second is the threat of break up. and iraq that fragments along ethnic and sectarian lines with broad regional consequences as each of the neighbors seek advantage. the third is the one we focused on here today that i intend to continue to focus on which is autocracy. the fear of break down or break up is what motivates malady or somebody else to centralized power and refuse to transfer in accordance with the will of iraq's people expressed in verifiably free and fair elections. none of these iraqs, broken up, broken-down, autocratic are the kind of partner the united states seeks. it is the third possibility that is really troubling at the moment. we need an iraq that respects the rights and the will of its people. the question -- and here i have enormous sympathy for ambassador feltman is what influence do we have apart from the usual diplomatic jawboneing which i believe the embassy has mastered beyond the shadow of a doubt. i want to take a look at the elements of american influence in today's iraq. i summarize them this w

iraq. first of all, there's iraq's own internal politics, because syria becomes one of those elements that plays into iraq's internal politics, where politicians accuse each other of certain sins based on how they stand vis-a-vis syria. there's an internal dynamic in iraqi politics that comes from syria. there's also a fear of what could happen in the aftermath to, as suggested by one of our participate apts here today, what happens in the aftermath. people are worried. we hear this all the time, about increased iranian pressure on iraq in days bashar al-ad is a falls. there's also the fear of spillover into iraq. iraq has been a victim of terrorism exported from syria before. you may remember, in august 2009, nouri al maliki was the one who not only accused the syrians themselves of having blown up the foreign ministry among other things in iraq, you have iraqi developments, you have concern about iranian influence, concern about spillover, concern about terrorism from syria. all these things play into this internal debate inside of iraq when it comes to syria. we've had pretty serious dis

examining the current state of u.s. iraq relations. but the challenges and opportunities ahead in the impact a troop drawdown has had on u.s. employees in the region. this is about 90 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> today marks the first of five panels on iraq that mei will be presented over the course of the next six months. we'll be looking at this unique complex relationship between iraq and the u.s. to examine important role of iraq in the region at iraq's relationship with its neighbors and the evolving political and economic developments as they are. if yours is prompted by the relation that iraq is really genetically fallen off the front pages over the course of the last year as its neighbors said that staged iraq with their people's demands for democracy and reform. and what that may initially have given the media saturation of iraq that we've had for years, mei grew concerned that key developments unfolding this critical post-occupation phase might not get the attention here in washington that day so mary. so

this might be the way out of iraq force. it turns out to of largely occurred the way patriquin wanted it to because they sheik proved to be very effective in fighting al qaeda industry. and tried to began to flip from neutral or pro-al qaeda to the coalition side. in my book there are a few things of patrick in in action. one of them was when patriquin first met sattar. he speaks arabic, slang, iraqi arabic. and sattar's, sheiks hands and says what part of iraq are you from? are you from the north or the south? and patriquin, as he often did when this happened, he would say something like know, i'm from chicago. i'm an american. and many iraqis were befuddled by that because they thought he might be an iraqi who left iraq as a child, gone over here, and grown-up and then came back with a funny midwestern accent. they met and quickly became very close allies in this struggle. >> you can watch this and other programs on line at booktv.org. >> here we go. welcome aboard. beautiful downtown oklahoma city. my name is captain rick.

counterpart but this whole the legacy of the iraq war. in two thousand and ten the british ministry of defense finally admitted the use of depleted uranium in iraq and supplied the united nations with information on the zones targeted the u.s. allies beginning to voice its doubts on those weapons. only belgium ireland kosta rica and new zealand have formally brand uranium in their arms but today no international convention even mentions the rain and its texts. this allows the u.s. administration to continue using it without fear of reprisals. at the illinois law faculty francis boyle claims that the usa can be hauled before a tribunal this lawyer and harvard graduate has an international reputation of asian origin vietnam gulf war syndrome or trials or specialty today francis boyle is locked in a new battle to have the use of the pleated uranium recognized as a war crime uranium munitions violate the hague regulations of nineteen zero seven and then also violates the geneva protocol of one thousand nine hundred five. so they are clear the

of the u.s. is all over. it was in iraq as well encourage oil smuggling of the u.s. s the primary beneficiary when sanctions were imposed on iraq in the primary people punished were of course the iraqi people, not the regime. and so sanctions can be a form of economic warfare and all of sanctions are created equal. people are giving the administration a pat by sanctions that sound like an alternative to war. they certainly were the case that iraq had away that more people die as a result of sanctions of iraq than during the entire u.s. military camp being in iraq, which is stunning if you think about it. i saw first-hand in the 1990s. a lot of people around the world are concerned with what will happen throughout the arabian nights in the middle east and north africa. would have inside of afghanistan. we're in the world on fire right now. and it's good that they are burning. i mean fires of resistance in the united states and elsewhere in some of them could really reach to a point where it grows beyond control. >> there's one other thing to say about sanctions. here i

it was estimated by the commission that out of the $206 billion we spent on service contracts in iraq and afghanistan, which includes everything from building military installations to training election workers, between $31 billion and $60 billion was lost to what they termed to be avoidable waste. so out of $206 billion spent on billion lost to , between $31 avoidable waste. is a difficult environment. winston churchill once said the only thing certain in war is that it is full of disappointments and also full of mistakes. and it's true. it's a tough environment. but when it comes to wartime contracting, we certainly have a responsibility to look back and understand what reforms are necessary to avoid making more costly mistakes. and this is not just a retrospective exercise because contractors are still very much engaged, particularly in afghanistan where the united states still has, as we count them, over 100,000 private contractors. even in iraq today, after the last u.s. troops returned home in december, the departments of defense and state maintained roughly 30,000 private contr

they certainly were not in the case of iraq and the way that more people died as a result of sanctionson iraq and died during the entire u.s. military campaign in iraq which is stunning to think about it and i saw it firsthand in the 1990's, and i think a lot of people around the world are right to be concerned with what is meant to happen in the arabian peninsula and in the middle east and north africa, to have been out of afghanistan. we are in the world on fire. now and some of those it's good that they are burning and i don't necessarily mean violent friars emineth resistance, too and some of them could rage to the point where it goes beyond control. >> one other thing to say about sanctions -- 30 seconds, it isn't clear. looks like sanctions and some kind of a global policy that everybody agrees on and in fact the united states agrees on a come israel agrees on that, the europeans have gone along with it because the europeans for the last 50 years have done nothing but go along with u.s. policy. they can't not do that at some level. when they finally do you will know we are natura

years of afghanistan is thinking this is not iraq. but in his mind at the end of the day there still are many principles and lessons. no, it's not transferable, you can't take what we did there and do it here. i think he never really gained the report that mcchrystal had with karzai, and the afghan ministers respected him, but it certainly wasn't the same level of respect he had with the iraqi government. and the third question, i should be writing them down. some of his weaknesses. he is such a driven individual. i think i can be a strength, too. obviously, he challenges that drive in addition to serve the conjugate i think he is ego is in line with that but it's not egotistical, egocentric, if that makes sense. and really, he presses duty honor country about his family. so i'll most consider that a strength is in the weakness. as a working mother and wife, it's hard to find balance but he's pretty clear and holly is pretty clear that she support him and yet they have this wonderful marriage and very established children. of the weakn

iraq in 2003, the u.s. military was protecting the civilian contingent. but over the course of time, as the demands on the u.s. military increased, they could not and did not have the resources to protect us. i have less than 2,000 diplomatic security special agents and officers for the entire world. 285 embassies and consulates, plus their responsibilities for security protection of foreign dignitaries in the united states. so i am caught in a bind here. i am required to ensure that we can continue diplomatic and consulate operations, not only in war zones, zones of conflict, but also everywhere else in the world and the ability to do that is constrained by my internal resources and the resources that the d.o.d. is able to put at my disposal. and the compromise there is to -- is to do i think the better job that we are now doing, with more training and these master contracts that will have a better quality control so that we avoid the problem that you alluded that in kabul two years ago. but i would note just as an aside the u.s. embassy has been attacked twice in the last six

we found three of them. >> to clear the roads of iraq and afghanistan of deadly ieds, the army relies on companies like this, the 235th combat engineers. drawn from the california national guard, these men are truly a band of brothers. and they do a job that is one of the most dangerous -- >> fire in the hole. >> -- and terrifying on the battlefield. this is one of the unit's vehicle commanders. >> we essentially go down these roads looking for these bombs, looking for indicators that bombs are there, that they've been placed there. so we try to find them and we use various equipment to locate it, detect it, dig it up. >> he obsessively videotapes their whole deployment. >> i'm going to bring my video camera and just have a camera record everything. so i just have the camera on the dash of my vehicle. >> gunner ben winchester also films, mainly with his helmet cam. [ gunfire ] >> i just wanted to catch something. i wasn't exactly sure what i was going to catch. i was going to afghanistan. i know it's the real deal over there. >> april 2009, the unit captures on camera a frightening da

support of the iraq war at its lowest point so with most americans i'm happy with the way things are going in afghanistan and in the wake of this recent announcement we ask was the war ever sustainable well joining us now to talk more on this matter michael o'brien he's the author of the book america's failure and iraq welcome to the show. so i want to ask you first want to focus on that poor little support for afghanistan at an all time low this this rating has fluctuated throughout the years but why are americans so unhappy with it today well i really believe it's a confluence of factors number one overwhelming overwhelming factor is the length of time. or war seem to be getting warmer and warmer i mean at this point pardon me at this point the involvement in afghanistan is we're pushing eleven years now which is just. unbelievable we were involved in the second world war for barely for four years. even viet nam which we thought we would never repeat we're kind of repeating it it's far worse than the length of time goes but also when things like things like the korean burning most a

which means half of iraq and afghanistan veterans never set foot in a va hospital. we have no idea what's happening in that population. when we look at the budget and increase to mental health and shock and approach to suicide prevention, we're trying to develop programs with awareness, but we're not doing it in a targeted fashion, it's one thing to increase awareness about stigma, but if you don't know where are the problem areas, what are the methodologies and what type of issues are those service members facing, then you're basically crawling around in the dark. what we're proposing, that we need to have a national effort to track veterans suicide in all 50 states. there's a couple ways to do it, i'm happy to talk with you about it offline. until we do that, we're never going to get our hand around this issue, and we're never going to solve the problem. >> i think i can speak for the chairman in saying that the committee is committed to do a much better job at understanding the problem and more importantly, the trend we find it alarming. and to speak for the va,

we are working very carefully with both the government of iraq and the government of afghanistan to ensure that we are providing them the kind of training that they need and the kind of training that will have a long-term positive impact in their police programs. we have a senior state department officer who is assigned in both iraq and afghanistan as the coordinator for foreign assistance to make sure that we are focusing on sustainability. just as the admiral said, there is a lot we can do better and i believe we've learned our lessons.

we are working very carefully with both the government of iraq and the government of afghanistan to ensure that we are providing them the kind of training that they need and the kind of training that will have a long-term positive impact in their police programs. we have a senior state

there's been a lot of sacrifices made in afghanistan and iraq. and helmand province for example of the casualties for the u.s. forces has dropped dramatically that the casualties on the afghan side increased dramatically. it shows the fact that yes the afghans are in the lead in many of the district and they are responsible for akaka security but the sector freezes are important and we owe it to both the afghan and coalitions and we drove it to them to make sure we stay the course because we are making great progress. it's not perfect the try to bring upon some of the pickups but it's on track and it's moving, so hopefully between the discussions the we have and others we will get some supporters to stay the course. >> time for one more question and then this gentleman in the front row. >> nooney, roger kirk at the united council. my question is what kind of training and support to expect will be needed after 2014? and what are the prospects the you see of getting their? >> there are some areas that the afghans will not be able to build capability

last year has been shipping about fifty thousand barrels back to the central government for export of iraq since last may that have been paid for any of this so the other producers in the north which is actually the easiest oil to extract in the country are not getting paid the southern oil fields which are are still in disarray after the u.s. u.k. invasion need billions hundreds of billions of pounds worth of infrastructure improvements be able to extract that readily that doesn't seem to be forthcoming from the western oil companies like b.p. like chevron total they have got contracts in there i mean though they were actually the deal was that they would get the contracts and they would build the infrastructure not of the infrastructure as it happens would actually benefit the iraqi people in any case but the iraqi people will be left with the bill for the at the end of the time it's not just about money though and contracts mike i guess is this is a long running ethnic dispute and ethnic conflict why wasn't it sorted out before the us troops pulled out why couldn't they get a handle on

it was estimated by the commission that out of the $206 billion spent on service contracts in iraq and afghanistan, including everything from building alliterate installations to train election workers, between $31 billion and $60 billion was lost to what they termed avoidable waste. out of the money spent, between $31 billion and $60 billion loss to avoidable waste. it is a difficult environment. winston churchill once said the only thing certain about or is it is full of disappointments and mistakes. and it is true. it is tough. but when it comes to a wartime contract and we have to look back and understand reforms are necessary to avoid making more costly mistakes. this is not just a retrospective, because contractors are still very much in gauged, particularly in afghanistan, where the u.s. still has over 100,000 private contractors. even in iraq today, after the last u.s. troops returned home december, the departments of defense and state maintain roughly 30,000 private contractors. at this time of serious fiscal challenges and trillion dollar deficits, we must do all we can to av

war doomed to and donald rumsfeld due to resignation in disgrace because of his fervid war in iraq. >> because it had gone on all these years without any resolution whatsoever. we've spent god knows how much money involved in the process. we've lost a hell of a lot of life. we've inflicted terrible pain on the population of iraq and killed a hell of a lot of iraqi people for no good end. there still is no resolution to it. and no one has any idea of what's going to happen in the future except there might well be more chaos. if george bush had really been involved in the war in vietnam which he wasn't, he escaped it by joining the texas national guard which his father got him into, and cheney got five draft deferments, rumsfeld was not involved in the war, wolfowitz got several draft deferments, these men were not involved in vietnam, if they had been, you might have known that you don't fight an unnecessary war. you don't go off and fight a war of choice which is what it was because once you fire the first shot, you don't know what's going to happen after that. and they -- their mi

of the u.s. army reserves to reenlist 100 reservists. i was the commander in iraq at the time and it was a true honor to use that occasion to thank all of our great citizen soldiers for their considerable contributions, particularly as we were still engaged in the so-called surge there in iraq. i was joined for the occasion by the commander of the army reserve, the great lieutenant general jack stoltz, a minuteman hall of famer himself, who observed that those fine men and women were part of the most professional, most competent, best trained, most dedicated reserve force we've ever had, close quote. i certainly agreed with his assessment then and i still do very much today. indeed, the success of the surge in iraq was due in no small part to the impressive skill and character of our reserve components, whose personnel played a critical role at a critical moment in the campaign. many in this room today and thousands and thousands more in your organization were part of that critical endeavor. indeed, not just part of it, but leaders in it. as was noted during the in

it is a pivotal moment in the transition of the relationship between the united states and iraq. rooted in the 2008 strategic framework agreement. we now see as we have been working for many years with the energy sector move front and center. as many of us joined vice president biden last december when we witness the transition from military dominated relationships into much more formally civilian driven relationship we have been working hard to expand on the cooperation that ambassador pascual is just outlined. the areas of cooperation are wide. the opportunities that we have discussed and we have identified our vast and we have reached a strong convergence of view with our iraqi partners on a path forward. clearly it is centered in the oil and gas sector, as you heard ambassador pascual note. there have been impressive gains in iraqi oil production in recent years and those gains are set to continue. we have been working hard also in the area of electricity, not only power generation but discussing such widespread issues as demand side management, energy efficiency and even the

support of the iraq war at its lowest point. so with most americans unhappy with the way things are going in afghanistan and in the wake of this recent announcement we ask does the war ever sustainable i was join earlier by retired u.s. marine an artsy blogger. so i asked him why americans are so unhappy with the war today take a listen. well financial crisis i mean there's no way that the united states citizens population you know domestic support can sustain a war effort in any possible way considering all the failed domestic issues i mean we've got a fifteen trillion dollar deficit we've got a. national infrastructure crisis we've god. emerging energy crisis we've got financial woes that the federal reserve the entire the entire system that holds the united states as a state as an enterprise is on the verge of collapse so americans are tired of in their work and work and we cut and it's afghanistan and so now afghanistan has announced that they're going to cut back on their military because they simply can't afford it what doe

poll and public opinion certainly didn't stop that war whether or not it causes just to pull out of iraq pull troops out of afghanistan i don't think the poll does that but like a lot of other. information i'm sure a pleasure. you mentioned iraq in the run up to the iraq war gallup trode right before the war seventy two percent support among the americans that support was much lower before the war was and now so there was a factor of rallying behind the leader what do you think a factor more on what the pm polls on the leaders or the leaders on the airplane are. sort of neither one what it is that is that americans are getting educated on what the crisis is so so in america only about twenty percent of americans follow the news like you and me and all those people that were in here a little while ago so when we're taking our polls like of a possible war in iraq you've got a whole bunch of americans aren't following it all up until it gets serious you see them and so it's about spinning thing it's one thing is gets there i would say spinning as much as just advancing those for being appal

we are working very carefully with both the government of iraq and the government of afghanistan to insure that we are providing them the kind of training that they need and the kind of training that will have a long-term, positive impact in their police programs. we have a senior state department officer who is assigned in both iraq and afghanistan as the coordinator for foreign assistance to make sure that we are focusing on sustainability. >> okay. >> but just as the admiral said, there is a lot that we can do better, and i believe we've learned our lessons. and we welcome the dialogue as you suggest on how we can insure that sustainability is institutionalized and carried forward. >> let me know if there's anything about the sustainability portions of this legislation that you think are not sustainable. secretary portman. senator portman. >> had a lot of titles. i can't keep a job, but it's never been secretary yet. [laughter] first of all, thanks for getting into the sustainability issue. i didn't get to hear the entire dialogue, but i think that's a critical part of what needs to be

, and, of course, iraq has a piece of this as well in their western border, and i mean, we've been meeting with leaders throughout the region, the secretary met with president barzani from the kurdish region. they have a rouge interest on -- there's kurd populations in northeastern syria, in eastern turkey, in western iran, and then in northern iraq, and these issues are all intertwined, and so right now we're in the business of sharing intelligence, sharing information. building partner capacity where we can, and, you know, having the threat, the credible threat of military capability to under -- to undergird or diplomatic and economic efforts. >> sir, i guess what i would just add to that is based on comments that have been made from my colleagues in their previous questioning as it relates to what happened in libya and maybe the -- the concerns regarding the war powers about the and how we proceeded in that action, that, you know, of all the conflicts that we have dealt with over the past years, that the one lesson learned is end game

paul, their parade to end the mark of the iraq wark and say welcome home and thank you to the troops,w, this saturday. but because minnesota is right in the middle of this big rotation of return of troops from kuwait, they have decided to postpone it. they were con exacted by both the military and family of the red bulls who basically said, you guys, we are almost home. we all want to go. wait for us. so there's no specific new date set yet for the end of the iraq war parade but they are aiming for late july. we will let you know when we know more. >>> also, richmond, virginia. richmond, virginia, end of the iraq war is set for may 19th. there had been worry that richmond wouldn't be able to pull it off. they needed to raise money for the costs, particularly the police costs, needing to raise $50,000 for the parade by today. today was their deadline and they hit it. so the parade is on. again, may 19th, richmond, virginia. they need to raise some more money for costs of the event but at least they now now they can cover the cost of the police support for the parade and it's on the cal

i mean, a lot of people suffered in iraq, because of sanctions. who is responsible for that? who is accountable for that? and i kind of feel that at least i can say, "well, i was part of it, therefore i am responsible." i mean, you know, that responsibility doesn't bring any great price to me, you know? i've not been sent to court or pay a fine or anything for it. but at least i can say, "i was directly involved." and i do think that sense of amorality and irresponsibility in government, of detachment from the consequences of your decisions, is a real problem. but to go back to hitting saddam, i don't -- i'm not talking about comprehensive sanctions. i'm talking about very specific, targeted sanctions to undermine individuals in the regime and the specific pillars of the regime, like the republican guard. there are lots and lots of things that could have been done, involving freezing his financial assets. these were never attempted. it's been done elsewhere. and it was never attempted on iraq. and i still am wondering why that was. >> much of what came to disillusion you abou

we look forward to the continued increase of production and export out of iraq. we're encouraging parties to do what they cancel the have clear rules of the road going into the future and how they're able to develop their hydrocarbons resources. >> i will add to that. of course to have a hydrocarbon law that is clear on the issues is important. [unintelligible] pushing for the legislation of such a lot. this has not deterred companies to sign contracts. they have already succeeded to increase production and increase exports. we're trying with the oil companies that contract with us, to increase mariposa production -- iraq's production. then what we're using right now. until the hydrocarbon law is legislative, the prevailing laws in iraq that have been [unintelligible] the energy sector and the oil sector are in force until the new legislation >. >> you said you had mentioned 10 million barrels a day within six years. if i understand your rights, you talked about reducing your output capacity target for 2017. the 10 million -- is 10 million barrels a day the new ch

in the wake of iraq, the democratic policy was iraq. reason president obama is president of the united states, he got up and said this is a dumb war. that was indisputeable. that was litigated on the left, never litigated on the right. no one ever had to face up to what happened the magnitude of the error is completely erased by history, like the old stalin books. they think it's a good idea to have dan senor on this lined the mouthpiece of the coalition authority during what someone on the obama campaign said was the worst period of foreign policy in 100 years quite plausibly when the country was descending into chaos. >> doing the ticktock of what happened on the campaign trail today is not always my favorite thing. the fact we have vice president biden making a speech about warning mitt romney would be going back to the george w. bush foreign policy and the romney campaign not seeing that as something that needs to be rebutted but rather something that needs to be discussed seems is the more than a fight, they're talking past each oth

most americans think of themselves as you say you say we invade we invade and in fact the invasion of iraq is where the chinese leadership traced the decline of america to in contrast china has mounting self-confidence in its own. economic and military strides particularly the closing power gap since the start of the iraq war in two thousand and three he argues america's gross domestic product was eight times as large as china's but today it is less than three times larger than america china's just not that into you. but their power shrunk it was a bridge too far it was a war too many it was a military industrial complex run amok it was the end of america well this is how many empires end they end with imperial overreach and we see that we see the military industrial complex the prison industrial complex has not only occupied populations around the world they occupy the domestic population across a lot of money fifty thousand dollars to lock somebody up in prison in america even more than that to kill somebody in an oil rich nation but the other thing i want to point to is back in two thou

music, and he has taught all the gray modern singers of the 20th century who came out of iraq. his music has touched me and you will hear it in this poem, 32 beads on a string. i woke from the nightmare of a gutted macom, not because i have not yet bled my life in yellow, but because minarettes looking sky ward. one burly buffalo looking for hooves and hot breath because the skin is not yet numb and the lights are not yet flickering, i will continue to sip at my hot tea and stare at the dust-colored noon. one white dasha screams with the brilliance of red. can you hear them, the melodious intent, the glimmering mood in their eyes. face stitched by seam, a garment i have sewn to my skin. whatever remains of el gubenchi's 1932 cairo studio recording lives between the old cobblestone quarter and my still-warm mahogony ear. i should have gotten up to shake his hand, this uncomfortable tension between me and god. medina, its streets adorned with smells from the bazaar, yet i have chosen to adorn myself in the still concrete of columns. i am for the transcription of the arabic. in t