to look like and what it iraq is going to mean the horrible thing about it is iraq's probably going to fall back into war it's going on that's the result of a war and the you know i list my notes and think that's a presumption and i don't know you know first of all we know where everyone is the reception but you know if that wasn't the case then why wouldn't we have our top commanders saying that we're still going to have to have civil you know security forces stay there after the combat troops leave and we did right i mean there's and they're going to our combat arriving and i only left and there probably won't be even we'll probably have a u.s. presence there for some time because of all the u.s. troops left iraq probably would fail even with the number of troops we have there it's going to be a struggle but when you're want to take odds i mean iraq is a bad i mean let's flash but i don't know let's let's go let's go now let's just get a real let's just flashback for seven to two thousand and five two thousand and seven when people said iraq was impossible the country divided the

iraq. i have always felt and -- i have a personal interest in what happens in iraq. it is now at or below 50,000 and is set to go to zero or some negotiated number, much lower than 50,000 within the next 13 months. we would see a resurgence of violence and possibly even a naissance of civil war there because none of the fundamental problems have been solved. the problems that occasioned all the troubles that have enveloped the united states and europe and iraq and the iraqi people since 2003, all those problems remain. there has been no fundamental political reconciliation in iraq. i have fought for a very long time, from the time that i was there, ever since then, that the keeper of the peace, to the extent that there has been peace, and there has been a lot when the last two years or three years than most of my time there, has been the united states, for which there are reasons that are not to for to see. but i do not think that what the united states will leave behind in iraq will likely

this oil price hike is helping iraq. the international monetary fund estimates that iraqi economy will grow by 11.5% next year. france, turkey and many other countries are eager to invest in iraqi infrastructure and to try to receive orders. the key to sustaining iraq's economic growth is to stabilize the coalition government as well as its security since the u.s. military is planning to withdraw from iraq by the end of next year. >> that's about all the time we have. thank you. nhk world's yasushi kudo. >>> japanese carmakers have been doing good business overseas this year. their exports climbed for the 11th straight month in november. the japan automobile manufacturers association says about 432,000 cars and trucks were exported in the month. that's up 9.6% from a year earlier. shipments to north america, japan's biggest market, edged up 2% to 162,000 units, marking two straight months of increase as the u.s. showed signs of recovery. those to europe climbed 44% while asia recorded a gain of nearly 20%. domestic auto

has been at war in afghanistan and iraq. over 2 million u.s. service members have deployed, many returning to the front lines more than once. and since that initial shock and awe campaign, the va estimates that over 9,000 of these men and women have been homeless. do you think americans are shocked at how many veterans are now homeless from iraq and afghanistan? >> i think they should be. the idea that some man or woman who got home from iraq or afghanistan maybe just a couple of months ago is homeless, that should outrage i think everybody in america. >> reporter: it is hard to see them but they are there. was it ever this cold when you were sleeping here on the bench? >> no, because last winter wasn't that cold. >> reporter: jose pagon is a decorated veteran who survived two tours of duty in iraq as a road clearance specialist. just three days after leaving the military he was homeless living on the streets of the bronx. how long was this your home? >> for around a month and a half. two months. >> reporter: a month and a half on the benches.

i think the capabilities of the iranians all by themselves and iraq, nefarious as they may be, in iraqthey will have to be waging war against the iraqi shia. it has to be waging war against notch a. they will have to be killing their own brothers. i find -- spiritual brothers. i find it very hard to believe. could they come out after americans and do some damage? sure, but primarily they won't have to again with the iraqi she and i don't think that will fly terribly well. even somewhat of a timid soul like mohamed rode up in anger at least briefly in 2007 about the iranian assassination teams inside of iraq. i really don't think the iranian government has much to play there. and in afghanistan, i would just note that the iranians are becoming much more lethal in their aid to the taliban, and are repeating their performance in some ways that they did in iraq. the iranians really on foreign trained in afghanistan. their entire focus has always been on the west. they are not comfortable in afghanistan. the have to operate through proxy. they have very few proxy to operate passionate opera

this. >> guest: in iraq my feeling is that we shouldn't have gone into iraq at all after 9/11 because it took the attention away from afghanistan and bin laden. and it, it was a recruitment boon for the terrorists when we went into iraq. and it also convinced a lot of people in the muslim community that we were not just anti-terrorist, we were anti-muslim because we had gone against -- we invaded a muslim country that wasn't actually, they didn't perpetrate 9/11. >> host: now, on the back of your book, former inspector general of the cia and author of "why spy" who's been on booktv, by the way, writes this: susan hasler cuts too close to the bone of real life politicalization of intelligence. >> guest: uh-huh. >> host: is it pretty politicized? >> guest: it has -- i feel that most of the people that i worked with have a pretty strong work ethic in that they do not want to politicize intelligence. i mean, our job, i think -- i can't remember which former directer, it might have been colby, said our job is to be the skunk at the garden party. we tell policymakers things they don't want

it's like iraq in some ways. there is some admission of doing wrong. this is some admission of mistakes. but in general, i do think he pushes back on his critics that this was not somehow just his failure. he talks about other levels of government failing, including louisiana, and various levels of politics not responding as well. so he's trying to find the middle point with katrina. which is what i'd expect in a memoir. a little more admission of making mistakes, i thought. >> i found that very difficult for me to read personally. i was actively involved in the response. i know president bush was taking it seriously. he told everyone that we've canceled the weekend, there's no weekend. we need to work full time. i know we had imperfect information, and imperfect cooperation with the local officials. president bush was frustrated. and a few months later, he was remarking on this. we've had something like 26 national disasters in the course of my presidency at the time. there were subsequently more. and 20 of them went off without a hitch. we're always

"the last american soldier will leave iraq," he said. "the agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. it is sealed." it was maliki's first interview since finally announcing a new governing coalition last week, nine months after the national elections. tellingly, his new government now includes supporters of the anti-american shiite cleric moqtada al-sadr. sadr has long called for all u.s. troops to leave. at a meeting of his new cabinet ministers last week, maliki said the new government has much work to do. >> ( translated ): difficult tasks require exceptional effort. the previous phase was difficult, a phase of big challenges. but we are still in need of an exceptional effort to develop all the sectors that need to be developed. >> warner: one of those sectors is iraq's newly rebuilt military and police, which the u.s. is helping equip and train. under the 2008 agreement, some u.s. personnel would remain at the huge american embassy in baghdad to oversee those efforts. and for more on prime minister's maliki's

had we not done iraq it would be a different world. it's want to thank you very much for being here truly. still to come on the show a special encore fireside fridays coming up in just a few minutes and the war in afghanistan got a new commander this year but does that mean a change in war strategy we asked a former u.s. state department official to weigh in and we'll get an up close and personal look at war through the documentary at restrepo our interview with the director that's coming up later. well going into the what needs to be splash in the world of high tech business what turns events science into high gear cheap products they don't understand. is he's got he followed russian innovators to ensure bidders and broaden and their big breakthrough back home spotlight on stoke on technology update here on. we've got the future covered. the close up team has been to the. way industries are rapidly developing. now watty goes to the homeland of those big strength of mind accountability. to the land developed by cossacks in ancient time

the all of it failed for iraq can we avoid war if the war of party wants to pull it off again in iraq do you think it would be different this time well i think we need to take a step back and just kind of look at the bigger picture which is that in the past five years right half of all journalists working in television network news have lost their jobs a third of all journalists working in daily news have lost their jobs and half of half of journalists working in and. i think we all read the same pew report yeah. so so so it becomes an issue with those journalists kind of doing their job and vetting all this information and i think that's the that's the biggest issue and what ok well i'm sorry if we if i could go to. dan to dan do you think that we the blogosphere is mature enough now that will can start really influencing policy like that because i think it is a repeat you know i think everybody failed in the most people in the media failed overwhelmingly to stop war in iraq is this new media strong enough now to be able to put a brake on power. i think there are certainly a growing

example of that but i think if you look at the lies that were debunked in almost real time during the iraq war i think you'll find out that the reason that people disbelieve that is that they're finding out more about the government all governments lying about their government line as well steve people still continue to watch these sources ok i agree my description is obviously exaggerated but you still get these people the fear and lies and their ratings continue to grow their revenues continue to go and it's that's why i'm mocking it it's a business model that seems to work because traditional media is having a very difficult time. i'm not sure i understand that and i agree with all that up to this point and that is that i'm not sure a lot of people watch this media the same way that they watch a traffic accident the same way that watching a car crash because it's entertaining to see bill o'reilly bluster and bloviate along with the. lies that he tells as we've documented on on a regular basis at faire is can be very entertaining how much people believe what they're watching i think i th

coming up later for you -- white church leaders in iraq urged parishioners -- why church leaders in iraq urged parishioners -- could christmas shoppers and commuters benefit from two lanes of pedestrian traffic? the west african regional bloc ecowas has given lashkar-e- taiba an ultimatum -- stand down or face legitimate force. -- has given laurent gbagbo and ultimatum. ivory coast has been locked in an election standoff. john james reports. >> holdup in a protected enclave at a hotel, it seems military action will have to drive laurent gbagbo from power. that could be a risky strategy. the other weapon is to make the president's task impossible to govern. the key decision was taken on thursday by finance ministers. they transferred control of ivory coast's state accounts to mr. ouattara. now it will be extremely difficult to pay civil servant salaries, including government soldiers. laurent gbagbo still has the public backing of the army. if he cannot pay their salaries, he will be severely weakened. december is the biggest month for cocoa imports. the main harvest is coming to an end.

christianity is like the root of iraq.f you cut the root, you cut iraq and it's finished. >> reporter: the new iraqi government will have to move fast if it's to stop the exodus. this is a christmas full of sorrow and for many christians, probably their last in iraq. >> warner: now, the illegal harvesting of holiday greenery. the story is part of our series, "newshour connect." tonight's report comes from lesley mcclurg of kcts seattle. >> reporter: son chau came to the united states in the early '80s to escape the communist government in vietnam. >> from kampuchea in like south part of vietnam. >> reporter: he and his wife found work in our local forests. >> we go to find a job, they pay no good. not enough for family. three kid. $8 or $9 not enough. >> reporter: the chaus are among thousands of immigrants from mexico, guatemala and southeast asia who work in the woods harvesting boughs for christmas wreaths, ferns and flowers for bouquets and mushrooms and medicinals for pharmaceuticals. son chau has an annual permit fro

iraq christians have suffered deadliest attacks since 2003. they are taking a bold step to gain serity. >> these are christians to trace their roots to the time of noah. iraqiare calling for this place to be officially declared a christian ovince. >> we have 500,000 christian refugees. our position has been clear to the government, these people will not come home untilthey have a place to go to. >> ken joseph is with the assyri alliance. they recently met to talk about forming a christian province. joseph says getting the different groups to agree says it was nothing short of a miracle. >> they put away all their arguments and did it. >> prime targets are muslim extremists biggest attack on october 31st, members of an al-qaeda group attacked a church in baghdad leaving 68 people dead. they are wondering if it is time to leave the homeland despite caing to state. >> these difficult days appealing to you to be consnt to the faith and love and soil of this homeland. >> hundreds of christian families began fleeing to the kurdistan region of northe

let me talk about the iraq right now, afghanistan. from your book it seems you were pretty unopposed going into iraq. could you talk a little about the advice you were giving at that time? >> guest: well, early on, after 9/11 there was a great push to go into iraq. the was the opportunity, the precipitous event they asked me to create seems to sum to be created by 9/11 with one major fault, there wasn't one shred of evidence to show that the iraqi were involved in any way, shape or form and so from day one while i was chairman, i said we should not go into iraq, it will undermine us through the middle east. they know iraq is not involved in 9/11, that is what of the cia and the fbi were saying 100% its al qaeda, and so i thought that would be a big mistake. now you combine that with the fact that during the tenure carrying on under-secretary rumsfeld we have continued to take out more and more of the iraqi capability so what they had left was nil, very little. now think in retrospect there's no doubt that iraq is a place without sadda

going into iraq. could you talk about the advice that you were getting at that time? >> guest: early on after 9/11 there was a push to go into iraq and that was the opportunity, the precipitous event seemed to sum to have been created by 9/11 with one major fault. there wasn't one shred of evidence to show that the iraqis were involved in any way, shape or form and so from day one while i was chairman and i said we should not go into iraq it will undermine us through the middle east. they know iraq isn't involved in 9/11. both the cia and the fbi were both saying about 100% its al qaeda. and so i thought that that would be a big mistake. now you combine that with the fact that during your tenure and continuing on undersecretary rumsfeld we continued to take out more and more of the iraqi capabilities with the had left was nil, very little. i think in retrospect there is no doubt iraq is not -- is a better place without saddam hussein. however we had been contained. they couldn't hurt their neighbors,

so one neighbor agreed to take care of his children while he was in iraq. another neighbor, kenneth mccall, was in charge of overseeing his money. he used some of the money at petco. >> how can somebody take advantage of someone putting their life in the line in iraq and afghanistan, and even though they're not there, he had trust in his neighbor and had confidence he would do good for him while he was deployed. >> he is part of the blue star bombs, a support group. she says if the allegations are true, to steal money from a soldier with children is unacceptable. >> $30,000 is a lot considering our military does not get paid that well, and depending on his rank and position, this could be his whole life savings. >> he noticed when he got back from iraq, he noticed mckau used his bank and savings account. mccaw says the soldier gave him the right to use the money, and the soldier has totally denied. this case is already in the courts. this is a hearing set for next week. mccaw's attorney, david owen, did not return our call tonight. >>> fair play? tonight a

dates are sold on almost every shopping street in iraq.ighly nutritious, it's a staple food in this region. >> translator: every household in iraq has dates if their kitchen. >> reporter: this date farm is located near the capital, background. this man is in charge of a government project to restore the date palm trees in this area. this region has been the scene of almost constant strife since 1980. the destruction of war is plain to see. the plantation is dotted with shattered and fallen palm trees. in the past 30 years, iraq has lost two-thirds of its date palm trees. >> translator: when i saw the trees being bombed, my heart felt heavy. just like we've lost innocent people to this war for no reason, we've also lost our dates. >> reporter: he talked with local farmers. many said they are worried about attacks from insurgent groups. they do not feel safe growing date palm trees. >> translator: i'm scared to fly over the field to spray pesticides because i may be targeted by insurgents. >> reporter: some plantations are in areas claimed b

iraq contained. they had no i -- capability. every time they fired, they lost more, so they didn't have much left to lose and it was obvious going into iraq you could do it with a small force if you wanted to because the military had been decimated that you were going to need a very large force if you wanted to keep the shia, the shiite and courage from killing one another. that is all the tell them apart. >> host: was at the advice he gave the president? >> guest: that is the advice i gave the president and the advice they gave the joint chiefs a couple of months before the decision was made to go into iraq. if you going you will need a much stronger force to maintain the peace. you can win the war but you can't natan at peace unless you have a large force to do it. >> host: you told the joint chiefs and the joint chiefs were consulted. >> guest: i think ultimately the secretary elected to go with the combatant commanders plan and he put some pressure on him to reduce the forces. he got the force is

iraq. institutions, organizations, like the national endowment for democracy, the national democratic institute, the international republican institute -- i can go on for a whole variety. i can complement somebody sectors, whether it is held, basic public services, political training, all of these areas have mattered. i wanted to mention someone who is now affiliated with harvard and has been a strong supporter of this kind of an agenda, the former ambassador to afghanistan, said lead to what -- sahid jewad is here in the audience. >> thank you. >> let me also begin by think telling -- but taking all of you for inviting me here tonight and imichele for being here tonight. i would like to begin by endorsing your final officer list. our classrooms are filled with students who have served in a variety of capacities and are eager to find ways to serve going forward. i am sure many of them here and elsewhere will heed your call and i look forward to that. again, let me mention three things. the

and iraq urged worshipers to keep celebrations low-key. and could shoppers and commuters benefit from two lanes of pedestrian traffic? the west african regional grouping ecowas has given the incumbent president of ivory coast and ultimatum. laurent gbagbo has been told to stand down or face "legitimate force." this came after disputed election results last month. ivory coast is locked in an election standoff in which 200 have been killed. we of this. >> in the un-protected enclave, military action has been called for to drive laurent gbagbo from power. >> violence has resurfaced in our city. serious violations of human rights have been reported. during the curfew, people were abducted and executed by elements of the republican guard. i have asked the international criminal court to send a mission to our country in the next few days. >> but that would be a risky strategy. their other main weapon is to make it impossible for the current president to govern by turning off the economic taps. the key decision was thursday, by finance ministers

i just got back from iraq three weeks ago and the dynamic in iraq today is far different.context of afghanistan is predicated on time in afghanistan last spring, understanding that this report that will come out tomorrow is weekly reports. every six weeks, all the metrics that are coming in that go from nationwide down to the private level how well we're moving forward. >> for the americans who don't have your experience, what do you think the people back home need to see or what would you at least want to tell them? when you say things are different, that the surge is working. >> listen, ten years of combat, especially in afghanistan, people are rightfully tired and they want to move forward with a different strategy and we've got to be honest with certain things. i'm a fellow at the center of advance studies and they're releasing a power piece for the way forward in afghanistan. looking back and drawing back on some of the big picture issues but a lot of that has to be situations driven by what's on the ground. i think the report tomorrow will have fairly honest assessme

iraq. current u.s. troops is nearly 9800. they fight as part of a diverse coalition that includes 47 other nations that work in partnership with afghanistan's allies. it includes not only traditional nato allies like france and turkey but nowhere pardners like malaysia and the united arab emirates. it brings the total strength of the international coalition in afghanistan to 140,000. afghan forces are taking the lead in more and more operations. these costs have led many to wonder why we remain in afghanistan and how we can hope to achieve an outcome that is worth the sacrifice. as president obama said at west point, i am convinced that our security has a place in afghanistan and pakistan. but the president explained that this is no idle danger. as we have seen, been it is true that terrorist threats can come fromny number of visitors around the world. there are a number of factors that make the border regions a dangerous source of terrorism and instability. obama has made a commitment to d

and that toward iraq it's the war in. confusion of bounds over who the us is fighting and where with no sense of the losses how many u.s. troops u.s. soldiers would you say have been killed in the war in afghanistan oh far too many obviously and it's and it's terrible and i i hope it can be resolved i hope that how many would you say. gosh more than forty four hundred u.s. troops have been killed in iraq more than thirteen hundred in afghanistan. and along with lives those missions together have cost the american taxpayer a lot of cash i would say probably about twenty billion. the wars together have cost more than one trillion dollars and counting money spent since the u.s. invaded iraq back in two thousand and three and afghanistan when. one question because unlike the afghanistan i was two years the u.s. has been there since two thousand and one nine years the responses we've gotten here in the heart of new york city's times square are that surprising when you look at a recent poll it found public concern with the wars

. ♪ ♪ >>> iraq's new government has been sworn in.than nine months after the parliamentary election in march. but ministers for key security-related posts have still not been appointed. the new administration launched on tuesday is led by prime minister nuri al maliki and represents all the major political forces. talks to form a coalition government had continued since the parliamentary election as no single bloc had a majority. 1/3 of the cabinet posts will be covered by other ministers for the time being due to disagreements among the parties. u.s. combat troops pulled out of iraq in august, but terrorist bombings have continued across the country. the improvement of infrastructure has been delayed, causing the frequent blackouts. some baghdad residents expect a lot from the new government, but others doubt its ability. >> u.s. forces are scheduled to completely withdraw from iraq by the end of next year. the new government faces the challenge of ending the political turmoil to put reconstruction efforts on the right track. u.s. pr

iraq and afghanistan there is always those bursts of extreme violence that rattle you. i think in the balance, though, somalia and chad have been my, the most difficult places to cover. personally and professionally. >> host: how did you get started in this line of work? >> guest: in 2004 and 2005 i was, i was a full-time political reporter in columbia, south carolina, for the local free times newspaper. and if war is boring, then peace is way worse. and it was driving me nuts sitting in on county council meetings and things like ordinances. so i had an opportunity to embed with the national guard in early 2005, took it, realized not only could i enjoy it, but i could do it. so i quit my job and began freelancing from conflict zones full time. >> host: 202 is the area code, 585-3885 in the east and central time zones, 585-3886 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones. where was the last place you've been? >> guest: i just got back from congo, and the artist on "war is boring," matt, he and i are going to collaborate on an entire graphic novel -- >> host:

iraq. current u.s. troops is nearly 98,000. they fht as part oa diverse coalition that includes 47 other nations that work in partnership with afghanistan's allies. it includes not only traditional nato allies like france and turkey but nowhere pardners like malaysia and the united arab emirates it brings the total strength of the international coalition in afghanistan to 140,000. afghan forces are taking the lead in more and more operations. these costs have led many to wonder why we remain in afghanistan and how we can hope to achieve an outcome that is worth the sacrifice. as president obama said at west point, i am convinced that our security has a place in afghanistan and pakistan. but the president explained that this is no idle danger. as we have seen, been it is true that terrorist threats can come from any number of visitors around the world. the are a number of factors that make the border regions a dangerous source of terrorism and instability. obama has made a commitment to defe

the iraq link is wars of choice to begin with. because we go from 9/11, this war of choice by the islamic terrorists, to the japanese war of choice earlier. and there's a parallel. and then suddenly we have a war of choice against iraq. and then we have a terrific failure of intelligence in iraq. just a disastrous failure of intelligence on the part of the united states. so then you've got pearl harbor, which was a japanese tactical -- tactically brilliant, strategically idiotic thing. you have the war of choice of the islamists. then america is doing of war of choice. i'm a historians. i wanted to understand it's not all the same. but i wanted to see how you could do -- think comparatively about war. then every side is starting holy wars and wars always have been with us in our modern times even with our new technologies, and i really wanted to wrestle with -- it was a wrestling. i had to try to figure some things out for myself, some questions that i hadn't asked. >> vietnam is not a focus of your book, why? >> it's not a focus

japan -- iraq is not japan., in fact, what you see that made japan successful or germany but particularly japan -- japan was a great image because it was nonwestern, iraq can be like japan, it was nonwestern. everything that made the occupation a success in japan is absent in iraq. the occupation will not be legitimate. there will be no existing government to take over. we're going to go in and decapitate the government. who's going to take over? what's going to -- who's going to take over? there was no real tradition of civil society to keep going. there were all sorts of things. in japan, everything carried on including the emperor. it was a formal surrender. the entire world saw that occupation, including japanese, as legitimate. it was formal. it was all missing in iraq with its sectarian schisms. its lack of a real democratic tradition comparable to what germany and japan had. it's lack of an ongoing administration. it was all missing in iraq. and that was clear before. but people use history as they wish t

a bomb attack targeting christians in iraq. a court in denmark charged three men with trying to carry out an act of terrorism, but according to police, they may have been hours of going ahead. the suspects are planning to shoot as many people as possible in a building in copenhagen, housing some of the staff from a newspaper that published cartoons of the profit mohammed. here is the report. >> than did the tightest security, the three men accused of plotting to commit mass murder in denmark were driven to a courthouse. there, that face preliminary charges of an attempted act of terrorism and possession of weapons, and detained in custody for four weeks. a fourth man who had been arrested was earlier released. the target was believed to be the offices of a newspaper that printed cartoons of the prophet mohammed in 2005, causing widespread anger among muslims. there were fears that islamists might try to attack the newspaper, and the plan was to kill as many people inside as possible. >> i believe the police and secret service a

nevermind that fifty thousand american troops remain a new iraq with reports on the ground confirming some of at least forty five hundred special ops forces continue to be directly engaged in military operations it's not coincidental to build this narrative probably progress progress the pentagon spends a lot of money and effort and what critics like j. dilla barito who served as a marine in afghanistan and iraq called propaganda for stories that look like any other game so the public is not told it was produced by the military the pentagon has really pulled the curtain over much of the mainstream media and it's because the mainstream media wants the story they want to tell the story of the american hero people may think the u.s. military counterinsurgency strategy is about winning the hearts and minds of people on the ground in iraq and afghanistan but it's also about winning them at home which explains why the pentagon budgets more than five hundred million dollars on p.r. efforts to sell and market the war to americans to influence public opinion right here in the united states off

world domination we intervene in grenada nine hundred eighty three panama nine hundred eighty nine iraq nine hundred ninety one somalia nine hundred ninety two haiti nine hundred ninety four bosnian one thousand nine hundred five cost of zero nine hundred ninety nine afghanistan two thousand and one in iraq two thousand and three. the united states spends nearly as much on military hardware fixtures and training as all other countries combined we see at a time when there's twenty five to thirty million people who are unemployed or underemployed where forty seven million americans can't go to a doctor when they're sick there's limitless funds limitless resources for the war budget the military budget is hardly ever questioned downtown that is dominated by its industrial complex. advertisements lined the metro. commercials showcase the latest hardware and politicians cave into the lobbying campaigns and you can see it by the budget figures that the united states is in fact a warfare state it's addicted to militarism its addicted to war spending and it's addictive the war profits this is w

out of iraq. and he ended up in this country. but he is the person who was supposed to be rooting out and investigating and then prosecuting waste and fraud and abuse. his investigations and the investigations of his staff, some of whom were assassinated, some of whose families were killed, show that there were $18 billion -- $18 billion was missing and most of it was american money. well, that's the story about judge l. rody. we had a hearing early on in this process and talked about the issue of contractors and contracting. and as you know, in the early part of of the war in iraq and in afghanistan, money was just shoved out the back door of the pentagon hiring contractors. very large contracts, in most cases no-bid, sole-source contracts. and a very courageous woman came to testify before our committee. her name was bunnatine greenhouse. she was the highest civilian official at the army corps of engineers. the highest civilian official in the pentagon, in charge of contracting. and here's what

and suddenly we have a war of choice against iraq.d then we have a terrific failure of intelligence on iraq, gestate disasters failure of intelligence on the part of the united states. and so then you've got pearl harbor, which was a japanese tactically brilliant strategic thing. you have the choice of islamic. climate historians and i went to understand its mom of the same. but i wanted to see how you could do comparatively about war and then every side is talking holy wars. and war has always been with us in our modern times, even with our new technologies. and i really want to wrestle with it. to get some things for myself. >> vietnam is not a focus of your book. why? >> it is not a focus of the book because they were simply not space to do it. the vietnam figures and is one of the major cultures of four. it is mentioned in passing and a number of ways. vietnam figures in both of the place where you deliberately targeted noncombatants. vietnam figures and in a different way in the failures of intelligence. and i read about this at

america's not out of iraq. this war aze mentioned earlier, i think, a long way from over even if american troops are drawing down. there's going be a huge american interest there for some time. our editors have made it plain that we will continue to be there as long as there is an american interest there. >> let's go back to some of the places. did you ever think that when you were in china in the 1970's and 1980's that they would be owed a trillion dollars of american zphet >> i haven't been to china since they put me in a paddy wagon and drove me literally in shackles deporting me for the alleged spying incident. so i have watched with wonderment what has happened in china. they've invited me back many times. it just hasn't worked out. i i'm not avoiding going to china. i have some apprehension. for the people of china there's no tchute this extraordinary wealth, it has not surprised the chinese people. they have always have had an extraordinary natural capability and resilience. these were people who given t