the allawi neighborhoods are spared. the sunni neighbors are shelled. the corpses are in the sunni neighborhood. you see the terrible logic of this regime. >> which is basically pushing it toward civil war, toward a sectarian conflict. >> that's exactly from the playbook of bashar al assad, that's what he would love to do in fact. because if he makes it sectarian, he corners his own allawi community. they stick by him. they have to become basharists. they must stay with him to the bitter end. and i think this is something that he believes that he can win. >> and yet they are in this situation where clearly he cannot win, but they cannot win either. there is this -- right now this back and forth. >> absolutely. i mean, i think we've talked before about syria repeatedly, and i think what it is in many ways, it's a kind of -- this irresistible force meeting with this immovable object. the people can't go back. that crossed that point. they can't go back. they can't accept the tyranny of the assad dynasty. and anyway, they're marked. all the activists are k

allawi was never able to move i don't understand 91. day and night on it was able to put together coalition partners and able to get the majority. that's why he's in power. it had nothing to do really with the u.s. installing him because even if we tried to install him, that wouldn't necessarily work and if we tried to remove him, that wouldn't necessarily work. this has been an iraqi game not just starting today with the troop withdrawals but this has been an iraqi game for some time. he's a very tough guy and knows what he's doing. >> ambassador hill, one of our correspondents in iraq e-mailed me a question for you that can you essentially did not back allawi and why more in support of nuri al malaki. is there regret there with regard to that position at the time? >> well, let me make very clear, we didn't back anybody. the issue was who could put together a coalition and we worked a lot with all the parties to see who could put together a coalition. allawi had a lot of sympathy from other parties but none of them would give him votes

. >> that is ayad allawi, head of a sunni-backed political party, witafter a score of bombings days after u.s. troops left the country. it is giving rise to fears of a civil war. does any of this surprise you, evan? >> no, but it does satiny. i hope this is a temporary phenomenon the whole idea of a resting in the vice president for hiring death squads is like something out of a bad movie. >> you thought it would be sunni and shia fights in the streets, but now they are in the halls of power. there seems no end in sight. they are the government now. this is what we might have expected eight years ago after being there two years. this is what opponents of the iraqi war warned against, that we were going to have this problem no matter when we left. >> nobody argues that the iraqi defense forces are top flight, mark. >> no, they don't, and it is a tragic end to a tragic policy was a war begun on false, misleading promise -- premise, the argument that iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and the capacity to reach us as well as others. what is fascinating about it all is that it was the

already, though, one african nation allawi said it will review the laws, criminalizing homosexualityr than risk losing the u.s. dollars. bret? >> bret: interesting. john, thank you. from foreign aid to foreign inspiration. for "time's" person of the year. some people will not have to turn off their electronic devices for take-off and landing >> bret: now fresh pickings from the political grapevine. "time" magazine revealed the person of the year. technically it's not just one person. it shows the protester. due to revolution in northern africa and the middle east. dissent eventually spread toump and then the u.s. in the form of the -- spread to europe and the u.s. they chose the person or thing they believe most influenced culture or news for better or worse. last year, facebook founder mark zuckerberg was picked. >>> do you stress on what to include in the yearly christmas card? after seeing what the mayor of san juan, puerto rico, sent, you might not be to worried. jorfe santini posed with people and animals and one picture had leopard mauling a gazelle. he said they use id to prom

already, though, one african nation allawi said it will review the laws, criminalizing homosexualityisk losing the u.s. dollars. bret? >> bret: interesting. john, thank you. from foreign aid to foreign inspiration. for "time's" person of the year. some people will not have to turn off their electronic devices for take-off and landing anymore. we tell you who next on grapevine. the droid razr by motorola. the newest droid armed with motocast. granting you wireless access to files on your home computer from almost anywhere. 4g lte equipped to pull pictures, music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds. powered by verizon, this droid is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to figh

this bloc, large evidence in parliament, headed by former prime minister allawi announced on saturday it would be suspending its membership from parliament because the bloc says the occupied prime minister has absolutely no intention of every implementing the power sharing agreement established between them. the lawmakers have been accusing the prime minister of consolidating power. he does still maintain full control over the security portfolio which includes the ministries of defense and interior. now, iraq's deputy prime minister who is also a member of iraqiya had harsh criticism during an interview with cnn that took place a few days ago simply calls al maliki a dictator saying he was playing the u.s. and iran and one day america would grow to realize this, and regret its decision to back al maliki. meanwhile, there have been other concerning signs when it comes to the so-called democracy in iraq, which is why so many iraqis are concerned about their future. when we talk about freedom of speech, one of the main cornerstones of democracy, most certainly seems as if this iraq gover

their opinions about allawi.rising, he was after all the representative of the sunnis and to some extent the kurds certainly. the possibility of forming an alliance with him with maliki on the formation so that is not surprising but it is really very similar i think towards nouri i maliki and muqtada al-sadr. the last point that i want to bring up is what i really found surprising is the fact that such a small percentage of kurds have a positive attitude about turkey, because they seem to contradict essentially what we have seen lately. i am not surprised that those opinions have been expressed in 2003 or even in 2004 and five. actually i was surprised that it was as high as 5%, but when you talk about the kurds, when you to log to turkish officials they talk a lot about the very positive role that turkey has played in the area in terms of investment and developing building infrastructure. turkey seems to have more or less accepted the situation. they have never liked the idea for obvious reasons that they fear t

he believes he has the allawis behind him. he believes he's really immune to this fury. and he believes that his community will really actually fight for him and keep him in power. and i think in this kind of, you know, in this parallel universe, as you described it, it makes perfect sense for bashar al assad to think that he could ride out the storm. for example, the arab league imposes sanctions on him. guess what he says? he said, we had 35 years, 40 years of sanctions. we can live with sanctions. the arab league again, in a way, tries to corner him, he has nothing but contempt for the arab league. the united nations human rights council issues a report accusing him of war crimes. what does he say? he has no regard for the united nations. and when pressed, does he not think much of the united nations? he thinks -- he says, we only play the game that we are members of the united nations. this is a man who is really now gone rogue, if you will. the syrian state has really now left the decent and conservative order of nations. >> fouad ajami, thank you. >> thank you very

already, the allow we -- allawi has left the coalition.his is only two days after the end of the war. >> there is still no cabinet. >> there is a shiite locker versus a city block -- shiite block versus a sunni block. we have serious differences with the maliki government. we will have to see whether they are able to confront the challenges they face. host: a high price for those who lost loved ones in the war. your arsenal of figures courtesy of the pentagon -- nearly 4500 -- here are some of the figures, courtesy of the pentagon. more than 100,000 iraqis lost their lives. guest: the cost of this war, both blood and treasure, has been gargantuan. the question is, was it worth it. can the costs be used to launch iraq into a. of prosperity n -- a period of prosperity? host: the president coming under some criticism for the policy toward iraq. we will talk about that during the segment. on wednesday, the president travels to fort bragg, north carolina, which became the main point location for u.s. troops heading over to iraq. this past week,

i'll let allawi has a favorable rating amongst sunni and kurd, if less favorable rating among shia.e is the more popular leader overwrought in terms of rating of all of the people we polled in the country. and it's more a favorite among shia than any other iraqis that we surveyed and look at very low favorable ratings among sunni and kurd. the issue here of iraqis being conflicted i think comes through. they are being divided also comes through. the fact that americans have sort of a weird, but deep partisan split also comes through. one can't blame the iraqi people for being complete and divided after years of ruthless rule an invasion and occupation and the company name terrorism and ethnic cleansing. while the trappings of democracy have been set up, but democracy is somewhat dysfunctional at that point inside iraqis are deeply worried about the future. happy america is going, worried about what happens now that america goes into quite see their way through to the future. i'll think i'll leave it there and hear what the folks have to say. >> thank you very much. a couple of surpr