diplomacy in the middle east. it would enable us to do business with anyone labeled as an avid syria or ally when it serves our interests. the fact is, they are major players in places of high concern to us, even when we wish they were not. there are other places where they are a major player and their interests are parallel to ours. iraq anding of afghanistan as areas where neither we nor the islamic republic have an interest in endless conflict and instability on their borders. finally, the world in which we had more normal relations with edging closer to it would bring us closer to a system where we had more flexibility and leverage in dealing with anyone else in the region who was troublesome. thank you very much. [applause] >> doctor? >> thank you very much. veat.t to put a copa for the united states government. i will be speaking with my fbi had on and not my marine corps hat on. i agree with some of the main points. was one ofn of iraq the greatest strategic mistakes in our country's history and i still mai

diplomacy in the middle east. it would enable us to do business with anyone labeled as an avid syria or ally when it serves our interests. the fact is, they are major players in places of high concern to us, even when we wish they were not. there are other places where they are a major player and their interests are parallel to ours. iraq anding of afghanistan as areas where neither we nor the islamic republic have an interest in endless conflict and instability on their borders. finally, the world in which we had more normal relations with edging closer to it would bring us closer to a system where we had more flexibility and leverage in dealing with anyone else in the region who was troublesome. thank you very much. [applause] >> doctor? >> thank you very much. veat.t to put a copa for the united states government. i will be speaking with my fbi had on and not my marine corps hat on. i agree with some of the main points. was one ofn of iraq the greatest strategic mistakes in our country's history and i still mai

he was joined by a panel of middle east experts as an event hosted by the middle east policy council, this is about two hours and 20 minutes. >>> now, i'd like the say just some brief words about the topic before i introduce the speakers. we chose this topic when we heard president obama's speech at west point late in may this year. he did say that the united states would use force unilaterally if our core interests were directly sbr threatened. but he emphasized a counterterrorism strategy which would rely upon supporting, training and working with security partners. and announced a $5 billion program to support security partners in the middle east. having identified terrorism as the most direct threat to the united states. not long after that, the islamic state of iraq and syria moved down the tigris river and the iraqi security forces retreated raising the question of how we -- how much we can depend upon the strategy like that in iraq or even in afghanistan, where we'll be leaving soon. and he said that syria would be a major focus of the strategy and we know that we've had a did

tonight the crisis in the middle east intensifies. israel offers a 24-hour cease-fire, but says it will continue to demolish hamas military tunnels, hamas rejected that offer. and our embassy in tripoli evacuated as the u.s. tells americans to get out of libya. more on both breaks stories, but first to my open. hello and welcome to "justice." i'm judge jeanine pirro. thanks for being with us. christians in the middle east marked for death because of their faith, and no one is fighting for them. as christians are slaughtered, churches torched and families forced from their homeland, the mass murder of christians is under way. while israeli jews are under similar attack, at least they have netanyahu, a leader who is willing to fight to the death. so who should be defending christians? who? the leader of the catholic church, the pope. the man who shepherds the faithful. now, it may seem to you that the destruction of biblical antiquities and looting of churches and the persecution of christians are a half a globe away. it's someone else'

there will be have to be equal transcrip treatment throughout the middle east. and the mali government and supporters are refusing to broke arrest compromise with the sunni and kurds of iraq. the kurds have said long ago i in 2003 that they would not be the cause of the break up of iraq, and, indeed, they have not been. >> let me go to syria and lebanon are also in kay cross, conflict. there were millions when the dust settles. >> i doubt that syria will be able to do anything soon. it will have to be a defacter situation. the minority is in control of the greater damascus area all the way to the alawite region on the coast line. and then in this enclave yo it will go on. afghanistan, sudan before the break up this, could last. it's difficult to put sire i can't back together now especially after this bloodletting. it's incredible what happened. >> is that good for the independence of lebanese? >> lebanon not will always be . but i think they may have crossed the rubicon. >> that brings us to the end of this edition of inside story. . thanks for being with us. l

it's -- people in the middle east actually care about these values. and it's useful to us in many respects, in many kind of practical respects to lead with our values. what puts me in the mushy middle is that i think that the impediments to democracy in the middle east are more deep rooted than some of my neo conservative friends have suggested at times. it isn't just a matter of -- it's not as simple as removing this or that tyrant and then -- and then democracy and human rights will bloom. as you can see, i think if you look at what's going on on the ground. because there's a fundamental problem in many of these countries of political community. you can't have a limited government unless everybody in the -- the most politically significant elements in the society have a sense that they have a shared fate and they are part of a single community. and that the greater good of the community will be served by limited government. when everyone -- the major groups in the society have a sense of its winner take all. every middle eastern has a movie in their

bush's approach to the middle east either. i never thought that in 2014 i would be looking at a middle east that could somehow be worse than the middle east of 2006, the nadir of george w. bush's approach. yet that's what i see. iraq and syria are in civil war. yemen is on the brink of civil war. probably is in civil war. lebanon has experienced all kinds of problem. the arab spring is dead. egypt has returned to a dictatorship, at least temporarily. any number of other problems are spreading all across the region. it is a deeply troubled region, not to mention the point that tom just made about having yet another israeli/palestinian war in gaza. this is not a good situation. this is not a good region. and while i don't think that everything that the obama administration argued was wrong, i do think that the united states has certainly made its share of mistakes in the middle east, and not only under the george w. bush administration, although they certainly had more than their fair share of those mistakes. but it certainly is

he also tried his hand in the middle east, serving as u.s.hief envoy to the israeli and palestinians under president barack obama. >> for both sides, the disadvantages of not getting an agreement are much greater than the difficulties that will come wiet

i also see our values as a realist tool that we have that people in the middle east care about these alues. it is useful to us in many two lead with our values. what puts me in the mushy middle is that i think the impediments to democracy in the middle east are more deeply rooted than some of my neoconservative friends have suggested at times. it isn't just a matter of -- it is not as simple as removing this or that tyrant and then democracy and human rights will bloom. as you can see, i think if you look at what is going on on the ground, there is a fundamental problem in these countries a political community. you can't have a limited government unless everybody -- or the most clinically significant elements in that society have a sense that they have a shared fate and that they are a part of the single community and the greater good of the community will be served by limited government. when the major groups in the society have a sense of winner take all -- every middle eastern has a movie in their head. it is what they're going to do to me when they take power. you can see what is

peace brokered in the middle east. freedom in iran. he trying to achieve. >> i think he has focused on domestic affairs as his legacy. and you're right. he does need a foreign affairs legacy and the middle east and peace may be the one he's looking for. although his policy is pivotin pivoting towards asia. all of this will require him to reassert a stronger american role in the world and matches take more action in dealing with both of these crisis. >> professor schwartz, what is that stronger role look like? does that mean that being at the tip of this sphere? does that exclude coalition building and working with other nations side by side? >> not at all. most of our successes in the cold wear came from coalitions. in dealing with the ukraine, dealing with chancellor merkel, for example, that's an important relationship. and we damaged our relationship in germany with scandals, so in that sense the president has to pay attention to these alliances and recognize the importance of that in creating his legacy. >> tom roguen, the advantag

reconfigure the middle east and our position in its is in shambles. much of what has happened seems irreversible. might be done but probably won't be. to begin, if we're at all honest, we must admit it is a deplorable state of affairs in the middle east, egypt, iraq, israel, jordan, lebanon, serbian , syria, the gulf and arabian peninsula, afghanistan. it is a product not only of the dynamic turnovers region but also of the lapse of in our capacity to think and act strategicically. we have answered the end of the bi polar cold war order with a mixture of denial, strategic incoherence and inconsistency. false american asumps and objectives have helped create the current mess in the middle east. it is not news to anybody that american politics is uncivil and dysfunctional. we have a foreign policy elite that has its head up its media bubble. prefers narratives to evidence-based analysis. confuses sanctions and military postureing with diplomacy. and imagines that the best way to deal with hateful foreigners is to use air-born robots to kill them, their

john walcott with more on ukraine and the middle east. margaret carlson and megan mcardle on the corporate inversion. we begin the program with defense secretary chuck hagel. we are here at the pentagon. mr. secretary, thank you for being with us. >> al, always a pleasure. >> we know the malaysian airline was shot down with a surface-to-air missile. russia has a lot of covert personnel. wouldn't the russians have to know about it? >> you have just stated the obvious that the surface-to-air missile had to come from russia. the training provided to operate the surface-to-air missile system most likely came from russia. whether that russia knew specifically about this incident or not, i don't know. the international investigation that the united nations responded to our call for on friday with a resolution that was passed and the russians voted for it, we will find out. we will track this all the way back. >> if the russians were complicit, john mccain said there should be hell to pay. what would that be? >> they will come out the losers but

you've got the middle east, most obviously, but you have serious problems with russia. if you look at the far east, i could make the case that what we see going on in the south china and the east china sea may be the most dangerous place in the world for a whole series of reasons. so sitting in the white house in the state department or defense department, you're looking at a world where you can't work on two or three crises and say i'll put these aside for a while, they're all burning at the same time. it's hard for the u.s. government to organize forces and deploy forces to deal with all that. >> jonathan: you were deeply involved in iraq, what is your sense of the threat al quaida poses? is this a group that, as we've seen some suggest, may be more of a threat than bin laden's al quaida was pre-9/11? >> that's exactly right. the al quaida we went after in 2001 when we first went into afghanistan and iraq is a much different al quaida than we're seeing today. i think that core element, as the secretary of defense said before he turned over to mr. hagel, is that we had

crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle the return and we venture of the neo cons as the middle east descends into a regional civil war and ukraine becomes a failed state washington's foreign policy neoconservatives are on the march the world is their playground. to cross-talk the neocon agenda i'm joined by my guest robert perry in washington he is an investigative reporter for the a.p. and newsweek who now edits the online news site consortium news dot com also in washington we have jim lobe he is the washington bureau chief for intra press service and director of a blog on us middle east policy called low blog dot com and in champaign we cross to francis boyle he is a professor of international law at the university of illinois college of law are gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it robert to go to you first in washington you wrote an article recently obama's true foreign policy weakness what is that weakness. well president obama has been willing to fall into the control under the control pretty much of the

made america safer or the world safer it's you know when you look at the situation in the middle east it is it is so confusing that you know we it's even difficult to see where you support one regime that is being attacked by another regime we have the russians are sending jets to help the regime survive in baghdad at the same time ababa want to spend five hundred million dollars on groups of people these mythical moderates in syria i mean that doesn't make any sense a lot of this but just really quickly but quickly the neoconservatives have also been very successful in controlling the narrative of washington i would say is perhaps their greatest strength they've understood the idea of information warfare going back to the one nine hundred eighty s. they they work they work closely with the national security council under ronald reagan it was walter raymond jr who was a cia propagandist was moved over there to kind of organize basically an information warfare against the american people the american people were seen as somewhat suspect because they'd opposed the vietnam war after a ti

look at the middle east. this is just a joke, but i am telling you that sometimes what is really -- for someone like me that lived in islamic terror, it scared the hell out of me especially when i saw president obama in the rose garden. with the father of that man. he went awol and brings the life. do you know what that word means? it means i am a muslim. it is the first word in the islamic higher. -- any islamic prayer. these are the first words, five times a day, muslims say this at the beginning of their prayer before they curse. i cannot imagine bush. only obama can be a fool like that. but he's not a fool. i think he is doing it on purpose and i think he is of americanr noses wrong.in that islamic thank you very much. [applause] >> we will start your questions. you have some already active >> are you able to hear me ok? >> yes. >> westerns will come from over here. out cards to people and people will write their questions down and we will bring them over here. i do have a couple questions to start us off

embassies in the middle east open? >> no. the default position for the state department and it's the right decision is to keep highly skilled professionals on the ground. trying to advance our interests even in a war zone even with bullets flying around. we're used to it. we're good at it. >> still, one u.s. official tells cnn the pentagon had pressed for weeks to evacuate the u.s. embassy in trip poll hill, especially after that airport came under attack. that left americans no way to get out on commercial aircraft, wolf, and the situation worsened quickly after that. >> yeah, this was not what was supposed to happen after the overthrow of moammar gadhafi's regime with extensive u.s. assistance, military and economic, in getting rid of gadhafi. brian todd, thanks very much. >>> so what is the next move of the u.s. in libya and the middle east as a whole? we'll get the latest diplomatic developments. reaction. marie harf is standing by live back in washington. >>> we'll also get israeli and hamas reaction to the breaking news

policy in the middle east. among the speakers, we expect to hear from the iraqi ambassador to the u.s., the defense department deputy assistant secretary for middle east policy, and a number of the atlantic council middle east scholars. should get underway in just a few minutes. we will have live coverage here on c-span when it does. while we wait, the house is not in session today, but the u.s. senate is. here is a look at with both -- what both bodies are up to this week. >> it is a back of -- back to work week in congress, full agenda. they will be covering the tax code system, the senate finance committee holding a hearing on that, at a house and senate hearing on iraq. joining us live on the phone is at o'keefe and covers all things congress for the "washington post." thanks for being with us. let me begin with the headlines last week on the status of the immigration bill. you point out house speaker john boehner raising doubts that congress will be able to meet the funding request of the president. has an

so you look around the middle east. you look in yemen, iraq, syria, north africa, libya, egypt and other places and it seems like the problem is growing instead of being tamped down. and i think one of the problems -- and i agree completely with what jack said -- is that you can't go out and you can't wait and wait and wait, and then wait for a crisis and then act. you have to be going all along. and i think the problem that the u.s. has had over the past several years is that we've been burned so much as a country by being in the middle east that we want a hands-off policy. and so we do nothing for such a long time and then things reach a crisis point and then it's all or nothing. and that, i think, is a real problem. >> i think greg and i -- the love fest is going to end right here. in other words, the drones have been immensely successful when you look at their application. we've taken out so many of the al qaeda leadership. i don't think there's a direct line between those attacks and the growing problem that we hav

discussing the reshaping of the middle east. ok michael i'd like to go back to you in washington was mentioned earlier in the program about a possible showdown between the sunni world and the shia world and obviously that means saudi arabia and iran what do you think of that because you really have so many odd bedfellows going on right now in that region of or it isn't only your enemy's enemy you're dealing you know your enemy your friends are dealing with your enemies and like i said earlier it's a very complicated but what about this showdown between the sectarian differences here well i think again this is actually a matter of contrivance and convenience that will oftentimes when we talk about sectarian differences and in this case we try to break it down into sunni versus shia there is certainly a religious divide but in fact those religious divides are very much also underwritten by. over the attempt to sort of divide up the political spoils of power they're about economic interests and economic powers if you look at lebano

is hundred years ago this month. >> the genesis of today's middle east map dates back to world would be one. as ally and access battles each other they agreed to carve the middle eastern province of the ottoman empire into spheres of influences which did not wash with either side when the war ended. >> by the time they got to paris, they looked at what sykes and picot had done and were horrified by this. they did not want it to be in control, they wanted to keep the french out of palestine. >> most of all they wanted to keep them from the persian gulf. but with this coffers drained by war britain could i not declare the area provinces. then colonial secretary winston churchill had an idea. transjordan became a semi semi aut autoous area. the greatest experiment involved mosul, baghdad and basra. they were doraled into a new country, iraq, ruled by abdullah's brother, king faisel. >> he would rule for them and do the british bidding in iraq, and they would save themselves the considerable expense of declaring iraq or mesopotamia a full-blown protectorate of the british empire. >> a co

you think about the new strategy in the middle east.they need to be other integration elements built around it. today,>> the arab league whether we like it or not, is saudi arabia. it used to be egypt and saudi arabia, but egypt is out of the picture. the circumstances under which the force would materialize would happen under the framework of something that you mentioned in one of your columns, david. will i ever witnessed the summit at that time? i think of the leadership in reality is just not ready for that. it is unfortunate, but in my opinion the one thing that will barack --k -- say save iraq is an understanding of the compromise between the saudi's and the iranians. i am not saying that they should reconcile or that i am naÏve to the depths of the differences between the countries, but a pragmatic, realistic management of the relationship, the sterilization of the relationship, making sure that certain red lines are not crossed, that happened throughout the cold war. this is exactly what they need today to extinguish many of the

has been directly involved in the middle east turmoil.come back, shocking comments about israel made by president richard nixon and recorded on secret oval office tapes. about what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny. we've created tax free zones throughout the state. and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. no property tax. no business tax. and no sales tax. which means more growth for your business, and more jobs. it's not j

security council meeting tonight, midnight, to address the situation in the middle east. let's go to eastern ukraine now. it is waiting for a crash investigator now, pro-russian rebels are facing off in bloody battles with ukrainian government forces and in the middle of all this, the crash scene of a commercial jetliner yet to be explored and preserved with dignity. let's start in the middle east where israel and hamas, another day of mourning and sorrow for families. 43 israeli soldiers have been killed in the increasingly bloody conflict. in gaza, some neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble. families search for missing loved ones among the piles of demolished debris. fresh controversy emerging over what happened at a school in northern gaza on thursday. israel is rejecting blame for any deaths at the school saying it fired one errant morter that hit an empty courtyard. hamas says 16 people were killed and hundreds wounded in a deliberate attack. correspondent sara sidner is in jerusalem with the latest on israel's video and the school controversy. sa sara? >> reporte

but getting to the regular show, the middle east, this is terribly upsetting. it remains in turmoil. this is a dangerous region, even for people who don't live there and, say, merely express the mildest of concern about the humanitarian tragedy of civilians who have nothing do with the warring factions, only to take a rash of [bleeped] from everyone who went to your bar mitzvah. statute of limitations. look, a $50 savings bond does not buy you a lifetime of criticism. [laughter] but help is on the way to this troubled region. >> the world's a scary dangerous place, but it's a less scary, less dangerous place when america leads. >> the united states has tried foster peace, democracy and stability in the middle east. >> bring peace to the middle east. >> double down on our efforts to bring peace to this region. >> we all want to see peace. >> jon: it's what we do. [laughter] now, originally we just went to the region to rid it of a mad man with wmds, but it turned out he didn't have those, but at that point we realized, actually, we were just bringing the region

outsiders can't manage the middle east and shouldn't try. it's time to let the countries in the region accept responsibility for what they do, rather than acting in such a way as to free them to behave irresponsibly. it's time to recognize that the united states can't solve the israel-palestine issue, can no longer protect israel from the international legal and political consequences of its morally deviant behavior. and has nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by continuing to be identified with that behavior. israel makes its own decisions without regard to american interests, values, or advice. i think it would make better decisions if it were not shielded from their consequences or if it had to pay for them itself. america should cut the umbilicus and let israel be israel. it's time to stop pretending the united states is signed any real importance to democracy or human law or human rights in the middle east. we pay for gross violations of all three by israel. we support their negation in egypt. and we do not interfere in the politic

when is this ever going to end why is the middle east the middle east. because larry there are so many ethnic and tribal and all kinds of divisions there not just country by country of there there are ethnic there you know the shias the shiites the sunni's the the the kurds hamas there's so much hatred there i think there's got to be a way for the arab spring through social media. to lift all boats to be the agent of democracy and to stop these killings now. i think that the pope can play an important role in the middle east again i think that we need new players that bring some kind of mediating and conflict resolution but when there ron you know i wouldn't throw up our hands there may be an opportunity for an enriched uranium deal i'm skeptical but it's not over yet. how do you see how's our country doing in all of this say compared to when george w. bush left office and we better are we safer now how do you assess security well i would say larry that security is better although i think president bush george w. bush did a good job on security he did a

why don't any of them move to the middle east? the middle east, the islamist movements would kill most of the academics who are defending them. they certainly wouldn't take very good care of the women who were defending them. and israel would. for god sakes, israel is us. >> well said. >>> coming up, mark levin from his bunker here to talk about his epic takedown of comedy central's jon stewart, and how the white house should be responds to the israeli ground invasion. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] if you can't stand the heat, get off the test track. get the mercedes-benz you've been burning for at the summer event, going on now at your authorized mercedes-benz dealer. but hurry, offers end july 31st. share your summer moments in your mercedes-benz with us. >>> tonight's focus in the election headquarters in georgia. we can't make a call yet between jack kingston and david purdue. purdue has increased his lead with 88% of the precincts reporting, there are a lot of precincts coming in. the winner will face michelle nunn, the daughter o

and violence in the middle east spills over to the streets of paris as protests turner to riots. the french government has condemned the instance. washington is pointing the finger at russia for downing the malaysia airlines plane in ukraine. welcome back. the untop story -- and security council is calling for an immediate cease-fire in gaza as the bloody violence continues. gaza health officials say the death toll among palestinians from the israeli military offensive has now reached more than 500. also, israelis say some 10 palestinian militants were killed while trying to infiltrate israel via a tunnel. the un security council is calling for an immediate end to hostilities between the two sides. let's cross to gaza to speak to gallagher fenwick. you have just been at a location where another family was killed during an airstrike. tell me, what did you see? >> exactly. i am in the center of gaza, and it is precisely where a strike occurred earlier today, killing about a dozen people who were caught under the rubble of a house. moments ago in this very densely populated and poor

he's a cnn middle east analyst. thank you for joining us.here any real hope that cease-fire would get off the ground? did you really anticipate the fighting would stop? >> personally, wolf, no. hamas is backed into a corner. it's got no friends in the region. militarily, it's proven very ineffective in causing significant damage against the israelis. it's interrupted life here but it hasn't destroyed israeli cities. no backing from the egyptians. no backing from the saudis. >> is israel going to go in on the ground into gaza? >> calling for not just a limited ground operation but a major ground operation -- >> he's a real hard-liner. >> the prime minister netanyahu came under tremendous criticism from his own party, as well as from other right-wing members of his coalition. he paid a political price. there was just an interesting poll on israeli television that showed while more than half of israelis are in favor of netanyahu's handling of this crisis so far, more than half of the population is against accepting the cease-fire. >> so where d