and then watching the second iraq war on fault with the us occupying iraq after 2003, has that turnsthink i was ever a pro— war artist... would you now say it is one of your driving forces to deliver messages through your art which are about, i don't want to put word5 which are about, i don't want to put words in your mouth, about the negative impacts of war?” words in your mouth, about the negative impacts of war? i think so. it is not just negative impacts of war? i think so. it is notjust that i do with the work. i think they do a lot of things hopefully with the work. if i think about my long—term engagements with iraqi5 think about my long—term engagements with iraqis and iraq war veterans backin with iraqis and iraq war veterans back in the united states, it is looking at the way in which both the soldier and the refugee experience the dehumanisation of that experience of combat and occupation. yeah, you have these extraordinary, i don't know what to call them and will be interesting to know what you call them, you could not call them pieces of art, they are more experiential.

before where british government has made very bold certain claims of course in the run up to the iraq war with respect to weapons of mass destruction and as we know now after years of inquiries and research into it we know that information and intelligence was manipulated and distorted and was used to present iraq is a much greater threat than it actually was so we've been here before where statements bold statements have been made of certainty about banned weapons and just because of that absolutely reasonable and sensible but just or is allowed to have doesn't mean that we can never believe a british government again when it is told by the security services of this country that that a country a state has murdered people on earth soil surely we know to lessons from iraq tell us that information can get distorted especially in around of high politics when there are high stakes and there is no reason not to least entertain a possibility that that is something which is occurring here so in this situation what we need to do ok is not simply to accept what we're being told and believe what we

iran reaps the benefit of that war, iraq in particular, iran has the upper hand.ce in ankara just a few days ago. russia, turkey and iran are working together and i believe there is a nucleus of a new alliance taking place in that part. the middle east is completely dangerous. there is no stability at all. that is the problem. the people who were behind, and supported this war in iraq, are they saying, "ok, let us look at this situation, are we going to repeat this experience in the middle east? what will happen in syria?" the west is losing the battle in syria and iraq for the benefit of russia and iran. the president was suggesting he wanted to get troops out as quickly as possible, that is slightly muted now, but that was his initial instinct. you had this confused and conflicting us policy, what trump says doesn't necessarily match his advisers and what his administration is pushing. trump says he wants to get out of the iran nuclear deal, as a way of curtailing iran's ambitions in the region. and a result of mistakes us made in the war. at the same time he wa

with the us involvement in iraq, and then watching the second iraq war, with the us actually occupyingyou into an anti—war artist? oh, i don't think i was ever a pro—war artist, um... no, but now, would you say it's one of your driving forces to deliver messages through your art that are about, i don't want to put words in your mouth, the negative impacts of war? i think so. i mean, it's notjust that i do with the work. i think i do a lot of things, hopefully, with the work. if i think about my long—term engagements with iraqis and with iraq war veterans back in the united states, it's looking at the way in which both the soldier and the refugee experience the dehumanisation of that experience of combat and occupation. yeah, i mean, you have got these extraordinary... i don't know what to call them, actually, and it will be interesting to know what you call them. you couldn'tcall them pieces of art, they're more experiential. you've got this one project in chicago where you have iraqis who have fled from iraq, for all the reasons we have just discussed, they are cooks and chefs, they s

why do we continue to call vietnam iraq and afghanistan wars. they are not wars. iraq and afghanistan have been political. nobody declared war on us. >> guest: well i mean i think there's a contradiction between saying they are wars and their civil wars because pretty much all insurgencies and counterinsurgencies are civil wars because they are fought by different for -- factions of people for that country is quite common in the civil war for the various sides to call another factors. in the case of vietnam north vietnam was supported bye bye the soviet union and communist china and we supported south vietnam. that's not at all unusual. that's actually. common in iran where we supported the government and iran supported some of the insurgents and various islamist groups like al qaeda supported other insurgents. that's par for the course. civil wars are just one kind of war work. >> host: the next golfer max boot is from hedgesville west west virginia. you are on you are booktv. >> caller: hello, thank you. i have a simple question. i think you are comparing contemp

yes i think your analysis is absolutely right here i remember being poor riot for opposing the war in iraq for having the or dust city to agree with my then leader in the lib dems charles kennedy who said that this war was being conducted on a false prospect practice of course what we now know is that was completely true it's interesting how you and charles kennedy and jeremy corbyn know more than the security services of this country haven't and as it turned the taxi driver in iraq from getting this information exactly the right question the security services probably did know the truth and they probably did advise over well in my opinion i'm expressing my pain in my view they did advise tony blair actually i would challenge that and i think that retrospectively we can see that the security services were more cautious than the politicians but where it goes wrong is when there's a political expedience at stake there was clearly that going on under tony blair when he decided to support america with the in my view unjustified incursion into iraq and it's quite possible we're seeing history r

for me to understand if you move forward the iraq war was a mistake and regime change in iraq made things worse. templeton made iran worse, and if one who wants to go to war with iraq now is to go to iran. east moree the middle chaotic. we did the same thing in libya. many were saying we had to top assad and get rid of isis, and when we turned our attention from awsat isis, we did get rid of isis. regime change hasn't worked. itokingly said that when coffee is gone, are they going to elect jefferson? didn't have a history of western morals or ideas our democracy. sometimes we get worse. when of iran's best allies -- or one of iraq's best advice is iran. the president understood this, and my fear is that director pompeo doesn't shed that point of view. i asked them here, and he said it was a long time ago. i talked to him again and again, and attack the president again and again, and with that here from the present is known is changing his mind. many of these wars were ill advised. i want to trump to be trump and the want people around him actually will get from the advice and not try to p

as a war iraq for the for the president was it's. much and share. patient with never everything her add. russia. the united nations charter which is on call president d states dates from. the little is a special relationship something. also see. so because we don't alliance has consistently. a bit in. a partner was open minded was engaged was as energetic june. well the. president he's in my mind totally. until told to. it collects also zour weimer's. friend success us will swallow now now that it all these kids kids and also a for easy sound and often get again. and some would with its neighboring no. this is. it goodwill will add ahead i might is. leaders also two nations sells his monday david. was incision will lead to. nice thing for a long time to. jack activities. he also is a monday and lot of lies a suspect and interviewed her hot spot. in the sense has its and confusing for the residents a lot last month long is causing take by belgian. the has had no the which. is the leading lady terrorism. the fififty too. something sixteen to twenty. o

we're still suffering the ramifications and repercussions of the iraq war. your president said it very clearly. he says the iraq war was the single worst decision ever made. once again, i'm concerned that you won't be supporting the president. that you will be influencing him in a way that i think his inclinations are actually better than many of his advisers. that the iraq war was a mistake. he was against being involved in syria at many times in his career. so i think he does have good instincts. and my main concern is that will you be one who will listen to what the president actually wants instead of being someone who advocates for us staying forever in afghanistan. another iraq war. bombing syria without permission. so these are the advice you will give and i guess that's my biggest concern with your nomination, is that i don't think it reflects the millions of people who voted for president trump who actually voted for him because they thought it would be different. that it wouldn't be the traditional bipartisan consensus to bomb everywhere and be every

against the scooter libbys and the john boltons and the whole crowd of them that got us into that war in iraq because he said to the working people of this country, you're the families that have given us these soldiers to get maimed and killed. you have given us the people to fight these wars. the working people said no more stupid barpz now trump comes back and pardons one of the main people behind the war, one of the criminals behind this thing. to me it's an awful statement to the people that voted for him. what do you think? >> chris, i think you're absolutely right. but i don't think in this moment, the public is generally interested in relitigate the past. it's about looking right now what donald trump is up to. and exactly why. and i'll tell you, i am looking at this not in a personal way, but in fact, looking, using what my career was with the cia. i'm trying to analyze this. what is he hiding? why is he doing this now? i think the timing, it's not-coincidence. furthermore, doesn't he have more important things 0 to do like think about syria, for instance? >> i'm with you. i still rem

so they will no longer be able to be involved in occupations overseas again and the costs of the iraq war linger on. when there was a vote in parliament over whether the uk should do anything about the use of chemical weapons, they were very aware that they voted in support of the iraq war, voted against doing anything to stop the shower al-assad using chemical weapons and the decision in the british parliament have big effects here on president obama who got everybody lined up to respond militarily to the chemical attacks and withdrew that decision following the vote in the british parliament and of knowing full well congress would never get around to making a decision on anything. >> please tell us what you are and keep the comment introduction short. go ahead please. >> my question for the panel, the u.s. has rebuilt before. given the time and resources that the united states can muster, what in your opinion what is take to turn iraq into a prosperous and democratic nation or is it too late for that at this point given over to the self-rule is thasofa rule is thr purview any more? >> t

the first iraq war. and then -- >> the yellow ribbon concept to remember soldiers. >> support our troops. and then the second bush administration did something similar. they actually closed the grounds down for the -- one year for the easter egg roll and barred the general public and made it a special day that was just for active duty and reserve military members and their family. and then it went back to being open to the general public again the year after that. but it was a really heartfelt gesture of support. >> let's move on to the truman years because they had to move out of the white house, as you said. the white house was completely torn apart. >> absolutely. >> in renovations. so how many years was it suspended during that period? and did they do anything for children during this time? >> well, it was suspended for all eight years of truman's presidency. and there were other easter egg rolls, smaller, less formal affairs, even neighborhood events, held elsewhere in the capital. there was one yea

war and used in the second world war and in the iran— iraq warand in used in the second world and in smaller cases in syria, but given that every country practically in the world has signed up to be chemical weapons convention, it's an unpleasant way of killing people and i think it is right that we should in force that international to be that everyone has agreed to. especially after salisbury. as their in connection there, which the prime minister has made? toxic agents were used in both cases, one was a targeted assassination attempt, the other was to terrorise the population. this does not mean that we should do nothing about the civil war, but we have to be modest because we as the united kingdom, and indeed we as the west, a re united kingdom, and indeed we as the west, are not the key players in the syrian war. the assad regime, russia and turkey have more skin in the game and it is more difficult for us to influence the outcome. but donald trump said that the us is locked and loaded for more attacks, which presumably theresa may would have to follow, if she follows her

another iraq war? this is the advice you would give and that's my biggest concern with your nomination. i don't think it reflects the millions of voters who voted for trump, who voted for him because they thought it would be different, that it would not be the traditional bipartisan consensus to bomb everywhere around the world. that's my main concern. i want to make sure that is loud and clear to everyone. >> thank you, senator murphy. >> think you chairman and director. good to see you. an extraordinary article from late last year in the new yorker that speaks to china's rise coinciding with an american retreat from the globe. we see that as we traveled the world. president of the united states, other countries are taking advantage. this article in part describes a relatively routine meeting of the wto in which they were negotiating trade rules for agriculture and the food, something that the united states had a big role add. "for two days of meetings, there were no americans. the chinese were going

ninety one gulf war which required saddam hussein to account for and dispose of his weapons of mass destruction and part of the export part of the justification was that in the end of the iran iraq war in one thousand nine hundred nine saddam hussein had used chemical weapons against kurds yet again in. but at the time the us policy was that saddam hussein was largely an ally and still sold grain credits to bomb hussein so there really was a much more like to stand on this is responding in the moment to a chemical weapons attack it is not an isolated incident it's not a one off we've seen chemical agent used in script in the u.k. we have seen kim jong un use it to kill his half brother it is becoming unfortunately to use that important term of the moment normalized if you want to reverse that trend bashar al assad must pay a very heavy price ideally i would like him to stand trial for his crimes against the syrian people in revolutionary tribunals after you know gloria but that doesn't necessarily happen someone needs to step in because if it is going to see someone in the united states well who else is a going to be the united states is the still remains the leader of the world

case for the prosecution of the war against iraq in two thousand and three in that case was predicated on the existence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq controlled by saddam hussein's regime and it was discovered later that that turned out to be wrong now no did that inaccuracy fundamentally change the transatlantic relationship i'm not so sure did it fundamentally change relations with europe because remember europe's europeans were deeply divided over the iraq issue i'm not so sure about that as well. on the contrary i think that in many ways european integration is strengthened from the experience and relations across the atlantic and strengthened from the experience because we've all learned that paying attention your allies is a good thing to do and to keep them in board in terms of the communication strategy let's not forget george w. bush's administration in the first instance when the iraq war was prosecuted was actually much more of a go it alone administration the second george w. bush administration set as a priority building and strengthening relations with europe and

i think this is in many ways different to the iraq war the iraq war is actually a sort of distant memory i think for policymakers in washington right now and it's already very clear i think from both london and paris the french and the germans. already on board i think with participation in u.s. military action a very significant cabinet meeting in london today with overwhelming cabinet support for a british role in this military intervention so i don't expect that iraq is going to weigh heavily in terms of political decision making no i mean i'm just i mean i think if you're interrupting you there but i think. it is quite an important point to make the british cabinet decision was that event should be a response there was no mention of a military response. you know i think that you know when we're talking about a response to syria's action were overwhelmingly talking about a military response i think that's very very clear there isn't any other response i think there can be effective against the likes of anything else would be seen as absolute weakness which is why i think the position

war was mistake. to me the one thing you have to understand to move forward to he iraq war was mistake. item boldened iran, made iran worse and want to go to war uniran but regime change didn't make us safer and made the world more chaotic. we did the same thing in libya the goodness' sakes. there are many who are saying we have to talk to assad we can't get rid of isis and turns out when we turned or attention from to isis we did get rid of isis. regime change has not worked and somewhat jokingly said when gaddafi is gone, what are we going to do elect jeffer son in they don't have a history of our western moores or western ideas of democracy and not getting better, we'll get worse. one of iran's best allies or iran's best ally now is eye reason sometimes more so than so we have to understand the president understood this and my fear has been that director pompeo dunn share that point of view. i asked him here. he said it was a long time ago. i talked to him again, again, again. i talked to the president again and again and again. what i hear from thep, no one is changing the mines. ma

governments to illegally bugged the united nations in an attempt to swing tony blair's vote to invade iraq a war that would go on to kill wound or displace tens of millions of people a decade and a half on u.k. and u.s. bombing of iraq continues and the story of that whistleblower is becoming a hollywood film starring keira knightley and matt smith former g c h q translator and whistleblower katherine graham joins me now catherine coming on the show in person if anyone doesn't know who you are arguably they're going to know about you shortly do you think keira knightley playing you in a new film official secrets is going to make more people aware of what you did as a whistleblower and what you went through our hopes yeah i think. i think it's a good. choice and she's going to do a fantastic job out there working with gavin and the producers and hopefully with meeting care fairly shortly hopefully affair will reach out to people who maybe don't generally look in an alternative direction so i mean this marks fifteen years now since you blew the whistle on g c h q and s a collusion connivance to ge

we are involved in two wars. iraq and afghanistan. another possible war in syria. troops are deployed all over the place. possible tensions in korea. if nothing else we have to keep defending the demilitarized zone. -- just one the more pressure point on the military. the cost of the parade is, despite whatever it's merits may be, it is relatively small within the whole of the defense department. every little bit seems to count. when you have people who have been to ploy to afghanistan five , it starts to get old. people start to wonder if this is the life to me -- the life for me. the wearing down of the united states military. when you continually deploy people, it is a strain on them. host: time for one more call. from maryland. republican. caller: thank you. i have two comments. in 2016 iocrat, elected president donald trump. -- reason why is that he is his policy makes sense then democrats. for the wall, i think he has a point in my view. i can give youis examples, if i open my door, i can't accept everyone in my house. border to finda out who is coming in and

and its allies fifteen years after the iraq war started. germany's stepping up its military spending pumping money to state of the art hardware despite concerns from the opposition and the general public. behind me is apparently the future it's called the european mail. and secretly recorded already a released by the intercept shows how the us democrat leadership pressured a new candidate to drop out of the race for the u.s. seat in colorado.

two world wars is a lesson that for many germans means absolute restraint when it comes to involvement in the military missions and as you'll remember germany did not participate in the iraq war germany actually rarely participates in what are known as out of area missions meaning military missions outside the nato area when germany has participated it has been within a nato context and the chancellor has also been very careful to emphasize over the last couple of days that germany has been involved in syria in other ways for example by providing reconnaissance airplanes and she was also very careful to walk a tight rope of still endeavoring to provide verbal and moral support saying that the different western powers absolutely bust be united into sending a message that chemical weapons are are not legitimate so she is going to support it but she is not taking part in this in any way shape or form in military power now what about the risk of international isolation over this issue is that a possibility you know neither britain france nor the u.s. asked germany to protest. pate so it's a little bit different in that regard from the iraq war where germany went out on a limb

rachel: he objected to mike pompeo's military interventionist policies, his advocacy for the war in iraq and potential military intervention in iran over its nuclear program during the obama administration. >> as you mentioned a moment ago, chris coons leaning against voting for the mike pompeo nomination. give us a sense why senate democrats are proposing his nomination. rachel: democrats have cited, in addition to the director's previous opposition to the iran deal, his past statements equivocating the russian government interference in the 2016 elections, some objectionable comments he made about muslims and their potential complicity in terrorist attacks if they were not condemning them, as well as his stances against gay civil rights. and also the sense that he, a number of senators don't think he will tell president trump things he does not want to hear. there is concern about who will and whethero jump they will speak truth to power. >> do you think the meeting between mike pompeo and whether they will speak truth to power. >> do you think the meeting between mike pompeo and kim j

house directly under the president john bolton is one of the people who walked this into the iraq war. iraq had never done anything to us was never a threat to us and since then we've killed a million innocent people in iraq and this is the same john bolton normally people who fail disappear into history but not in foreign affairs if you fail then you typically advance yourself but i worry about the war cabinet that surrounds donald trump and constantly pushing. interwar the one exception is general mattis maddest made a very interesting statement and this was just last month and he said he said the anonymous states cannot confirm that syria has ever used chemical weapons and says we have reports from the battlefield from people who claim it's been used but we have no evidence of it this is exactly the situation in duma and the united states has no excuse for going in there and and frankly the people the terrorists to do more are despicable change islam is famous for putting women in steel pages and moving them around so that when when geisha was one fires there mortars at schools to damasc

war itself the difference here was that this war was lasting for a decade and included tens of thousands of troops and personnel to support the invasion of iraq and the war in afghanistan. where they were alleged rash and these huge open air heads. they burned everything creating this black plume of smoke that had been just bursting are settling over is small the word of five cities. and you had people living in paris right next to this clune people working right next to it and now working with it with no protection whatsoever. and the receiving more blasting the fire and we're going to have to make it instigated this way is a catastrophe in the making. at the start of the war in afghanistan the military commanders on the ground realized that they had a big problem with the trash that was accumulating from the war each soldier was accumulating approximately nine pounds of trash a day on a battlefield they didn't know what to do with it so they came up with the idea through centcom which is central command decided to create and burn pits to burn the trash that was being accumulated. over.

wars. now we have a generation that people who gone through iraq and afghanistan and the perpetual war on terror. it starts to seem normal rather than an aberration. that also influences the way a younger generation sees it. susan: and here comes the emotional part of it. all the wars they have experienced it and fought by -- have been fought by people they probably don't know so well. with vietnam, it's a much more personal thing. when we talk to interns at the company we try to convey how much the draft impacted everybody's life at that time. what do your students understand about the importance of the draft on the public perception of the war? mr. bradley: that's a very hard thing to cover with students in a certain way. ken burns made this 18-hours series on vietnam that has been controversial in its own right. one of the things the series did exceptionally well, and i'm hoping to use those in working with students, is he is good on stories. he has long narratives around people who either signed up or were drafted. we see them move through time. some of whom died and we see their families. w

is poodle as they did cues tony blair at the time of the iraq war of being george w. bush's poodle so it's it's something that you know that's still a very large even the in the british psyche so she was very strong to say no this is something that i decided because i wanted to make sure that it's not normal to use chemical weapons not in syria and also not here on the streets of london as we have seen recently were in this group all case were former russian spy was attacked with a nerve agent and britain assaulting russia to account for that. we've been talking a lot about the politicians what they make of us how they have been how they've been framing it but when it comes to the british people what they think was it right to take part in the airstrikes. well it was quite interesting that before the strikes happened there was of course speculation that something might happen so there were opinion polls and the majority of british people at this time said no and i think many of them if that wasn't right and i think many of them still had the iraq war in the mines whic

your president says the iraq war was the single most difficult. he's plud in a way that i think his inclinations are at least. so i think he does have good instincts and my main concern is will you be one to listen to what the president actually wants instead of being sun who advocat advocates. i don't think it reflects the million or so people who voted for president trump because it would be different. so that's my main concern, and i just want to make sure that's loud and clear to everyone. that is my concern. >> thank you, senator paul. >> thank you, senator murphy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director. good to see you. this is an extraordinary article, i believe, from late last year in "the new yorker" that speaks to china's rise coinciding with an american retreat from the globe. and i think we've all seen that as we traveled the world the presence the united states used to have simply isn't there and other countries are taking advantage. this article in part describes a regular meeting with the wto, and it quotes someone in atten