today the u.s. army's last full combat brigade left iraqi soil as the military nears president obama's deadline for ending all combat operations by august 31st. whit johnson is in washington this morning with more. good morning, whit. >> reporter: good morning to you. "operation iraqi freedom" is coming to an end. "operation new dawn" will soon begin. but many questions still remain about the future of iraq and the american troops who will stay behind. >> woo! >> reporter: the last american combat brigade in iraq is on its way home. >> it's good to finally get to this point. of course, everyone's excited. >> reporter: thousands of soldiers from the 4th stryker brigade rolled into kuwait earlier this morning, more than seven years after the u.s. invasion began. >> finally getting out and realizing that this could be the last time i wear that kit in the wild. nice feeling. >> reporter: while the pullout is well ahead of president obama's august 31st deadline "operation iraqi freedom" isn't officially over ye

more thought from the right she's a retired u.s. army colonel she thinks the u.s. state one that is not rooting out the action against iran's misjudged and provocative. that type of action military action against iran is inappropriate the united states of america has tremendous military capability but why do you have to go pushing it in the face of a hammering one that we could do this we could take military action well we know that but all it is as is a part of the statement that makes those in iran feel very uneasy that they are truly being targeted again by the united states and by israel and the increased sanctions that we see that the united states is putting on is another layer of occasion in their mind that they are the target we are warning president obama to be very very careful about anything that comes out of israel as far as the they are assessment that military force needs to be used on iran that was retired u.s. army colonel turned peace activist and right. still to come on the program a report on what's in store next for the parasailing don't kishi s

that was right retired u.s. army colonel turned peace activist coming up on the program still ahead we report on what's in store next for the parasailing don't keep and she settles into five star luxury stables the help of forget it all coming up. first the new strategic arms reduction treaty known as start has been stopped for now at least the u.s. senate pushed a vote to ratify the deal but to september the treaty signed by presidents to me to inventive and barack obama in april would see each country's nuclear arsenals gradually reduced by a third however it won't come into force until about the five by both sides and so far neither mosco says it's ready to put the deal into effect but wants to do so at the same time as washington former u.s. senator and acting chairman of the atlantic council think tank chuck hagel told me there's more than just bilateral play at stake here. if in fact we we the civilized world especially the nuclear powers and as we know russia the united states but there's about ninety percent

u.s. army 1967. i pay taxes. i have never been in jail in my life. they know who i am. i move from yugoslavia in 1969. i served in the army as a sergeant. -- i moved from yugoslavia. i have never read a book or seen a movie like this. [in distinguishable -- unintelligible] ok? president peterson: thank you. is there any other comment? seeing none, we will move into the were bottle. mr. hasson, you have three minutes of rebuttal if you want to use it. >> we would like to have a window in our bedroom like everybody else on the planet. >> i want to let you know that i agree with some of what that person is saying. ms. gould had explored various options it, and one of those options was two definitely sealed up a window and create another window in another part of that room in that area. mr. hasson had obviously strenuously objected to having the windows sealed up, and, frankly, i understand why. it has been mrs. gould's intention all of this time to maintain a window in this space, so with all due respect, at some point, he might have understood that mrs. gould had attempted

the right to disarm civilians when they deem necessary then we'll speak with a colonel from the u.s. army reserve who wrote a scathing op ed on the bloated bureaucracy and the mindless reliance on power points in the war in afghanistan he has now been fired for sharing those thoughts so we will speak to the man himself to see what drove him to risk his job but now let's move on to our top story. while political rallies were taking center stage in d.c. this past weekend a concert taking place outside of the beltway was exploring how the direction of hip hop has taken a more corporate main street turn and last fall that's political barons artie's johanna half is was at the seventh annual rock the bells concert and has the following report. the i. was. in washington d.c. glenn beck's restoring honor rally was for those who were worried about america's future supporting the troops bravery and bring america back to a faith based society was integrity. the of. the of this event was attended by those who believe america has strayed away from its founding values whatever those values may be. but

tom fowler has the story. >> reporter: a u.s. army honor guard carried the remains of john bonosio to the family plot, 66 years after his b24 bomber crashed in germany. >> so wonderful that he got honored and wasn't just you know left in another country anonymously with his crew. >> reporter: his burial flag presented to his brother also a b24 crew man. >> this is closure, john is back with his father, he's back at home in san francisco. >> reporter: john bonosio inlisted at 17, three years later with his crew mates flew from england to bomb germany. they encountered nazi fighters west of berlin. bonosio listed as missing. >> there was hope that held out that he may have actually survivorred and he was at some point in his future going to find his way home. >> reporter: his sister vowed to his mother she would find him. she scoured the internet. >> i found a site where somebody was trying to find his family. >> we found him, we found where he was, he was in the yard -- in the pasture of a loving family that had reverended the site and

those are the u.s. army corps of engineer, the u.s. fish and wildlife service, california department of fish and game, and the regional water quality control board, all of whom need to issue permits in order for us to go to construction, and this approach is as follows. instead of developing small mitigation sides, et they recommend mitigation. what we have found is to say let's consolidate all of these small pieces for different kinds of habitats and come up with a really nice large piece of land that is basically habitat compensation, and the agencies all support this approach and are working with us to develop the specifics of these. so to go to the specific sites, the walk site is in the upper alameda creek, near the upper of the meeting creek. -- upper alamitos creek. -- alamitos -- alameda creek. it also has the creation of new seasonal wetlands. what grazes there? cows. president maxwell: who do they belong to? i have the project manager. >> good afternoon. will lease the land. president maxwell: we are upgrading some of the imp

. >> these two structures were build in 1943 by the u.s. army.o, these were spotting positions for the big post artillery gun batteries. the stations would work together. say win here and one at fort funston. using telescopes, they named a ship and target. and the two different sightings allowed them to trianglely position the ship at sea. >> so it was a lookout, essentially >> it was a lookout. >> i doubt if we saw a japanese ship today -- >> it would probably say toyota on the side of it. >> they are really fun. if shows you what can you do in 60 seconds. >> the pri sidot maps. people -- presidio maps. people keep forgetting that the army was a major presence. before the city was functioning, the army was functioning. and there are maps from the 1800's that show the farmhouses in the valley, the eureka valley, and mission district that were done by the army. so the army is its own resource for the history of the city before there was a building department. they would have everything. you could find out what was the original house in an area. ag

we have seen probably the biggest changes in u.s. army in the ten years since 9/11 than at almost at any point in history since the end of world war ii. and so i'd like to ask you first to give us your sense of how the army's doing, how it's changed and when you're done with that, i'm going to ask you about sort of the next ten years ahead. >> okay, great. well, first of all it's wonderful to be out here with you. walter thanks for inviting me. yeah, i'll just talk for a second about the army. it may not seem like it to you, but in two months we will have been at war for nine years. and the result of that is that the -- today's united states army is a hugely professional combat season four, it's really the best in the world at what it does. but it is also stretched and stressed by the demands of the last nine years. when you think about it we've been deploying at one year-out one year-back for almost five years. and if you'd asked me five years ago if we could have sustained that, i would have said, now, you're crazy. and so the force tha

army. now advantage is on no one side. and human losses are quite significant. is it possible to win the war against sexual assault in the u.s. armed forces. in the army. each year. the former commander of a crew of soviet rocket specialists visits a restaurant in moscow to meet with vietnamese war veterans. they marked the anniversary of his crew's first victory. after a table was laid for soviet specialists but the menu was filmed. the food was somewhat exotic we've never eaten anything like that before tasted and looked like nothing we knew. the vietnamese to tell us about the food we were eating. the russians for vietnamese soldiers in the field will pull however they received additional supplies from local peasant defense units were normally stationed close to villages. chante gum is ninety five years old both of her sons were guerrillas they lost their lives fighting in what was then south vietnam. she joined fellow villages in the north to help the launch a crew who took part in the first battle. i remember exactly how it happened. the acrobats wings fell to the ground on the house next to mine. when then to see their

. >>> let's bring into the conversation retired u.s. army colonel jack jacobs. he's a decorated combat veteran, a recipient of the medal of honor and, of course, an nbc news military analyst. at this point, people like me always ask people like you, "what have we learned?" critics of the war will look at it as an elective. they will always say the 9/11 pilots weren't iraqis and they will say we never found weapons of mass destruction. so as an analyst, a civilian now, but a veteran military man, what do you think we have learned? >> well, three things. we have learned a lot of things but three come immediately to mind. the first is whatever you're trying to do in the international community, do not rely on the military instrument of power as the default instrument of power. second, you can't fight successfully an insurgency using conventional troops alone. maybe the most important lesson is that it always takes more resources to hold onto an objective than it does to take it in the first place. always. >> people will debate democracy or anything close to it taki

[laughter] >> are we in a persistent ten- year effort have the u.s. armyt the centre of nation- building as well? >> you know, when we were talking about nation-building, we were talking about a military that was designed to do conventional war. that's what we were set up to do. and as i said before, we were like that for 60 years. but the types of conflict that we're fighting in iraq and afghanistan, and i think are likely to be fighting here for a decade or so, are focused on the people. and you've heard -- i'm sure you've heard this said a and you've heard -- i'm sure you've heard this said a thousand times -- we're not going to succeed in either place by military means alone. you're only going to succeed when the people perceive that there is a government that is representative of their interest, when there is an economy that can give them a job to support their families, where there are educational systems that they can educate their children. all those things are essential to the long-term success of the military operation. and so i think as a milita

branches that american pilots could see nothing but thick forest that one did fifty eight thousand u.s. army servicemen and over a million vietnamese soldiers dying full how have the wars veterans fed sins. now think about thirty five years old. hanoi the capital of vietnam six am morning exercises in the city's main square the mostly in the center is the resting place of the vietnamese communist leader who team in the movement for the country's independence the vietnamese managed to oust their french colonizers but the united states was seriously concerned with a new state of mind in line with communists and they were willing to use force to prevent that from happening. i signed up to join the military because i thought that it was my duty that it was something that i could do to help my country i believed my government that it was necessary for americans to come to vietnam to help by. greg klavan was born in california but now he lives in vietnam south with his girlfriend he first came here with a u.s. marine unit not long after his eighteenth birthday now only a few faded photos with his

. >> suspicion has gone on u.s. army private bradley manning, already charged with downloading documents. many experts suspect another culprit. one is the post 9/11 push to share more intelligence to repent -- to prevent a repeat of the failures. >> we knew this was a danger where something like this would happen because we have moved into a world in which more information is available to more people. >> the u.s. intelligence industry has mushroomed. a recent investigation found 854,000 people hold a top-secret clearances. 1002 madrid 71 government organizations work on intelligence -- 1271 government organizations. so much of the focus has been on protecting a system from outside attacks, but whoever the leaker turns out to be, he inside job is a combination of technology, lowering of security barriers and access that gives authorized operatives to a vast array of information may be just as much of a security risk. the failed detroit airliner bombing shows u.s. intelligence still struggles to connect the dots. the suspe

. >> the u.s. army honor guard carried sergeant john bonosio to his final resting place at his family's plot at holy cross cemetery in coma. bonosio was a member of a crew that was flying a bombing mission when the plane was bombed and crashed. >> it's great that he was honored and not left in another country. >> reporter: with the help of his family, investigators found bonosio's remains and those of the other crew members at the bomber's crash site near hanover germany. >>> tonight, the national guard is some where they haven't been in a year, back in the arms of their loved ones. they were welcomed home after a year tour to iraq. christien kafton has the story. >> reporter: the military police brigade did return here this afternoon. on their way back from baghdad, they say they stopped in new hampshire, they said they received a nice greeting there, they also stopped in colorado, that was nice here. but they it was nothing compared to the welcoming they received here. it was all hugs and kisses for m

. >> but help finally came for some today in the form of u.s. army helicopters. the shi nooks flew their first rescue mission evacuating hundreds from the swamp valley. a humanitarian response and a chance for america to win a friend in a country where it hasn't got many. back in the squalor of the camp we found twins abdula and bellau born of their house filled with water. they are children of the flood. for one family, new life and new hope in a time of suffering. >> russia one of the world's biggest wheat producers is banning the export of all grains because of the drought and wildfires crippling the country. that decision has had an immediate impact on global food commodity markets. >> the first pictures of the fires in one of the most secret locations in russia. not far from this burning forrest is the country's most important nuclear research center. no wonder that as they try to make fabric to stop the flames, the authorities announced they were moving all the nuclear material to a safer place. but now fears are also mounting for the face of russia's rain

. >> reporter: colonel edphlegmings, the new commander of the u.s. army corps of engineers. >> it's a reliable system. it's a resilient system and it is tied in, in all areas. >> reporter: but after the levees failed, a federal judge blamed the corps for mismanaging the patc patchwork barrier systm that collapsed for creating the disaster. but it's not just the corps now rebuilding reputations. take mike brown, who found infamie in a presidential atta boy. >> brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. >> if you watch that tape again, you'll see my wince. >> reporter: this mike brown the former fema director. >> i was asking for things, telling them what we needed. >> reporter: brown said all government agencies involved in katrina's second disaster, the response, learned a great deal from katrina. the question from ken dorsey and so many other people here whether those agencies learned enough. could katrina happen again here? >> no doubt in my mind. i believe it could. >> reporter: just because not enough has been done. >> not enough has been done. >> reporte

members of the u.s. army golden knights parachuted into the rangers ballpark in arlington. everybody landed safely except for that guy, who was just a bit outside. got his chute caught on a flag pole. he was all right, just a little embarrassed. as for the game, michael young broke the 3-3 tie with an rbi single in the seventh. rangers beat the twins, 4-3. >>> commissioner bud selig was honored with a statue at miller park. you may remember, it was selig who brought baseball back to milwaukee in 1970. the dodgers' rob barajas celebrated by a three-run homer in his debut with the club. dodgers won it, 5-3. >>> let's go to new york. mets completed a comeback in the ninth. luis castillo with a flair to right. ike davis came in to score the winning run. mets rally in their final two at-bats to win it 7-4. >>> now phillies and astros. ninth inning. jimmy rollins, a towering home run down the line, tied it at 2-2 and forced extra innings, and boy, did it go extra. the game ran so long, the phils were out of players. that's pitcher roy oswalt playing left field. finally, somebody

army. kill no advantage it is our no one sign. and human losses are quite significant. is it possible to win the war against sexual assault in the u.s. armed forces sex in the army.

u.s. military is going to jessica and. i. jessica kenyon is an army veteran and today she is giving a talk to students at a new york college there is. jessica says she survived multiple rapes in situ assaults joining the military korea and she is now campaigning to increase awareness of the problem is important for those of us who are able to speak out. for the ones who are just not able to mentally or emotionally or whatever so this is a infantry division which is basically everybody in korea becoming an officer had been her dream and then the wings in the u.s. signify that i was an aviation but as a mechanic attached to a helicopter squadron kenyan found herself in a unit way few women had been before and in a culture where bullying and persecution was the norm it was just premature hazing birthday or a tour you know where they do this they make them all up and then he's actually tied to a chair. right now but then they make a. sexual harassment at all levels was common place and. women were a source of derision in this video she says her base a you

. >>> overseas tonight, u.s. army helicopters are now flying relief missions in pakistan's flooded northwest region, airlifting hundreds of stranded survivors to safety and giving out emergency rations. 1,500 people have died in pakistan's worst monsoon rains in decades. >>> and in russia, wildfires continue to burn with no end in sight. tonight several territories are under states of emergency with fires breaking out by the dozens. more than 70 new ones overnight alone. nbc's jim maceda is in ryazan, on the front lines of the fires tonight. >> reporter: hundreds of wildfires now rage across seven of russia's regions, many out of control. 50 people have died and more than 2,000 families have fled their burning homes, all triggered by a wave of temperatures over 100 degrees, unheard of in russia. fires have partially destroyed a strategic naval base and even threatened a secret nuclear facility. now the kremlin is responding to criticism it was slow to act. russian president in the dmitry medvedev cut his vacation shor

. >> u.s. army helicopters have now joined the flood relief effort in pakistan. massive volumes of water moved south. the u.n. estimates formerly -- formally of people have been affected. the infrastructure damage might take years and huge sums of money to rectify. for some, the need is far more urgent. in the u.k., a humanitarian appeal was launched for people who desperately need help. the british prime minister david cameron that pakistan's president for dinner in the u.k. and pledged support for pakistan in eating with the floods. the two men were focused on the strengthening ties between the countries following cameron's comments on a recent visit to india in which he suggested terrorism was being exported. wyclef jean declared himself a candidate in haiti's upcoming presidential election. the artist returned to his native country to file the papers. he said he wants to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the earthquake in january. >> before the quake, you had a population where the majority could not read or write. you barely had any infras

and that brought up the in my mind the issue of the training of the afghan army which the u.s. government recently reported that after eight years and twenty seven billion dollars. they consider the training of the afghan army a failure and i was wondering you know how much american blood afghan blood coalition soldiers have been shed because the afghan army. was not ready to take over and during all that time why didn't somebody speak up because the. problems with the afghan army training program were evident in the press for a number of years so i guess is a combination of those things that drove me eventually just. to write a rather provocative article. now. i want to ask you you know on that note you wonder why nobody. and so i do you do you yourself have an answer to that question i mean is that you know that this this bloated bureaucratic machine that the military and especially i guess you could become and we are these people concerned with with winning the war in afghanistan or with leaving and afghanistan or they were concerned about having you know a long career in the