funny thing about his lead is that he bought it twenty years ago at all after the massacre of governments right after apartheid sacked after apartheid they're not going to compensate him whatsoever and he said that he will defend he will defend his lead well so i think they really heating up so much for the rule of law thoughts on this mark. it's a complicated issue to say seventy two percent of farmland in south africa is owned by whites and they are ninety percent of the population the land restitution act was originally in the act is to restore land that had been seized from black farmers during the decades long rule by the a part of the u.s. and u.k.

backed apartheid regime it seems there have been some excesses towards that and a lot of it is has actually happened a lot of it has simply been political rhetoric from within some of the more extremist members of the african national congress and that is what maybe has been walk back more than anything else trump has blown this all out of proportion in an attempt to rally his the white nationalist part of his base meanwhile. maybe speaking out for the rule of law mark i think that goes a bit too far but i think well there is no way but there are so many people that if we just lost exactly and you need to have a conversation about that you can't it's not what how do you start it's complicated well i will do x. to point to some of our attention to the police and told the european union about it because when the land seizures where underweight in zimbabwe it good point and the e.u. who created mugabe there was

a lot of those about it in the media no there is bad anything and what is very important talking about human rights violations you know africa david cameron when he wasn't polish several years ago suggest that stopping any economic aid to those african countries which do not recognize single sex marriage which is a cruel decision because a lot of african countries are mostly him and again africa doesn't have to be on the same standard with the u.k. you know you can't jump to a condor three hundred years but came out and did it he enforced it i don't know thirty. me and i would go america there at the same time tour in africa right now and they don't even mention it they just see that they are you know it is very proud of zero point seven or their budget for help to the developing countries huge amount of money right and then i want to talking about quality a lot of africa and they don't respond to questions the african union was against

the allston of conducting what's up but what's your message not recently you know the whole mantra is that you accept western values and you accept. a western tradition when it comes to racism being anti-racist the rule of law eccentric cetera that's the reason why do they don't want to talk about it ok because all these issues in south africa are in play and as mark said it's complicated as well i would say that you have to be a part of a fashionable minority whites insult their anonymous minority but they're not fashionable well they're not victims enough for liberals to care about this is a big topic i'm going to stay on it alex i want to go back to you talking about human rights i'm reading a title from the from the the washington post by a woman a woman named jennifer rubin the human rights community lost a champion. who is she talking about oh there's

a picture of john mccain your thoughts a picture of john mccain standing next to all the chant of bach the neo nazi leader of you who form the social nationalist party and then went on to form svoboda and one is one of the three big leaders that mccain who even the ones from mainstream media grudgingly admit is a neo nazi alex jump and a picture is worth a thousand words and i mean it's ridiculous to see everyone left and right from hillary clinton to john lewis to bernie sanders. cause you know cortez raising job mccain as as a peacemaker as a man of peace. people have people for god in libya syria ukraine iraq bob bomb iran i mean it's it's comical at this point you know it's you know the demon is you know john mccain was an exemplar of of american

foreign interventions military interventions around the world and the interesting thing is that just about every single intervention john mccain supported and it up in failure and misery what you have is you don't you don't see that in the washington post don't see the voting fulcher see also david ignatius who is praising mccain for being against climate change and he quotes of mccain a sane voice thing i can do is still sell my soul to the devil i won't do it even forty publican him and he well you know because i don't back that statement out of followers of people killed in vietnam and i can never be penned to put that and he did not sell his soul to the devil now i think there is a very interesting story about that i think we should all thank mccain for not inviting mr. mark has just mentioned down who called for at the exit is jewels

in their great mccain didn't ask him to carry his question but he asks caro moves up a prominent liberal activist who suggested putting all the reach businessman even on the portrait regime under sanctions in the united states and europe he will be carrying mccain's coffin on mccain's personally to be teaching and i saw that it's like about twenty people you know how can they carry all of that i thought it would be the poli way when i have it i have it for you ok so. who the son of the. bin ladin mentor had this to say twitter he paid tribute to mccain and said that his death is very suspicious cummings right now are considering the honorable stance he has taken towards the

revolution of al qaeda in syria. yes funeral for several months really and as we all know that donald trump isn't going to go there all right i want to change gears i want to talk about north korea. we've heard from media reports that a belligerent letter came from north korea to the state department about what motives and and questions the administration may have about pursuing this peace process here well it's a very sketchy media reports and interprete ing it seems to be a bit murky as well go ahead alex. yeah the meeting the letter was interpreted by reuters who kicked it off by calling it belligerent and i was in their title they have since retracted the word belligerent from their title because the real content came out and it was anything but belligerent basically north korea was just asking the trumpet ministration we have three points that we agreed upon what's going on

with these three points how are we moving forward and so this was this was a really poor attempt to frame the narrative that north korea was threatening the united states you know the market it's as if the media and the left don't want a peace process to be put into place and i guess the deep state is that want to lose all those contracts that it's had predicted aids pouring money into the korean peninsula yeah i think part of this is simply because this is seen as trump's admissions go off and even bucking his own administration that at this point the democrats have called so far in bed with the neo cons that you can't even tell us and we've been on which side of the bed at this point but what north korea asked is simply we've agreed on three points following the singapore statement and the power ration between north korea and south korea that we start improving relations we signed a priest three d. finally ending the north korean war decades later then we start talking about

didn't it clear ization of the peninsula the whole putting the whole peninsula and then you know this is predictable the trump administration wants to drop this because you know again i saw this is trump's initiative that his own his own neo con administration wasn't behind but what's important going forward is how south korea and moony reaction to this do they madison announced that u.s. military drills will wreak amendes on the peninsula is south korea going to play along that's what i want to know the westward. just polluted she said that the united states ran out of good faith you know and this was. known from. the vice chairman of north korea and that there's billy durant and the u.s. america story the u.s. south korean military exercises every year on the korean peninsula. with kind

of thousands of troops with more sophisticated weapons tested you know weapons that can destroy pyongyang on the in several minutes this is not but he didn't just to let the from here but i think what's really into going to finish on this point you i think what's really interesting what we've said on this program from the very beginning really is at the what's most important here is how the two koreas engage each other keep your eye on that that's all the time we have many thanks to my guests here in moscow and in cyprus this is the end of our broadcast segments stay with us for the extended version on our you tube channel see you next time and remember cross talk groups.

there are one other anti-gun other than our beloved though that that not a lot of the money out of the money there's been an american. this was a good time to. try to move their i'm job of no mark. foley down the line you know how little money not why not check jam there again to our son or ex channing and they'll all people we believe the beer. bottle of my kids i don't want them up aside johnny boy are you the moment i've got a mother how do it all the kids or is it a little i'm a little work in my building looking at the the things i don't want to put out they are the most hardy without all the more the world it.

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us up i'm not touching me in my life. i seen long have to die. cranking 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 truck so i chose to drive truck people rush to a small town in north dakota was an unemployment rate of zero percent like 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 and the slow down so much they lost their jobs that laid off the american dream is changing that's not what it used to be. and that's a tough reality to deal. in

the headlines this hour new revelations on a controversial murder case that sparked chaos in the german city as a prison guard admits he leaked the arrest warrant of a migrant suspect. elsewhere ten days ahead a sweet news general election rally were a parliamentary candidate claims he was at the rally were a parliamentary candidate it claims he was attacked by a migrant. the nobel committee says that. should keep her peace prize despite a un report on the mass killing of the country's. new information on the murder of russian journalists in the central african republic hints that serious

security lapses in the preparation for that.