for more we're joined by michael siegel, professor of community health sciences at boston universitychool public health and a 1990 graduate of the yale school of medicine. his ring to the medical school's dean to express his opposition to the proposed center because it violates its stated mission. and joining us by videostream in new haven, connecticut are alex lew and nathalie batraville. they co-authored an editorial titled, "dod plans are shortsighted, unethical." we welcome you all to "democracy now!" what are your concerns? what do you understand is proposed for the yale campus? >> we found out about this to the el herald -- yale herald and realize there was an article published in the new yorker about this proposed center. our first concern is there's really no consultation of the student body or the faculty or of representatives of the communities that these techniques are going to be hones on, practiced on, by the military. our first concern is for transparency. our concern also is there has been an increase in recent years in the influence of the military in universities. in

pentagon's defense policy board, michael hastings author of the new digital book "panic 2012, the sublime and terrifying inside story of obama's final campaign ♪ ♪ barbara siegelso washington correspondent for the middle east website al monitor.com. great to have you all here. >> thank you. >> so i am -- well, where to start? i think the lessons unlearned to me was the most troubling. it seemed to me we had a moment in 2008 particularly in which president obama articulated this kind of alternative foreign policy vision and did so quite forthrightly. for instance, negotiations with iran and ahmadinejad. and somehow four years later, we've moved backwards, right? the old -- i guess as we've gotten further away from the debacle of iraq, as that's more remote in people's memory, there's more and more the sense of iraq ended up okay and you saw this -- i thought it was so interesting, it was the relitigation of the surge. because that in some ways is this key narrative plot point that somehow redeem tess entire war. and so you saw, for instance, john mccain, incredibly invested in redeeming the surge. check this out and then i want to hear your reaction to it. take