s. military was the largest military presence in iraq. but if you added together, all of the private military contractors spice was to be in charge of. the 2nd, which is unfortunate from spicer, is a fairly well known figure in british political and media circles. mm hm. but at the time of the award of the contract for iraq, it was awarded by a on logistics contracting sell in virginia, not in iraq by a group of essentially acquisition bureaucrats who had no experience with the private military industry. no knowledge of the different players. and referred to him as that british guy from, with, with the world of private security contractor. when they heard that this company called aegis one this contract and that the people that were working for him were sell africans and not america. there was, there was furious when you're applying for these contracts. your bid on, you know, will include you and your businesses personal history. it doesn't say, you know, by the way, we were involved in this international controversy that almost caused a

yeah, before ah, putting groceries in iraq. d, a 1st team for iraqi more stated and intended to come for force. wow. she's done very many member. so deceased. well, i mean what to happen in shit. i know. i know people running into come in came didn't come fighting for what i all right so i say around and try to for anita. ah. i feel easy. i didn't. i don't use it. no. it's not a good one because a one in douglas and has makes me kick off with. ready me and they seem like an actor for well as not young people unfairly and have no jobs are desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back into civilian life and a plant seeds of violence wherever they go. well we always remember wanting, i'm my stuff, my wife, when she, when i, when i have a wife one, i should continue with a weapon because i'm fully functional. which mean i can do anything with the former child soldiers have been trained to take pride in their skill and their ability to, to kill people. i t

what type of what do your weapons in this battle in iraq? for me it's, it's the ability to coordinate and, and continue to help the reconstruction effort. ah, very rapidly, he just became a huge company and it made tears. why sort of extremely healthy, non majority of americans now think it was a mistake to go to war in iraq. early in the iraq war, the president stood before a banner that said, mission accomplished 3 and a half years later, the debate is back over why the u. s. as in iraq, in the 1st place, public support for the war is falling. more americans want the troops to come home in a brief ceremony on a base on the edge of baghdad, the united states took down the flag of its command here to mark the end of the military mission. the u. s. money was starting to be pulled out of the rocky field refreshes and the industry had to go through a very complicated reset. this companies had to realize that they weren't gonna get that level of money again. and so they had to offer different package of deals with that meant they would have to h

ah. 20 the groceries in iraq? d. a face teens. what iraqi most fainted and intended to need for force. ah sure my member. so deceased. well, i mean what to have them in should i live with people, ronnie, income gum fighting for what i like the idea of in try to for anita. ah. i feel easy. i did that was, you know, is not a good one because the one in douglas, and i'm just as makes me a check up with issues, it may seem like an act afraid, well it is not young people unfairly on have no jobs. they're desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back in the civilian life. and a may plant seeds of violence wherever they go. well, weapon, always remember one thing. i'm the most off my wife will say when i, when i have a wife one i sure which in control when you are not in the work, it's a weapon because i'm functional out which means i can do anything with it. ah, former child soldiers have been trained to take pride in their skill and their ability to, to kill

ah . 20 the groceries in iraq. d. a 1st team for iraqi more stated and intended to become for force a should very many member so dishes to walk. i mean what to have them insured on your machine. i don't know if we're running into come in came didn't come fighting for what i like. i say around and try to for anita. ah, i feel easy. i did. i don't, you know, it's not a good one because a one in douglas, and i'm just as makes me kick off away from the issues me. and they seem like an actor for well as not young people unfairly and have no jobs are desperate to feed themselves and their families and result is that it becomes harder and harder to ever find their way back into civilian life and a scene of violence wherever they go, well we always remember wanting, i'm the my stuff, my wife when she, when i, when i have a wife one, i should continue watching the work. it's a weapon because i'm full on turn off. which mean i can do anything with the former child soldiers have been trained to take pride in their skill and thei

that was one of the big issues with l cut in iraq. you'll remember with, with r kelly, but we're getting military. so there's a lot to keep an eye on in the next 3 to 6 months. there could be some real change that had for the islamic state. my one from your vantage point, are there particular regional branches of ice all or affiliates that would be more impacted by the death of creation? yes, brody, syria and iraq. and don't forget that. i said household was being keen on having it on and he ought to your, for, from, from iraq. and mainly it's, i think there might be, have spoken him back, but look, i, so in terms of a 33 has been really defeated. so we are not looking here into something like a very strict hierarchical organization right now. it's rather loose when and when we can see actually branches of ice almost. and as, as they were safe in 50 southern countries now. and it is very difficult to think of it as being controlled by one at top leadership located. so we're actually, we're acting from either out of c, d, i and the r e

ah, so in the early days of iraq, it wasn't gold rush. you had companies coming out of nowhere, including black water. it was really like a cowboy while long last when nobody at any control. anybody doing anything with firearms in this country could say their private military company was an atm from these companies? well, the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting training and supporting military bets is that there was room hiring a prostate or getting married. so instead of a soldier who has an ex cost of a, you're now paying a contractor in a times $10.00. what has happened is that america has basically married a prostitute and has been active. paying them for a very long period is almost power to do. what is was good example if you invite a country to connect, they've been appeal, thought none of your iraq and left her to run a very low ship from using private military contractors for understandable to ash to using private military contractors. wholesale in my view, took place without much debate, and all everybody loved in contr

yeah, probably is celia and iraq. and don't forget that i said hassle was being key and when having it on and he ought to you for from, from iraq. mainly it's, i think it might be, have shifted him back. but like i said, in terms of a territory has been really defeated. so we are not looking here into something like a base, the hierarchical organization right now, it's rather loose one. and when we can see actually branches of ice almost in as, as the, was safe and kept the southern countries now. and it is very difficult to think of it as being controlled by one at top leadership located or actually acting from either out of c, d i and the r e c i. the branch is now in 90 chad in nature and in many other african countries, asian countries as well. so i think this is a loose network right now, and they are mainly local fighters and they are affiliating themselves somehow with ice because ice, it has a separate repetition. and so i did. this is why i'm a little bit of a careful here about the impact of, of the eliminat

i had a marine who served in iraq and he had the same experience. his son deployed to the same base for the reasons we were deployed in iraq 10 years later when the united states intervened to fight i says. this is a community that has seen an incredible amount of war over the last 20 years, they have seen the cost of it and they are incredibly wary as a result of a new war, or even a new large-scale deployments, which will put strain on military communities and families, and having seen how these play out, particularly in afghanistan and iraq where there does not seem to be progress. where the local population does not really want what we are selling in terms of liberal democracy, and not seeing a direct connection to our safety and security, i do not think that it is surprising that this community is more wary than the general population which is already wary of more military commitments abroad. host: let us get viewers into this conversation. we especially want to hear from veterans, military, and military families. we are going to open up specia

a lot of this did sound like the runup to the iraq war.rence here, there is no coalition of the willing, right? this would be all of europe amassed against russia. russia would pay a tremendous price for it. and the only thing that would be similar about it in iraq is it would be a quagmire. there was a piece today -- >> it sounds like this would be iraq on steroids. why would he do it any way? >> joy, let me say a couple of things. i take offense at the comparison to the runup to the iraq war. the iraq war had intelligence that we thought was accurate. turns out it was not. colin powell did not lie. russian officials are coming up with lies to create a pretext to go in. so a completely different situation i would argue. where there are parallels, it's always easier to go in at the conventional phase of the battle the russians would prevail, but occupation could prove to be difficult, made more difficult in part by the cohesion that the russians produced with the ukrainian people. but the russians are creating a pretext, with the same pret

this is in iraq.e kurdish-led militias who basically control the prisons where you have thousands of islamic state fighters and tens of thousands family members have not really been able to build the trust with the local communities, mainly local arab and sunni communities in northeastern syria. so isis this insurgency has been able to really find a refuge and the question is how do you address the grievances? how do you deal with punishing poverty? how do you provide security and, fareed, look, the united states is missing in action. really the american foreign policy team is missing in action. it has not invested much -- >> let me ask you, fawaz, about on that issue, you wrote a very prescient piece in foreign policy in august of 2021 as the taliban was taking control of afghanistan. you wrote, the taliban can't control -- that should. this major problem in just in terms of the taliban taking over which has proved to be entirely true, they face terrorist attacks all the time. how unstable is afghani

reporter: he is an animal rights activist in iraq.very friday morning he comes to this market in baghdad to spot animals that are not supposed to be sold here, endangered and vulnerable species. reporter: these birds are victims approaching. they are in--victims of poaching . buying these have become very popular among iraqis. it remains very easy to get your hands on these animals in the markets. >> police, they can go and come back a see what happening here in this market and they see that the species and endangered species here and wild animals here, but they don't do anything, they don't talk about these things, they don't stop the hunters. even they don't know about the law. as an activist, i talk with these sellers and hunters here and sometimes i get -- it's make like arguing between us, and it is so dangerous for me. reporter: no official figures exist on how extensive the trafficking is in iraq. without action by authorities, the poachers and traffickers are not facing any obstacles, except when it comes to importing animals

with the government of iraq. i think that the partnership that we have with them on the enduring defeat of isis is very important. the iraqi security forces do have a very capable force, but it is not -- it can still grow and needs to develop so it's self-sustaining for being able to go after isis. >> as you mentioned earlier, one of our key allies there are the kurds, which have been reliable allies throughout this entire process. >> i have worked with the curds and they are a reliable partner. >> how do you assess the moving of israel in terms of your job and the ability to teal with the middle east as a coherent entity? >> i think there's significant opportunity with the addition of israel. it starts with the abraham accord with the normalization of relationships between israel and arab nations. we have both bahrain and uae and that caused them to start talking. when you're talking, you're lowering the temperature in the room, there's talk of cooperation as well ask that's only a good thing. >> in your militar

i mean, you know, with this whole thing about misinformation that i, i looking iraq and weapons of mass destruction. i look at the rushing gate hoax. i see the changing the ever changing narrative on coven, i could go on and on here. i mean, this is miss information is coming from legacy media. this is where most of it comes from. and it's people like us to push back against the calls, all those bad names. and all these terms. misinformation is a little bit like conspiracy theory. these terms are themselves tools, propaganda. but there isn't nothing. there's nothing new, of course about just information and propaganda information order. this has been with us for hundreds of probably thousands of years. but it does come in waves. and because we live in a medias society, it will seem to us is the, this is for these problems are for an escalating, particularly as we move into times of war and or potential potential, a conflict then the machinery, a propaganda hybrid work or whatever term you want to give it, it will ramp up and all of the fav favorite techniques will come into play and, an

isis launched new attacks in syria and iraq last month. last week's successful operation against isis leader shows that the counter-isis mission isn't over. i'm concerned that the things will get even worse if president biden re-enters the failed 2015 iran nuclear deal, which many of us here have urged him not to do. they received sanctions relief. iran will spend that windfall on terrorist proxies. that means more arms for hezbollah, hamas to attack israel. more training for the houthis to threaten our arab friends and more support for the iraqi militias that target our person e. rejoining the iran nuclear deal won't prevent iran from getting nuclear weapons capabilities. the deal's limitation expires in 2026, which is not that far off. all of these threats in the middle east are getting worse. we also have to prioritize threats from china and russia right now. both of those adversaries are heavily invested in competition. here is what i hope you address today. what resources do you think you will need to counter these regional threats? w

so in the early days of iraq, it was a gold rush. you had companies coming out of nowhere in gwin blackwater, who was really like a cowboy while law west. when nobody at any control, anybody doing anything with firearms in this country could say there are private military company. was an atm for these companies? well, the basic idea of a contractor versus recruiting training and supporting military vents is that there was room hiring a prostate getting married instead of a soldier who has an ex, costing a. you're not paying a contractor and being a times 10. you're welcome. what has happened? is that america has basically married a prostitute and has been active, paying them for a very long period is almost power yesterday. it was good example. if you invite a country, there's gonna be a bit of fuel thought. none of you know right and left her to run a w. this now we will go wrong, will need or a very loose shift from using private military contractors for understandable to ask to using private military contractors. wholesale in my v

let's go all the way back to the war in iraq. i've been the middle east bureau chief for the new york times. i speak arabic, i spent 7 years in the region like most arabic. i understood that the invasion of iraq in these endless wars was perhaps the greatest strategic blunder in american history. you could argue, but you didn't want to hear it. so even those of us who came with that kind of expertise were shut out and it is beneficial to these networks to ratchet up the fear level. they did it for 2 years with a molar report. every night these kind of breathless reports, you would think that molar was going to storm into the white house and hall donald trump out in handcuffs. and they're doing the same thing here because it's about ratings and it is about fulfilling their traditional role in a time of conflict, even if that conflict is hyped and manufactured. that's what always happens in war . you can go all the way back to the crimea. philip nightly grade book. truth is the 1st casualty kind of document that there is no differe

but of course the iraq and afghanistan were not on the us border. they posed no threat whatsoever to us security. where as russia has had legitimate concerns over the threat posed by, by the ukraine, once again, that's not an endorsement of what russia has done. well, those security concerns were legit legitimate. well, what difference is an attitude? you see what's happening right now compared to the reaction in previous devastating conflicts in the middle east and elsewhere. the western press couldn't have cared less about the casualties. i mean they were, they. busy were. busy they. busy were thrilled over the use of, of us weapon was the 111 nbc corresponded, referred to the beat to the beauty of our weapons. i mean, they, americans enjoyed the american journalists enjoy the shout. if it was great fun, if there was a wonderful display of us fire power, now it's now it's not so much fun because the fire power is being directed at a us ally will be the day. thanks for your thoughts, daniela's journalist and also thank you. now the sanctions led to

you are a propagandist, we saw this in a very dramatic way, way back in 1991 in the 2nd invasion of iraq. the at the nazareth propaganda hopes ago talking about babies being around, turned out that she was the daughter of the $280.00 and possible to, to the united states. but more recently we've had a thing where the p c. w has in effect, being reliant on suppose it witnesses that are actually honored by organizations like why a suit, a grass roots movement. and they of course, find the witnesses that will present a particular point of view. witnesses are a dime, it does that they, they have to be wrecked and even they wouldn't cheat it. big intelligence agencies and dig deep into i mean, even if you don't even need witnesses, he does need anonymous sources that seem to be good enough. ok. you know, i know there's, there's all this whole affair with joe rogan and spotify. i'm exhausted by it, because it has nothing to do with rogan in. just information modified. they see, they think the legacy media is a guilt and they don't want anyone else in their guilt. you have to, you have to, you

so this book like many books has its origins in the iraq war. i remember as a phd student watching the initial airstrikes and the invasion of iraq in 2003. i'm thinking hmm. i want to know more about this and how it's going to go and that got me interested in the subject and i wanted to know sort of how regime changes turned out over the long day of course of history. and so the book asked two questions. the first one is is what eric said, which is why so i'm going to use the word the term regime change because it's sort of in the public parlance and it's easier to say than for an imposed regime change and what i mean by it is the forest or coerced removal of the effective for de facto government that's in power the leader of one state. the targeted leader or regime? there's really three ways they can do that one is to invade the country. the second is to make course a threats to threaten to use force to scare the regime amount of power in the third is to work in tandem with domestic forces inside the target country to help bring about regime ch

get you hawkiss is neo colonial iraq. think they asked on, that's why to iraq creek bound kind of before i own ski you're asking is the openness arm up wait for him. put him burden iraq to provide it as gain. dom saddam will scenes for fruits up galvan top to from best on dia, resolve in iraq galena, missional getting don't know if our coast had to libyan gaddafi. a skin notice guy . she give you what's what our object fooling theater in a good to museum. julian, is until the you want to dish w zealand via i dish w 0. they you own this fun. they may need all single moms and best i can totally, unless ah, the reason his head germany is so dangerous it deny the sovereignty of the country. ah but march 24th 1999. the day yugoslavia was annihilated and it was covered on live tv. i'm working with lawyers of jenna next it and general bush are dealing with us the events and still remember those terrible days later. part of the for close. it really major part of the exam request was a little was a nazi man. i would be my and i wo

has to deal with, we have to remember that it's not just the iraq war. there's also been a lot of contested claims and intelligence since then just last year. and we had the story about russia paying bounties to taliban to attack us soldiers that ended up being unproven. and military officials said they had no evidence of it for defense. secretary today said russia, and we've had claims over this entire ukraine crisis, where us officials and anonymous intelligence officials of toll journalists, russian invasions eminent and doors. those warnings have not materialized in the state department's move, flagging the false flag operation was preemptive. that's a departure from 2014. when russia last invaded ukraine, amex by mia and the us was caught flat footed wave of a russian. this information, tv channels beaming out of moscow, played a big part in that, and remained vital to the crumbling message, telling their audiences that russia speakers in ukraine are now in grave danger. and need moscow to protect you. you know, we're still doesn't conflict. what ca