bush decided to sunni iraq not shia iran giving shia ahmadinejad heck of a lot more influence in the middle east and taking out sunni saddam hussein iran's biggest enemy against whom they fought a multi year war it cost them both billions of dollars and killed over a million people so some people are saying on the potentially in dollars if the road is payback from shia iran for all the great things rove and bush did for them against the sunni muslims in addition some people are saying that the ten million dollar donation of karl rove as strings attached and if romney wins of the republicans take the senate then all those sanctions president obama put on shia iran would immediately be lifted and we might even go after another sunni run country that iran doesn't like just like bush took out soon iran iraq and flipped it over to rule and some people are saying that all the aggressive bomb iran talk coming from mitt romney. it was just a show and the behind closed doors mitt and mahmoud are best friends not only that i heard some people in washington d.c. say awkward new job is holding fu

the taliban we have to remember is a very anti-shia, anti-iranian organization. iran is a majority shia country. the taliban is influenced by very anti-shia strains of wahhabi anise lam. in 1998, in fact, iran almost went to war with the taliban. i remember that year that are iran amassed up to 200,000 troops on the iran/afghanistan border ready to invade afghanistan. this was because the taliban had massacred iranian diplomats in the african city of ma zur esharif and massacred thousands of ha czar raz or shia and are supported by iran. and when the united states invaded afghanistan, after 9/11, iran was very cooperative. iran viewed the u.s. invasion of afghanistan in very pragmatic terms. back then, of course, president muhammad ha tammy who was a reformist was a reformist i suppose still was president of iran. iran was very much concerned about the u.s. reaction to 9/11. it was worried about how the u.s. was going to behave toward iran. and essentially both countries were on the same side. iran was helping the northern alliance which was composed of pro-iranian ta

western powers they want to bring up a razor war and create divisions between sunni and shia and then you mentioned iran and what it what is the iran factor in this actually i mentioned iran because there are various agendas in their own agenda gender saudi arabia and qatar have their agenda now saudi arabia is almost paranoid about a row. and so me and all the neighbor saudi arabia has shia population and saudi arabia has been gauged in all kinds of moves over over the last few years due to kind of she is an across the region when one has to see this very much promise i was just straight in how they see things. are going to be going rock. across the region and the way i see it is this is the prime imperative in saudi arabia's. attitude towards syria they are not seriously interested in a dialogue that will leave that will lead to the little form with the syrian government still in place they want a government destroyed because that secular government has a partial government and because a government wish. to play a dominant role and that is imperative so i know there have been some people who are drawi

iran supports lots of sunni and shia groups despite being a shia state. it has ties with the taliban in the same group that has killed iranian diplomats and conducted attacks against iran. but when it comes to foreign policy often, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that's how the view on the taliban. that doesn't mean that it will view the taliban as a friend in the future because i think that two groups are fundamentally to poetzed to each other. but it allows for a certain degree of cooperation as long as the united states is in power or has troops in afghanistan. in terms of pakistani support from jendola, it might not have been active. pakistan has problems policing its borders. to jend la might have used pakistan's borders. interesting, iran put a lot of pressure against pakistan and made accusations, but remember, after he was captured, iranian officials thanked pakistan for their cooperation. so there is cooperation between the pakistani intelligence and armed forces. you're right, iran initially supported rabbani but switched support to other

if pakistan cannot protect its own shia population , and we have to separate the shia from iran. the other 100 million, the way our treated, is a completely different thing. the idea -- it seems to me that all that we know that the pakistan government helped to carry out the attacks in mumbai. these are some of the things we have to keep in mind. where al qaeda is going? i think it is developing a more sectarian force. the sectarian focus was clear in speech.iri's said the persians are doing this. now that he is trying to piggyback on what is going on in syria, which is also sectarian directed, linked with regional rivalries. what does the arab spring mean for al qaeda? anytime there is a political process, where people can, including the salafis, which i hope will remain in the minority, any time there is a route you to go through politically, the likelihood that this local group will disconnect themselves from this headquarters of al qaeda -- we have to wait and see. to me, it seems to me that the arabs spring is the worst thing that could have happened for al qaeda, and they h

he has a big job dealing with some elements in the shia group that are largely influenced by iran. some of those people. he has a big job trying to maintain security in a country where the iranian influence, military influence, and terrorist influence, and political influence i should add, is a difficult situation. you know, some people criticize him for vacillation, others for failing to be assertive, some accuse him of being too assertive. and it's business as usual in politics. everyone's got an opinion, everyone is fussing at everyone else. i think that it's not clear to me how it will evolve in iraq. we keep reporting that people are being killed and it's true. we also keep reporting that in chicago and new york and cities around america people are being killed and they are. and it's a shame, it's heartbreaking when people are killed. but it is not -- that journey they are on is not going to be smooth. it's a tough one. and how it will come out i don't know. all i know is that at some point they have to do it themselves and we can't do it for them. most of our people there don

iran's mahmoud ahmadinejad and saddam hussein. the iraqis have institutions in place that might help to give an answer to the sectarian divide between sunni and shia where you can have majority populations and even majority governments of one sect or another, but where the rights and interests of others are protected. iraq needs our re-engagement. we have to challenge iran. not just because of its nuclear ambitions and its exist stennal threat to europe but because iran is a revisionist power. iran is not satisfied with the balance in the middle east and would seek to undo it. it is why they have supported the terrorist shia groups in southern iraq, why they have stirred up trouble in the eastern provinces of saudi arabia, why they use their 10 tackles of hezbollah and hamas to try to cause problems whether in the gaza or in lebanon. in this regard sear eighty is critical. it's a strategic opportunity coming from a strategic challenge because the collapse of the regime of bashar al assad would deprive iran of its hand maiden in the middle east and its launching pad for hezbollah and for trouble in that region. now, it's a pretty big agenda to reac

there are many, many iranians we'll never know the exact numbers until iran is free, but who believe that this is a corruption of shia islam and in fact, i think it is and it is a great change from the way shia islam has been practiced at least for the last couple of centuries. they really, i think, essentially destroyed the system of having emulated leaders by bringing them all under the control of the state which ruins them and the entire system. and it is not therefore surprising that some of the most important resistance to the regime comes from the clerical establishment that -- and in fact, there were several prominent shia leaders including some grand ayatollahs who refused to vote in the recent elections on the grounds that it was all such a corrupt -- such corrupt political system. ultimately, and they look around, i'm sure, and they realize that in some of the arab countries we've seen free edexs in tunisia, in egypt, islamist parties win a free election, big victories, but in iran the population is really disgusted with the kind of islam that the state is forcing on them and they realize what that means fo

before iraq's 2010 elections, iran tried to push all of iraq's shia political groups into a single political bloc guided by tehran. that field. after the elections, iran tried to push iraq sheet to form a government only with iraq's kurds and excluding the predominantly sunni parties. that failed. iran opposed iraq's partnership with leading international oil companies in the development of iraq's hydrocarbon resources. iraqis understood that this partnership with international oil companies was vital to iraq's successful development of its oil site you're been very much in iraq's interest in as a result, iraq's oil production is increasing steadily compared to 2009, for example, iraq now persuaded 300,000 additional barrels of new oil on the world market every day in iraq is one of the few countries that has the potential and the plans to greatly increase production. this is one of the most important fact druce bolstering iraq's sovereignty and the ability to resist iran's meddling. ultimately, while iran and iraq they appear to be closer than we and many of iraq's neighbors would like, one

iran little more sectarian attack two carloads of gunmen opened fire while the men were working in an orchard violence has decreased in iraq but sunni militants still launch attacks to challenge the country's shia led government. military leaders in the west african state of guinea bissau have announced a national transitional council that's following a meeting with political parties soldiers wrestled control from the nation's interim government four days ago over plans to reduce the size of the country's influential army whose have been calm and you need to sound since it won independence in one thousand and seventy four. the mali interim president says he's ready to open talks with rebels an islamist occupying the north but he insists on groups among them must leave only have been divided since rebels declared an independent homeland earlier this month when the military coup the soldiers in the uprising claimed the government has not provided enough weapons fight the insurgency. and afghanistan's president says sunday as attacks across the country showed an intelligence failure on part of local and nato forces kabul saw eighteen hours of fierce fighting after taliban militants most of our gra

iran 8 revisionist power -- is a revisionist power. they have supported the terrorist shia groups in southern iraq. they have stirred up trouble in the eastern provinces of saudi arabia. they use their tentacles to try to cause problems in the gaza or in lebanon. in this regard, syria is critical. the collapse of the regime would deprive iran its handmaiden in the middle east and its launching pad for hezbollah and for trouble in that region. now, it is a pretty big agenda to react to this changing world that has undergone these shocks. there those who ask, can we handle this challenge and still pursue our values? this is what has made the u.s. exceptional. this belief in free markets and free people, a willingness to try to promote them abroad and a belief the world would be more stable and more prosperous as freedom wins out. that exceptional as an is critical for another reason. we cannot ask the american people to make sacrifices if we have nothing to say about how the history should unfold. rather than leading a common cause with like-minded states and longtime allies

iran 8 revisionist power -- is a revisionist power. they have supported the terrorist shia groups in southern iraq. they have stirred up trouble in the eastern provinces of saudi arabia. they use their tentacles to try to cause problems in the gaza or in lebanon. in this regard, syria is critical. the collapse of the regime would deprive iran its handmaiden in the middle east and its launching pad for hezbollah and for trouble in that region. now, it is a pretty big agenda to react to this changing world that has undergone these shocks. there those who ask, can we handle this challenge and still pursue our values? this is what has made the u.s. exceptional. this belief in free markets and free people, a willingness to try to promote them abroad and a belief the world would be more stable and more prosperous as freedom wins out. that exceptional as an is critical for another reason. we cannot ask the american people to make sacrifices if we have nothing to say about how the history should unfold. rather than leading a common cause with like-minded states and longtime allies

iran is not satisfied with the balance in the middle east and will seek to undo it. it is why they have supported the terrorist shia groups in southern iraq. while they have stirred up trouble in the eastern province of saudi arabia, why they use -- they start problems. this is critical. it's a strategic opportunity coming from a strategic challenge. because the collapse of the regime of bashar assad with iran of handmading in the middle east and launch a path for hezbollah in that region. it's a pretty big agenda to react to this changing world that's undergone these shocks. there are those who ask can we handle this challenge and still pursue our values. i would suggest we can handle this challenge only if we pursue our values. this is what has ahead the u.s. exceptional. this belief in free markets and free people, a willingness to try and promote them abroad and a belief that the world will be more stable and more prosperous as freedom winds out. that exceptionalism is critical for another reason. we cannot ask the american people to make the sacrifices for leadership if we have nothing special to say about how

iran. and this is not a popular idea because the conventional thinking has been that sunnis and shias cannotork together. but clapper said this is really a shotgun marriage. a marriage of convenience. and that the alliance really does exist. and when he was pressed by, i believe it was senator portman, whether this was sort of an insurance policy, if you will, that if they were attacked, they might rely on al-qaeda's network to retaliate, he said that that was the belief of the u.s. government. thank you. >> hello. i'm eric weissman from boulder. >> hi, eric. >> and i'm a candidate for the second congressional district. i was struck by your comments about the messaging of the stories about ford hood, how they would not recognize the facts and avoid discuss what it really meant. and it made me think of the story in this morning's times about the intelligence agencies saying that they don't see a move by iran to build a nuclear weapon. to what extent do you think messaging is going on there, or how shall we interpret these different narratives that are coming out of different parts of our and

shias, sunnis. there are a lot of reasons for the rest of the world to want to wall off without having to compete with iran. my question to you all is why it is not more being done on this? this has to be done on a longer term. it does not have to be a big coalition that requires treaties. it would really get the iranians attention. is no one doing anything on this? if not, why not? . >> it is a good question. parts of the problem is we have these three different paths and we are not properly planning for any of them. it is not clear to me what our strategy is going through these negotiations, what we are willing to offer the iranians. if we are serious about military negotiations, there are things we could do about building a coalition. it is not clear to me that is going on. it is difficult to plan for a nuclear arms iran when you are stated policy is to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. proposals for dealing with a nuclear iran are things developed better outside of think tanks and universities. it is difficult for the administration to do that for political reasons. >> i would not say politi