by no means an easy situation in iraq politically. but there were opportunities, i think, to shape iraq and to be more involved in iraq and if you just look at the sofa negotiations to keep american troops there, which the pog and the state department both believe would be desirable and presume blitz white house itself thought it might be, too or they wouldn't have initiated those talks, i mean, the obama administration clearly didn't learn the less son was,conduct those negotiations from its predecessor because president bush did negotiate a sofa but it was enormously difficult vend time consuming and took lots of involvement at the presidential level and we didn't really see that in the obama administration. >> one of the things, tom, that you write about that's central theme of the book is american military leadership that has been both tested and shaped in a lot of ways over this past decade. you are not enormously confident as you come away from that decade. why? >> the theme of the book is that american generalship was better thi

military involvement in iraq? >> the time line that i've set out -- and again, i want to correct the president, because he's misled again this evening on what i've said. i didn't say i would bring troops out in six months. i said, if we do the things that i've set out and we are successful, we could begin to draw the troops down in six months. and i think a critical component of success in iraq is being able to convince the iraqis and the arab world that the united states doesn't have long-term designs on it. as i understand it, we're building some 14 military bases there now, and some people say they've got a rather permanent concept to them. when you guard the oil ministry, but you don't guard the nuclear facilities, the message to a lot of people is maybe, "wow, maybe they're interested in our oil." now, the problem is that they didn't think these things through properly. and these are the things you have to think through. what i want to do is change the dynamics on the ground. and you have to do that by beginni

we have this mess in iraq. mr. vice president, i don't think the country can take four more years of this kind of experience. >> this next question goes to you, senator edwards. senator kerry said in a recent interview that he absolutely will not raise taxes on anyone who earns under $200,000 a year. how can he guarantee that and cut the deficit in half as he's promised? >> because we will do what they've not done. if you look at what's happened over the last four years, we have gone from a $5 trillion projected surplus when george bush took office to a $3 trillion projected deficit. they promised they were going to put $2 trillion of the surplus aside for social security. not done. not only that, it's the biggest fiscal turnaround in american history. and there's no end in sight. "the washington post" just reported they have several trillion dollars of additional tax cuts in spending. no suggestion of what they're going to do about it. john kerry and i believe we have a moral responsibility not to leave trillions o

troops should still be in iraq. but at a secretly taped fund-raiser last may the video shows romney said this. >> this president's failures put in place an agreement allowing 10,000-20,000 troops to stay in iraq. unthinkable. >> warner: romney said that mr. obama also had wanted to keep troops in iraq. but could not get baghdad to guarantee them legal immunity. >> there was an effort on the part of the president to have a status of forces agreement. i concurred with that and said we should some number of troops stay on. that was something i concurred with. that was your posture and mine as well. you thought it should have been 5,000 troops. i thought it should have been more troops. the answer was we got no troops whatsoever. just a few weeks ago you indiced that should still haveroops in iraq. >> i'm sorry. i indicated... >> warner: last november, joint chiefs chairman martin dempsey told a senate committee the obama administration wanted to keep about 3,000 troops in iraq if there had been a status of forces agree

in iraq, your real danger was getting blown up in a humvee. in the korengal, because it's all on foot, and there are very few vehicles, it's more what you think of as classic warfare, units that are attacked by taliban fighters firing down from the hillsides. they were just in gunfights all the time. >> during the very first firefight they film, cameraman edwards gets a little too close to the action. >> there was a group of soldiers who were just returning from a trek. and then suddenly these gunshots rang out. so i went up on to the top of the actual command post. i wanted to get a full, what we call sequence of him firing. the first shot i got was on his right hand side where the shell casings were coming out. so i basically got too close to the weapon and was hit by the casings. that will learn me not to get in the way of that. >> the casing misses the cameraman's eye by millimeters but draws blood. >> you're not thinking about your safety. you're not thinking about your security. you're thinking about how you can compile a story together

we have this mess in iraq. mr. vice president, i don't think the country can take four more years of this kind of experience. >> this next question goes to you, senator edwards. senator kerry said in a recent interview that he absolutely will not raise taxes on anyone who earns under $200,000 a year. how can he guarantee that and cut the deficit in half as he's promised? >> because we will do what they've not done. if you look at what's happened over the last four years, we have gone from a $5 trillion projected surplus when george bush took office to a $3 trillion projected deficit. they promised they were going to put $2 trillion of the surplus aside for social security. not done. not only that, it's the biggest fiscal turnaround in american history. and there's no end in sight. "the washington post" just reported they have several trillion dollars of additional tax cuts in spending. no suggestion of what they're going to do about it. john kerry and i believe we have a moral responsibility not to leave trillions o

john continues to tell us that the central war in the front on terror is in iraq. i promise you, if an attack comes in the homeland, it's going to come as our security services have said, it is going to come from al qaeda planning in the hills of afghanistan and pakistan. that's where they live. that's where they are. that's where it will come from. and right now that resides in pakistan, a stable government needs to be established. we need to support that democracy by helping them not only with their military but with their governance and their economic well-being. there have been 7,000 madrasses built along that border. we should be helping them build schools to compete for those hearts and minds of the people in the region so that we're actually able to take on terrorism and by the way, that's where bin laden lives and we will go at him if we have actionable intelligence. >> governor, nuclear pakistan, unstable pakistan, nuclear iran. which is the greater threat? >> both are extremely dangerous, of course. and as for who coined that central war on terror being in

difficult to prosecute and continued as well as particularly problems on conflicts such as the one we saw in iraq is still ongoing in afghanistan but why always the no one likes a war but it seems like an old days people were really driven to win at this point everyone's life fatigued with wars what it depends what the was about what system if you're talking about second. russians kotak right patrols who were what was at stake was the whole future of european civilization today is was obviously the issues are you know quite cold in some cases there are divided opinions about you know whether or not the war is worth is worth the candle of what's at stake and so on but are the issues maybe blurred because for example making images get other experts we spoke to there saying that war on terror is misleading because it doesn't really define the enemy you don't really know what you're fighting for do you think that might be the problem where the war on terror is is a vague concept i think the problem is more the. when the war on top terror has taken the fall with actuals such as the ones you know you s

in iraq, the unit fought in some of the war's bloodiest battles.r some of the soldiers, the killing did not end when they return home. the gazette reported since 2006, at temperatures soldiers have been arrested and accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter. committedrans have been suicide. the murder rate for members of the army unit was 114 times the colorado springs. the series was written by investigative reporter dave philipps, who turned his reporting into the book, "lethal warriors: when the new band of brothers came home." dave philipps joins us here in colorado springs. also with us in colorado springs is georg-andreas pogany, an independent veterans' advocate and investigator. his a retired sergeant first class from the nine states army. we're also joined by graham clumpner, afghanistan war veteran, colorado regional organizer for iraq veterans against the war. we welcome you all to "democracy now!" thank you so much vote to you for coming in from denver it is snowing. >> it was snowing on the way down. >> the first snow of the

you guys served in iraq? >> yep. >> jon: and what was your job in iraq? >> i was a combat medic. >> jon: uh-huh. daniel? >> i was in iraq in '06. our job was to stabilize casualties until the point where we could get medical evacuation for them. >> jon: yours as well. >> pretty much the same thing. guy gets shot, we fix it. >> jon: well, now you're back home. you're looking for work. would you like the still be in the medical field by any chance? >> absolutely. >> jon: interesting. [laughter] >> where are you from? >> columbus, ohio. >> jon: where are you from? washington, d.c. >> i didn't realize you're from ohio, the only state that matter. here's a voter registration card. please. did your get this? >> yeah. >> jon: they already got you? you want to volunteer at all? apparently it's a requirement now, anyone from ohio has to... so ohio and d.c. i happen to have two openings, school nurse. would you be interested in that at all? >> a job's a job. >> jon: a job's a job. okay. >> can i see very quickly your bachelor of science nursing degree. >> i don't h

i think that, you know, the worst has not happened in iraq. we don't have a civil war. hasn't collapsed for the doom sayers who thought the place was going to go up in flames, that hasn't occurred. >> john mccain and others even today on "morning joe" was saying it's all blowing apart. >> well it's not all blowing apart. but what we -- but there are a lot of reasons for concern. without an american military footprint on the ground, even a small one of a few thousand troops, the iraqi commandos would become less capable of fighting al qaeda in iraq, which is responsible for a lot of these bombings because the american forces really used to enable them, and there's a bit of a drift towards author tare jim under nouri al maliki and iraq has cooperated with iran until very recently, they were tolerating iranian flights through iraqi air space to syria to plop up bashir al asside. there are reasons for concern. >> you also account -- recount how this administration tried to sort of push maliki aside, they did not trust maliki? >> what's interesting about the obama administrat

seen in iraq and afghanistan. there's been a confusions about what help jets objects of those rules you know initially the object is supposedly. to security objects of various kinds you know but then they get confused with various political and ideological projects of products to transform the societies in the american or in the west and self-image because that that that makes the whole scenario complicated but also it seems like if you compare the wars that were fought in the twentieth century would say the second world war since we started off with that. it was also an involvement of ideological clashes like communism liberalism fascism. what's important today ideology or nationalism or patriotism what what would drive people today to actually you know want to win a war i think there are already logical issues at stake in these various contemporary conflicts you know what various western governments and the elite eight western public opinion sees b. the state is no western liberal democracy and the values that i

romney was asked by moderator tim russert, if the war in iraq was worst both the costs in blood and treasure we've spent, and romney responded at that time, quote, it was the right decision to go iraq. i supported it at the time. i support it now. and brian, president obama also argued tonight that mitt romney two weeks ago said that the administration should have kept troops in iraq longer. let's listen. >> this is just a few weeks ago that you indicated that we should still have troops in iraq. >> no i didn't. i'm sorry, i indicated -- >> you said that in your speech. >> i indicated that you failed to put in place a status of forces agreement at the end of the conflict that existed. >> governor -- >> reporter: both men were shading their past positions on that one. the president was referring to an october 8th speech that governor romney made criticizing, quote the abrupt withdrawal of all american troops from iraq. but he did not explicitly say that the u.s. should have more troops there. so governor romney is right, that the administration has tried and failed to get a status of forces a

some point and i think will is, in 11 upon the fear, they fear a second faron war of some sort and in iraq, the fear is that the sunni insurgency could start up again because it will kind of be emboldened by probably a sunni takeover in syria. and so, but, you know, it is all very fragile .. and seems to be getting worse there. >> and syria also is spilling over into on? >> yes, i man litally spilled er i drov to ebord when i was there and to the syrian border in lebanon and there was a huge fight going on, you know, a 100 yards away, there was, you know, free syrian army guys operating on the 11 needs side of the border, yeah, there was hezbollah think item coalition was running an ambulance back and forth are i mean definite think it is coming over and you saw what happened last week, you had -- >> rose: assassination. >> assassination of very senior intelligence official, yes and that has all sort sorts of consequences that was kind of a predom tenantly sunni organization in aid, i mean everything in lebanon is sectarian and usually it hangs together well, it is like iraq, but sometimes

, that was facilitated in part because we had ended the war in iraq. and we are now in a position where we have met many of the objectives that got us there in the first place. part of what had happened was we had forgotten why we had gone. we went because people were responsible for 3,000 america's deaths. we then started to build up afghan forces. and we're now in a position where we can transition out. because there's no reason why americans should die when afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country. the that transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. we've been there a long time. and we've got to make sure that we and our coalition partners are pulling out responsibly and giving afghans the capabilities that they need. but what i think the american people recognize is that after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation building here at home. and what we can now do is free up some resources, to, for example, put americans back to work. especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our schools. making su

as a quick line here that is jets have bombed kurdish militants bases in iraq just literally come through in northern iraq since we get more we can flush that out for you want to course give you some more. just wanted to bring it to you quickly well we had that live flash up ok. sadly things are far from carmel's for the middle east as well in yemen a security official at the u.s. embassy also coordinated anti terror work with yemeni authorities been shot dead washington's increasingly acknowledging the rise of terror and the lack of security in the region a really good is got that side of it for r.t. . security official who was on his way to work to the u.s. embassy was shot dead in a drive by incident now the yemeni officials are saying that this particular incident has the fingerprints of al qaida all over it now many may seem to ask why is this still seem to be so powerful even after the death of its leader osama bin laden back in two thousand and eleven a lot of very small terrorist organizations which existed in knowledge just in the middle east but also of course in pakista

that was facilitated in part because we had ended the war in iraq. and we are now in a position where we have met many of the objectives that got us there in the first place. we weren't because people who were responsible for 3,000 american deaths. we decimated al qaeda's poor leadership between afghanistan and pakistan. we then started to build up afghan forces, and we're now in a position where we can transition out. because there's no reason why americans should die when afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country. that transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. we've been there a long time, and we've got to make sure that we and our coalition partners are pulling out responsibly and giving the afghans what they need. what the american people recognize is after a decade of war, we can now free up some resources to put americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, bridges, schools. making sure that our veterans are getting the care that they need, when it comes to posttraumatic stress disorder an

we ended the war in iraq, refocused our attention on those who actually killed us on 9/11. and as a consequence, al qaeda's core leadership has been decimate. in addition, we're now able to transition out of afghanistan in a responsible way, making sure that afghans take responsibility for their own security. and that allows us to also rebuild alliances and make friends around the world to combat future threats. now, with respect to libya, as i indicated in the last debate, when we received that phone call, i immediately made sure that, number one, we did everything we could to secure those americans who were still in harm's way. number two, that we would investigate exactly what happened. and number three, most importantly, that we would go after those who killed americans, and we would bring them to justice. that's exactly what we're going to do. it's important to step back and think what happened in libya. keep in mind that i and americans took leadership in organizing an international coalition that made sure that we were able to, without putting troops on the ground at

that was facilitated in part because we had ended the war in iraq. re now in a position where we have met many of the objectives that got us there in the first place. part of what had happened is we'd forgotten why we had gone. we went because there were people who were responsible for 3,000 american deaths. we decimated al qaeda's poor leadership between afghanistan and pakistan. we then started to build up afghan forces, and we're now in a position where we can transition out. because there's no reason why americans should die when afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country. that transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. we've been there a long time, and we've got to make sure that we and our coalition partners are pulling out responsibly and giving the afghans what they need. what the american people recognize is after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation-building here at home. and we can now free up some resources to put americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding our roads, bridges, schools.

that was facilitated in part because we ended the war in iraq. and we are now in a position where we have met many of the objectives that got us there in the first place. part what have had happened is we'd forgotten why we had gone. we went because there were people who were responsible for 3,000 american deaths. and so we decimated al qaeda's core leadership. in the border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. we then started to build up afghan forces. and we're now in a position where we can transition out. because there's no reason why americans should die when afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country. that transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. we've been there a long time and we've got to make sure that we and our coalition partners are pulling out responsibly and giving afghans the capabilities that they need. but what i think the american people recognize is after a decade of war it's time to do some nation building here at home. and what we can now do is free up some resources to, for example, put a

that was facilitated in part because we ended the war in iraq. ow in a position where we have met many objectives that got thrust in the first place. part of what happened we forgot why we had gone. we went because people were responsible for 3,000 american deaths. so we decimated al qaeda's core leadership in the border regions between afghanistan and pakistan. we then started to build up afghan forces. and we're now in a position where we can transition out because there's no reason why americans should die when afghans are perfectly capable of defending their own country. that transition has to take place in a responsible fashion. we have been there a long time. we've got to make sure that we and our coalition partners are pulling out responsibly and giving afghans capabilities that they need. but what i think the american people recognize is, after a decade of war, it's time to do some nation building here at home. and what we can now do is free up some resources to, for example, put americans back to work, especially our veterans, rebuilding