abandoned iraq. "the new york times" is a bureau there but it's one of the few. he's been cracking down on a lot of his political opponents and just a week or so ago he did something that in our system would be extraordinary. security officials from the ministry of interior be tamed the security detail of the finance minister of the al-maliki government, rauf isle, because he is a sunni and al-maliki is a shiite and he's a member of the opposition political party and just even now -- >> host: we are showing the viewers a story here, tensions rise in baghdad with the raid on an official. >> guest: and it's gotten worse since then. i'm in touch with the iraqis. what you have is demonstrations and a lot of our province and if fallujah and ramadi. estimates are 50 to 100,000 people demonstrating all through the weekend, and they also cut the highway from iraq to jordan. so you have a very polarized and fraught political saturation. unfortunately the american influence in iraq is in some way attenuated at

iraq? thank you. >> guest: well, you're referring to the wmd coverage, the coverage of the issue of weapons of mass destruction in the "new york times" prior to the war, and because you're familiar with it, you're aware that i reported the cia assessment that iraq was trying to acire materials to make nuclear weapons, but be aware i reported another assessment that was not the case, and the bureau of intelligence and research that this was not the case, and so i reported both sides of that debate before the war, and -- >> host: an issue you cover in the end game quite a bit of how the end game strategy changed over the course in the war in iraq. >> guest: american intelligence on wmd was wrong. the cia intelligence was wrong. there was no american -- it was not only wrong in the bush administration, but it was wrong towards the end of the clinton administration because they thought iraq was rebuilding their weapons of mass destruction arsenal, and there was no american agency that did not t

chief of staff but what do we really know about denis mcdonough we'll take a look at his time in the iraq war and how he helped push the u.s. into the conflict that story ahead. in cybersecurity the u.s. says cyber attacks are happening and that they need the resources to combat this growing problem we'll tell you how the pentagon is going to play a crucial role in fighting cyber warfare here at home and around the world. and will this finally be the year that republicans and democrats democrats agree on immigration reform the senate released a plan today and president obama is expected to outline his plans tomorrow so will it be enough to help the eleven million illegal immigrants in the u.s. . it's monday january twenty eighth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you're watching r.t. just one week after he was inaugurated president obama's second term cabinet is finally beginning to take shape perhaps the least surprising pick was that of denis mcdonough for a white house chief of staff in his statement president obama announced that called mcdonough one of his hardest worki

forces in northern iraq. in the wake of these arrests, dhs secretary janet napolitano and others have publicly acknowledged that security checks have been expanded to the more than 58,000 iraqi refugees who had already been settled in the united states. according to press reports this past february, intelligence indicates that the threat posed by refugees with ties to al qaeda is much broader than was previously believed. fbi director robert mueller stated last year during congressional testimony before the house intelligence committee that he continues to be concerned with "individuals who may have been resettled here in the united states that have some association with al qaeda in iraq." there are also reports that that immigration authorities have given the fbi roughly 300 names of iraqi refugees for further investigation. with the recent movement of aqi fighters into syria and reports just yesterday of chemical weapons being moved, i am increasingly worried that terrorists may try to exploit various refug

iraq would not agree to that.gree that americans shouldn't be hand over to iraqi courts if they committed a crime in iraq. iraq would not agree to give up that criminal jurisdiction over u.s. service members staying on in the country. and so president obama said no. president obama would not agree to subject u.s. troops to iraqi jurisdiction. and that stalemate, that inability to come to an agreement on that issue is why we left zero troops behind in iraq. well, today when president obama announced his speeded up timeline for ending the current u.s. combat mission in afghanistan, he raised the prospect that we may not leave any american troops behind in afghanistan either if the afghanistan government insists that u.s. troops would have to be subject to afghan law and afghan courts in the event that they got in trouble. the same way that iraq insisted on that. this is not an issue that is unique to our latest wars. or this latest decision about where troops are going to be stationed and for how long. what you're l

of staff but what do we really know about dennis mcdonough we'll take a look at his time as to the iraq war and how he helped push the u.s. into the conflict that story just ahead. and the u.s. constitution calls for free for a freedom of the press but maybe the f.b.i. hasn't read the document after reports on their efforts to stop leaks the agency is accused of a data mining the personal and professional communications of suspected leakers who may have talked to the media so is the f.b.i. is now going to go after reporters to find out who is leaking this classified information will question more. and will this finally be the year that republicans and democrats agree on immigration reform the senate released a plan today and president obama is expected to outline his reforms tomorrow so what's with this newfound effort to pass reform and will it be enough to help the eleven million suspected illegal immigrants in the u.s. . it's monday january twenty eighth five pm in washington d.c. make a lopez and you're watching r.t. all right just one week after he was inaugurated president obama's

after we left iraq, the prime minister of iraq issued an arrest warrant for the vice president of iraq. the very next day after we left. so that little story we told ourselves on the way out of that war, that was pretty rich too. but knowing that, do you wish we were still in iraq? do you wish we hadn't left? more importantly, even if we do not hit any of the supposed benchmarks that we tell ourselves are relevant for why and when we can leave, peace in the provinces, or the afghan government getting less corrupt and capable afghan security forces, even if we have not met those benchmarks, do you believe the u.s. fighting there longer, fighting this war for a 13th year, a 14th year, a 15th year, would get us closer to those benchmarks than 12 years of fighting have gotten us thus far? will staying longer help? do you stay as long as you can, do what you can, and then do you go? today, quietly and without much ceremony, today president obama announced we will go, sooner than we had led to believe we could hope for in a way it felt familiar for a reason. >> starting this spring, our troo

i remember that surge in iraq. there was a raging debate in this country as to how involved we would have to get to finish off what we started in iraq and senator hagel was against it at the time because he was thinking about the amount of resources and money we were going to spend that wasn't being accounted for. and so it's a complex answer. it's not a yes or no answer which, of course, mccain likes to put into a box. the other thing about syria, where is the march? where is the cry from the american peel right now to go get involved in somebody else's war? we don't have the resources right now. you can't put a number on death before we do get involved in something like this. and the american people aren't yearning to get into another conflict in syria. it's not our fight right now. and so i think hagel is taking a very pragmatic approach about that, but when you look at the history of john mccain, you look at the history of senator graham from south carolina, they're hawks. they can't get enough of confrontation

iraq. he voted for the war but turned against it. easer sings very strong. guest: he voted for it and then had criticism of how it was being carried out. when you talk about the secretary defense, the most important thing that happened during the war is the surge. he voted against the surge. he called the worst mistake since vietnam. we know in terms of the military, strategy and the search worked. it was very successful. when you're talking about putting somebody in the secretary of defense has such strong views, in my opinion, that is the question that senators will be asking. host: we are going to share with you from the c-span video library some of the statements by senator chuck hagel and many interviews were conducted with him over the years. our que in a program and a number of speeches he has delivered to give you a chance to hear senator chuck hagel and his own words. what is his nomination signal in terms of what the president wants to achieve over the next four years? guest: i th

how many americans are in iraq as we speak? >> for no american troops are firm and a military function. there are 200 odd personnel were secunda to the embassy in the primary duty is to sell equipment to the iraqi government can perform the defensive tachÉ function. then as a fairly sizable american embassy, which is contracted by the state department khmer reduced by maybe 25%. but what she don't have in this account so it incurred a stand and a consulate outside of bozrah in southern iraq, but the united states has lost a lot of situational awareness of what's happening in iraq. it doesn't have anything like the footprint can be used

expressing doubts about the iraq war in john burns had the commanding general of iraq expressing gravets about the war and did not report it, and kc stating command for 18 more months. c-span: do you know that for sure? >> guest: he wrote it in "the new york times" and in another instance, burns was hanging out with petraeus and petraeus had actually quit, and i guess this was in baghdad. i think he had his own sort of values about why he didn't do it. c-span: you at. c-span: you at the same time talked about the white house correspondents' dinner and i want to run that clip and again talk about how you see journalists relating to people in power. >> "rolling stone" has -- in my view they have been doing great stuff with matt tiabbi and dickinson and a number of other journalists that i could list off in one of their functions is to not have to worry about things like that. we are able to go there, because we don't have a table at the white house correspondents' dinner. that i think also one of the things is that i talk to people and they talk to me not sometimes because they want to a

we invade iraq recklessly on false premises.e waste billions of dollars fighting a war the wrong way for many, many years and strategically, we wind up knocking on the old work of power in iran to turn over iraq to iran basically. strategically not such a good idea either. so the bush administration makes so many mistakes, but at least on a smokescreen, which is hard to see in the military. it is time to rest the military tough questions. what if you guys learned? how would you adapt to? is rooted in history the roman army to mention they prided themselves on adopting tech access their enemies. it made me stop and think. what enemy attacked except we adopt to? you don't want to adopt random ieds, but it made me wonder, are the things we could've done, should have learned that we haven't? is john noggle has famous written about, the army used to be a learning organization. what is that learning, how is that learning? these are the questions we should be asking. why are we asking them? but part of the fault is that they said peopl

iraq was a whole different experience for her. partly because of the racism she experienced and partly because of the, i would say, discrimination both racially and sexually that she experienced. but also because of the nature of the war itself which she ended up turning against. now, i'm not saying this is typical of every soldier, but that's another thing i heard from more soldiers than i expected, was a great deal of criticism about the war. based on what they were seeing on the ground up like what we hear about in our armchairs at home. >> host: professor benedict, how did you find the five women that you focus on in the book? >> guest: i interviewed over 40 women who'd served in iraq over about three years. i found them through veterans groups mainly and then one would lead me to another whom she'd served with who'd lead me to others. so partly it was a network, networking process, partly it was people hearing that there was somebody out there writing about women in the military, and they wanted to be included. so a lot of th

they were relitigating the iraq war. the iraq war that had nothing to do with 9/1. the iraq war that diverted our attention from bringing bin laden to justice and just about $3 trillion. i mean, it's time to start nation-building at home. and i will tell you, chuck hagel, today should have been a historic day because he's the first enlisted man ever to become secdef. secretary of defense. now let me tell you something, too, they're trying to make him look weak. but look at what happened in 1999. chuck hag ergs l always puts his country first. muslims were getting murdered. it was the worst ethnic cleansing in europe since germany. and then president clinton said we're going to send our men and women into kosovo. he's one of only two republicans to do that. the man wears his heart on his sleeve for his country. they try to dishonor him. but he, you know, listen, he's been through a lot worse in his life than given a hard time. >> john, the thing that amazed me about the exchanges today is they were attacking hagel as if there were weapons of mass destruction there an

what can actually happen in iraq and afghanistan has happened. so, once we have that high-level overview, we can work with our art group to define all the assets and work with voice actors to report their lines and work with our motion capture state next door to capture all the animations that these people need to have. >> you bring in a mentor character that pops up periodically and guides the user through the events, the strategies and a way to put it altogether. so, a challenge event. seeing a child die. how do you get over that? by going through these kind of events in advance, we're preparing folks for what they may face and giving them tactics for better dealing with it. >> the army research community has funded a portion of this. the office and naval research and marine corps has funded a portion of this. >> i certainly think that anything we can do as a government, as a military to prepare our young men and women for what they might see while deployed is money well spent. >> on the way back, there was an i.d. attack and our vehicle ran ov

on the iraq war. he reported to have been opponent of the war. went bad and public opinion had turned against it. on the crucial decision of launching the war at a time when the future is indeterminant and time information is necessarily incomplete, he voted to go to war. then when he had the second most important decision on the surge which saved the war and created the conditions where iraq, where we could leave iraq with a democratically elected politically neutral state, he has showed was against it. he led the fight against it. he said that it was morally, strategically wrong. so big decisions he had to exercise as senator, he had it wrong by his own rights on every single count. >> bret: as we have done here. we have taken a lot of time on the hagel nomination. brennan nomination is up, too. steve, perhaps the hagel nomination overtakes that and brennan doesn't face as much scrutiny if it was solo, but what about perhaps the bumpy road he may face? lindsay graham says he wants to put a hold on the nomination until he gets answers on benghaz

that was at the height of the aversion and iraq wars. are these requirements still valid and at what point is the air force going to be told you don't have to build to that. >> i think that will be a dialogue that we have, especially as we build the f515 programs and look at the future and discover what is the footprint in afghanistan, what is the footprint across southwest asia and what do we need for the less permissive environments. the current guidance is 65 with the capability to surge to 85. our budget supports that and by may of 2014 we'll reach that camability but will have to assess is that the right number and i think it will be dependent on the world situation and where we need to invest as a nation. >> how many orbits are you at. >> currently at 59 combat air patrols. >> and coming online, how many of them are you increasing by on a steady basis. >> maybe 4 per year, 5 per year. but we get to 65 in may of 2014. so that gives you a sense of the speed. >> more with the air forces intelligence chief lieutenant general larry jame

iraq is having difficulties. that entire area is so combustible and dangerous right now, so this, again, is an example of how we have to be careful with how we train our way through this and to think strategically and not tactically. host go most notably, the visit with president karzai last week and the announcement in the u.s. on friday that the u.s. is essentially speeding up its withdrawal from afghanistan. guest go i think that is very important because it is freeing up assets, and countries like iran and others are looking at the idea that america will have more capacity and is less tied down. i think that is important. we have to remember there are a couple of factors. one, chuck kate: , if confirmed, will follow the president's policy stance. the senate confirmation hearings are wonderful exercises. it is just like watching c-span. you can learn so much you do not know. the questions, the doubts that we have will be seen it. they become wonderful case studies and records on the way this should take place.

anyone who says that is an insult to the 60 plus people who have been killed in iraq. >> when and if we start to see women come home in body bags, the obama administration and the bush and administration were wrong to not allow a single body to come in. hell, and we need to see the ugly. i do not like this idea of covering the evidence war gives us, but that is another issue. what do you think will happen when we start seeing women coming home in body bags at the same rate as men? >> i think people will be fine with it. if you have 30 women killed in a week or something like that, that is going to be a big story, and it is going to be tragic, but i think people will accept it. i think it is a done deal. we are in the starship troopers era. >> john kerry state department? >> better there than the president. tavis: ouch. >> i interviewed senator kerrey in baghdad during one of the worst times in the war in iraq, and i ask, you know there has been more suicide bombings in the last three years in iraq and the past 20 or 30 years, and he said, i warned them not to go in iraq, and i said,

he says he has the right to move his soldiers anywhere within iraq. but his opponents say he is violating the constitution. the leader of the kurdish delegation been coaching with him says a deal is imminent to form a joint forces in both areas until the issue of disputed territories is resolved according to the constitution. but he warns that the political disagreements could be dangerous. >> the situation in iraq is very dangerous. there's a struggle between all political blocs. everyone is rallying and wants to use force against each other. . we managed to keep the armed forces neutral, then we will solve our problems. if not, there will be a catastrophe. >> until the politicians sort out their differences, these soldiers will not abandon their weapons. on ordered to shoot could lead iraq into a new bloody war. al jazeera reporting from uecker krupa. kuk.from kir >> the u.s. president is asking for restrictions on guns. but there's no talk of buying back 300 million guns already owned by americans. let's look at the different sides of the argument.

we invade iraq, recklessly, on false premises.we wasted billions of dollars fighting the war the wrong way for many, many years. and strategically i think we wind up knocking down the bulwark of power, and we turn over iraq to iran basically. strategically not a good idea either. so the bush administration makes so many mistakes that a thinking kind of lays down a smokescreen through which it's hard to see the military. but i think at this point, asked the melted some tough questions. what have you guys learned? how have you adapted? the romans prided themselves on adopting the tactics of their enemies. it made me stop and think. what enemy tactics have we've adopted? you don't want to adopt random ieds. but it made me wonder, are the things we could've done we should learn that we haven't? as john noggle has famously written about the army needs to be a learning organization, what is a learning, how is a learning? these are the questions we should be asking. why aren't we asking them? i think a big part of the problem is with, as

like you, i watched what happened in iraq up close. i saw it unfold i'm very, very, very worried now looking where the regime in baghdad is moving, i'm very worried and i ask myself the serious question, was it worth in blood and treasure that was lost? we can continue this conversation, congressman, down the road. congressman tom cotton. thanks, also, by the way, for your service in iraq and afghanistan. i know you had nothing to do with the policy, you went there as an honorable patriotic american and we welcome you to washington now as the united states congressman. >> thank you, wolf. i appreciate it. >> let's bring our national security contributor fran townsend who is joining us right now. fran, you're on the advisory board of the cia. what do you think of brennan becoming -- assuming he's confirmed -- the next cia director? >> you know, wolf, as you realize, when i was in the white house, john was not only serving in the cia, but he was instrumental in frankly sort of the founding director of what is now the national counterterr

to say welcome home and thank you to iraq war veterans. the war ended in december. this first parade was in st. louis. tomorrow the second big parade in the united states of america to mark the end of the war. this time it will the be leld in tucson, arizona. this isn't the military or government coming up with this idea. this is just citizens. this organizers say they were inspired by what st. louis did. we've had three debates so far. the candidates have spent five hours arguing about medicare and social security and jobs. they are argued over the rules of the debate and big bird. there's been no talk about how we are treating veterans. lots of americans have been thinking about this generation of veterans that come home and need a job. ordinary americans are holding their own parades. welcome home love florida and tucson and new england coastal ports smith new hampshire. the pentagon, for reasons that i do not start to understand, still say they do not want new york city to hold a parade. new york city is where we've always done this. new york did throw one ticke

and they ended up identifying all of the foreign fighters in iraq. well when we published this report that you see on the left a bright news week reporter went back to the main city in libya where most of these foreign fighters came from and talked to people in that town to find out why they created so many foreign fighters. and in fact the combating terrorism center published all of them on the web so these are the actual pictures of the fighters. as a result of this it became a cover story for news week all across the middle east and pointed out the terrorists and how they duped a lot of the people to go and fight for them and as a result the number of foreign fighters coming into iraq slowed down from over 100 a month to just a handful each missouri that come bind with the operation that is were taking place. again it reinforces the important point that terrorists will appeal to any kind of tendency they can to get recruits but once they are exposed, the line of recruiting will dwindle. we'll go through afghanistan because that is in the news this

iraq. >> interesting. what i had done in iraq only really matured to full effectiveness when the counterinsurgency strategy came in with general petraeus married together then we started to have real effect. i had pretty strong feelings if we're going to succeed in afghanistan we had to do both. a reporter said i was criticized in vice president biden's concept. i didn't know that was vice president by i's position. i wasn't trying to criticize i was trying to explain to a british audience why we were pursuing a counterinsurgency effort. >> rose: you had no idea this was ladened with possibilities of being misunderstood the way you expressed it. >> no, i didn't. >> rose: so you had those two things leak, troop numbers then you had a london speech which is mispercepted as an attack of vice president biden. that's there when this rolling stone incident comes up. do you think the three of them kind of came together? >> i think everything is cumulative. i think that the lack of trust, it hadn't

iraq. you go to iraq and you get there and you say we had a would be store and we became amon.com. what was amazon.com and what was that sort of art in which you essentially defined what is an important element, you gave definition to which has become an important element of america employment of force. >> i was part of a team that did that. >> rose: always that's what the leadership's about. >> exactly. what we did was we had this wonderful force that was a little like a bullet. if the intelligence was provided to us and someone made a decision when to pull a trigger and we were aimedcation, that ts counterterrorists force would go in and create great effects, great presix and great -- precision and great speed. the apparatus didn't exist to provide us that understanding or provide us quickly enough learning in each step. instead of being this wonderful entity that sits behind glass until they break it you go we realize we have to be an intelligence organization that did tel just operations. >> rose: in the deliverance of difrent information from all sources and analyze and compar

you know, you hear about this report out of iraq.y have stumbled upon another billion barrels of oil, which we heard about iraq. there was all this oil and so much fighting going on top of it. if we could get there there is a treasure trove. you hear what is happening in algeria and how dangerous it is reminds you to get oil out of the ground in this area. i wonder if it signals a new war on oil assets there? what do you think? >> well i do think the algerian situation should signal there is a vacuum in northern africa. the group that committed these atrocities were jihadists from libya, tunisia, from egypt and from all over the place and the bottom line is what is happening in mali is the destablizing the mali government. now nearby regions are seeing that there is a north african movement of islamism, or islamist. they're seeing weakening governments. they're using economic interests and foreign nationals as weapons because the biggest threat to the jihadist movement is western interests in the area and if they can get us to pull o

mindset that had gotten us into the strategic mistake of invading iraq in the first place. he pledged to really change america's middle east policies. but instead the obama administration has pursued the same sorts of policies as its predecessors, the same policies that did such damage to america's strategic position. as a result, for example, the obama administration today is not just presiding over a stalled middle east peace process, it is presiding over the very demise of a two of state solution to the israeli/palestinian conflict. and while the obama administration's military intervention in libya was able to overthrow moammar gadhafi, it is now incubating in libya a senate threat to american security -- a significant threat to american security interests. and as we detail in our book, "going to tehran," the obama administration has gone beyond the bush administration in threatening the islamic republic to doing something we argue is even more dangerous, to actually discrediting engagement as a strategy for dealing with the islamic republic of iran. they've to done so

in iraq and afghanistan and argument is this is not work.his has made the united states weaker, less able to achieve its own goals in this important part of the world, but it's both culturally and politically so overdetermined united states, unless we can basically make the rest of the world are critical parts of the world look like us, we can't really be safe or secure. we also think basically all people deep down really want to live like i've, so by trying to engineer these outcomes, we are actually doing humanity a favor by doing a. and you know, when there's ample evidence not seen that this is not working, this is not congruent with reality, you know, we have a very hard time correcting course because correcting course is going to mean cultural change in a way for as and that's really hard, really, really hard to do. that's why people keep coming back to save experts on iran time after time after time, but they say the right things. they say culturally and psychologically comforting thing. we obviously don't say particularly comforting

chuck hagel writes, so why did we invade iraq?ieve it is the triumph, arrogance and incompetent that took america into this war of choice. chuck hagel, it should be said did not begin his career as a foreign policy apostate, in 2002, he voted for the iraq war. he wanted to tear up the missile treaty we have with russia to build a missile defense shield, and put boots on the ground in kosovo, which was at the edge of the extreme hawkishness. like many in the country, though relatively few in the congress, hagel was changed about the iraq war, he became a cautious critic and ended as an angry opponent. he ended a changed man or at least a changed foreign policy thinker. it was not just the iraq war he began to question by the end. it was the republican party's entire turn towards the unilateral, the very idea that america had the idea to topple the multiple dictators. this is what makes hagel so important, he is one of the few who is changed by iraq. he goes on to write "what the republican foreign policy establishment fears is that

to say welcome home and thank you to iraq war veterans. the iraq war ended in december. this first parade was held in st. louis in january which is why everybody looks cold. 100,000 people showed up in st. louis. it was a huge success. a home run. tomorrow, this is a big deal, tomorrow the second big parade in the united states of america to mark the end of the war. and this time it will be held in tucson, arizona. as was the case in st. louis, this isn't the military or the government coming up with this idea. this is just citizens, just regular folks, regular americans, civilians, who wanted to say thank you and welcome home. the organizers of tomorrow's tucson parade say they were inspired by what st. louis did. we have had three debates so far. presidential and vice presidential. the candidates collectively have spent the better part of five hours arguing about medicare and social security and china, and immigration and jobs. they have argued over the rules, over freaking big bird but there's been no talk at all about how we are treating veterans. outside the beltway

. >> rose: clearly there are questions, you know, about the future of iraq how do you think they view our role around the world? >> if you're asking me, i think president obama thought united states was over-extended military low, not just in terms of the sheer number of troops but in terms of the exposure and risk to american interests. and i think the white house is essentially agnorfolk-- aggnostic of the value on maintaining a minimal force in iraq. in the end they were talking about a force of 3,000 to 5,000 including special operations. but i think the way they played the iraq end game didn't work out well from an american standpoint and it's one reason iran has been flying hundreds of tons of arms to the assad regime through iraqi airspace because there's basically a security vacuum in iraq right now from an international standpoint. >> rose: david what, do you think about the next four years? >> i think president obama made clear during the campaign that he wants to believe the president who ended the wars, including his own surge in afghanistan. the president was bringing the

the first is going back to iraq and afghanistan clearly you came out of iraq with a lot of usefulless softens. but -- use full he issons. but things you say in retrospect also hinterred you doing things there. hinders you doing things there. second question is following up on the previous one. do you have a comment op that? it's a difficult thing for you to comment on because -- >> sure. i think the first part is my role in iraq was largely with the potential operating task force that i had focused op destroying al-qaeda in iraq. so we were very much of -- very much there to dismantle that network. now, as i mentioned,, we dud it for a number of years -- we did it for a number of years. at one point we were really getting good at what we did, and max boot said you're getting good at what you do, but it is strategicaller rell event. and, of course, i had my feelings hurt at the time, but, of course, what max was saying was right. you are tamping down, you are holding al-qaeda in iraq from being as effective as they can be or could be, but we're not going to succeed unless it is married

iraq was in the middle of a full blown civil war with 3,000 iraq quis killing each other every single month and there was very little thought to how that was going to correct itself. and many of you may remember the political controversy that faced the bush administration at the time. the important decision that is were made at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007 and are now coming out in all of the books are use to feel go back and look at. it was an important decision where president bush agreed with prime minister malachi the prime minister of iraq to surge 30,000 troops into iraq and 30,000 troops into baghdad to be able to address this civil war that was happening in iraq and try to keep it from becoming a much broader, much more dangerous, much more difficult conflict. but the important aspect at the time the three star commander over there is now the chief of staff of the army and was the core commander in charge of all the units there and general petraeus came in. what they recognized at the time was adding the additional 30,000 2r507s, if you did not change the tactics

the invasion and destruction of iraq which u.s. government officials i just don't rumsfeld have admitted to cause the death of some one hundred thousand iraqis how that doesn't reach the threshold of gravity to warrant an investigation of this is warranting an investigation it was no investigation. when. moreno ocampo was able to declare after two months of what gadhafi did did indeed merit not only investigation but an indictment so it's going to be ridiculous to say well this this doesn't warrant it this does the same with in the case of the ivory coast the crimes of one political leader well these do indeed rise to the threshold of gravity but the equal crimes of the others who happen to be the proxies of france or nato they they they don't rise to the threshold of gravity i mean clearly it's making these political decisions and so that's why i totally disagree with the idea that well it's a particle of justice is better than no justice no. hard justice is worse than no justice because hard justice is a mockery of justice lawren

the ongoing protests in iraq.n hong kong have confiscated more than a ton of elephant tusks worth $1.4 million. the first major hall of illegal ivory in as many months. the stash was found in a shipping container and hong kong. conservationists have found thousands of shark fins on the rooftop in hong kong. the popularity of shark fin soup endangering the species. many are calling for tighter regulations to protect the sharks. >> on top of this old industrial building, evidence of short killings on industrial size scale. thousands of fans laid out to dry. heavy demand over the chinese new year. confused worker wondering what all the fuss is about and why his rooftop workplace has of the become world famous. activists say since they first came here, many of the shark fins have been removed but this one rooftops to represents and oceans for the sharks. the campaigner whose pictures first brought the rooftop to prominence says the practice has been hidden away after public outcry. >> i've seen large quantities before

iraq is 80% urban. afghanistan is 80% rural.aq is 80% literal, afghanistan is 80% illiterate. >> christopher hill, it's good to talk to you. thank you for coming in. we'll be right back. who is this? that's pete. my... [ dennis' voice ] allstate agent. a "starving artist" has an allstate agent? he got me... [ dennis' voice ] the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance and you still get an agent. [ normal voice ] i call it... [ dennis' voice ] the protector. is that what you call it? the protector! okay. ♪ the allstate value plan. are you in good hands? >>> to politics now, nbc news confirmed jay rockefeller will not seek another term in 2014. the west virginia democrat and former governor is right now the chair of the senate commerce committee. he's been in office since 1977. iran is going to make its own version of the movie "argo," the iranian vision will quote unquote correct what they believe is distorted historical context. >>> everyone is talking about jack lew's loopy signature. >> i never noticed ja