the way that this marjah offensive assault the very high profile p.r. campaign that was launched and i wonder if that was a smart move. is this part of warfare information operations psychological operations whatever you you want term you want to use propaganda whatever your comfort with that's powerful warfare part of we did when we advertise so heavily was one to let the civilians get out ok because we don't want to as a policy we do not inflict civilian casualties necessarily also to what it did was allow the taliban to get out because what would happen if the taliban had not known we're coming and we had shown up and got into a big big fight that lasted for many many weeks and actually the fight in march one for longer than we thought was going to but say it didn't go as well as it did the all in bet a journalist this is the rolling out of president obama's escalation of the afghan war this is the ruling out of general petraeus last year in the crystals new strategy for the war if it had gotten mired into a bloody nat knockdown drag out fight in the

which is a battle of marjah started a year ago almost to the day they espouse it to be the format forwinning the war first thing they said and they said will take about three weeks to take care of the small hamlet took almost ten months and even now we're going back and having to redo things so when something like that happens where you set up a very high expectation and it gets knocked down over time because of results you have a hard you have a hard sell right there so with that said then we've had to slide back on a number of things we said we're going to do in the war and i think there's some level of desperation information operations is meant to be a situational awareness thing where you understand what the enemy is doing and you manipulate his ability to do things dark art my book operation dark heart was in effect a very complex form of a psychological and deception operation to throw the enemy off guard make them think that bad things are happening because of guys in their own ranks and limiting their ability to take action against us that's what information operations suppos

it took the americans three months to take marjah. it was a storming of normandy or something like that. any month afterwards we find it so popular, still fighting in marjah. every house is half a mile from the other house theaters no roads. you can have individual victories and successes pushing them away from one village to another, but she don't have and never will have the number of troops required to occupy the entire pashtun the south, southeast to control all villages. there is no way to do it. you can't unite any single individual victories to run. another key element in counterinsurgency is you have to build the capacity of the national government so they can come over for you. in iraq you had maliki who gained legitimacy and clean up the security forces and destroy militias and you have a civil war so brutal that it actually made the americans had maliki look like a better alternative. in afghanistan now come the last thing you want to do is to the capacity of the karzai government. it's the main reason while people are join

and wounding over forty others detonated his explosives laden early training session in the city of marjah an instance described as one of the worst pakistani security forces in recent months but a sense of carrying out scores of suicide bombings and other terror attacks in the past few years in the region killing thousands. of close up team continues its discovery the western area now as it explores life in and around the city of. well this time the team discovers how russia's elderly are struggling to get by in the remote villages where they make up the majority of the population with tiny pensions and poor health care the older generation is in need of food medical assistance and support. listened to their stories. it's her daily exercise by breaking the ice in the well she'd much rather do without it but then she'd have no water the seventy seven year old lives in her native village on her own most obvious that self no no we don't mind living like this we don't want to die but we do have a huge problem with water you know what yes water seems to be the main concern for these women but

others attack it detonated his explosive laden fist during early training session in the city of marjah and incidents described as one of the worst against pakistani security forces in recent months militants of carrying out scores of suicide bombings and other terror attacks in the past few years in the region killing thousands. well that's the news from around the world this hour here on r.t. no relations between london and moscow have been rocky in recent years with many unresolved issues still hanging over to an r.t. spoke to the new russian ambassador to britain alexander about how we expect the relationship to progress well that interview is coming your way in just a few moments and i'll be back with a summary of our main news in about eight minutes from now. today i'm at the russian embassy in london talking to mr alexander who's just taken up the post as the new russian ambassador to the u.k. thank you very much for talking to us he congratulations on your new pasting and a very warm welcome to london on a human level relationships between the u.k. and russia are very good lots

others the attackers detonated his explosive vest during an earlier training session in the city of marjah the incidents described as one of the worst against pakistani security forces in recent months militants have carried out scores of suicide bombings and other terror attacks in the past two years in the region killing thousands of. german chancellor angela merkel is due to face questioning it's part of a probe into a military airstrike which killed dozens of civilians in afghanistan's kunduz province almost two years ago up to one hundred forty two people. building as a result of the attack on two fuel tankers which have been hijacked by taliban militants it sparked a political storm in germany claiming the job of several top military officials. a group of twenty eight somali pirates captured in the indian ocean on sunday have been handed over to mumbai police the pirates had hijacked a thai fishing vessel nine months ago and were using it as a base they were said to be preparing to attack a greek merchant ship when they were caught twenty four hostages were freed from the second anti

the attacker detonated his explosives laden vest during an early training session in the city of marjah the incidents described as one of the worst against pakistani security forces in recent months militants have carried out scores of suicide bombings and other terror attacks in the past few years in the region killing thousands. chancellor angela merkel is due to face questioning it's part of a probe into a military airstrike which killed dozens of civilians in afghanistan's kunduz province almost two years ago up to one hundred forty two people were killed as a result of the attack on two fuel tankers which had been hijacked by taliban militants and sparked a political storm in germany claiming the jumps of several military official. you're up to date from the news desk dimitris here next with the business. hello and welcome to business out see a wave of consolidation is sweeping from the world's leading stock exchanges the london stock exchanges to merge with toronto's frank. is planning to link up with the n.y.s.e. as your next here in russia to my six on the r.t.s. also planning t

make me come back tomorrow that could hold it back on the program discuss the anniversary of the marjah offensive in afghanistan now in the meantime go get a fan of the a lot of show on facebook and follow us on twitter coming up next is the news with the latest headlines from the u.s. and around. or. mum. mum. mum. mummy mummy. mummy mummy mummy. this history still keeps its secrets but denounced times from the feel that the soviet silence me keaton seems to often like a moment on the hot seat. in the. demands for political reform are met with violence. in the middle east and north africa as the domino effect continues on its part. i will not support initiatives that will leave our military less capable and less ready to fight america's top military official stand guard over their budget pushing massive cuts to the rest of society and importing extremism fears grow that the flow of saudi money is turning the self-proclaimed republic of course over into a training ground for radical islamists. problems of the program daniel bushell the under pressure governments of the latest middle eas

offensive in marjah began in afghanistan it was a high profile escalation of our war effort but one year later has anything changed for you to speak with matthew hoh then protests continue to spread throughout the middle east but could these movements be creating a shift and.

it is the same in marjah. they will continue to fight back, but guessing the violence level is just not possible at this point in time. >> and the taliban change in tactics that you predict indicates that they will concentrate more on soft targets. does that mean that the taliban is weaker going into this spring offensive than they were a year ago, do you think? >> i can, we will have to see that. that is a hard question. i am telling you we have reduced the support bases inside afghanistan that will continue to keep the pressure on their leadership, all designed to reduce the effectiveness of the insurgency. how that will occur and how well they will become a we will have to see how effective both us and the afghans are doing that. that is what we're trying to do with the environment that they will sealed differently in the spring -- is the taliban on the ropes here? >> know, the taliban is not on the ropes yet. ok? thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright nationa

it is the same in marjah. they will continue to fight back, but guessing the violence level is just not possible at this point in time. >> and the taliban change in tactics that you predict indicates that they will concentrate more on soft targets. does that mean that the taliban is weaker going into this spring offensive than they were a year ago, do you think? >> i can, we will have to see that. that is a hard question. i am telling you we have reduced the support bases inside afghanistan that will continue to keep the pressure on their leadership, all designed to reduce the effectiveness of the insurgency. how that will occur and how well they will become a we will have to see how effective both us and the afghans are doing that. that is what we're trying to do with the environment that they will sealed differently in the spring -- is the taliban on the ropes here? >> no, the taliban is not on the ropes yet. ok? thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national