then we had the iraq war. for me it's been the pendulum almost, the reason the political back and forth, left and right, still driven by the attitude people have about that war. >> i think that's true, chris. i think we need to say first of all that we are resilient and ten years on in some respects, it's remarkable how seemingly normal things are. but they aren't normal. they just seem normal. we're much, much more in debt than we were. and it's not just the 4 trillion that brown university counted. we cut taxes furiously. we printed money furiously. all in an effort to keep the economy float, which is what osama bin laden was really attacking when he attacked the world trade center. so we spent trillions of dollars to create the illusion that nothing has changed. in fact, everything has changed and we have yet as a society really to examine openly and how to argue and deal with the consequences of ten years ago. the american people are like that. we like to look ahead. we don't like to pick tend trails of th

the grocery store here. it's not... it's not like that. it was iraq, you know. it's kind of like acceptable to see that there and not... not really care about it. it got to the point, really, it was like seeing a dead dog or a dead cat laying on... it just got to that point. >> narrator: the surge was a strategic success, but for the young soldiers of third platoon, there was a psychological cost. >> they were more exposed to the elements and to the bad guys and to the horrors of the battlefield for longer periods of time without a break. that did have an impact. there's no... clearly, no doubt about it. is that a reason not to do the surge? no, the surge worked. we needed to do the surge. war is a dangerous thing, and there is going to be repercussions from... from the actions, whether they're successful or not. and some of those are going to be us dealing with troops that have psychological problems that they bring back with them. i don't know if there's any way around that. you got to do what you have to do. >> in iraq, you've got to be numb. there was this on

lucky severson reports. >> going into the iraq war, u.s. military officials described the overwhelming force they intended to employ as "shock and awe." now it seems that same phrase could be used to describe the overall cost of that war and the one in afghanistan and the u.s. engagement in neighboring pakistan. it's much greater than predicted by the government, according to a report compiled by the watson institute for international studies at brown university. it's called the eisenhower research project, codirected by professors catherine lutz and neta crawford. >> i've been looking at the history of war and its conduct for a long time, and what struck me about these three wars most startlingly was how much we don't know about the costs. >> the reasonable estimate is approximately $4 trillion for the war, up to today and including some of the future cts that wee obligated to pay for veterans care. >> that estimate includes the cost of the fighting that hasn't ended yet, but it does not include as much as a trillion dollars just for the in

would do because then hooked from the war in iraq would create a sort of couse. a low. rise generations of terrorists and that was nearly what happened with the war in iraq so it was a complete mystery and a very dangerous mistake for the united states. kind of totally different. even if we knew. because we saw so many years ago the soviet army in afghanistan that afghanistan is so trepan tree that cannot be concrete and which is very very difficult and. there would be no solution with pakistan on one hand on the other hand in afghanistan ok well looking at their perspectives people especially ordinary citizens going there are those in afghanistan and iraq who do feel that the u.s. attack them for no credible reason i mean even if we go back to the reasons that existed at that time do you think there's a danger that the u.s. has created more enemies for. citizens in its efforts to protect. you can say that of the iraq war because going to work in iraq was the period of solidarity of. solidarity with z. u.s. after the attacks of the. years. in iraq know. going in your hea

people hate the u.s. in iraq they don't want the u.s. to be in iraq and i think they want to things to stop these incidents from happening they want number one the u.s. to withdraw completely before the end of this year but president obama has promised a number to all of these incidents that took place to be investigated so that iraqis who were harmed are compensated and the criminals who are behind. our interest what you've written about the president or obama saying he's going to pull out of iraq and you know i think this is there's a lot of skepticism in this country especially after we just built this massive palace there the u.s. embassy but nonetheless if he does what is the most likely outcome in iraq is it is a possible the country will split our various factions or will there be another strongman or could there be a full blown democracy or will it become an islamic state. in your opinion and you've been there. i think all the. possibilities for the future of iraq and iraqis will decide what they want they want more christian good

you can say that of the iraq war because going to war in iraq was the period of solidarity. necessary solidarity. yes. you know. going at war in iraq was. necessarily a way to create enemies of the u.s. . that's what history shows shows now ok at ten years on do you think the u.s. has a won anything in the war on terror. yes they have if you will if you look at the ten years you look at the. ten years after if you look at the way terrorism spread. in other countries and if you look at the fact that the u.s. were not attacked anymore you can make sort of a balance. sheet. with this all thing but the main thing is that. it appears. to be as clearly now that the main enemies of al qaeda are people. who want freedom and democracy and mainly people living in muslim countries their main enemies in those countries and we are seeing now with. tunisia egypt in syria is that people from muslim countries ask mainly for freedom and for democracy which is the only way to respond to. ok we're just following what you're saying i mean yes we can create a balance sheet can we tell a bank is s

the u.s. foreign policy here because back then you had george bush talking about iran and iraq as the axis of evil going to war with iraq and the nine eleven commission never found that either of them were involved in the nine eleven. terror attacks was this just used by george bush to justify whatever it wanted with people that the united states enemies of the time he wanted to take out saddam hussein i mean the two hated each other. some of them one we guarded hussein is a corrupt secular arab dictator which he was right but of course osama bin laden is an evil islamicist terrorist but they hated each other right so they weren't colluding in iraq and there's no evidence to show that and it was kind of a farfetched thing in the in the media despite many neoconservatives trying to make these two links and i so i think you know there was clearly an attempt to go after iraq and use nine eleven to do so and of course the terrorism spiked the statistics spiked after us invaded iraq so of course that made the terrorism worse and that's not that's even if you exclude the terrorist attacks against u.

the end of march 2012. iraqexpects the principles of good neighbor and committed to non-interference and internal affairs, seek to solve disputes with peaceful means establish its relations on the basis of common interests and reciprocity, respect its international obligations. this is why we invited the two neighbors, turkey and the islamic republic of iran to resort to the primacy of dialogue to solve the issues and to stop bombing the iraqis into kazakhstan region which is causing many victims among innocents and civilians. .. nuclear chemical and biological weapons and shall prohibit associated equipment material, technologies and delivery systems for use and development and use of such wet days. on this clear position in commitment to iraq, to national disarmament, the security exhausted december 15, 2010, resolution 1957 wish lists on iraq. we would like to confirm the legitimate arrival of peace to nuclear and technologies according to google and relevant international conventions. this arrival constitute

is believed as long as the u.s. is in iraq to be unstable and violent if the u.s. did entirely pull out and the instability actually increases our rock is going to accept that course it's their country to be the truth this entire argument that the u.s. is there to protect us from themselves to protect us from other intervention is left of the iraqis don't buy this he will not blame us americans and they will not blame the united states if something bad happens in this country without a u.s. occupation of course it would be the consequences of the occupation but it's. i think you have it when and sitting on the controversy you know the i realize it's going to take a long time maybe decades to destabilize it's the first step is a complete so therefore we're going along with what you're saying if bad things happened while the us is there do they blame the us before and there will continue to be in the us this is not just this is reality we're talking about twenty years of u.s. intervention the war with iraq started in ninety one.

sonic booms are factoring marine mammals or it's the burning oil fields around the iraq or it's destroyed coral reefs in the pacific for landing purposes. the list just goes on and on in wartime damage to habitat and wildlife is a given sometimes unintended sometimes the result of a deliberate strategy one of the worst examples of the environmental impact of wolf it was saying during the iraq invasion of kuwait in nine hundred ninety one and the deliberate igniting of the oil will sink you right by saddam hussein's traipse but also spilling a vast amounts of oil in fact tens of millions of barrels of oil into the patient gulf region and this had it terrible effect on the marine environment on bird life in the area by smoke criteria and night if it's. once oil is in that is it had his fun and they have it and it is it is not just a collection of millions of patents of sand it is it is an ecosystem and a poor vast amounts of oil into a consistent that is terribly destructive for. all's fair in love and war as they say and that's why. aircraft will hit chemical industries will sink tankers w

are sonic booms a factor in rumoring mammals or it's the burning oil fields around the iraq war yet steroid coral reefs are in the pacific for rampant purposes are. the worst just goes on and on in war time damage to habitat and wildlife is a given sometimes unintended sometimes the result of a deliberate strategy one of the list examples of the environmental impact of four fate was seen during the iraq invasion of kuwait in one nine hundred ninety one and the deliberate igniting of the oil wells in kuwait by saddam hussein's streets but also spilling of vast amounts of oil in fact tens of millions of barrels of oil into the patient gulf region and this had it charitable effect on the marine farm and on the life in the area gregory and now if they're it's. one solution that is it had his fun and they have it and it is it is not just a collection of millions of patent was of sand it is that is an eco system and for vast amounts of oil and to make his sister not that is terribly destructive for. all's fair in love and war as they say and that's why. aircraft will hit chemical industries will

the institutions in place. later on we had a much more transformative coal. rebuilding iraq from the ground up becomes part of the policy, but the fact that was not the way the united states went in has profound consequences for the next couple of years as the u.s. struggles to catch up with this new, transformer that policy and build the resources to do it. it is really not until 2006 we get a strategy for her clear, cold, and belt. obama is a bit of a tricky case. you might think that someone who spent a lot of time during committee organizing would be an institution building a broad, but i actually, you know, from what evidence we have seen, the more useful piece of information from his previous background is his opposition to the iraq war most famous on the foreign-policy front. very close to the iraq war, and the actions he has taken as president have reflected that. not. >> tough job on the anti mubarak bandwagon and that egypt uprising, but the 2009 decision on the surge in afghanistan, throughout that debate he is very much coming down on the side of joe biden and th

the year. some fearing iraq is not ready. am saying i know we're broke but the one thing i can tell you we can't afford after all the investment is to lose. what does he mean by that? let's ask him. joining us senator graham of south carolina. good evening sir. >> thank you for having me. >> greta: explain yourself. >> i asked the general in june , what is the state of play in iraq? they said we were inside the 10 yard line, 1st down with four plays we are about ready to score. everybody is expected if 2012 we would have some troops left behind to do certain things the iraqis are not yet capable of. >> greta: some troops what? >> 15 to 25 is what the pentagon has been recommending. that allows intelligence gathering. air sovereignty they don't have an air force, train their navy, army, counterterrorism to make sure remnants of al-qaeda and iranian militia are defeated and police the kurd/arab border disputes in the north. you need 5,000 alone to do that. somewhere north of 10,000. 3,000 troops is a formula for disaster. we wou

general petraeus also served as the top commander in iraq and led the military's central command. the event took place at fort myor in arlington, virginia. ladies and gentlemen, taking the viewing stand is the reviewing official for today's ceremony, general david h. petraeus accompanied by the host, the honorable william lynn, deputy secretary of defense and admiral michael mullin. ladies and gentlemen, please rise as honors are rendered. >> representing america's armed forces and participating in today's review are the united states army band under the direction of colonel thomas h bon fir and led by drum major mitchell craig. elements of the armed forces include the presidential marching platoon, the old guard, commanded by captain ed strom. the platoon is first sergeant robert thurman. marine corps honor guard commanded by captain david burebrd and sergeant robert martinez. the colors have always been one of the most important elements of the a military unit. at the center of our formation is an armed forces color guard the national color and the service flag of the army, mari

our biggest victory was in iraq. the iraqi people said no thank you when al qaeda tried to take over. al qaeda was delivered a crushing blow in iraq. you would agree? you said we had to go into pakistan to get bin laden. god bless you. a hard decision by the president, who made a calculated risk. well done, mr. president, going in with the most risky option. to be secure, due in the simply it is great to a rigid to kill some of a lot, but the best thing that the due would be to provide the capacity to will, saying that he is willing to fight, in the national security interest of the country, should we not help them? >> yes, sir. >> 350,000 fully armed but talk about infrastructure crumbling at home. in the place of afghanistan, it provided sanctuary to al qaeda, where they executed the whole attack for less than $1 million. everyone becomes is to hit him and the whole point is for them to achieve sufficient stability so that that never happens again. >> is in doubt whether to fight them and the leflore banner of those th

he was close to the iraq war and actions taken as president have to some extent reflected that. not very quick to jump on the anti-mubarak band wagon in egypt uprising. the 2009 surge in afghanistan. throughout that debate based on accounts we have, he is very much coming down on the side of joe biden and the more counter terrorism approach as opposed to rebuilding afghanistan from the ground up, very much consistently rejecting that approach throughout the debate and ultimately the policy that he chose. the libya intervention also a little bit more hands off, bombing from afar, not putting boots on the ground, and others argue he's constrained by iraq and afghanistan, but that's a more external focus. >> host: most presidents don't campaign on foreign policy. they campaign on i want to be the education president or it's about the economy, ect.. is there a temptation or are there overwhelming forces that lead them to intervene worldwide because every president has intervened some way worldwide; correct? >> guest: even ones that declared they don't like the transforming kind, like

the invasion of iraq. people tried to link it to the events of september eleventh but the the truth is i wrote at the time was that the intelligence was clear there was no operational link between saddam hussein and al qaeda so this this was a war of choice that was conducted as a loss because of a. notion that if you knock down the biggest scariest arab dictator saddam hussein positive change would follow everywhere you know you could make that argument but the bigger problem is that the united states proved incompetent in iraq in stabilizing the country and achieving what it talked about so i think that's been a terrible terrible mistake with consequences that will will last destabilize the region as i look at the arab spring i'm reminded that the story of what's happening to that part of the world is so much bigger it's just on a canvas whose dimensions we forget about and i've been writing about the arab world for thirty years now and i was surveyed about this story is going to have a happy ending it ma

the u.s. relationship with iraq. it is a transition to a more mature relationship under the leadership of ambassador jim jeffrey and the embassy here. host: so what needs to happen between now and december 31 2011 for that to be a reality? guest: we have some things we're doing as far as transition to actual missions that the military has been performing. for example, a police professionalization program. in accordance with many details and well synchronized plans we are transitioning that over to the responsibility of the state department and the embassies. the bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement will take full responsibility for the mission and use their experts to co will take full responsibility for the mission and use their experts to continue to work with forensic experts for the iraqi forensics lab, police training, law enforcement professional ization, that sort of thing. go ahead. host: i'm going to stop you there, if i could and then we will go onto the rest of the things that need to happe

or heth the sacrifice is stillcan t space iraq can be the result of that involvement there was the indifference to those who served in sacrifice we must not do. to make a decision which wouldhs put all of that sacrifice and all that was gained by it inlure jeopardy, jeopardy because our failure to carry out the fundamental requirement of s contributing to theec iraqi security in this very difficultn transition time. so i would ask my friend from peaps iuth carolina to start with perhaps he remembers when wet went to baghdad by the leader was in 2007 and when downtown with a general petraeus and pood made fun of in the media and ii. came back and said things had improved in iraq. recls whe perhaps the senator from south m carolina recalls when we had almost a triumphant visit and wn the conflict that was one with great cost to the american debth and treasurys. perhaps the senator from south g carolina recalls pulling into downtown a diner dat to a bakery and environment out of completeo security that dramaticallyed, al improved all

as soon as all the soldiers leave iraq operation iraqi freedom the combat mission in iraq will be over to the war in the morning. i believe. there are. combat soldier. it's a wait yes the gates are closed right now seeing what we just saw right there live with that gate closer than the last u.s. combat you are totally covered in grease but it's to that certain porton so important. you know it gives me goosebumps it's the fact that one year later one year after the official end of combat operations in iraq was announced we're still there and fact we have almost fifty thousand troops that are still there and if everything goes as the pentagon wants it to we're slow going to have up to ten thousand troops left after the end of this year even though by an agreement they're all supposed to be out by the end of two thousand and eleven of course doesn't even include the thousands of military contractors there in the country the five thousand or so strong mercenary army that the state department has decided that it needs. and you know going year later the mainstream media is completely silent

the font of choice to lead toward america and to support terror two years after nine eleven the us invaded iraq on the grounds that he had weapons of mass destruction and was doing business with al qaida grounds which proved to be faults hundreds of thousands of iraqi civilians have died since the invasion they use the moment and in the wake of nine eleven to divert from afghanistan our real target should have been our real target and go to iraq it also was the low hanging fruit north korea was part more dangerous but to difficult hundred thousand casualties predicted by the. us seoul would be destroyed iran was too difficult seventy million people not fractured like the iraqis and the sunni and shia christian and other as for the motives behind invading iraq some talk to well iraq right now is sitting on probably two hundred billion barrels maybe three hundred billion barrels that's a reaction or reported. plans to be a thirteen million barrels per day production capacity in seven years that surpasses saudi arabia now you know why dick cheney went to war in iraq others blame america's self ass

permits i think we didn't do that well said large the theater of war from the get on the stand for the iraq and as a consequence we have become embroiled in much larger regional political conflict i'm not some sort of the religious who say. looks like the picture synonymous with. the senseless slaughter of some people and stop the last. summer's publishing. song potsie number six. a look back at nine eleven see. a tragic loss hit the sports world this week fans and families are mourning the victims of a plane crash in central russia which killed almost the entire locomotive jaroslava ice hockey team over one hundred thousand people came to pay their last respects to have much loved players in their hometown shine thomas looks at the catastrophe. and waves of emotion poured through jaroslav all as residents realize the full weight of the tragedy their country or the lives of some of the city's brightest stars but he ended up with the fans of his team for many years our whole family including a little child that went to all the games for us is there admirable loss it's like losing a family me

. >> bill: the second one is the iraq war. ow i'm a supporter or was a supporter. >> i didn't know that. >> bill: it's true. i'm on the record of supporting the enhanced interrogations, the patriot act, guantanamo bay and, you know, consistently across the line. but as a historical record and the historical record is that americans were not aware of the big reat that al-qaida was posing. >> that is actually on al-qaida that before 9/11, we treated it like a law enforcement problem. >> bill: yes, clinton did and bush did. >> that's the difference that the president and the vice president, bush and cheney understood after 9/11, this is war! and we're at war. we have to do whatever it takes to keep the nation safe. >> bill: three days before the iraq war was launched, here's what vice president cheney said on "meet the press." >> i think that's the bad side of iraq from the standpoint the iraqi people will be greeted -- >> bill: it actual the didn't happen. >> it actually did happen. liberators and then the bloody, dangerous insur

the top u.s. commander in iraq and afghanistan. to him in his new post. >>> former vice president dick cheney has a machine implanted in his body to keep his heartbeating. we'll show you the equipment he needs to stay alive. >>> also experts say a biological terror attack could threaten thousands of lives and cost $1 trillion. we'll explain. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." what is that? oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. great! did i mention no hands in the bundler? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >>> let's go back to jack for the cafferty file. >> the question is do you think of the government as your federal family? washington trying to run that jive on us. your federal family. if i had an uncle sam who always wanted more money, never pitched in to help and was the town drunk and could not be trust and sent family business

do so as well so that's what led me to it and started lee i could look for somebody that thought the iraq war was a good idea but now that we're here ten years after nine eleven in the midst of one of the greatest financial crisis unless there are serious reforms does it in the condo i think that was there just candidate ron paul is what he or thinks very interesting things to think about criticizing the fed in the words this is good and even brought obama's speech last night we heard a lot of good things there. my political team as a right would think it's a good idea so i think probably among those take is the idea that the president did acknowledge that a lot of people coming back from war veterans have a really tough time getting a job you said that was going to be one of his priorities so hopefully we do see something come out about you always appreciate you coming on we miss you here in d.c. argue blogger and co-founder of that's been for rethink afghanistan takes a very tough and there's another part of the story as well a question that i think is finally appropriate to ask now tha

war it's my own view that all contracts are not the whole story and i believe that these walls iraq. kosovo for that matter in nineteen ninety nine their ideological was the west by overthrowing gadhafi wanted to maintain the fiction that the entire world is moving towards a western dominated model or pro western model it wanted to show that the arab spring movement was a movement for liberal western style democracy and of course as soon as a country stated as a regime starts today in the way of that apparent wave which was the case of libya it's regime was brushed aside so my view is that this was principally ideological but yes also of oil there's no doubt ok well we are we are cameron and sarkozy are now in libya and just as the past signs of a rift really are beginning to appear in the n.t. see the national transitional council the new prime minister. is accused by some of his rivals of bringing in a form a get out the officials and from some source is within the country acting like a dictator so how much support and credibility does his leadership have this new leadership that w

washington's response to the attacks especially invasion of iraq and afghanistan received massive global criticism but brian becker from the antiwar answer coalition says the war on terror is just an excuse to keep those countries in the grip of america so i would say the american people who originally bought the position that this was a war to stop another september eleventh they have no longer believe that position they now believe that it's a war for something else will define for the broad public the bush administration launched the war in iraq for instance on a completely false pretext the war on terror in fact has become a slogan it will be ultimately no inherent in history is the ultimate pretext to do whatever the u.s. government wants but in the case of iraq they invaded iraq hundreds of thousands died millions were made into refugees a beautiful country was torn apart in and bided along ethno sectarian lines and iraq had nothing at all to do with september eleventh and likewise in afghanistan we have got thousands of troops who are going to be in afghanistan for decades because

again, let's take that page out of the book on iraq. a lot of people had to work for the ba'athist regime in iraq. a lot of people had to work in this system. you can't exclude them and that's the point secretary which the has made repeatedly. you will deprive yourself of real talent, and you will sew the seeds of a future. >> brown: there have been to be concerns about, again, we have various models to look back at. >> the person who works for me in libya, in tripoli, tells me the security situation is much better and getting better by the way and that's obviously good news. it's not like baghdad was after the fall. on the other hand, this is a country in which almostern has weapons. it's a country where there are divisiones, and it is a country where people are going to be fighting because there's a big pie they want to get a piece of. so disarming the militias, trying to get the weapons and gathering them, and, again, making sure that you include as many people as possible is going to be challenge number one for the people who are goi

off of that and make sure that we don't make the tragic mistakes that nine eleven letters sent to the iraq war the surge in iraq nation building in iraq in afghanistan and a global global. war efforts in saudi yemen but in pakistan and everywhere else mean this but kind of think that americans should say ok there are bad people and bad people will pose a threat and try to kill innocents but you don't have to occupy and base every country across the planet to make sure that doesn't happen and second i want to switch gears just on a little bit of a lighter note you know a lot of us have been talking about in the last couple days a lot of things going on politically here in d.c. we have the republican debate two nights ago and then last night obama's jobs speech and i want to talk to you about this because you're one of those rare people that consider themselves a republican from what i understand as the voting in two thousand a president obama so i want to get your take on just why you decided that that was the right decision and what your thoughts are now well i get your errand my dirty lau