crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle the return and we bend 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 crossed in 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 th

i think a lot of humility is required in the middle east as well. that said, my view is the president has done the right thing in terms of providing humanitarian assistance. and also trying to stop those columns of isil forces that would like to slaughter all of these people. i think that our efforts to help the iraqis, first of all, the outcome, i hope this weekend, the power struggle in iraq in terms of who was to lead the country gets resolved without maliki coming out still in his job. he has been a very destructive force in iraq, particularly since we left and i think that somebody who can reach out to the sunnis and give them a sense that they have a stake in iraq is absolutely essential. if that change, my caveat is if maliki stays in office i am not sure i would recommend what i would otherwise recommend. which is, i think we ought to be much more aggressive in helping the iraqis and helping the kurds take on these guys. we should not let them take control of the mosul dam or have a stranglehold on water and electrical supplies for a good pa

we are facing a bernal middle east with -- a burning the middle east with a crippled re.pt with a sectarian fissu syria, 22 million people and 9 million homeless. syriaontrolling northern and western iraq. prices taken the stash isis has taken the second-biggest city and it iraq. -- isis has taken the second biggest city in iraq. the administration has airdropped relief to refugees and the mountain. that launched three airstrikes against isis position in the last 24 hours. will you advise president obama? will it take a reimposition of american policy over weeks or months to contain and pushback isis sophia iraq has a chance of remaining a state? say wet of all, i would need to keep in line that there historicale, huge conflicts going on simultaneously. aur she is -- she is -- she reformists and this trouble to see if artificially stuck together states like syria and iraq and adversarialsed of afternoon and religious groups icn be held together -- ethn and religious groups can be held together. we overestimate our ability to shape events in the middle east so madeleine talked about humility

the fragile cease-fire in the middle east has made it to a second day. loading talks in cairo to try to extend the truce beyond the end of tomorrow -- holding talks in cairo to try to extend the truce beyond the end of tomorrow. the u.s.-africa summit toasted with one of the biggest state dinners in white house history. one small step for a probe, one giant step in space history. after 10 years in orbit europe's rosetta rendezvous's with a comet. the cease-fire in the middle east is now in its second day, the longest break in fighting in a month. the truce is meant to give way to indirect peace talks between israel and the palestinians. delegations from both sides are communicating in cairo to try to establish more long-term security in the middle east. >> hopes for a lasting peace in the middle east, but at what cost? palestinian's and israelis dictate their conditions. those talks begin in cairo. finding common ground will be difficult. for hamas and all palestinian parties, before anything else, israel must lift the blockade in gaza. >> we hope the eg

it's ours to win or lose in the middle east. we do have to be careful the instruments of power we choose. military power, once it's used, if it's used, there is no exit strategy, if it's not accompanied by the right diplomacy, if you don't take the leverage from the military power to achieve your overriding diplomatic and political aims, then the military power as an instrument, it is frittered away. our problem in the middle east, i was one of those who didn't agree with going into iraq. i didn't think it was necessary. when we did go in, we had a brief window of enormous diplomatic leverage. we didn't use it with iran. we didn't use it effectively with the other nations in the region. and it soon became clearer that we weren't really prepared for the occupation of iraq, which ensued. and so at that point and from then on, it's been very difficult for us to manage the military power that we've had there in a way that is most constructive and most effective for the outcomes we seek. >> all right. i have to leave it there, ambass

perceived in them in the middle east and amongst muslims in the u.k. is that the u.k. government is part of a war against islam and this facilitates and plays into the hands of those who are who are promoting political islamics especially extremist elements who show yes this is a war against islam and yes we can build in recruiting organize on this basis but fundamentally it is the policy of the u.k. government in hand with the united states government that has created the conditions for this development i think behind the terror threat level is the real politics of what's going on the terror threat level it's not really about perceived terror it's about preparing public opinion in the u.k. and in the united states for an escalating intervention by the united states in the u.k. in the middle east and they always have to do it on the pretext of protecting the domestic population against the threat of terrorism. has put the spotlight on security plans for the nato summit in cardiff in newport next week and the u.k. is going to great lengths to ensure the

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 neo conservatives and some of their liberal interventionists friends he has instead of asserting more a real break from the george w. bush policies he has he has adopted them he has avoided perhaps some of the more extreme problems but in many ways he has not challenge them in any fundamental way so why is that why well it's a good question and he he i think he basically is trying to avoid the kind of hard political battle that would be required to if he were to challenge this what's become a very powerful force in washington the neo conservatives have been building strength in d.c.

we talked about the middle east. this is also a supremely political disagreement here in the u.s. about which side you support. and i just wonder, do you and your classmates, when you are making decisions about who you vote for, do you factor in -- is it a major factor for you how your representative, senator or governor stands on this issue? >> well, unfortunately, i think the issue of whether or not we support the israelis actions or two-state solution or any of those other alternatives, i think that's an issue generally swept to the side in our domestic elections, particularly within our foreign relations discussions. i think what is important to understand, there is a knew answered distinction we need to understand about our generation. why individuals may be more tolerant of cultural, religious or political differences, our israeli counterparts are serving mandatory terms in the idf. though we may be more tolerant of the differences, our israeli counterparts are in the same formative years in a military defining

from fighting in the middle east. and coming up this hour locked inside wheels amid fears of an attack may be. coming nato some of us protesters flock to the cities ahead of the. just past four am this sunday morning here in moscow welcome to our international with you are on the clock across the globe i mean and we start with our breaking news story of russian soldiers detained in ukraine several days ago being returned to russia. the ten part troopers who were in patrol when they crossed the pearly mark section of the border by accident before being captured paulus leader has been following developments. all ten russian paratroopers who were earlier detained by the ukrainian authorities have now been handed over to russia the group was patrolling the russian ukrainian border when unintentionally they crossed over at night at a section of the border that is not well signposted they were then intercepted by the ukrainian security services and from what we understand the release talks were complicated and difficult but

it has captured the attention of muslims throughout the middle east. i do not subscribe to the view, no matter how hard it is for me at times to try to explain this splinter of islamic extremism, across the world owe no ill will towards israel and the united states. there are so many that would like to see this conflict between israel and palestine resolved. many would like to see isis and al qaeda destroyed. host: our guest is mark duesberg -- marc ginsberg. our next caller is from england. matthew, go ahead. i would like to ask about the israeli conflict and issue. anti-semitic, i would like to put that out there. with israel, americans tend to be very pro israeli. i know a lot of that has to do with holocaust and the way the jewish people were treated during that. however, they were not the only victims of holocaust. there were six point 9 million [indiscernible] 2.7 million with gypsy people killed. i'm wondering if you are more willing to deal with israelis in a more evenhanded way, including illegal settlement building and things like that, if we

arab and muslim world this can account for the policies we see toward ukraine in the middle east today second i agree with bob perry and jim lobe on the influence of the neo liberals as well obama's mentor at columbia was big enough. who ran his presidential campaign on foreign affairs in two thousand and eight and has stacked the national security council with persian ski protegees i went through the same program ph d. program at harvard that produced persian ski before me he is an expatriate paul who hates the russians with a passion and wants to see russia discombobulated so the top russian expert on the national security council is a bridge and ski protege so we we have stat he's stacked the national security council with his people so i agree with bob what we're seeing here is a conjunction of both the neo conservatives and the neo liberals with respect to both russia and the middle east this is extremely dangerous that the only. the stablish main group staying on the outside criticizing those are the real politicker typified by henry kissinger again i went through the same ph d.

in the middle east. in hospital. in the capital. watching international. self-proclaimed author it isn't done yet so they have allowed ukraine's army to take their wounded and out of the encircled area in eastern ukraine where the latest bridges for you from the outskirts of the town of in the far east where you can see troops apparently get the airing out evacuated several army brigades with ukraine's national guard have been trapped in the area for a week suffered serious losses in the counter offensive by local militias and while conflicting reports have been emerging about their fates or so they report. but we know from ukraine's interior minister is that the first group of trapped ukrainian soldiers was allowed to leave the in socal meant he made a statement on his facebook page but later what we were hearing from self defense forces on the ground is a denial that any groups had left they say that their conditions to allow these trapped soldiers to leave the battlefield remain in place and this is that they first and foremost need to hand over any kin

he said there will now be some new possibilities for the middle east. what does that mean and his reported harsh words about the white house. what's next for israel, hamas and us, when we come back. let that phrase sit with you for a second. unlimited. as in, no limits on your hard-earned cash back. as in no more dealing with those rotating categories. the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on everything you purchase, every day. don't settle for anything less. i'll keep asking. what's in your wallet? been all fun and games, here at the harrison household. i'll keep asking. but one dark, stormy evening... she needed a good meal and a good family. so we gave her purina cat chow complete. it's great because it has the four cornerstones of nutrition. everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. purina cat chow complete. share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. one rescue at a time. television announcer: mattress discounters' $197 mattress sale $197 mattress sale is ending sunday. bulldog:

it is a manifestation of a challenge in the middle east. just as, you know, what has given the islamic state room to maneuver an oxygen in iraq was an ineffective and exclusive government in baghdad, like wise, what has given the rise of the islamic state can be directly traced to the actions of the assad government. so if you're supporting, if you believe the solution in syria is a moderate islamic opposition, then -- and you choose -- you decide that military action can be effective in that theater as well, then you can fight a two-front war. you can support the opposition and where they have a line of conflict against the regime find, if they have a conflict against isis, fine. >> what about partners in all this? we've heard jeremy bow want say how difficult the coalition is because of the conflicting interest. is it a fact that america might just have to go it alone? >> i don't think so. i think what you have, what's absent in the middle east right now is really a consensus inside the region. just as the united states has said, and othe

it is not because we don't care about what is happening in the middle east, because the american public after ten years of war and trillions in debt and the casualties want to know what their return on investment will be. what the game plan is. what the mission is. what the scope of the problem is. one of the difficulties with the old iraq war and the global war on terrorism is that the mission has defined us, rather than us defining the mission. if we are going again and needing the public support, we have to define the parameters of the mission up front and we have to think not about where iraq and syria will be ten days or ten months are from now, but the implications ten years from now. that is not the discussion in washington yet. >> you were in the plans department and the plans, if i understand them from much of the obama years, has been how to get ourselves out of that place. how do we get back in? >> well, it is a good point. that is exactly what the administration does not want military interventions. that said, i disagree about the american public. there have been polls, the

in the middle east, london's guardian newspaper is reporting g strip expires at midnight in the middleast, 5:00 eastern time with no firm indications egyptian mediators have succeeded in securing a deal to end the five-week contract. a military official told the guardian monday that the israeli delegation was still pushing fo, a divisive issue as hamas and islamic jihad repeatedly ruled out giving up weapons. palestinian sources in cairo also suggested that there is a being talkedite about in the past tense. now the united nation security council will hold a briefing this morning on the middle east. representatives from security council countries are expected to make payments -- statements. we will have that for you live on c-span. while we wait for the united nations security council briefing on the middle east, this morning, a kurdish representative discussed the fight against isis. here is some of that. the director of the regional government in the united states based in washington and joins us now to discuss the situation in iraq and the role of the kurdish people there. i want to

. >> no, much worse things are coming out of the middle east. you see this in the plight of desperate people in northern iraq facing a terrorist regime, a state now really in northern iraq that is simultaneously threatening the kurds, the very existence of the state of iraq, syria, isis is moving in to lebanon. so the president has been playing this game in which he says, i want to be as little involved in this region and as reluctantly involved and as a result american policy has consistently been a matter of too little -- >> but then with israel you feel like he pushed bebe netanyahu too much, i assume? >> kerry made a grave mistake by insisting on putting israel/palestine, the peace process at the center of the beginning of his concerns as secretary of state, but his biggest mistake, really quite fair and accurately, in the case of israel is not remembering the old dictum which is you need to be seen in political affairs as a true friend and a thorough foe. the way the obama administration has been playing this war is to act as a soccer refer

the middle east has been trapped for decades. between hosni mubarak and al qaeda leaving little space in between. the dictators shot down all opposition movements and the ones that survive are vengeful and violent. there was an opening after the arab spring in 2011 and 2012 but it rapidly closed. the best example was egypt where the muslim brotherhood had a chance to govern inclusively but then refused. then without waiting for vindication, egypt's old dictatorship rose up. all this leads to an underground and violent opposition. perhaps the biggest stretch is the idea that the moderates in syria could win. it's one thing to believe that moderates can organize the world, make their case and go to the polels, but the assad regim turned their guns on it very quickly. in that circumstance the groups that are going to gain power are those who will fight, fight back and with zeal and ferocity. consider the new head of the western-backed syrian opposition who now urges more support from moderates like him. a successful businessman of d

joining us now to help us understand this new landscape of the middle east is: steven simon, a formerior director for middle eastern and north african affairs on the national security council staff from 2011 to 2012-- he's now a senior fellow at the middle east institute; and hisham melhem, washington bureau chief of al- arabiya news channel. welcome to both of you. hisham, it's a given, the world has changed, right? help us first by laying out the camps, so to speak, that we face. >> as we know, the uprising that began three and a half years ago unfortunately have morphed into civil wars in yemen, libya and sir. i can't syria is a place where there is a conversion of powers. the camps so to speak, the regime in damascus which is islam supported by iran which is the major region of shiite power as well as by hezbollah -- hezbollah's working for certain iranian interests and also supported by militias from iraq. so you have the shia coalition fighting to save the regime in damascus and in that sense iran and syria are more important in supporting the regime than mos cows. then you have

these people are hard to assess in the middle east. we have truly not assessed who they are, enemy or friend. people who we call friends are basically down to it our enemies. people have to get together with those countries in the region. let them fight it out. we should get out of there. close our embassies in those countries. it is not effective at all. one other point other point from this piece, an american-led coalition can defeat isis. the u.s. central command has a list of targets in syria and iraq including staging bases, supply bases, training bases, front line troop positions. the full story is available on wsj.com. we'll go to virginia nest. next. caller: good morning. host: what option should be on the table for president? caller: we need to come out of there. i don't think we need to go into that and do this fight. the people over in the middle east should take care of their own. and mccaine and them are -- this fight just in order to make money off of weapons that they got investments in, in this country. i think that's w

policy in the middle east. ou wrote a book back in 2008 about america's role in building arab democracy. what is the state of arab democracy in 2014? guest: well much less certain, i think. on one hand, we see possibilities that exist today, opportunities that were not there when that book was published in 2008 because of the revolutions in tunisia, egypt and libya. the national reconciliation process that is taking place in yemen. there is an opportunity for political changes on the ground that will make governments more representative, more transparent, more accountable to their people and create broader based opportunity for everybody. i think tunisia is the case i look at and i see the most hope because they have managed to go a long way down the road, excuse me, toward building a new democratic political system. host: that's where the so-called arab spring began. guest: in fact, it is where it began and we'll see whether tunisia can continue to be a model for the rest of the arab world in that regard. host

yes there is the abc mandate, but in the middle east they will be free soon. wilson feell for it. the main other point is is that the austro-hungarian empir e was destroyed. a major political and economic structure for europe from the middle ages. created seven countries that could not exist alone. and nationalism was the key. and this, if you go back to what i said earlier, if germany becomes a great power, the soviet union. these countries are there for the taking, because they were nationalistic. each one had at least 1/3 of other races within them and they all wanted to rule on their own. and wilson never visited the battlefield once. never understood what the war was about. i hate to say it but lloyd george and clemenceau came out the winner's. war'sfully understand the impact, it is important to take a closer look back at the four years that were world war i. how to describe that war? history channel asked some historians and authors to give it a try in one word. [video clip] ♪ >> if i had to choose one word to described world war i, it would be cataclysmic. word togle world

the third thing he needs is a middle east czar .the fourth thing he needs to do is reaffirm our relations with region allies. and the fifth thing is to be clear we have real enemies in the region, including iran, a real force in destabilizing iraq. with regard to iraq, specifically, again, this entire problem was preventable in 2010 because prime minister maliki lost those elections and yet we along with the iranians backed him for a second term despite the objections of myself and some other senior officials. right now, i think the president's strategy finally after 5 1/2 years is exactly right. he has explicitly and very clearly conditioned future assistance to iraq based on the formation of a national unity government not only with new faces like prime minister designate abadi. the question for abadi is he going to, after four years of dawa party rule, with maliki, is he going to lead iraq for the first time, unite all the iraqis? or is he going to continue with maliki's divisive policies and thus drive iraq toward fragmentation

and the other is what is happening in the middle east. in many ways i think they are , related and maybe we will get into that. i think that -- i have had, i have been further away from when i met putin. i did not like in from the moment i met him and he did not like me, either. the bottom line is i think he has developed his own version of history. that is the troublesome part. anybody who can say the dissolution of the soviet union was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century is delusional. i do think that he has lived in his own version of history as he keeps making it up as it goes along. i see we depend on the fact that there's a rational actor on the other side of the table. i am worried about his own approach to issues and it does lead to the question of how we deal with it. i think what he has done is identify himself with a very -- it sounds like psychobabble, problem that russia has been having. you were there. one of the things we were asked to do, and so were you bob, basically how to dissolve the power of our major adversary

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. [laughter] 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 to 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 bringi

so the question is is that the middle east, asia or wherever? we will start off with david keene because he is my boss sometimes. >>> i would like to begin. >> i have one my line before that. david is going to set the stage of the great global struggle that is going on among the political forces and then we will get into more specifics. david? >> thank you, richard. i would like to begin with great self-promotion to suggest you need to subscribe to the washington times because bandow writes as well. the pages are open to pirchner as well. so it seems to be a no-brainer for the audience. actually, it is, i think, important that we are meeting on these subjects today because the american people are confused as to what the stance of the united states ought to be in terms of foreign policy and our place in the world. they have gone through a period in which our foreign policy is dominated by folks that think perhaps the world could be remade in the american image without much relationship or und understanding of different cultures and the like. one

there's breaking news in the middle east. there's new fury in the wake of what united nations and palestinian officials described as a shelling incident in southern gaza. they tell cnn the school was being used to shelter thousands of civilians and there are in the u.n.'s words multiple deaths and injuries. the palestinians say at least ten people died. we've had no comment yet from the israel defense forces. we anticipate comment soon. we know 80 hamas rockets so far today have been launched from gaza into israel. we're watching to see what kind of damage, if any, those rockets -- those rockets created. we know that israel's iron dome defense system intercepted several of the rockets. let's go to gaza. cnn's john vause is standing by. the israeli officials are saying they're almost complete with the destruction of the hamas tunnels going from gaza into israel. what are you hearing over there? >> reporter: yeah, well, it's not what we're hearing but it's what we're seeing. if we look off to the distance, we can see the dust o

a new cease-fire has just gotten underway in the middle east. the question is, will it last the full 72 hours, we will go live to the region for the latest straight ahead here. >> harsh criticism for israel from one of the jewish states closest allies. what the u.s. said about the shelling of a u.n. shelter in gaza after this. 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. >>> you are watching cnn's breaking coverage of the humanitarian cease-fire in the middle east. at this moment we are 30 minutes into a 72 hour truce. you're looking at live picture the of gaza city, this is much different to the scene that most residents have been waking up to over the past three

policy in the middle east. welcome, great to have you here today with expertise.k for a moment about the way the situation is playing out with hamas continuing to ride the pr wave and trying to show case the situation as victim with the number of casulties. >> hamas is winning the war of propaganda simply because of the casulties are so their side. hamas has a problem. what will be the dividend that they will get? in the end of the day, hamas will have to accept a ceasefire. they are trying to continue the breaching and con compel israel to accept the hamas. they want a airport and port and access to international water and breaking the encirclement of gaza and i don't think the israelis will accept that and that's why ceasefires are difficult to maintain at this point in time. >> you appear on arab media every day. have you seen criticism in the arab media at the all? >> that is an excellent question. what we see in the arab world pro american and anti- american, and those who have peace agreements with israelis. everybody has decided that the loss of life and cr

religion and diplomacy in the middle east. issue a special welcome to our c-span viewers this morning. second in the series of diplomacy and religion. at first we held a month ago fundingg ayatollah euro -- featuring ayatollah irivani. things have changed in statecraft. madeline albright records in her mighty and the almighty," many practitioners of foreign policy have sought to separate religion from world politics. secretary kerry admonished, "we'd nor the global impact of religion at our peril." "go out and engage religious leaders and faith based immunities in our day-to-day work -- faith-based communities in our day-to-day work." at a time when religious pilots inflames the middle east, the question of how diplomacy and religion can interact take on a high operational importance. what is the department of state doing to fulfill secretary kerry's instructions? what are the scope and limits of cooperation? toare honored this morning welcome our panelists. is the deputy assistant secretary of state in the bureau of conflict