we've got a static situation as richard haas has said, where there's a stalemate. syria's losing-- the government is losing hunchgz of territory, particularly in the north and east. it's lost most of the east, and about half of aleppo, the major city in the north. but it still has a strong perch in damascus. we're at a stalemate. the american government, europeans could changehat stalatedramically by injecting new weapons. the trouble is political plea, for president obama, there is only down sides to this, at least in the short term. if the rebeles, who are very fragmented and there are elements of antibody i al qaedas in there, get the weapons obama would send in, they could use them against israels and allies of the united states. when obama looks at this politically, he sees a big steep downside, and not very much upside about getting america involved. he's much more interestedn e middle class in america than he is in the middle east. he's trying to get out of the middle east, not into it. >> rose: i understand that, but what do you think israel would want the

let me ask, richard haas. when you served in the government you worked for the secretary of state colin powell. you are very familiar with this case. what do you think the chances are that this president might do what other presidents repeatedly rejected in the face of requests for an israeli leaders, release pollard? >> probably depends upon the larger context of u.s./israeli relations, wolf. i can imagine at a certain moment this might be something useful to introduce into the mix depending upon what the president was asking, what benjamin netanyahu was asking of israel. i think it is unlikely to be decided shall we say in isolation. it's ban big political issue particularly in israel on the right as you know better than anyone else for sometime. so my hunch is this is not something again that will be given away, if you will for free. >> let me bring gloria back and talk a little bit about the political fallout from the president's visit to israel, coming back now the secretary of state john kerry will remai

as richard haas said you're right until the day you're wrong and the day you're wrong that's a very bad day, indeed. what do you want me to do? to tell you that the markets are going to turn on us on january 27? >> no, i want you to tell me why the markets would turn on us at all system? this is a -- there is a record here. there's a report of the last few years which is that the deficit hawks have been predicting imminent disaster again and again. they told us the interest rates were going to soar in 2009 and 2010 they told us inflation was going to rise. they said we're going to turn into greece and they keep on being wrong whereas people who have this analytical framework -- and i'm not just making numbers up, i'm taking a macroeconomic analysis and saying in a depressed economy deficits are not a problem. that framework has led to the correct problem as long as the conclusion in inflation will stay low as long as the economy is depressed. countries that borrow in their own currency are not like greece and every country that borrow in its own currency including japan with its 200% de

>> and this is, richard haas, you can only push people so far, i mean, not the republicans' best friendthis weekend said democrats you're about to lose me. i pay 40% federal, 15%. well, i hear we have it cued up. let's go. this is bill maher this weekend. >> -- actually do pay the freight in this country. i just saw the statistics, something like 70%. and here in california, i'm just going to say, liberals, you could actually lose me. it's outrageous what we're paying. over -- i'm willing to pay my share, but yeah, it's ridiculous. >> and not only that -- >> wow. >> people like bill maher pay 55% in california, people in new york pay over 50%. in new jersey, why is a republican sitting at 70% plus approval rating? you can only -- and economists, liberal economists write about this, you can only tax people so much. and then on top of that, for democrats to go around saying when bill maher is paying 55% in taxes, you know what, but the rich aren't paying their fair share. we need more. both sides have got to figure out how they come to the table. and moderate. >> absolutely. and you know,

. >> for the moment, richard haas saved a stranger's house and he hopes he helped save his own in thecess. but as he races back to his street, he realizes time is running out. smoke is surrounding his home. >> it was getting harder and harder to see and, if you can't see what's coming at you, you might want to get out of the way. >> despite his desperate efforts, richard realizes he will have to leave his house behind and hope for the best. >> as time went on, i was getting more and more concerned. the wind was still going pretty crazy and i was worried that it would change direction. if the wind changed direction, then we were screwed. >> richard finally admits defeats and grabs his dogs and races away from the scene. >> it's not a good feeling knowing that the next time you come back to your house it's not going to be there. night falls. a caravan of the last few holdouts from the neighborhood joins richard on his escape route. >> it does, it looks like a freakin war zone out here. >> we did find a way out. we dodged trees and went through ditches and got past and got out. >> but it

. >>> this week's office politics, richard haas, president on the council of foreign relations, alex public deserves more information on that. but she started by asking him about the notion of the government, does it even recognize this? >> whether officially exists or not, in reality it exists. we shoot them with some frequency. and it's obviously become controversial over the criteria of shooting them and the process that leads to individual decisions, particularly for an american, is quite rare is the target. but when we have terrorists somewhere and the host country hanging out is unable or unwilling to arrest them or stop them, we have to send in special forces which is possible, or we've got to do something like drones, and we want to stop these people before they do something destructive against us, and drones are a way to do that. >> how do you weigh the moral concerns against the tactical? >> that's part of any use of force. not sure anything different morley between using a drone or cruise missile or something like that to me, the real question is what's smart? done rumsfel

. >>> in today's office politics my conversation with richard haas, president of the council on foreigncuss the level to which the u.s. can trust hamid karzai and whether the wars in iraq and afghanistan are wars of choice or necessity. first i asked richard how the u.s. should respond to reports china is spying on us. >> china is clearly spying on us. we don't know exactly who in china has authorized these things. but let's not kid ourselves. you don't freelance in china. someone in the establishment, someone with authority, is backing this. it looks to be the people's liberation army. we don't know the full extent of political participation in these decisions. they're spying on americans clearly for reasons of commercial gain. it's not unique. for years china has to use an indelicate phrase been ripping off american companies. intellectual property theft is something that is quite frequent. think about all the films and, you know, the pirating. think about all the illegal reproductions of videos. this is nothing new. this is just now a newer technology. what's even more potentially wo

along with richard haas, the author of the forthcoming book "foreign policy begins at home." you. how significant is this latest exchange of verbal blasts, shall we say, or views from the iranian ya, the u.s. and the israelis? >> significant within the context of a very complicated relationship. so to makes an offer, or this is two weeks ago, let's try to have direct talks between the united states and iran. the supreme leader of iran khomeini a couple of days later seems to dismiss that. he says, you know, the americans keep threatening us, we don't want to talk to them. then we get approached. we have good relationships and maintain constant communication with the iranians. and so we get approached by them and they say -- they offer to come on the program and the ambassador says, you know, i can confirm for you we are ready for direct talks and he goes on to parse khomeini's speech saying he didn't mean to say no talks, he just said, you've got to respect us, uyou've got to talk straight to us. within the context of this complicated business, it does sound like they're tryi