are now arguing about dates, and i suppose that's not a fruitful discussion for your viewers, but saddam hussein in 1979. and before that the baath party, but certainly by 1979 the state had been taken apart, and had become largely kind of an alter ego of saddam hussein certainly by 1979 before the 1980 war. what we're saying here is that it's not some exercise of imperial huberis on the part of the angelo frencha allies in creating these areas, and one of the biggest bugga boos of scholars is to say this is an artificial state. there is nothing artificial about iraq. it is not 1960s. it's not 1970 that is cause of the fray that we're seeing now. truthfully what we're seeing now is now-governments, which could take societies that were quite promising and then govern them so poor li poorly. >> there is nothing artificial about the iraqi state. we'll look at that a little later in the program. but this idea right now we're looking at something far more significant than previous attempts to weaken the iraqi state. it sometimes happens in the human body when you catch something, when you're

and that time he told me we have saddam, neither you, nor us, we cannot cooperate with saddam, but tehran and riyadh, they can cooperate. today saddam is gone, and there is no reason three pillars of the region should not and could not sit together and to create a regional cooperation system in persian gulf between iran, iraq and the gcc. >> hossein, you said here tonight and you say in the book that three different presidencies in iran including, surprisingly to me, the presidency of ahmadinejad made efforts for rapprochement with the west. those efforts failed, as you also said. why do you think this one height work? might work? >> because as i said, of course in my understanding i have also explained in my book i believe ahmadinejad made the most effort even more than rath san january and khatami to reach the u.s. he was the first president who wrote official letter to the u.s. president bush and obama. he was the first president who congratulated an elected u.s. president, president obama in 2009. and the high level talks began during the -- the highest level talks began during ahmadi

and there is evidence of saddam holding people hostage near military targets during the invasion of kuwait however little evidence exists of the systematic use of human shields during his reign the lack of evidence didn't stop bush from fear mongering the world about saddam's long history of devaluing human life through the use of human shields media roots journalist robbie martin even found an entire cia report dedicated to saddam's use of human shields during the height of the us propaganda machine selling the iraq war bush even tried to preemptively justify the mass civilian death toll he knew was certain to combat the invasion by saying that the iraqi dictator plans to quote shield his military and blame coalition forces for civilian. to use that he has caused sound familiar moving on to afghanistan where taliban militants were accused of quote using civilians as human shields according to government officials just another narrative spun by the military with no actual evidence backing it up but this term has long been applied even before the war on terror during the vietnam war

you said there was no doubt saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. said we would be greeted as liberators. you said the iraq insurgency was in the last throes back in 2005. and you said that after our intervention extremists would have to "rethink their strategy of jihad." now with almost $1 trillion spent there, with 4500 american lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many? >> no, i fundamentally disagree, reagan-- megyn. ( laughter ) ( applause ) >> stephen: that was no mistake. as a true conservative, every sentence has to contain at least one reagan. ( laughter ) and he just fundamentally disagrees with reality. it's easy now to monday morning "not invade iraq" but dick cheney remembers how it felt at the time so right. >> you've got to go back and look at the track record. we inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody's mind about the extent of saddam's involvement in weapons of mass destruction. >> stephen: there was no doubt about the extent of saddam's involvemen

then he was not operating against saddam hussein. he was operating with plots in europe and georgia. i think secretary powell said 116 operatives -- >> you still think for all the cost, on balance it was worth it? >> we needed to do something. whether exactly what we did is open to debate. but the idea we could've lived with another 10 years with saddam hussein, i cannot agree with. >> they do so much for being with us and a happy fourth of july. when we return, gm's settlement attorney ken feinberg on the company's latest recall. >> here i am getting paid because people out there, how independent can he be if he is being paid by general motors? ♪ >> welcome back. we are joined by the general motors settlement czar ken feinberg. 9/11, bp, this is another big case. what are you seeing so far? >> we are starting to see the claims. the claims cannot officially be submitted until august 1. you have from august until december 31 to officially submit a claim. but we are starting to get letters from individuals, and the letters go all the w

in 2002 he wrote that for the war on terrorism to succeed saddam hussein must be removed. when george w. bush set out to do just that, kagan cheered him on. then in 2006 called for a surge in american troop levels to prevent iraq's collapse. now robert kagan is stirring controversy again with this lengthy article in the new republic. superpowers don't get to retire. wh he calls for america to return to muscular global activism. his article brought a sharper post from another scholared historian who seized the role differently. they have seen the horrors too closely to advocate more of the same policies that failed in vietnam and iraq. a graduate from west point with 23 years in the military including time in vietnam. he teaches history at boston university and writes best selling books and articles and essays and journals both liberal and conservative. like this critique of kagan titled "the duplicity of the idea logs." welcome back. what do you mean by that? >> kagan's essay, which does deserve to be read because of his stature in washington, gives us a falsified sanitize

that individual was removed from the hole. >> he said that, "i'm saddam hussein.i am the president of iraq, and i'm willing to negotiate." and then the response from the u.s. soldiers was, "president bush sends his regards." >> narrator: some hoped saddam's capture would calm the insurgency. but four months later, one incident threatened to undo everything. up in the sunni heartland, in fallujah, four american contractors were murdered. >> dragged around and hung off the bridge. two of the bodies are hung off the bridge. this creates a "we must do something" response. >> narrator: the president wanted revenge. for the first time, he reached directly into the process and ordered the marines to retaliate. >> marines understand an order. well, they shaved off their mustaches, fixed bayonets and went in and did what marines do best. >> fallujah becomes kind of an iraqi alamo. only in this case, the defenders survive. >> americans were moving into the city. they were killing people. al jazeera was showing images of mosques on fire and civilians being injured and killed

"gps," my guest, sweden's foreign minister said that putin's invasion of crimea is comparable to saddam hussein's invasion of kuwait, so why no international military response this time? i will ask him. if you wear a denture, touch it with your tongue.

trying to establish links --ween the saddam or sheen the saddam regime and al qaeda -- there was nothing there. a caller raised the question on how we know how to pick leaders. we are not good at this. it works best as in japan and germany if we deal with a country with experience and democratic systems that has suffered a military defeat and fears some other force area and then, we have a partner we can move forward on a democratic basis with. it is very hard in the middle east if you try to promote democracy. and -- monicade we -- ifeets if another country invaded the u.s. because we can't run our own country, how would we react? isler: i see your topic options in iraq. we should not be pushing democracy in that region. we need to push the terrorists out of the country. how do we know they will not feel -- a build these first bomb that will wipe us off the map? our airstrikes a viable option? guest: what we are dealing with is highly mobile personnel he countryside t and attacking government positions, trying to get to the north and the south of baghdad. toy lend themselves airstrikes

it's going to come because saddam hussein is going to deliver it somehow to the united states on someood plane. first of all, did they ever produce evidence of that ever -- they had the weapon, the delivery system, the vehicle to send it with? >> no evidence at all. >> why did everybody get sold with the idea of the mushroom cloud? >> it was a selling job by the bush white house. they took classified intelligence they were being given about the status of hussein's weapons of mass destruction. that intelligence was filled with caveats, reservations, uncertainties and they turned around and said in public it's absolute, it's certain, he's got weapons. he wants more. he's about to use them. and none of that was true. >> why did they spin it so to pushing us into war if they weren't sure? in other words, they got the raw data, they knew the uncertainties. yet, was this a selling piece? they wanted to two to wgo to wa other reasons, middle east peace, pushing the rejectionist states with israel, was it about oil, was it about george w. being mad because they tried to kill his dad? what was

in the '90s for that war with saddam, they got satellite tv, so there was a bit more. but now everyone has a good idea what goes on in the rest of the world. not just in the u.s., but in the rest of the arab world. so they, that has breld some compare -- that has bred some comparative unhappiness among young, more liberal saudis and a great deal of comparative unhappiness among more conservative people of why are we tolerating these kinds of sinful infidel things in our country. the country is much more, in my judgment, divided than it was in the '70s and '80s. >> host: was it significant that king abdullah's first foreign trip was to china? >> guest: i think it was deliberately done, yes, that they wanted to stress. i have had innumerable saudis say to me don't you understand, you know, we're all here speaking english. but in 25 years' time if the u.s. doesn't behave better, we're all going to be speaking chinese. t you know, we have options, and there, you know, china is now a major buyer of saudi oil. so there is a, there is a growing relationship with china. so i b

in 1990, saddam hussein invade ed, america forged a coalition that responded decisively. thriving iraqi forces out of kuwait, but leaving saddam hussein still in charge in baghdad. in 2000, george w. bush ran as a compassionate conservative, and concentrated open domestic issues. but the events of september 11th changed everything. >> good evening. >> bush responded that day. >> we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. >> it was the first declaration of one of the pillars of what would come to be known as the bush doctrine? >> the people will hear all of us soon. >> in 2001, bush's military response was to attack afghanistan, with a ruling taliban harbored the al qaeda leaders responsible for 9/11. >> the president made the decision that we had to go on the offensive. >> william lewdy served as special assistant to the president for defense policy and strategy. this meant a complete rethinking of our strategic doctrine when it came to fighting terrorism. >> president bush continued to develop his doctrine for f

. >>> prosthetic limbs from a 3d printer are giving hope to saddam's victims of war - we see how. >>> a temporary pause in the fighting in gaza came in effect for the next five horse. israel agreed to stop pounding the territory and palestinian fighters are supposed to not fire rockets. this is the scene in gaza right now. it was brokered by the united nations to allow badly needed supplies into gaza. a week of israeli bombardment killed 227 palestinians, many civilians, one israeli died. among the dead are four palestinian children, dying on a beach on wednesday during on israeli air strike. let's go to our correspondent stefanie dekker, live at the rafa hospital in gaza. firstly, this u.n.-brokered humanitarian pause that israel and palestinian factions signed up to. what is going to happen? >> well, that's taking effect right now. actually for the next five hours. what we expect to happen, what we were told by the u.n. is we'll have time to bring in humanitarian supplies, fix things like electricity lines, water pipes, sewerage, things that have been ruined during the bombardment.

. >> host: saddam hussein was able to maintain control in the country. what was he able to do that his successors are not? >> guest: i would challenge that. first of all, he faced repeated uprisings which had to be put down by force. we intervened right after the first gulf war so the kurdish area was protected by the u.s. air force and to some the shiias as well. this is not something that began in 2003. >> host: his days were numbered had he not been forced out? >> guest: absolutely. >> host: let's get your calls. we have a call from philadelphia. good morning, john. >> caller: good morning. my comment is when the republicans stole this election with gore, it told me one thing, they would steal the children's and the sunni war to get to the treasury. you can connect the dots now and look back. elections have consequences. that's what i wanted to say. >> guest: i have no comment on that. >> host: let's go to matt in concord, new hampshire. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i hope the fourth of july is wonderful for everybody in america. i have a br

from a shia perspective they have been persecuted over decades under a sunni regime of saddam hussein. so the prejudice that is in iraq indeed of sunnies that believe the shias are iranians and believe the sunnies have prosecuted them. and they have conflict about iran. if iran intervene in any shape way or form in my opinion that exasperate the regional tension beyond iraq, it goes into syria, into le lebanon. i talked to friends over there and the tension is so bad there. it is something that is going to exasperate the situation. if i am iran i would want the shia population, more importantly the iraqi shia sides have all the symbolism of shiaism and would want to prerequisite these things. >> the tension that surrounds iraq, what do you make of that? >> well, this is -- the problem with maliki is that his core identity is that of a shia who himself been prosecuted by saddam hussein's regime. we need to create a new vision of the government and change the narrative over that. that's the elephant in the room. maliki has to leave, really, his act of faith is to me an act of december o

shevardnadze general najib abed has served his nation his whole adult life first in the military under saddam hussein and then as a mayor of the town of tal afar after the u.s. invasion his efforts to combat militant extremism by working around sectarian divides managed to bring peace to the city but now as says that it's controlled far his former mayor follows that spate closely and with concern he's here with us today to explain what exactly is going on in iraq today. as isis makes lighting fast advances in iraq the nation's armies fleeing on us showing the world how feeble the country is three years after u.s. troops left its soil what's the cause of its weakness what will it take to contain the wave of terror and can come out of this as a united nation. najim a bad algebraic slayer over iraq a town of tal afar which is now in isis hands you are now based in america and you are made a scholar it's great to have you on our show today now talent far has been overtaken by isis you were the city's mayor i know and i know that you keep in touch with your colleagues there so what's going on righ

with islamic teachings exactly so while and they were willing and we were we were actually giving saddam intelligence that he was using to site the dropping of these. gas bombs on iranians that's that's right and furthermore the very people in the defense intelligence agency who were doing that work directly with saddam's airforce were also responsible for having put out dissin from ation about the the worst chemical weapons attack in that war. because it was stead said by these people in a paper that was circulated throughout the us government then got into the news media that there ronnie and also used chemical weapons it was totally untrue. so. if iran. if the ayatollah and his i mean if the if the latter lost all many was willing to allow his soldiers to be slaughtered with chemical weapons and refused on principle or religious principle to manufacture or use chemical weapons and the new ayatollah khomeini. or if he's saying we will not build or use nuclear weapons because that would be a violation of islam and we've already seen this demonstration that these guys actually walk their

she gets called into a meeting with saddam hussein days before the invasion.s is a very rare thing. the u.s. ambassador never got to talk to saddam hussein. he does not talk to people that lived. he explains we have these long-standing grievances. she says we cannot comment on disputes. people have subsequently said that gave him the green light. the truth is i have 13 different cables from the white house and state department in the days leading up to that saying make sure you tell saddam hussein we don't comment on border disputes because we don't comment on border disputes. there are 3000 around the world. if we commented on everyone, we would have to stick our noses everywhere. she delivered the message we don't comment on border disputes, but we will be against any use of force. we are always against the use of force, diplomatic solutions are the way to go. that part gets forgotten. there are any number of cables that say president bush was scheduled to speak with saddam hussein by telephone the evening of the invasion. course, the call never occurs. talk

we were at iraq and saddam hussein. the president was prepared to take whatever action needed to be taken. >> a huge potential crime scene. >> this investigation would have been one of the largest carried out by the fbi. >> i had a thousand agents working on the case. >> my fiance was on the plane. >>> my sister paula with her son. 9 years old. >> our biggest concern was a recovery of our loved ones' bodies. there were a lot of times that i doubted the existence of god. and i said, god, how and why could you let something like this happen? my name is joe litschner and i lost my wife pam who was 37, shannon who was 10, and katie who was 8 on flight twa 800. pam decided they would take a trip to europe and it was supposed to be a very short trip. just over the weekend. i had to go on a business trip up to calgary. when i left, they jumped in my arms and they wrapped their arms and legs around me. both of them did that twice before i left on my trip because i wouldn't see them for over a week. shannon was 10 years old when

the mission of i iraq was to oppose saddam hussein then provide the opportunity to roll back the forces of civil war and provide the opportunity for iraq to govern itself but what most of the press does not cover because they cover brigade spears something that is more important is that iraq freed 30 million people that voted three times and prime minister maliki is actually a second place candidate but those that had never voted before that started the way toward democracy that we should have supported more. >> mission accomplished? >> no. the initiative and moved forward moving forward with that accomplishment how does that make people more prosperous and free and those? >> another big one dash dictator with those weapons of mass destruction opposing saddam hussein was the indication the influence the united states has in the world with the coalition and we put together with 39 nations to fight alongside us in that kind of global leadership plays a significant impact with trade and foreign policy. >> how has that enhance the liberties? >> let's get the advent of global trade and appli

this former officer once served in saddam hussein army.hey won't end until the rights are restored. >> translator: we will continue the war. we are ready to deal with modern shia leaders, but iranian influence has to end. maliki has to leave power. >> reporter: for many months of people of anbar protested in the the streets. the government viewed the demonstrations that spread to other sunni areas as a threat. the government responded with force and said it was fighting militant groups. the province is a battleground since the start of this year. armed groups pushed the iraqi army out of the sunni heartland in early june, but opponents of the government say the rel bellion started months earlier in anbar. some 300,000 people were displaced by the conflict there. around 30,000 of them live in the kurdish region in northern iraq. many of them stay in motels. it has been six months now. families have spent most of the savings and have no choice but to return to anbar. they left because of what they call the indiscriminate and bombardment by t

what would've happened at that point is we would've deposed saddam hussein. the war breaking out now because we've abandoned our relationship with the rack would've broken out in 2004 in the united states and the entire united states would've been blamed by not only the muslim world, but by the chinese in europe for destroy that regime a leading to a would've been a regional conflagration we see today. >> would you answer versus the question that gave grover norquist in my competing attorneys so much trouble appeared on the balance, has america been a force for good or bad on the world? >> absolutely, yes. [applause] >> your wit us. please cross mr. mccarthy. >> general, mr. d'souza said he thought vietnam war was still prevacid should not than five. do you agree with that? >> probably on balance. i would've done what president eisenhower did not intervene in vietnam. >> astounds you are in favor of a more restrained foreign policy than the one we have today. is that correct? >> yes. >> told me in your experience what was the mission in iraq? >> the mission i

of the united states and other western countries in israel right and they worked very closely with saddam we had listed them as terrorists for a long time we just recently in the last year changed the united states is definitely use them for military intelligence in iraq there's no doubt about that the israelis have been using them for some various things including the wondering quote unquote of intelligence that the israelis did not want to be have attributed to them and so and i show in the book that the ties between the any case which had a calc in israel were particularly close during this period they had just revealed in two thousand and two the existence of natanz the first enrichment site some facilities of iran and a number of sources including exiled iranian sources have said that these this information was being peddled by a certain cunts. which refused to reveal itself. and that country was certainly israel because for various reasons we're able to establish that so i you know i want to get to why they did that but before i do just a just a flat out question does iran have a nu

>> well, i mean, in the case of saddam hussein and kuwait, of course, there was a resolution by the u.n. security council. now russia is a member of the security council so that will never happen. they are going to block everything that is related to this, but i think it is important that we are extremely firm on how grave the violation of international law is that russia has undertaken in the case of crimea and that we make very clear to russia that the invasion, the occupation and the annexation of crimea will have consequences. we'll never accept it and it will be burdened on our bilateral relationship for as long as it lasts. we're not going to undo the occupation immediately, but we must be very clear that it is not acceptable. it was not acceptable in the kuwait case. it is not acceptable in the crimea case. it is not acceptable in any future cases either. >> do you believe that the west has responded with enough in terms of putting costs on russia for this? there have been some sanctions from the united states, even fewer from the eu. it seems not a lot compared with the gravity

we were looking at iraq and saddam hussein. the president was prepared to take whatever action needed to be taken. >> a huge potential crime scene. >> this investigation could be the largest carried out by the fbi. >> i had 1,000 agents working on the case. >> my fiancee was on the plane. >> my sister paula with her son nine years old. >> this is it. >> our biggest concern was a recovery of our loved one's bodies. there were a lot of times that i doubted the existence of god, and i said god, how and why could you let something like this happen? >>> my name is joe lichner and i lost my wife pam who was 37 shannon who was ten and katy who was eight on flight twa 800. pam decided they would take a trip to europe and just supposed to be a very short trip, just over the weekend. i had to go on a business trip up to calgary. when i left, they jumped in my arms and wrapped their arms and legs around me, both of them did that twice before i left on my trip because i wouldn't see them for over a week. shannon was ten years old when she

evict him from kuwait, at a time when they were very worried saddam hussein might move on in. that was the high watermark of u.s.-saudi real relations, clearly, 1990, when we defended them and there have always been ups and downs in this relationship, and we're clear through in a down now, and it will be interesting to see when king abdullah dies, if his more moderate policies remain in effect in the kingdom. if they're accelerated in any way or if there is a -- an attempt by the conservatives to claw back the little bits of progress that have been made on openness, opportunity, for women... >> among the more liberal studies soon the great deal of love comparative among conservative people why are we a tolerating the use sinful infidel things in our country? the country is much more in my judgment, a divided then it was in the '70s and '80s. >> host: was and is significant case of still love first trip was to do china? >> i think it was deliberately done. i had innumerable saudis say to me don't you understand we're all here speaking english but did 25 years if the west is not