afghanistan, not the case. there were leaked memos from the embassy in kabul that our ambassador had his own idea about what would work and would not work in afghanistan and he did not think the counterinsurgency strategy would work. they had a problem. for a couple of reasons, they did not see eye to eye with the u.s. commander. the commanders are now the nato commanders and they do not answer to the u.s. ambassador. it is a coalition warfare with all the problems that it entails. there was the u.k. advisor -- ambassador to kabul. but i do not think that we really thought through -- if we think that we could do this politically and operationally, how we organize our team to use a little leverage? adding the other team, we need a coordinator to coordinate afghanistan and pakistan policy. if you're one to be an on board, you probably need to be in the region. you cannot just me with one guy. you have to sit down and get to know somebody and have launched multiple times. after you establish a relationship of trus

is fighting for the wrong cause in afghanistan and paying too big a price for that i. every month we give you the future we help you understand how to get there and what tomorrow brings the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world join us acknowledging update on our jeep. our stop we are going to come back. we'll have a rally will sell lots of beer will wrong wrong they will wear uniforms that will damage is down the black for them moving but very little damming to white. and they are the key to our problem are already. wealthy british. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on our. fifty five. ft. a pullout a triple bombing in baghdad and dozens dead bring doubts over whether romney forces and manage in the wake of the withdraw all u.s. combat troops. instant karma the internet's rise in russia with more people to highlight problems like crime and drugs and that in the past might have been overlooked. also what a house is not a

up next concentrating troops in afghanistan and spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the hunt for al qaida is a deeply for all flawed strategy that's the view of former marine officer matthew hoh an outspoken critic of u.s. policy in the country he thinks washington is being in inconsistent in its military pursuits as he explains the artes guy nature to cuba. does the goal match the cost that is something many americans are asking when it comes to the u.s. strategy in afghanistan and members of the of ghana's then study group call on the president to bring the majority of the u.s. troops home abandoning the strategy of defeating the taliban and matthew hoh is heading that group he's a marine officer who resigned from the state department in protest of obama's policies the in afghanistan it happened last year and he he's here with me now thank you so much for joining me in that matthew so the war in afghanistan is the longest and it has cost a lot to the united states who are saying american interests at stake in afghanistan do not warrant this level of sacrifice please explain

now concentrating troops in afghanistan and spending billions of dollars on trying to fight al-qaeda is a waste of lives and money that's the view of ex marine officer matthew hoh an outspoken critic of u.s. policy he talked artie's can. you're losing it with. the war in afghanistan he's the longest and has cost a lot poorer to the united states who are saying american interests at stake in afghanistan do not warrant this level of sacrifice please explain why the wars cost us about four hundred billion dollars it's lasted for over nine years american dead or close to twelve hundred there's been fallon's of afghan deaths. we're spending one hundred billion dollars a year next year will spend about one hundred twenty billion dollars a year according to the congressional research service in a country whose g.d.p. is only fourteen billion and knowing that according to our cia there's only fifty to one hundred al qaeda members in afghanistan so you're talking about spending one billion to two billion dollars a year on each al qaeda presence in afghanistan i know that you had been working

should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm not i'm not one be apologist for the taliban you know and i don't want to be accused of that or be seen as that but we have to recognize the taliban is not a monolithic movement the taliban is composed of many different groups within afghanistan that have diverse motives supporting taliban a lot of times that being financial financial the sense of now i'm going to give you ten not because i give you ten dollars to put a bomb aside because in your valley on a give this group a couple thousand dollars and that's going to make that group the most powerful group in that valley it a lot of the groups that support the taliban have very vocal concerns. things are not going to affect you and i here in washington d.c. or other folks throughout the united states also to the ties between the taliban and al qaeda are not really there there or certainly elements of the taliban that have ties to al qaida but you can you can isolate them do not because there is ten or fifteen or maybe even twent

and to the people of afghanistan and is long. through this, the issue of afghanistan can be solved. >> in the provincial capital of taliban, and as the election campaign is underway. 157 canada, most of the men, are vying for the 14 parliamentary seats allocated to the province. >> people should vote for people who can work and serve. asian not vote for thieves. their deficits the people have voted for that were of no use. >> but in many of afghans provinces, it is the o war lords or their allies were likely to land the most votes. the independent human rights commission criticizes the fact that many people were not registered to vote to do a lack of election offices. and the commission chairman says that is not all. >> we need more, not the real one provided from the center to the people, to vote. it came from outside actually. >> even if people here are not where it about the threats of the taliban, they doubt the new parliament will provide afghanistan with the stability and needs. >> earlier, we spoke to the german foreign mi

afghanistan. hello dr hakim or so the people of afghanistan have been exposed to danger and attacks and there are also reports now of voting violations of these elections really worth the risk they pose to people. actually diego is was a big concern among the people of afghanistan about this election. particularly when the taliban threatened the people of afghanistan to not participate in this election and they threatened that today well as attack the polling stations in afghanistan because of. the level of turnout in general in afghanistan in this election was very low particularly in those areas or under control of taliban or under the threat of threats of taliban even. turned out to was very low in the capital of kabul. and the government of afghanistan tried to assure the people of afghanistan about the curative concerns that in general elections and afghanistan was held in a better situation in comparison to the past. ears and that the taliban of course attacks some places off that can three

american interests at stake in afghanistan do not warrant this level of sacrifice please explain why the wars cost us about four hundred billion dollars it's lasted for over nine years american dead or close to twelve hundred and there's been fallon's of afghan deaths. we are spending one hundred billion dollars a year next year we will spend about one hundred twenty billion dollars a year according to the congressional research service in a country whose g.d.p. is only fourteen billion and now that according to our cia there's only fifty to one hundred al qaeda members in afghanistan so you're talking about spending one billion to two billion dollars a year on each al qaeda presence in afghanistan i know that you had been working in iraq for a while before going into afghanistan was that war worth from where iraq was a few years ago yes the country has stabilized you know you've gone from four thousand civilian deaths someone's down to a few hundred it's still by no means a story and i don't know if i will ever say it was worth. i i i don't agree with those who believe that we neede

afghanistan. i hope he will talk about that as well. he is one of the most articulate national-security experts in the senate and has been outspoken in support of their troops, their mission, and the importance of understanding what is at stake in the war on terror. he condemned the new found process of setting arbitrary deadlines for troop drawdowns and said it would be a mistake to leave iraq with about maintaining a military presence. earlier this year, if he passed the terrorist retention review act which seeks to resolve some of the habeas issues. to talk about that bill, afghanistan, and anything else he would like to talk about, let me welcome senator lindsey graham. [applause] >> without food, i would have been worried. if you came here to figure out how al green paid his filing fee in south carolina or whether or not it is a good idea to dabble in witchcraft, whether obama was born in america, or whether the dream act will help senator harry reid in the upcoming election, you have come to

crossing into afghanistan have stopped the trucks that were crossing into afghanistan now what pakistan is trying to achieve by this obviously this is not an across the board ban on the nato supplies into afghanistan this is as i said one of the crossings there's another very important. crossing in the south that goes all the way to kandahar that crossing is called chum and it's in the southwestern province of baluchistan and that crossing as far as i checked just a few hours ago is still open i'm not sure if tankers are actually crossing into afghanistan from that point as we speak right now ours but at least one saying i don't want to say i was crossing one crossing is closed there's another nearby crossing that's open but let's talk about the nato airstrikes now and the apparent reason for these u.s. and nato strikes is that militants are using the pakistani tribal zone along the afghan border as a hideout and you tell me can pakistan solve this problem on its own. ok this is a point that unfortunately pakistani officials have not been able to clarify very in clear terms and our alli

should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm not i'm not one to apologise for taliban you know and i don't want to be accused of that or be seen as that but we have to recognize the taliban is not a monolithic movement the taliban is composed of many different groups within afghanistan that have diverse motives supporting taliban a lot of times that being financial financial the sense of not only give you ten not because they give you ten dollars to put a bomb aside because value on a give this group a couple thousand dollars and that's going to make that group the most powerful group in that valley a lot of the groups that support the taliban have very vocal concerns. things are not going to affect you and i here in washington d.c. or other folks throughout the united states also to the ties between the taliban and al qaeda are not really there there or certainly elements of the taliban that have ties to al qaida but you can you can isolate them do not because there is ten or fifteen or maybe even twenty percent of taliban

should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm not i mean i don't want to apologise for taliban you know and i don't want to be accused of that or be seen as that but we have to recognize the taliban is not a monolithic movement the taliban is composed of many different groups within afghanistan that have diverse motives supporting the taliban a lot of times that being financial financial the sense of not only give you ten not because they give you ten dollars to put a bomb aside because in your valley on a give this group a couple thousand dollars and that's going to make that group the most powerful group in that valley a lot of the groups that support the taliban have very vocal concerns. things are not going to affect you and i here in washington d.c. or other folks throughout the united states also to the ties between the taliban and al qaeda are not really there there or certainly elements of the taliban that have ties to al qaida but you can you can isolate them do not because there is ten or fifteen or maybe even twent

should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm not i'm not one to apologise for taliban you know and i don't want to be accused of that or be seen as that but we have to recognize the taliban is not a monolithic movement the taliban is composed of many different groups within afghanistan that have diverse motives supporting taliban a lot of times that being financial financial the sense of now i'm going to give you ten not because i give you ten dollars to put a bomb aside because in your valley and give this group a couple thousand dollars and that's going to make that group the most powerful group in that valley it a lot of the groups that support the taliban have very vocal concerns. things are not going to affect you and i here in washington d.c. or other folks throughout the united states also to the ties between the taliban and al qaeda are not really there there or certainly elements of the taliban that have ties to al qaida but you can you can isolate them do not because there is ten or fifteen or maybe even twenty per

he has not come from occupying afghanistan yes it was based in afghanistan when we showed up they fled to pakistan they dispersed around the world they became this near virtual decentralized loosely for motivation that uses individuals and cells and doesn't rely upon large physical tracks so land our successes in. against al-qaeda and there's a good new yorker article not too long ago about this. have been through more of a police or a warm foresman or intelligence role and we capture khalid sheikh muhammad then by the fact that we've got tens of thousands of u.s. troops occupying. two muslim countries out also to suggest that we need to look at our strategy in the sense of that our policies have been counterproductive and we've turned to using military occupation as a tool to be a terror network that is more similar to a mafia organization or a criminal organization and that is only composed of a couple thousand or a few thousand members worldwide he also said that afghanistan's neighbors say china have actually more to lose from the instability in afghanistan that the united states a

they have not toms from occupying afghanistan yes it was based in afghanistan when we showed up they fled to pakistan they dispersed around the world they became this near a virtual decentralized loosely for the as they try to use these individuals and cells and doesn't rely upon large physical tracks on land or successes in. against it and there's a good new yorker article not too long ago about this. have been through more of a police or the law enforcement or intelligence role like me capture of khalid sheikh muhammad then by the fact that we've got tens of thousands of u.s. troops occupying. two muslim countries out also suggests that we need to look at our strategy in the sense of that our policies have been in place for duck the return to using military occupation as a tool to beat a terrorist network that is more similar to a mafia organization or a criminal organization and that is only composed of a couple thousand or a few thousand members worldwide well let's get back to the taliban are you saying the u.s. should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm

way to have a a real policy in afghanistan pakistan is if we have a plan afghanistan the same way that we've had a very successful plan colombia dropping cocaine in colombia so that's the supply side but what about the demand side what's being done there to. and reduce some of the demand for this product. well when you when your report stated that it was the addiction of the police that it's a problem and you barely mention the corruption one breeds to the other you have got to stop the demand the myth the way that you have a huge flow of drugs in afghanistan and in unregulated growth because people have wanted to support the possibility of economic stability by letting the drugs grow it has bred a quintupling of drug addiction in afghanistan and as a result you have not only the addiction but the corruption so there's got to be education prevention rehabilitation treatment as well as law enforcement and foreign policy it has to be a comprehensive anti drug policy in afghanistan and as i said i believe there is now hope with the new united nations drug policy spokesman and so far the u

. >>> issue one, afghanistan exit strategy. >> there is substantial concern about our course in afghanistan. now ten years later, as we all pointed out, we are still there. i think we really have to begin sharpening our pencils as to what our objectives are, because the wealth of this country is not inturnable, nor are the casualties of our forces or the number of people we have available. and somehow that thought goes on without there being some definition of metrics is unacceptable. the question is, how do we end? >> good question, senator. what's the exit strategy on afghanistan? 1,201 u.s. soldiers have died in afghanistan over the last nine years. as of july so far in 2010 alone. >> question, does president obama have an exit strategy for afghanistan? pat buchanan? >> he does not. they are moving away from the mid 2011 deadline from the beginning of withdrawal of troops to show we are committed for a longer period of time. john, the problem is, we can't win the war with the forces we have in there. everybody knows it. however, the country is divided. the administration is divided. they

in afghanistan. this is the first one in taking place at some secretary gates has been in office. that is a new development as of today. all right? thank you. good to see you all. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> join us tomorrow when president obama will be hosting a news conference in the white house. he hopes to focus on new economic initiatives. that is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. eastern, and you can see it live here on c-span. the associated press is reporting that obama is planning four political rallies this fall in wisconsin, pennsylvania, nev. and wyoming. saturday marks the anniversary of the september 11th terrorist attacks. we will be live it with aviation pilots to recount their experience that day. that will get underway at 2:00 p.m. eastern. tonight, on book tv prime time, the discussion about coming to the united states and the like the author left behind. then, at the plight of the sienese after the fall

. >>> issue one, afghanistan exit strategy. >> there is substantial concern about our course in afghanistan. now ten years later, as we all pointed out, we are still there. i think we really have to begin sharpening our pencils as to what our objectives are, because the wealth of this country is not inturnable, nor are the casualties of our forces or the number fof people we have available. and somehow that thought ggoes on without there being some definition of metrics is unacceptable. the question +is, how do we end >> good question, senator. what's the exit strategy on afghanistan? 1,201 u.s. soldiers ve died in afghanistan over the last nine years. as of july so far in 2010 alone. >> question, does president obama have an exit strategy for afghanistan? pat buchanan? >> he does not. they are moving away from the mid 2011 deadline from the beginning of withdrawal of troops to show we are committed for a longer period of time. john, the problem is, we can't win the war with the forces we have in there. everybody knows it. however, the country is divided. the administration is divided. they

dilla barito afghanistan veterans and co-founder of veterans for rethinking afghanistan and from kansas is surely phelps roper a member of the westboro baptist church i want to thank you both for joining me now jake i'm going to start with you first i want to talk about this violence in the protests that have broken out in afghanistan you know the country you're a veteran of this war there yourself you know what are your thoughts are you shocked to hear that these protests and violence is breaking out especially in the bud action province which you know for many has long been considered a very america friendly one. a lot of things are happening on the program it's not a surprise that there's an increase in violence due to the mass hysteria that terry jones and the fred phelps have created with the koran burning but it's also i mean but they're not the only ones to blame the rise of the insurgency is largely dictated because of the deaths of innocent civilians and also the death the deaths of of unwanted women and children which are basically the main victims that happens in war so i thi

afghanistan. i am going to ask you a question to try to keep you away. how many people believe the attacks on our country on 9/11 were an act of war? how many people believe it was a crime? manmade disaster? does it matter if you treated as a crime obverses an act of war? yes, it does matter. i would argue that we have drifted away from treating the attacks of 9/11 as an act of war and we are going back to the law enforcemt model, not just here but throughout the alliance that we have enlisted to help fight the enemy. who is the enemy? and how you engage them? does it matter if you resort to all law enforcement model? i think it matters greatly. ladies and gentlemen, the difference between it fighting a crime and a war is enormous. and i believe we are at war. the eny has declared war on us. the question is will we declare war on them? here is the state of play in america in september, 2010. the cia is out of the interrogation business in the war on terror. i say that boldly and prove me wrong. th

policy toward afghanistan and pakistan. this is particularly important because the president has laid out a strategy come a plan of withdrawal and the future. as xe as a threat is itself to withdrawal, -- as the youngest aids raises up to withdraw, will it encourage them to become involved? to answer the question, to do this ride is not going to be easy. to be able to make this connection and make it well is going to be difficult. first of all, the engine procurement system, bu should ally the book, the picture of procurement is shot. secondly, indians themselves have articulated that the weapons purchases are going to be used as leverage for technology transfers. that raises a whole other host of issues. if the primary goal of the indian government is to have greater access to technology, then they're going to have -- then it is going to raise some issues with the technology control regimes in the u.s. and that is where the problem is. if the administration wants to change that or thinks that this is the way to go, then th

afghanistan. i hope he will talk about that as well. he is one of the most articulate natnal-security experts in the senate and has been outspoken in suppo of their troops, their mission, and the importance of understanding what is at stake in the war on terror. hecondemned the new found process of setting arbitrary deadlines for troop drawdowns and said it would be a mistake to leave iraq with about maintaining a military presence. earlier this year, if he passed the terrorist retention review act which seeks to resolve some of the habeas issues. talk about that bill, afghanistan, and anything else he would like to talk about, let me welcome senator lindsey graham. [applause] >> without food, i would have been worried. if you came here to figure out how al green paid his filing fee in south carina or whether or not it is a good idea to dabble in witchcraft, whether obama was born in america, or whether the dream act will help senator harry reid in the upcoming election, you have come to the wrong

afghanistan afghanistan is facing a lot of challenges. cannot solve the problems of afghanistan particularly the problem of security and afghanistan because the taliban are again getting the ground in afghanistan. by. democratic process in afghanistan has failed. because of this i think that the political process in afghanistan in the democratic process and afghanistan could solve the problem of the people and bad the problem in afghanistan is getting worse . where you are with r.t. it's good to have your company today still to come this hour calls for a change in priorities in us. here in these big. and gay marriage. when we hit the campaign trail for the u.s. midterm elections and discover what values something they're the most important in these tough economic times. also in the program find out what dangers lurking in the depths of the baltic sea that's coming your way in just a few minutes. a polish court is due to decide whether to extradite one of russia's most wanted terrorist suspects. was detained in warsaw on friday and later r

political afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and or drug use but the knocks on not sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. there on the move these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years in the league this is a mix of both your contacts you wouldn't want to buy them off this is opium i want but this is the kind of tricks drugs inside a calm family members coming to visit bring these with them we found drugs in shoes over the years prison guards have been charged with lending a hand. up they will give you it's true when i joined a few years ago lots of dollars were involved in smuggling drugs into the jail they are not very good educated. and. there are a lot joining. years truth out of the you joined the police to starve themselves but the ministry of kontum a cottage insists it's now got a hold on the problem before the police can become a police he detested he will have sort of tests before coming to before going through the exercise or are becoming a police sergeant this is something that h

he applied that and said the surge in iraq is the model for what we'll do in afghanistan except in afghanistan he in the same breath set a time line in iraq president bush didn't. that's why we had the peaceful 4th stryker brigade. >> larry: john sul it tz, what did you think? >> i wasn't super impressed with the speech. i didn't like the opening line. there's a lot of young americans who are still in iraq. troops that are in combat roles that are combat troops and when i went into iraq in 2003 and my first thing that happened to me that night we got ambushed by rbgs and i remember thinking when i finally got into the area we were at, wow, didn't george bush just said the mission was accomplished and combat operations were over? that's a very, very dangerous statement for him to make. if you look in the history of our country and the challenges we faced in beirut and somalia, you have to be very careful that the american public is aware of the dangers that exist for our troops as they move between bases in iraq. i don't like the idea that he says combat operations are over. we're still giving

i think afghanistan is a huge issue. politically for him he lost his base on it and that's one of the reasons he's trumping up the idea he's getting out of iraq. >> larry: did he? >> i think my point of agreement with jon ends on the time line. jon's right. how do you both surge into afghanistan and tell the enemy when you're going to leave in july of 2011? that is an albatross. we're hearing it from commanders, insurgents and local, regular folks in afghanistan. they know we're leaving and so they're hesitant to side with us. this isn't a nation building exercise. this is capacity building. the president talked about it. it's the same language president bush used in iraq. we want to build the space and time and allow afghanis to defend their own borders and protect their own population. this is a limited mission. it's something we can achieve. the strategy is correct. we may need more troops to do it and we're certainly going to need more time than july 2011. that will be president obama's decision point where he really

route for the coalition one hundred fuel tankers and trucks haven't been allowed into afghanistan it's seen as a retaliation to a nato helicopter strike into the tarea territory of pakistan in which three local soldiers were killed and three more wounded the alliance says the investigation is now being the incident is now being investigated and promised pakistan's sovereignty would be respected with recently the number of missile strikes and helicopter raids against suspected militants in pakistan's tribal zone have been on the rise pakistani officials say the attacks are violating international law and should be stopped political expert made correct she tells r t that the us led coalition has failed to persuade often drive women on either side of the border to join in the peace. so you need to expect that box on could go actually more further ahead and completely shut down needed supplies because there's a strong feeling that box that box down is getting to the bad side of the stick we didn't get what we really expected from this alliance with the united states with nato in afghanista

he's deployed in afghanistan. he's in the front lines. there's a rogue sergeant out there that is apparently killing innocent victims, and my son found out about this, and they're threatening him because -- he might say something to somebody. i said, you've got to get him out of there. you need to call me back, please. >> reporter: at the command center at fort lewis, the headquarters for their son's division, winfield says he finally got a sergeant on the line but with a disappointing response. >> the sergeant came back to me and said, you know, it's a terrible situation, but from our end, it's a he said/she said conversation and there's nothing we can do about it. >> reporter: nothing they can do about it? meantime in afghanistan, other soldiers later said the sergeant, gibbs became suspicious of a dam winfield. >> did you think he was serious about discussions he may have to take out winfield? >> oh, [ bleep ] yeah, for sure. >> so you didn't take that as a joke or like maybe he was just talking or -- >> he doesn't bull [ bleep ]. he d

to a afghanistan troops strategy. no comments today confirming nor denying it, i would be interested and it does show the world is deep division in the policy debate. >> the white house is not quarrelling with any of this substance, as i understand. particularly from general petraeus and a sense of frustration on all sides. >> what comes across is the president, according to bob woodward, everything being hidden. the president has set july of next year as the date at which he wants to begin the drawdown of some american troops. the really interesting thing, i think, is the president has everyone as part of that discussion and they are signed up to race it's paid to document. agreeing on what they would would not do, giving bob woodward access, making it available to the rest of the world. the generals being on the same page as the president. stay with us on bbc world news. still become, britain has announced a replacement for the armored vehicle that others call a mobile copy. first, the chinese prime minister is thre

men and women currently whose lives are at risk in afghanistan on behalf of this president? joining us to mix it up, "washington post" editorial writer jonathan cape part and editorial page editor for the washington examiner. obviously, mark tapscott, no more critical a decision the president will make than to put the soldiers of his or her country at risk. are you -- how do you view the most recent events? >> well, i think that is obviously the most important decision a president can make. and president obama came into office with that decision having been made for him by president bush. and face the question for himself and his administration, do we reverse it? he had all but said that he would reverse it before he was elected. once we got into office we began to see paralysis by analysis and that's continued to this day. there has been a decision to stay, a modest increase in troops but we still have the paralysis by analysis that is characteristic of people who are not sure that they are doing the right thing. >> jonathan? >> look, when president bush was trying to figur

should not be afraid of taliban afghanistan i don't believe so. i'm not i'm not one to apologise for taliban you know and i don't want to be accused of that or be seen as that but we have to recognize the taliban is not a monolithic movement the taliban is composed of many different groups within afghanistan that have diverse motives supporting taliban a lot of times that being financial financial the sense of now i'm going to give you ten not because i give you ten dollars to put a bomb aside because in your valley ana give this group a couple thousand dollars and that's going to make that group the most powerful group in that valley a lot of the groups that support the taliban have very vocal concerns. things are not going to affect you and i here in washington d.c. or other folks throughout the united states also to the ties between the taliban and al qaeda are not really there there or certainly elements of the taliban that have ties to al qaida but you can you can isolate them do not because there is ten or fifteen or maybe even twenty percen

and our support for afghanistan will endure. but make no mistake, this transition will begin because open-ended war serves neither our interests, nor the afghan peoples. indeed, one of the lessons of our effort in iraq is that american influence around the world is not a function of military force alone. we must use all elements of our power, including our diplomacy, our economic strength and the power of america's example, to secure our interests and stand by our allies. and we must project a vision of the future that's based not just on our fears but also on our hopes. a vision that recognizes the real dangers that exist around the world but also the limitless possibilities of our time. today, old adversaries are at peace. and emerging democracies are potential partners. new markets for our goods stretch from asia to the americas. a new push for peace in the middle east will begin here, tomorrow. billions of young people want to move beyond the shackles of poverty and conflict. as the leader of the free world, america will do

for the coalition one hundred fuel tankers and trucks having been allowed into afghanistan it's seen as they retaliate into a nato helicopter strike into the territory of pakistan in which three local soldiers were killed and three more wounded he says the incident is now under investigation and promise pakistan sovereignty would be respected recently the number of missile strikes and helicopter raids against suspected militants hiding in pakistan's tribal zones has been on the rise pakistani officials say the attacks are violating international law and should be stopped pakistani political experts offer made for a she tells r.t. that the u.s. led coalition has failed to persuade often tribes living on either side of the border to join in the peace efforts. you need to expect that box and could go actually more further ahead and completely shut down needed supplies because there is. a strong feeling that box down is getting to the bad side of the stick we don't get what we really expected from this alliance with the united states with nato in afghanistan and of course pakistani inter

al qaida and the afghan taliban particularly in these enclaves along the pakistan afghanistan border so paula what is the best educated thought of what will happen to these heavily armed units when the americans eventually do lose interest in the region. well that is the million dollar question what does happen to these heavily trained heavily equipped and heavily funded groups if and when the u.s. loses interest in this part of the world this is a decades old strategy we're not talking about something new we're talking about a system where for whatever reasons it is not politically or economically or militarily viable to the united states to take some kind of direct action it employs proxy armies the same thing or a very similar type of operation happened in iraq against al qaida there we saw the same thing happening back in the one nine hundred eighty s. here in afghanistan when the cia sponsored initiated into take on the soviets and very often people refer to this as the salvador option a throwback to the seventy's and eighty's when the u.s. sponsored diffs squads in countries in

strong player that's allied with pakistan in afghanistan although. not so much aligned with the pakistanis so i think they regard the taliban in afghanistan as their as their chip for after the u.s. leaves so they're not going to quit supporting the taliban and there's this charade that they're making an alliance with the u.s. and they do do some things to catch al-qaeda and that sort of thing but they never really go after the taliban and the sanctuaries are very important for the for the taliban in the war in afghanistan and so i think that's probably going to continue the strikes from there the sanctuary in pakistan and so i think the u.s. is going to have a hard time winning this war and i think many people even in the obama administration are thinking that. all right a lot of food for thought there but a lot to leave it there for now thanks much ivan even defense analyst from the independent institute a us think tank. still to come here on r t speakers at the u.n. general assembly talk to themselves find out why the media walked away and left hu

troops pledging to pull out of afghanistan by next summer many feared the election show the country is far from stable and still plagued by corruption archies polis leer is in kabul. by and large the sunni militias successful day for us gun democracy even if it was an extreme meet you know the voter turnout at some polling stations reporting that less than of course the number of people turned out today compared to the number of people cost him a batted in last year during the presidential elections the first results will come in next week wednesday with the final tape tending to been tabled at the end of october but these sort of he will be elections associated with flying in space more than anything else in polling stations what i'm able to open the doors are particularly in far flung communities where the taliban has its. on control we've also heard from the electoral complaints commission and it says it was the course of the day it received numerous reports on irregularities some of the complaints were by people saying that they saw you know action officials accepting bribes some o

strategy in afghanistan. the world is waiting to see how afghanistan handles the election. they are watching to see if the afghanistan government made any progress in cutting down and rooting out corruption after last year's corrupt presidential election and waiting to see how the afghanistan security forces handle violence tomorrow. the taliban have vowed to disrupt this vote. already in the past couple of weeks there are 20 candidates and election workers that have been killed and many places in the south the polling stations have been closed because the security situation is such they cannot open them safely. now, still, millions of afghanistan are expected to turn out to vote tomorrow. and u.s. officials have been trying to lower expectations pointing out this vote in afghanistan, there is violence, this is a country at war, there will be some fraud but the big challenge, what u.s. and international officials want to see, they want to see progress after last year's fraudulent election. that's the big key. if they see less violence and corruption this will be a success.

is afghanistan policy was dead on arrival when strategy does not work in town much you can't put six forgave them do anything in ten months i think we can agree on that so i think if you're going to make every look good that's right they absolutely where do. they think about it being here that it's time for a break with so to come tonight a look at the waste of the u.s. taxpayer dollars and not from prisons that never held prisoners to a new hospital that still isn't accepting any patients u.s. taxpayers have been on the hook for billions of dollars due to the chronic waste and bloat of the u.s. military machine and while this war is symbolically coming to an end the u.s. is still fighting secret wars around the globe i'll discuss that issue in a moment with former. cia agent and criminal defense attorney jack rice. every month we give you the future we'll do understand how we'll get. to more. best in science and technology from across russia and around the world. knowledge on r.g.p. . when word first got out that soldiers in iraq were leaving seem to the troops were hosing a mega ga

polished afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and drug use but the locks are not a sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years. this is a mix of all your contacts. but this is opium. this is the kind of tricks drugs inside a calm family members coming to visit bring these with them we found drugs in shoes over the years prison guards have been charged with mending a hand. yes it's true when i joined a few years ago lots. of dollars were involved in smuggling drugs into the jail they are not for the good that you don't have enough and there are a lot joining the produce truth out of the people joining the police to solve themselves but the ministry of cantona cottage insists it's now got a hold on the problem but questions remain what if some of those fighting afghanistan's drug war are actually foot soldiers for the other side and with the many challenges the country faces doesn't really have the resources to tackle the corruption within its ranks insid

military experience in iraq could be transferable to afghanistan the negative experience in iraq has been largely ignored it seems like some gys developed a horrible habit during that tour of duty in iraq that is shooting civilians for fun and when they got it transferred to afghanistan one of those loose cannons set up a kill team in stryker brigade in kandahar who right now are under investigation for killing afghan civilians just for scores as a result it has delivered and irreparable damage to the u.s. image abroad and specifically created yet another tool for taliban recruiting against the foreign occupation in afghanistan. and we've got more perspective from afghanistan coming your way later here on r t outspoken war critic matthew hoh says hunting down the taliban is a waste of u.s. military and financial resources you can watch the full interview with him in the next hour here's a quick preview. one of the larger problems i think with u.s. foreign policy particular national security policies are not consistent if they're if we are in afghanistan because of al qaeda and if the

we'll bring you even more perspective from afghanistan later on r.t. outspoken war critic matthew hoh says hunting down the taliban is a waste of u.s. military and financial resources you can watch the full interview with him in about fifteen minutes here's a preview. one of the larger problems i think with us foreign policy particular national security policies are not consistent if they're if we are in afghanistan because of al qaeda and if there are only fifty to one hundred members of al qaeda in afghanistan then why are we pulling out of iraq where there are one thousand to two thousand members why do we see and we need to keep. one hundred thousand troops in afghanistan when al qaeda operations come out of somalia and yemen so that consistency is not there in our in our foreign policy particularly in our now security policy and that's very worrisome to me because you don't have consistency if you don't have good critical thought if you don't have a degree of intellectual honesty in your policymaking you are going to have bad policy and you're goi

you talked about afghanistan let me ask you a question about afghanistan. for the last seven years, as you know, the united states of america and international alliances have not been successful in afghanistan. they did not reach their mission. now, 50% of the country is directly under the role of the taliban. -- control of taliban. my question is whether mistakes have been committed by the bush administration that should not be repeated for the obama administration? the question is for all of the. -- all of you. >> the question was essentially the taliban it is enormously influential in major parts of the country, and the questioner said that represents a failure by the united states in afghanistan, and what are the errors that caused the failure? is that fair? >> the errors committed by the bush administration in the last seven years that should not be repeated by the obama administration. >> as one would have to say, that is a very large question. some things were done right, and some things were done wrong. some things were done right at certain times t

troops is under way in afghanistan, even as we speak. there are, in fact, hundreds of troops trying to establish a foothold near kandahar city, which is, of course, where the taliban movement was born. now, elements of the 101st airborne are involved in this operation, which is designed to prevent insurgents from moving fighters, explosives and drugs into those taliban strongholds. nbc tom as peljoins us live from kabul and tell us a little bit about this struggle and how it's likely to shape up there, tom. >> hi, chris. well, as you mentioned, it's the 101st airborne with hundreds of afghan troops and they're moving west of kandahar city. now, the objective is to deny the taliban safe havens in those areas. it's part of an ongoing operation, really, that has been happening for the last couple months trying to sweep the taliban not only out of kandahar, but helman province and southern afghanistan in general. most of the attention in afghanistan today is focused on elections scheduled for this saturday morning. and we have seen the last

american interests at stake in afghanistan do not warrant this level of sacrifice please explain why the war's cost us about four hundred billion dollars it's lasted for over nine years american dead or close to twelve hundred there's been found since of afghan deaths. we're spending one hundred billion dollars a year next year we're going to spend about one hundred twenty billion dollars a year according to the congressional research service in a country whose g.d.p. is only fourteen billion and knowing that according to our cia there's only fifty to one hundred members in afghanistan so you're talking about spending one billion to two billion dollars a year on each al qaeda presence in afghanistan i know that you had been working in iraq for a while before going to afghanistan was that war worth from where iraq was a few years ago yes the country has stabilized you know you've gone from four thousand civilian deaths some months down to a few hundred it's still by no means a story and i don't know if i will ever say it was worth it i buy i don't agree with those who believe that we