is there a future for afghanistan? an open interview with president hamid karzai is next on larry king. great pleasure to welcome to larry king president hamid karzai. he is the president of afghanistan. he comes to us from the presidential palace in kabul. thank you for being with us. we've just marked the ninth anniversary of this war. did you ever think it would take so long? >> no, sir. i never thought it was going to take so long. in 2001 when this whole effort against extremism and terrorism began, the afghan people and the international community joined hands and the victory came within a month and a half. subsequent to that, we all felt that now it was going to be the rebuilding of afghanistan and towards a more secure, brighter future. parts of it we achieved. parts it which was security and the absolute defeat of terrorism, not yet. >> larry: many americans, as you know, mr. president, are anxious about our being there. many are asking, what is the united states' purpose? what can we still achieve in your cou

they find coming to afghanistan difficult. they find holding themselves in afghanistan rather more difficult. but surely they are around the world and in this region and in numbers that can cause danger and threat to us and we must continue to fight them out. >> larry: what do you believe is the story with osama bin laden? it's been nine years. he's not been captured. where do you think he is? do you think he's alive? >> well, sir, i find it very difficult to speculate on his whereabouts. i can tell you as much with certainty that he is not in afghanistan. he's never been here since we removed them from our soil nine years ago. we should all be looking for him. he's causing us all damage, and he's the cause that's led to the death of so many innocent people in the world. he, by his preaching and action, causes to suffer and die and get mutilated. it's our human responsibility to get rid of him. >> larry: if he is in pakistan, should they be doing more? >> well, if he is there -- i don't know if he's there. but if he's there, o

the war in afghanistan. u.s. military history this year is already the deadliest for nato troops in a. while more on these and plenty of other stories in just under fifteen minutes from now but in the meantime the talk is next with the sports you stay with us for that. hello and welcome to the schools of dayton r t good to have you with us and here is what's coming up in the program. to boston to tell reignites who's well championship hopes with an emphatic victory in the japanese grand prix. but until it was safe finally wins after coming back from injury but it's hard to secure is the ultimate prize in malaysia. and big in japan rafael nadal still means to his seventh way in a season same golf gal monthly's in tokyo. now let's kick off with the latest in formula one west of boston to tell is back in the championship shake up after winning the japanese grand prix from pole on sunday it was an action packed race ensues zuko with accidents aplenty including four russian hopeful vitaly petrov a very normal crashed

the world are unable to consume everything that comes out of afghanistan so afghanistan stores a huge amount of drugs russia and other countries estimate it's about thirteen to fifteen thousand tons of opium so even if drug production stops in afghanistan the country will still be able to supply the international market with heroin for another twenty or even thirty years. what about the main mode of transportation of the drugs could you talk about the roads or the countries to which the drug trade flows into russia. you there is the northern route which is sometimes called the northern silk route after the seventeenth century trade route the reason the silk route is popular is because after the collapse of the soviet union munitions are merged and while their borders exist on paper in reality they're not even properly guarded so essentially there are no effective borders between afghanistan and russia with such poor borders it's very easy for traffickers to transport drugs the biggest part of drugs flows through stand and kazakstan and onward to russia another part goes through iran a

roundup of the week the war in afghanistan enters its tenth year making it one of the longest in u.s. military history as he is already the deadliest nato troops in a decade of conflict. war torn afghanistan remains the world's largest exporter of opium with over a third of it ending up in russia and russia's counter narcotics chief explain to r.t. just why the war on drugs is not being one that's our special interview coming your way shortly. today we're talking to the head of russia's dog control service and mr pena thank you very much for joining us today first off let's talk about afghanistan afghanistan is the number one producer all opiates in the world when we talk about the transfer of the drugs to russia what kind of amounts of drugs are we talking about. afghanistan produced about seven thousand tons of opium last year which is equivalent to seven hundred tons of heroin we believe that about thirty six of these tons end up in russia that's a lot about five billion doses and it's about thirty five percent of all drugs exported from of ghana stan because in fact afghanistan ex

led forces entered afghanistan civilian. foreign troops are struggling to fight against the taliban ahead of next year's expected withdrawal. while russian authorities say more than a third of explosive afghan drugs end up in russia every year the equivalent of five billion heroin doses next we talked. about why the war on drugs. today we're talking to the head of russia's drug control service i think that mr pena thank you very much for joining us today first off let's talk about afghanistan afghanistan is the number one producer all opiates in the world when we talk about the transfer of the drugs to russia what kind of amounts of drugs are we talking about. afghanistan produced about seven thousand tons of opium last year which is equivalent to seven hundred tons of heroin we believe that about thirty six of these tons end up in russia that's a lot about five billion doses and it's about thirty five percent of all drugs exported from of ghana stan because in fact afghanistan exports less than half of the drugs it produces

rolling afghanistan did think that there will defeat their foreign troops in afghanistan and ultimately they will rule afghanistan again so you will you combine your comments there what's been happening along the pakistani border with the attacks on nato all fuel tankers it's certainly not good news for capitol hill to talk to her political analyst from couple thank you. well international terrorists are behind the latest attacks in russia so as the head of russia's security council. as far as russia is concerned no one doubts that the terrorist threat is this coming from abroad and everyone agrees that it's must be countered jointly. number of attacks in southern russia in august thirty people were injured in the town of course could buy a car explosion and in september seventeen people were killed and around two hundred injured in a market bomb blast in vladikavkaz last week police found a hidden stash of explosives in the center of the city of staff report chechen militant who has links to al qaeda is thought to be behind the incidents alexander to live on offer from the moscow state

to discuss russia nato as joint operations in afghanistan are now joined by afghan parliament member. mr sultanzoy russia and nato have shown that it's possible to fight together against the drug trade in afghanistan tell me why why hasn't this been done sooner. i think this is a very. welcome. news. it's. not enough but it's a good start i think to fight the drug. eradicate the drug problem in afghanistan and we should not look at it as an afghan problem it's a global problem requires a multi-pronged multi-track approach that would require the russian and the european and american cooperation not only in afghanistan but also outside afghanistan to interdict trafficking to dry up the chemical precursors that come from chemical companies in the world and also track down the banking systems that launder money and also taking money to the rest of the world the trafficking is a more route lucrative business than than cultivation for afghanistan to be able to join this war and succeed in this war the things we have to find alternative crops and alternative livelihood for these farmers who

occupation of afghanistan nine years ago today the united states invaded afghanistan under the guise of finding osama bin laden today more than ninety four thousand u.s. troops maintain a permanent presence there twenty two year old brock mackintosh was one of them i was one of the more optimistic soldiers who. you know i got on the ground in afghanistan and i wanted to. participate in this liberation of afghans and defending the country from terrorists and all that nonsense and the on the ground experience completely contradicted all the pretty preconceived notions that i had when i entered the country. and. what tends to happen with a lot of soldiers not all soldiers but certainly with me is. you you reach a point where it's no longer about. defense or liberation or the constitution or anything like that it's just about getting home alive and being able to say to marry your fiance or to hold your baby that was born while you're away or take your daughter fishing for the first time or to be in an environment where where. it's not normal to become naaman indifferent to the sound of m

how do you get supplies to afghanistan to help afghanistan if the pakistan border crossings aren't reliable keep in mind that doing business in any type of war zone is always difficult, you know, doing business in that part of the world has been defense a defense contractor, making sure our troops are supplied has never been an easy task, but it is a war zone and we mitigate the risks as much as we can, but there are no guarantees in making that happen. if you take a step back and look at the overall big picture, you have to keep in mind that 2,000 to 3,000 trucks move on a daily basis. less than 1% of that is loss due to attack. all in all, pakistan is a very viable supply trade route for us and it also is a reliable partner to us in getting goods and supplies in. having said that, the u.s. has been sharp and judicious about making sure there are alternate supply routes in getting goods into afghanistan. just until a few years ago, 80% of the goods came through pakistan tan, that has been reduced to 40% now. >> oh really? >> 40% comes through pakistan to afghanistan, the other percent come

invasion into afghanistan the first day of the tenth year of this war. now we entered nearly a month after the september eleventh attacks that changed america forever u.s. military officials were hunting for the mastermind of nine eleven osama bin laden and in their search for this one man we created an all out global war on october seventh of two thousand and one a sunday afternoon president george w. bush announced to the nation the operation enduring freedom against the taliban regime and al qaida in afghanistan was underway. on my orders the united states military has begun strikes against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in afghanistan with. the joint us british air assault would be followed within days by a ground assault and the initial attack did remove the taliban from power but since two thousand and six afghanistan has seen threats to its stability from increased taliban led insurgent activity record levels of illegal drug production at a fragile government with limited control outside of kabul

mr pena thank you very much for joining us today first let's talk about afghanistan afghanistan is the number one producer all of opiates in the world when we talk about the transfer of the drugs to russia what kind of amounts of drugs are we talking about. afghanistan produced about seven thousand tons of opium last year which is equivalent to seven hundred tons of heroin we believe that about thirty six of these tons end up in russia that's a lot about five billion doses and it's about thirty five percent of all drugs exported from afghanistan because in fact afghanistan exports less than half of the drugs it produces as drug addicts throughout the world are unable to consume everything that comes out of afghanistan so afghanistan stores a huge amount of drugs russia and other countries estimate it's about thirteen to fifteen thousand tons of opium so even. drug production stops in afghanistan the country will still be able to supply the international market with heroin for another twenty or even thirty years so what about the main mode of transportation of the drugs could you talk a

military actions and in both pakistan and afghanistan that's a huge problem it's admitted if you look at woodward's book it's honeycombed throughout the book that officials get the point that there are drone strikes and special operations raids are not working the way they're supposed to they're making people angry and particularly the drone strikes are not successful they are never going to be served as successful and they know when the white house and the cia are not going to be successful but they're carrying them out anyway because they have nothing else to offer basically that's interesting leave if i go to you nothing else to offer i mean that's a pretty pessimistic comment to make i mean if. you want to get and i'm sorry let me if i can just finish up the question i mean where we go what is the ultimate aim right here i mean is it reconciliation among the afghans is that somehow if you mean the mean is not is it here i mean it's been going on for a day it's been going on for a decade go ahead. what the ultimate aim is not right and my opinion is not reconciliation among the afg

the united states in favor of reconciliation in afghanistan it's not enough. not now elements of the tali bonn but the know now but the taleban in order to reconcile unacceptable terms they need to be under constant military pressure you're saying they have to so they have to surrender is that they have to surrender they have to surrender when they have the upper hand right now why would they even do that. they don't do you know it's an ongoing fight and you don't know who to surrender but they do they do have to accept certain terms and those terms include renunciation of violence acceptance of the surrenders and that is their target. which is rather ok so go ahead this is the problem the idea that we're going to get the taliban which is by far a politically stronger than the afghan government to say that it's going to agree to join or you know to serve that that government and its present constitution is absurd because it's never going to happen and u.s. officials know that very well i just did a story last week quoting somebody who within the government say

policy in afghanistan i gave. answer when it comes to afghanistan think about pakistan get serious or get out on the date of the ninth anniversary of the us invasion to afghanistan their white house as usual licked the latest reports regarding the pakistan your role in the us occupation of afghanistan. the conclusion the us has to retain value eight its towards pakistan and get serious about the pakistan sabotaging its africa as well whether it's a conclusion is surprise or just a coincidence with my advice one month ago i don't know you tell me. well support for the u.s. led foreign campaign is at an all time low late appear live alan has crossed discuss whether the so-called war on terror as only seen a surge in violence around the world. is absolutely not popular in the middle east at all we are very unpopular in the middle east and i have no idea i mean what do you know what would be talking about what's going to do to what strategic interest what strategic interest i mean how does it affect us whether or not

troops will leave afghanistan by the twenty twelve u.s. election because it's actually the only way for obama to stay in office so we're really talking about u.s. political interests at stake here rather than afghanistan's interest in the long term. well i wouldn't place too much stake on political analysis of anyone from the cia but i don't think a miracle of the second coming of jesus could bring obama into a second term so i don't think the troop withdrawal is going to have any effect on that but it won't happen the pentagon will have the troops permanently stationed behind something like fifteen permanent bases built around the country and most of those are air bases aimed at china. central asia and russia kazakhstan the pipeline just finally can i go back to the subject of these security threats so european security officials have been very critical of the us issuing these threats i mean what do you think do you think it's really helpful and useful to issue such security threats around the world that some people may start thinking wel

in some neighbors of afghanistan, some enemies of afghanistan. they actually tried to use this between afghanistan and the international community. >> lehrer: what about that point, mr. clemons? his earlier point that like him or not he's the elected president of this country. the united states is going to deal with afghanistan they're going to deal with karzai. no choice. >> there are legitimate issues about the legitimacy of president karzai and two fraudulent elections. i also think that whether or not he is the person we came up with in a process through the agreement, we've tried to develop a constitutional order. i think richard holbrook's people are doing a very good job trying to-- trying to eject civil society into the equation but not getting very far. when you look at allotted and you look at how we personalized this around karzai, anyone who is a student of u.s. foreign policy knows we need to step back and begin letting the system begin to digest the possibility of other leaders and not get so committed to one game and one person tha

campaign in afghanistan shows. whose list shows destroy the narcotics business only the government ruling the country based on the population supports consoled the drug problem when americans say you can't leave the peasants without the only way of income big giving a sign to the afghan authorities to keep out of the opium business because those without cash will turn to the town of bone for support but this is just an excuse. and gather full interview with the had of russia sent in our cottage agency on our website which is our team dot com pakistani forces are still avoiding direct confrontation with the taliban who are threatening u.s. soldiers in neighboring afghanistan that's according to a white house report argues military contributor says america must rethink its attitude towards pakistan before it can get a breakthrough in its fight against the taliban a month ago during an interview to veterans today i got a question what i would advise to the white house regarding the u.s. policy in afghanistan i gave an

war in afghanistan where there because no u.s. president no u.s. politician is willing to say this was a failed war from the beginning we should never have been there from the beginning we should get out the entry to afghanistan was a defeat from day one the bottom line is it was not a war of self-defense we were not attacked by afghans the notion that we were going because we were worried about people's human rights under the taliban that doesn't explain why we were so willing to deal with the taliban before this we were dealing with the taliban over creating oil pipelines across afghanistan there's a lot of hypocrisy here and i think that we do ourselves a disservice and we do the people of afghanistan a disservice if we blur that we were attacked in a horrible crime against humanity the answer to that should never have been war. and will a veteran and member of the rethink afghanistan movement just didn't think that the u.s. led war will leave a lasting impression on future generations of afghans. the question i ask is like why are we still ther

his 12th combat tour in iraq and afghanistan. four in iraq, eight in afghanistan. leaves behind a pregnant wife, two children, and you read about him and what the... his leaders say about him. this was a guy who gave his... not just his life but everything about him to this war. what do we owe him? everything. >> rose: everything. which includes not to put him in harm's way for a folly end. in other words, don't force the military to go places where the end result is not achievable or where history dictates we have no national security interest in being there. >> rose: yeah, but it means... it's got to be defined in a way... now let's go back to our old acquaintance colin powell. >> rose: right. >> who when you look back on the first gulf war 20 years ago we got two things. we got victory and a short and a very well-defined set of goals. there is... look, general barnum, who is the commander in afghanistan from 2003/2005 has written a review of this book and he just says i am so troubled, i am so uneasy about what we are doing. where does this fit in? what is the g

ambassador to afghanistan. used to say if there are no drug fields there is no problem with drug trafficking and that's exactly what our counter drug chief of port well now you know now with russian forces helping nato troops destroy these drugs and this seizure in the past twenty four hours over two hundred million doses of heroin certainly a good point right now in the drug in the drug war and not going to stand. military contributor thank you. well still to come for you in the program here on r t sale season for american left. with you know. some of the items on sale. with the risk of pollution and disease. and myth come true as one of the streets. from the woods. well tough financial discipline and penalties for european nations trying to take a free ride under pressure from germany and france e.u. leaders agreed that the only way to keep the euro from. explains how the eurozone hopes to shore up its troubled economy. this is what's turned out to be the u.k.'s pass into the realms of financial security beca

campaign in afghanistan have stalled the fight against drugs in the country. due. the nine years of the u.s. campaign in afghanistan shows more fighting equals less chance to destroy the narcotics business only the government capable of ruling the country based on the population supports consoled the drugs problem when americans say you can't leave the peasants without their only way of income giving a sign to the afghan authorities to keep out of the opium business because those left without cash will turn to the taliban for support but this is just an excuse for. fresh unrest has broken out in a stand after a more storm the headquarters of a leading political party in the capital bishkek security is being beefed up across the country head of sunday's parliamentary election but the country remains ethnically split and wary of more violence as. piskun are now reports. this woman asked us not to reveal her identity she says it's still in june just like many other ethnically divided city being lost everything. being forced to survive. us then lead the way there is no

policy in afghanistan which i gave an answer to when it comes to the afghanistan think about pakistan get serious or get out on the date of the ninth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of afghanistan their white house as usual leaked the latest reports regarding the pakistani role in the u.s. occupation of afghanistan. the conclusion the u.s. has to revelant its anted to towards pakistan and get serious about pakistan sabotaging its efforts well whether it's a conclusion is surprise or just a coincidence with my advice one month ago i don't know you tell me. well take a look at some other stories from around the world and toxic red chemical sludge from a factory in hungary has reached the river danube hungary's prime minister has called the spill a geological tragedy and it fears that maku poisoned the danube sounds of tons of the sludge spilled after a reservoir bursting four people dead and one hundred injured the cleanup is expected to take at least a year. in chile thirty three miners trapped on the ground for more than three months may be reached by saturday rescuers have already d

european missile defense and afghanistan. the u.s. troops could his control. concerns intensified after the whistleblower website wiki leaks released documents highlighting cases of hostility between kurds and arabs. also reporting the showdown between israel and lebanon over recent weeks discovered oil reserves in the eastern mediterranean with turkey in cyprus also staking their claims without a clearly defined maritime borders experts predict the countries are unlikely to reach agreement anytime soon. with another update in less than fifteen minutes from now in the meantime we talked to dr lee roth from he's a veteran from behind the scenes of u.k. e.u. relations to find out if membership of the european union is worth the cost that's our special interview next. dr rather and thank you very much for talking to r.t. now first of all tell me how much it costs the u.k. to be a member of the well that's a both a very important question and a very tricky question to ask in the first instance the treasury writes a check to the european union every fortnight to th