the saudis were not able to overthrow the regime of saddam hussein. they have been concerned about the increased influence that iran has had in iraq. the shiites have had relations with iran and iraq, and they have had a particularly difficult relationship with the current prime minister of iraq. host: next up is alan on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a quick question on this whole wiki leaks thing. i have done two tors and iraq and it tore in afghanistan. i was there for the invasion of iraq, and that was a gun pilot, and apache pilot. we were not going out there and killing civilians. we did everything we could to limit that. i think all soldiers are out there doing that in good faith, but it is war. i think we all have to understand that. i think the fatalities, as far as civilians, came greatly down since world war i, world war ii, korea, vietnam, or even the gulf war. my question is on the wiki leaks. the one thing i don't are we not goings thi out and bringing this guy and? this is pretty common sense. this

we watched him shimmy up the statue of saddam hussein, which they tore down. you spoke about another immigrant from the middle east who wanted to put his arabic- language skills into the services for our country and came from syria and hoped to be deployed to iraq. you spoke about a corporal from guatemala who came to america illegally as a young boy. one of the first marines killed in action in iraq. as his family told reporters, he enlisted with the marine corps because he wanted to give back to america. yet he was one of the first marines killed in action in iraq. you described the unterberg noel spirit and ingenuity of many immigrants who want to give to the economy and to other ways to america -- the entrepreneurial spirit. >> i think people come here for economic reasons basically and for a lot more, they believe in the freedom and the american dream, they believe that their children will have an opportunity to do a lot better than they have done. the there's any question about the motivation -- i don't think there's any question about the motivation. i

when we went to war in iraq, it was because saddam hussein his a cancer in the region, he had brought the united states into war twice, first in 1990 and then when president clinton bombed iraq in 1998. every intelligence service in the world thought that he had stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. he of course had an infrastructure for them. he had invaded his neighbors. he'd used weapons of mass destruction. he'd put 400,000 of his people in mass graves. he was shooting at our aircraft that were patrolling his aircraft. he was a danger. now, you can argue about whether he was a danger that needed to be dealt with then or later. we decided that he was a danger that needed to be dealt with then. and once you have done that, you need to have a view of what the future is going to look like for the people of iraq. we didn't go to war in iraq to democrat advertise iraq. that's a -- democratize iraq. any more than people went to war with hitler germany to democrat advertise germ hi. once the war was over you had to have a view of what should follow. and we hoped to help the iraqi people

the president of the iraqi governing council spoke about the impact of getting rid of saddam hussein at this event hosted by the atlantic magazine fplg it's 20 minutes. >> first of all, i would like to congratulate the doctor for even being here. he's known as a survivor, but for those of you who know anything about his history, he has been pronounced dead politically and literally dead, physically, so many times that you can't count them. so, how do you explain your survival? how are you still here? i mean, you've had assassination attempts, you've had threats, you've been in, you've been out, you've been up, you've been down, you've been rejected by your political system, you've been rejected by the american political system. and still you're a member of the parliament. you're now part of the political power structure in iraq. what accounts for that? >> i think three things. luck, faith and perseverance. >> i want to just briefly touch -- i know a lot of you have heard dr. chalabi on the issue of weapons of mass destruction. i would like to ask you, do you think now, looking back o

saddam hussein was seen as a threat to our interests and our security. but once the war was over, you had to have a view of what should follow. we hoped to help the iraqi people build the first multi confessional democracy in the arab world. and while they are struggling -- and let me tell you, we could have done things much, much better. i do not have any doubt about that. maybe i will talk about some of that in the next book and can tell you what those were. and i will never be able, any of us, to forget the many, many lives that were lost. but if the iraqis do take the opportunity to build the first multi-confessional arab democracy, where they settled their differences within democratic institutions rather than either by violence or somebody oppressing somebody else, then the middle east is going to be a very different place because iraq is an important country in the middle east. and while we are frustrated with them as they rangel for who is going to the prime minister and who will get that post and who will get that post -- just think about it. th

the relationship was again tested and came out with colors when saddam hussein invaded kuwait and the countries put together a coalition of over 32 countries to liberate kuwait and restore its legimate government. of course, that our next big challenge was the tragic of tax and personal attacks of 9/11. whene discovered that 15 of the 19 hijacke hailed rahm saudi arabia, it was devastating to us, itas a big blow potentially to the relationship. it cast doubts in the minds of americans out saudi arabia. the in unleased a tremendously critical and -- portrayal of saudi arabia ithe united states and the rest of the world. v in the kingdome dealt with this issue. we examine the thread that we faced. we confronted its head on and we came out of this experience, we mning the united states and it saudi arabia, in a much healthier and stronger relationship then we were before these events. today when i look at our relationshipi'd like to quote as i always do but that doesn't mean that i agree with the political philosophy about ronald reagan, he used to say that facts are stubborn things and

in 1990, we went in to kick saddam hussein out of kuwait, which we did by march of 1991, and never made a decision to stay, andy al qaeda attacks started five years later. what about the al qaeda -- the al qaeda attackers themselves? i want to show you videos from six of the most notorious. i want to show you four of the 9/11 hijackers. they will speak to you and arabic. i will show you some marker videos from two of the london of bombers from july, 2005. they will speak to you in english. let me let you listen to them. we will book and the english. the london bomber first, then the four hijackers, then another london bomber. >> your democratically collected government -- elected government carries out in justices to my people, and that makes you directly responsible. until we feel security, you will be attacked. until you have suffered the imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop. >> this is just the beginning of a serious -- of a series of attacks that will be continued until you leave afghanistan and iraq, and scott financial contributions [unintelligible] [unintelligi

hussein, but because i did not feel we accomplished it will be needed to in afghanistan before we did that. -- accomplished what we needed to in afghanistan before we did that. host: we will go on to florida, vetoed joining us on the republican line. -- vito joining us on the republican line. caller: if we let the government begin 100% of the profits of oil and not the corporations, then we could fix our social security and health care. host: all right, marty, and then a question. porter,ined by john former representative from illinois and david skaggs, former workers and to from colorado. their organization has over 130 former members of congress who have called for this. your asking citizens to go on your website enjoy in this as well. your web site, by the way is fmocforcommonground.org. a comment from illinois. go ahead. caller: it is hard to bring people together. you have one side that is a totally socialist agenda, which we all know is the democrats. and they keep talking about how they're going to win back the house. what i'm seeing here and everywhere else, there is no possib

hussein, but because i did not feel we accomplished it will be needed to in afghanistan before we did that. -- accomplished what we needed to in afghanistan before we did that. host: we will go on to florida, vetoed joining us on the republican line. -- vito joining us on the republican line. caller: if we let the government begin 100% of the profits of oil and not the corporations, then we could fix our social security and health care. host: all right, marty, and then a question. porter,ined by john former representative from illinois and david skaggs, former workers and to from colorado. their organization has over 130 former members of congress who have called for this. your asking citizens to go on your website enjoy in this as well. your web site, by the way is fmocforcommonground.org. a comment from illinois. go ahead. caller: it is hard to bring people together. you have one side that is a totally socialist agenda, which we all know is the democrats. and they keep talking about how they're going to win back the house. what i'm seeing here and everywhere else, there is no possib

hussein had weapons of mass destruction. >> we were brought in and shown tubes that the deputy director of central intelligence said it was only useful in refining uranium. we were told that there were unmanned aerial vehicles that had gone through training with the maps of u.s. cities loaded in. >> were you lied to? >> i think we were lied to in the end. by the deputy director of central intelligence, absolutely. on this information, secretary clinton, when she was a senator , an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the congress and then voted based on that information. it shows what happens when you get intelligence wrong. we have had too big intelligence failures recently occurred >> you are not saying the intelligence is wrong? he said he relied too. >> there was a big error when you overstate a threat like in iraq. i think we should remove all political appointees from central intelligence and make sure it is all careers of that you know someone stand up, speak truth to power and tell the president, mr. president, you are overstating a threat or you have completely missed a threat e

hussein had weapons of mass destruction. >> we were brought in and shown tubes that the deputy director of central intelligence said it was only useful in refining uranium. we were told that there were unmanned aerial vehles that had gone through training with the maps of u.s. cities loaded in. >> were you lied to? >> i think we were lied to in the end. by the deputy director of central intelligence, absolutely. on this information, secretary clinton, when she was a senator , an overwhelming bipartisan majority of the congress and then voted based on that information. it shows what happens when you get intelligence wrong. we have had too big intelligence failures recently occurred >> you are not saying the intelligence is wrong? he said he relied too. >> there was a big error when youverstate a threat like in iraq. i think we should remove all political appointees from central intelligence and make sure it is all careers of that you know someone stand up, speak truth to power and tell the prident, mr. president, you are overstating a threat or you have completely missed a threat essenti

and when baghdad fell he was a marine that was at the statue of saddam hussein to pull it down and you talk about lance corporal in how he was -- how he wanted to put his arabic language skills and the services of our country. d how he came from syria and hope to be deployed. you talked about corporal jose gutierrez who was raised in the guatemala d came to america as a boy and illegally. corporal gutierrez was one of the first marines killed in action in iraq. as his family told reporters he is listed with the marine corps because you wanted to. >> to america. yet he was one of the first marines killed in action and iraq. in so you describe that the entrepreneurial spirits and the continuity of many of the immigrants who want to give not only to the economy but also to other way is to america. so in what ways do immigrants like corporal gutierrez benefit our country? >> i think people come here, of course, basically maybe for economic reasons but for a lot more. if they believe in the freedom they will have here, they believe in the american dream, they believe that children will have