covered things that have frightened us, and i just have a minute or two left here, but even libya, even iraq, that's got to be one of the most frightening things you've ever seen. >> absolutely. i realized then that i needed to leave. >> let me ask you, if i had the opportunity to put john mcafee in your chair and ask almost yes him questions, would it be worth my time? >> it would be entertaining. >> but would it journalistically be worth my time? >> absolutely. >> joshua davis, author of tremendous books. far more successful than i have the time to even say and so i highly recommend people take a look at your work. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >>> up next, a company you likely don't know has a billion and a quarter reasons why you should, when "press: here" continues. >>> welcome back to "press: here." a company you likely have not heard of just raised $50 million in funding from some of silly con valley's top venture capitalists, giving the security company an estimated overall value of $1.25 billion. its ceo is david dewalt, one of president obama's national security and te

iraq war. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. t me start with this. the folks who quack for iraq have a knack for bad ideas. they pushed us into war ten years ago, they made their case with lies and half truths and flimflam. we had to get revenge for 9/11 so let's attack iraq even though it was al qaeda that hit the twin towers and the pentagon. we have to attack iraq because we've got evidence they have weapons of mass destruction, wmd, even if there's no evidence they have nuclear weapons and it would turn out they didn't have chemical or biological either. we have to attack iraq, the hawks, they promised it would bring peace between israel and the palestinians. the road to jerusalem runs through baghdad it was said. what we've got instead is the loss of even a chance for peace in the middle east. well, tonight the people who sold america the iraq war are out selling more warfare in the middle east. they want military action against syria, they want war waged against syria, and they want chuck hagel out of the way. why? because

in no small part to the united states iran's most important strategic ally in the arab world is iraq even in syria you know bashar al assad is still i don't know is imminent and even if you reach a point where he might feel like he needs to abandon damascus or something like this you're going to still have big chunks of syria that are effectively under good control of his government under his security apparatus syria might at that point start to look more and more like a kind of. you know failing state with different regional warlords in different parts of the country but that is not a situation which is good for american interests first of all or a situation in which iran you know continues to somehow doesn't have influence or or inability to act in ways to protect its interests in the situation the idea that somehow we can just have these short term marriages of convenience to arm train in fund really in that lane a sunni islamist jihadist groups in syria in syria against the islamic republic of iran that just this time it will work and that somehow secular democrats are going to come t

the streets of britain representing tens of millions of people i think in opposition to the war on iraq evenbefore people knew what we know nor the entire thing was built upon a tower of lies but the expulsion was another job on because it was increasingly difficult and becoming impossible to remain in a party led by mr blair who is a war criminal and who should be on trial in the hague instead of swanning around the world making millions of dollars as a consultant to all sorts of good is the sovereign wealth funds of various dictatorships and exorbitant fees most of them in the united states plus the fees from being a director and a consultant for many multinational corporations so it's been good for business so far as mr bliss concerned he is a religious man and i suspect on the judgement day. you'll find the questioning is a little tougher than the british parliament was ever able to hold him to. the respect party believes. asking poor people to pay for the crimes of rich people the crimes and the mistakes and blunders that lead us off the cliff into recession and worse is unfair unjust a

the streets of britain representing tens of millions of people i think in opposition to the war on iraq evenbefore people knew what we know nor that the entire thing was built upon a tower of lies but the expulsion was another job on because it was increasingly difficult and becoming impossible to remain in a party led by mr blair who is a war criminal and who should be on trial in the hague instead of swanning around the world making millions of dollars as a consultant to all sorts of grisly sovereign wealth funds of various dictatorships and exorbitant fees most often in the united states plus the fees from being a director and a consultant for many multinational corporations so it's been good for business so far as mr bliss concerned he is a religious man and i suspect on the judgement day. you'll find the questioning is a little tougher than the british parliament was ever able to hold him to the respect party believes. asking poor people to pay for the crimes of rich people the crimes and the mistakes and blunders that lead us off the cliff into recession and worse is unfair unjust and

primarily to aid the target government to act in such a way as to bring on retribution and work with iraq even after ten years so other justifications for invasion needed to be employed and they were and we all know how well that turned out fantastic for the war mongers not so much for the rest of humanity while couldn't have articulated better myself man i totally agree sanctions are nothing more than a tactic to go oppressed regimes in the lashing out which of course then that lashing out would be used as a pretext for invasion and like you said it's the population of these countries that suffers in response to our interview with mega upload founder kim dotcom historical records v.l.t. had this to say he said i love this guy he's really intelligent the us government bit off more than they can chew but the stupid he's making them look like complete idiots. that's why i came dot com is awesome he's just doing his thing and by doing that he's exposing how ridiculous this cross planetary witch hunt is against him on facebook rick tongue. important comment about my ok segment that i was i was wat

countries do you think do you think there are any echoes here of libya echoes of afghanistan even echoes of iraq that might that might make certain western powers or nato are reluctant to really get involved certainly nato i see you're suggesting here is almost on the back foot back pedaling although it is offering troops and military support along the turkey syria border i think that libya in particular had a very very significant effect on american thinking because the americans back these groups in libya and one of them to a party killed ambassador and this caused great shock in washington and. so when the americans look at the situation we know that there are voices inside. general anders fogh rasmussen is one of them we know that britain and france are talking a silly belligerent fashion but the key to the situation is in washington and i don't think the americans have any interest in taking this any further. well. ready to actually intervene in syria a major regional crisis much much bigger than we're already seeing already and just in my final question here i'm running a bit low on time i

power if they get to power despite us ok so be it but i can run through many countries and even places like gaza iraq syria libya egypt yemen tunisia where the west has helped the islamists i can also point to places like mali where we're fighting the islamist some saying that's inconsistent oh ok what should be consistent what policy should we have because it seems unclear to me i mean what about democracy that's consistent. daniel go ahead i'm going on you. i'm not sure it is well why not in other words the islamists are people who have learned to use democratic leave. to gain for tarion control look at mohamed morsi he's only in office for a couple months and he's already trying to be the new furrow the islamists have learned unlike the fascists and communists who never got that far they have learned to mobilize people and to win elections front good for them it doesn't mean i have to support them doesn't mean i have to be in favor of their coming to power i want a modern middle east a modern muslim world that the muslims themselves can achieve and it's not going to be achieved through islamism is

they said it was necessary to enter into this agreement because the conditions in iraq are dangerous and it's no secret even though it's been declared mission accomplished in iraq that it's a situation they're very volatile very unstable so it's not a valid argument. well i don't think there's any question really that there was it was a very unstable situation in the country at the time that's true. but the government leader. actually in two thousand and eleven the first turned down k.b.r. for this indemnification and their argument was that well yeah there was. an unstable situation with regards to the military situation but in regard to the specific water treatment plant that was an unusually hazardous and that's why they thought that indemnification would not apply. interesting. you know that you deal a lot with your very you know about k.b.r. but other government contractors and in terms of this indemnification agreement how common are they will a couple years ago the pentagon turned over to senator ron wyden. all the documents from the past decade. in regards to these agreements and i believe there wer

iraq even today is more violent than afghanistan but nobody knows that because we don't care. >> it'snot our problem anymore as they say, right? i want to make sure we get to questions from this very eager and attentive audience. just quickly though i want of one of my own, which is you pose early on in the book the question of whether the army went from a model of leadership under martial to one of management and even micromanagement in the '50s and beyond the i was were struck by that because in many ways i think that's the question that gets at the heart of the whole book. and also the question of how the studies are applicable to other large organizations, whether it's business or other parts of the u.s. government. what do you think about that? doesn't a leader have to be a good manager? >> [inaudible] >> i can understand why they do spend i think is probably the first military in history and a while the harvard -. [inaudible] leaders have to be managers but they have to be leaders for most. and one way you laid is to give subordinates responsibility, but then execute. the proble

up to four few people even killed in northern iraq after a suicide blast at a mosque the attack targeted the funeral of a relative of a politician whose killed a day earlier so the militants are often blamed for that type of violence as the country suffers from ongoing sectarian bloodshed. extremely low temperatures are creeping across america's upper midwest after what's been dubbed a deep freeze started on saturday at least four deaths of reportedly been caused so far in the ski resort is closed because of the cold snap had swept down from canada shocking even a part of the u.s. that's familiar with cold winters forgot to say it's from ohio to maine could suffer on wednesday. the ski resort of dallas is buzzing with business right now after the annual world economic forum kicked off there a little earlier. the prestige gathering is even more important for russia this year which is warming up to host the next g. twenty summit well more on the power doubles agreements and handshake deals in r.t. business something that will be right after this short break this is r.t. live in moscow stay

for example, hamas, hezbollah, shia groups in iraq, even the muslim brotherhood in egypt as its political allies in key regional arenas across the middle east. and this yearslong bet by the islamic republic of iran on these groups has paid off, because now their regional allies have become the most influential players in their respective arenas today. the result is that today it is the islamic republic of iran and its ideas of participatory islamist governance and an independent foreign policy that has real influence, real power in countries across the middle east from egypt to baa rape that were -- bahrain that were once clearly in america's camp. in strategic terms, the islamic republic of iran has been and is using through its narrative not its drones, not its tanks, through its narrative they are using the political awakening of middle eastern publics to alter the very nature of power politics in the middle east. as we describe in our book "downing to tehran," this has been an effective foreign policy and national security strategy for the islamic republic of iran, one that is exactly

security what have we done we've got quite a bit i mean honestly the afghan people even from when i was appointed in iraq and all three during the invasion you could see the iraqi people and the afghan people starting to do stuff on their own having more freedoms and stuff like that stuff like that also includes almost twenty thousand afghan civilian deaths and drug production which has gone through the roof since coalition troops have been in the country towns like this never make it to mainstream airwaves neither do major u.s. news channels dwell on the subject of the afghans overwhelming desire to see american troops out of their country instead another success story on t.v. but there was another war the war on terror continues to go somewhere else would you still go without it without a doubt yes these are paintings by all soldiers mother who was petrified her son would be deployed he never was and she counts her self lucky but the fear caught up with her and it's. these series of paintings are reflections on those who were turned wounded physically or emotionally reflections that clash with the mind

government's counter ford to listen because what we're seeing within the european union even if the euro has survived in iraq to last me for twelve months government has run out of money the european union's western socialist model of spending huge amounts of money borrowing even greater amounts of money and hoping to pay everything manyara or indeed thirty years from manion or simply does not work. and only three years ago arland was bankrupt and being bailed out to rescue its failed economy on top of that it's not the country's turn to take on the next six months presidency of the european council source with reports the celtic tiger has some hard graft ahead of it. it's all changed by the e.u. presidency as the takes over the six month rotating challenge on the first of january not the ovi a choice islands one of the guys in peg's the countries that have been least stable economies in europe and sure enough arlen's the first country to take on the presidency of the twenty seven nation bloc while being propped up by e.u. and i.m.f. money so for the next six months the e.u. and systemic problems will be pre

security what have you got us we've gotten quite a bit i mean honestly the afghan people even from when i was a ploy in iraq and all three during the invasion you could see the iraqi people and the afghan people starting to do stuff on their own having more freedoms and stuff like that stuff like that also includes almost twenty thousand afghan civilian deaths and drug production which has gone through the roof since coalition troops have been in the country accounts like this never make it to mainstream airwaves everyone that we blame for nine eleven is dead or in jail. there is no justification for this war. there's no reason that our brothers and sisters should die in the sand there is no reason that their children should go to sleep every night terrified of the next drone strike or the next move taking down their door neither do major u.s. news channels dwell on the subject of the afghans overwhelming desire to see american troops out of their country instead another six. story on t.v. but there was another war the war on terror continues because somewhere else would you start out with howard without a

. >> he turned against the war in iraq, basically, although his criticism of it was pretty, actually, pretty good. >> he wasn't even the war in iraq, but then he voted for it. >> peter, what do you make of it? >> the irony is chuck hagel's skepticism about the military efficacy of military action against iran is very, very similar to what we're hearing from the national security establishment in israel. chuck hagel's view, which is that war once launched with iran could have unpredictable consequences and may not be effective is the same thing said by israeli generals. >> the same thing he said about iraq. about what happened afterwards. >> this is chuck hagel's real sin, i think, from the respect of people like lindsey fwram and john mccain. he has learned lessons from iraq and afghanistan, these two disastrous wars that are cost us so much that he's putting into action in his thinking about iran, that is exactly what the contemporary leaders of the republican party refuse to do. >> he was attacked by bill crystal when he was saying we should be skeptical about what might happen in iraq after the war, there could

iraq drawdown. she says between war fatigue and spending uts, even the middle option may be a reach. "my guess is, ou end up closer to the 6,000-person option than &pthe 10,000-peeson option." analyst jeff dressler argues 3 3 pentagon." lawwence, cnn, the pentagon." ,3 coming up in our 6 o'clock violent video games. games.the buy-back program -& going on in a connecticut community. 3&plaat year, he wassthe head -3 coach of the coltt.now, he's gameplanning to beet them in the plaaoffs.jim caldweel's - unique perspective on sunday's matchup. 33 ((break 3)) 3 vr 3 coming up in our 6 o'clock hour... a ffmous face... paught up in an uncomfortable interview..- word samuel-l-jackson tried to get a reporter tt say.

we don't win in iraq within women in afghanistan and we're grateful even when you've been there with our lives and the same the news is like a vietnam we didn't win nothing we won absolutely nothing and you know and they just don't get it we've tried to rule the world we've tried to do it in not a way in a way that's been damaging to every nation in the world but in the process the united states has become less and less it's become less and less economically viable and with each passing decade war has generated more and more profit for the u.s. military industry i topic r t discussed with filmmaker and vietnam war vet oliver stone we have not done well with interventions anywhere but we can. new to be an empire you know we have eight hundred plus spaces she has some of the very. we've created a huge infrastructure a global infrastructure we're trying to be the world's policeman when it comes to america's security republican senator chuck hagel has been nominated to replace leon panetta. would be the first vietnam vet to ever head the u.s. department of defense when i was in vietnam i

even this find of oil in iraq, it was near the iranian border.t today on press tv, the iranian energy minister say this is share reserves. they want to move in. the context in iraq a kurdish conflict within are with the kurds have cut down their oil production from 100,000 barrels a day to 5,000 because they don't want baghdad to control it. so baghdad says, look, we found oil. we'll not be as dependent on the kurdish region. into this conflict america has been missing in action and iran is going to fill those voids if we stay asleep against political islam and its interests. melissa: steven, you make the great point this means that we should be more dependent on ourselves than ever before. we nd the pipeline, but also pushes the focus to fracking and to shale. i worry especially with the president's speech yesterday and with the turnover that we're about to see at the department of energy that maybe we're going to see a crackdown on fracking and on shale here in the u.s. that really goes against our own self-interests. >> well, it really would.

no second thoughts about iraq or even, you know, the way afghanistan was prosecuted. and they were bashing chuck hagel for agreeing with his boss in many ways and one of the most absurd moments was when senator inhofe, the ranking republican, went after chuck hagel for being part of global zero, an international group that wants to get rid of all nuclear weapons, not unilaterally. ronald reagan had the same goal and people like senator sam nunn and former ambassador burt have been in favor of things like this, too. and inhofe just acted like hagel was some commie pinkco. >> hagel was not really prepared. >> the overall sense we're getting in terms of the early reports and obviously the hearings are still ongoing was hagel did not come off as prepared and did not seem to be doing very well. is that going to hurt his chances? >> it could. the next 24 to 48 hours are very important in terms of this nomination. he made some missteps on iran. he suggested we have a policy of containment towards iran, which is not true. that is no the obama policy. >> he then corrected hims