Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140622

A runoff in the mississippi race. Rangel charlie we are going to begin with your comments on the president and u. S. Foreign. How is he doing . The phone minds we also have a line for independents. This comes as sunni forces continues to make inroads in northern and western iraq. We want to get your assessment of the residents overall handling of the situation there. Tweet, join us a on facebook, or send us an email. On this First Official weekend of summer we want to get your thoughts on all of this. We will go to the latest on the nbc news wall street journal poll. It has been getting a lot of attention in the last three or four days. The president s handling of foreignpolicy plummeting. The percentage has dropped to the most level of his presidency as he faces overseas challenges, including iraq. Additionally the public is evenly split on whether the president is a competent manager. We hear some of the latest he tells courtesy of the New York Times frontpage story on iraq a. James rosen, who was traveling with secretary of state john kerry has written on the fox about purpose of his meeting with the egyptian leader. He points out the secretary of state embarking on a weeklong tool or reedit weeklong tour. Threatens to wreak further havoc on the volatile egypt in particular is stacked with pressure of bilateral issues that he could scarcely afford to ignore. The former egyptian president remains in prison. Many of his followers were jailed or killed in clashes with state Security Forces. More details online. Ush of politico is joining on the phone line this morning. We want to focus on the president s handling of foreignpolicy. At this new wall street journal poll. What has been the reaction been at the white house . Aware of how me fires are burning on this front. I think they think the publics view on foreignpolicy takes a more shortterm approach then maybe on some of the domestic issues, like the economy or jobs. The the few big stories in news, im thinking the Current Situation in iraq that everyone is talking about, as well as the prisoner swap at guantanamo, a lot of criticism of the president in newspapers, on oped pages, on television and cable television. I think the white house is not terribly surprised some of that would be running off would be rubbing off on the president. There are no easy or available answers on the iraq situation that could move this in the direction of being some sort of triumph for the white house in the course of a few weeks. They have to grin and bear it on this front, as has been historically been the case. As has historically been the case. With then are you ambassador said this morning in the outlook section of the washington post. He makes the point that the news from iraq is terrifying and utterly predictable. He also makes the point that you can argue whether or not we should have invaded iraq in 2003. That is certainly an argument that has been put out there, ever since president since the president withdrew troops in 2011. I think the president or his aides used the number 10,000 the other day. This was always the second choice for the Obama Administration, to pull all troops out of iraq. An agreement would give those troops immunity from being prosecuted under criminal law in iraq and that has left them with no choice but to pull the troops out. Republican set off always suggested that more pressure could have made such an agreement possible in 2011. The white house has countered byt that line was set president george w. Bush, an agreement he signed on iraqi sovereignty several years earlier. Theres no question the u. S. Thought iraqn would have been more stable with some troops in the country. Whether or not that would have prevented the onslaught, given the deterioration and chaos over syria in the last couple of years, i think it is hard to say. Pointed criticism might be the fact that they did not factor in all the possible spinoff elements to the violence in syria and maybe attempt some things that are little more high risk, given the possible followup. Host a story online at politico. Com, with the headline the gop reviving obama foreignpolicy attacks. Caller republicans have always thought foreignpolicy was an area where they could get some advantage over the white house. I think with the possible exception of the bin laden raided, they always felt it was a hamhanded and naive approach on the president s part of part. Ultimately the 2012 election if the president did miss handled every foreignpolicy situation leading up to that election, you do have to wonder why he was returned to office. Has always felt American People had a strong feeling, they wanted to get out of the war in iraq, they wanted to get out of the war in afghanistan. The interesting thing to me is they were boasting about the withdrawal of troops from iraq of the keys one achievements of president obamas terms in office. Now we see the possible followup of that. It never was the administrations first choice. Family you are in the briefing are in thet you briefing room. Here is the president s answer with regard to iraq and u. S. Troops. [video clip] any regrets about that decision and 2011 . That was a decision made by the Iraqi Government. We offer a modest residual force to continue to train and advise iraq hes Security Forces. Iraqs Security Forces. They are provided to community, since they are being invited by a sovereign government, so if they end up acting in selfdefense, if they are themselves inind a tough situation that they are found before a foreign court. The Iraqi Government and president malasky and denied thatliki immunity. I think it is important to recognize that in spite that decision that we have continued to provide them with very intensive advice and support and have continued throughout this process over the last five years offer them our assistance militarily, but we also continue to urge the kinds that weical compromises think are ultimately necessary in order for them to have a functioning multisectarian democracy inside the country. Host where does that put the administration when it comes to the pressure she is are sure he is facing from the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party . He is in a vise between the two different critiques. Minority leader nancy pelosi come out last week and say she is very nervous about this modest insertion of u. S. Military advisers into iraq. I think she was alluding to vietnam history by saying it becomes more than advisers. We have seen foreign entanglements by the u. S. Where a few hundred advisors become a few thousand. There are folks on that end of the spectrum who see a slippery slope, folks on the republican side who would like to see a more aggressive approach with the u. S. Moving to airstrikes. The president did a couple of interviews on friday and his tone was one of extreme caution regarding the situation in iraq. He said in an interview with cnn if u. S. Military advisers get in there and they dont see a fair presentation of the three major in militaryaq command centers and military units that they are advising, but that is going to be it for the u. S. It does seem that rather than this being the beginning of a slippery slope it is quite possible that the president may decide that this is a hopeless cause after military advisers go in there and assess the situation. The president is leaving the possibility out there. Note the point you make is european leaders are getting closer to additional sanctions. Germany in particular, is Angulo Merkel on board with this latest round of ukrainians that may have been involved in relations with russia and the potential situation in crimea . There have been a lot of individually targeted sanctions. I think the question is whether to broaden the sanctions out. They talked about sectoral sanctions, meaning that whole area of business with russia might potentially be affected and concern is they are very very defend and very very dependent on russian delivery supplies. Andbrought up germany chancellor merkel. Germany relies on those gas supplies for much of their energy. The u. S. Will move to sex oral sanctions in the u. S. Might interfere with that Energy Supply in some fashion. Something they are calling scalpel sanctions, which might apply to a couple of named companies, firms, or individuals but still perhaps not have such broad reach they cause Major Economic problems or trigger a significant retaliation from the russians. Host Josh Bernstein is a White House Reporter for politico. His work is Available Online at politico. Com. The question is how would you assess the u. S. The president s handling of u. S. Foreignpolicy. One viewer says this is the headline this morning from the houston chronicle. A similar take in the front page of the New York Times. President st the Approval Rating taking a tumble again. What this means for november. He takes a political look at all of this but points out the likely driver is the onslaught of bad news, the crisis in ukraine, the scandal at the anthonys joining us from washington dc on the independent line. We will try next to billy in miami, florida. It is easy for people sitting in their house watching the tv and then trying to make a decision on handling these incidents. S quite a thing to do host, we are getting some feedback. We are going to try john in hampton, georgia. Caller i am like billy. I think it is easy for people to theseck and have all opinions about how the president is doing. He was reelected for these things. Polls are flawed. It is somebody elses opinion. People are tired of wars. As as malik he goes far as president malik egos, youre going to give our troops immunity. Host lets take a look at the nbc news wall street journal poll that came out last thursday. Do you approve or disapprove of the president s handling of Foreign Policy . 57 disapproved. And he you think the nation is heading in the right direction or on the wrong track . 25 said the hunt said the country is heading in the right direction. 7 said mixed and 5 were not sure. News morning from senator joe lieberman, from inside the washington post. Next is wrong from bayside, new york. Is ron from bayside, new york. Funny america is a country. The United States beats the hell out of you and that lets say, lets be friends. Look at germany today. Iraq, there is another breed of people. It doesnt take a Rocket Scientist to figure out that when we pullout it would go back to write the way it was. Have beenand shia killing each other for hundreds of years. Obama just wants to get the credit and say, i ended it. Now he has his hands full and we are going to have another afghanistan. If you want to comment, i will listen. Next is st joining us on the democrats line. All sit back and do monday morning quarterback. This thing did not come overnight. People have been fighting for many years. I do not understand where they get this poll that somebody of the American People are ssapproving of the president handling of foreignpolicy. I think he is doing a great job. Secondly these people they have been fighting for many years. I think he is doing a perfect job. I support the president and the American People. They dont send your sons out to battle. John mccain is an old soldier that does not want to fade away. Criticize people from all over the world look at it. Will they are not supporting him. Host he served in both the bush and Obama Administration as our ambassador to iraq. He makes this point. Jen is joining us from florida, independent line. The morning. Good morning. Caller i admire what the president is doing. We werent going to support one government favoring one side of this conflict over another, that is the best thing any president has ever said. God love our troops because they work tirelessly. They are committed, they are going in there trying to do the best they can with the situation that goes back 1000 years. I wish the question was being asked, can anyone offer a real suggestion about how to fix things over there or does anyone really know what they are fighting about . From my take, i have been watching the stuff for the past 30 years on tv. Is if you muted to your tv, it looks like the same fight. Host the economist takes a look at the president s Approval Rating and the sentiment of the American People saying iraq is not going to be a perfect place. This is a headline Michael Crowley has the cover story for time magazine, the end of iraq. Bob is joining us next from pennsylvania. Welcome to the conversation. Caller i would like to say i think the president is doing a very bad job. As commanderinchief of the United States armed forces at a time of war, he let five of our enemy go. Ar that he should be tried by military Tribunal Court for crimes against the United States. Thank you for the call. Jana has this point a look at the u. S. Navy force inside cq weekly. Navy carriers face waves of changes. New strategic realities put the future of the dominant warship into doubt. Welcome to the program. Caller i think the president is doing the best job he can. Troops. t want to use in he is trying to clean that up. He is doing the best he can. Send your own over there. Oh at all. T involved dont get involved at all. I think history should judge what he is doing later on. He is making the best decisions he can right now. Let history worry about it later. Host Arnold Siegel has a different point of view two other questions from this wall street journal poll, the overall approval of the performance 6 are not sure. This poll has a margin of error of 3 . By nbc news,olled the wall street journal. Senator your representative deserve to be reelected . Yes, 57 said an new person should be given a chance, and 11 were not sure. Next caller. Caller the balance of power is on their own. The south too early. There is chaos in washington. This is what we are going to have over there. Jack is next from columbia, South Carolina on the independent line. Caller good morning. I think the president is doing a beautiful job. People are animals in the way they are killing each other in the name of religion. Any guy who believes in killing each other for religion, they are not religious. They are a bunch of demos. Anybody who wants us to go to war to fight with devils, they are going to help two. They need to stop fighting and take care of each other and do the right thing. What kind of people are like that . Religion is beautiful. It is not evil. They can go and fight for themselves and leave the good people here to help each other be successful. They are just a bunch of animals. Another viewer saying i approve of the president s handling of everything. Lets turn to politics in a moment. One of the races to keep an eye on it tuesday. Congressman charlie wrangle in the house over the past four decades facing a tough primary challenge and the New York Times sunday magazine, a look at charlie wrangles primary battle in a district that has changed in the past couple of years. That is inside the washington post. He makes the point that the it has turned into a debate about whether charlie wrangle has stayed too long in office. We will have more coverage on tuesday evening, including the results from that mississippi doyle writes about foreignpolicy in the l. A. Times. He says if there is an Obama Doctrine in Foreign Policy, it begins with one rule. No more largescale military intervention. The rule comes with a major exception, terrorism. Obama withdraws u. S. Troops from iraq. He has shown no hesitation when it comes to striking terrorists who had a history of plotting against u. S. Citizens. He goes on to write the results are certain to be messy, even if u. S. Policy succeeds on every front. That is one hard learned lesson from the last gate of the u. S. Foreign policy. Make sure you keep your ambitions modest. This piece is Available Online on the l. A. Times website. There asking you about president s handling of Foreign Policy. Youre just joining us from fairmont, west virginia. Good morning. Caller the biggest mistake the president made was when he went into iraq and declared victory because he wanted to pull the troops out. When we fought the second world ,ar and left japan and germany we left a general in charge for government. Up a look at germany and look at japan today. Look at what happened in iraq. He wanted to go in there and declare victory over bush and out,thing, pull the troops and he is doing the same in afghanistan. It is coming back to haunt him now. He has never been a president. Of he was an organizer. He had no experience from in the white house. I cant understand how people reelected him for a second term. I cant understand what this country is coming to. Him hose, tj has this point. Host tj has this point can join in on the conversation, send us a tweet, cspanwj. George will says torch will will be a guest on an upcoming q and a program. Cynthia is join jane tesh is joining us from our current you, new mexico. Caller i do not want to go back to iraq created it was too hard on our troops. Afraid is i am so , iause when obama won thought he was going to be a good president. He let the Clinton Group come in and take over his presidency. He has not been the president on his own. I think our attorney general needs to be out of there. Needs to not listens to the polo seas and the clintons. He needs to do his thing. I liked him. I still do. I think he is listening to the wrong people. I remember the first time i had a meeting when he said, we won. He said if republicans dont like it they can go back to the back of the bus. He does not want the republicans to work for them. He wants to listens to the pelosis and clintons. Do, thishat i need to is what the people want. Start listening to people who want something for nothing and ourthat, and then put country back to work, let our andn get a job, mother doesnt have to could for it does not have to cook for their children anymore. The government feeds them. When i was growing up my mother used to work hard to grace us. Host thank you for sharing your thoughts. Many of you on our facebook page. You can join in on facebook. Com cspan. Bonnie says there is this from harry who much prefers policy. Dana says this. President obama break about ending the iraq war. Now he says he did not. He is incapable of telling the truth. Speaker of the house john boehner also weighing in on all of this. This is what he had to say. [video clip]an. Or the white house thought the American People were going to cheer when the president released these terrorists. I think his misreading of the American People is shocking. President ked for the for a strategy to reverse the momentum of terrorism. I heard a little bit about iraq yesterday. The white house is known for months about the situation in iraq. Not just iraq, it is libya, egypt, syria. Of terrorism has increased exponentially under the president s leadership. I said i hoped the president would seize this moment and take look at thisou presidency and cant help but get the since the wheels are coming off. A poll saying the president the survey just 37 approve of his handling of u. S. Foreign policy. The president sat down with congressional leaders to update Speaker Boehner and leader pelosi created senator reed and senator mcconnell heres a session from that leadership. Next is blame from texas. Good morning. Caller it is good to hear everybody is up. I guess they are all getting ready to go to church. I do not support the president. His Foreign Policy is a sixfoot tall wall of jello. It bends at the wind. He made the other day, he didnt say anything. Except that he was not going to say anything. As far as the people complaining fatcats should send their kids, a lot of them were kids. Host from our twitter page one other point from the nbc news wall street journal poll, and we found this on a wall street journal website only 41 approving of the job he is doing as president. William is joining us from riverdale, georgia. Caller good morning. The polls we are taking come from the people who voted against the president. They wanted him to fail. They were conniving. I think the polls are not accurate. Thatnk you put things up are opposite of what the president is actually doing. When you bring a people who , that ised for him what they said, what do you expect . It is not surprising. Host thank you for the call. There was an election for house leadership this week and at the end of july. Congress minsk police the new House Republican whip. That is part of the story. They have natural ties to the industry. There is this from the pittsburgh postgazette. Won on aago they revival that took them through altoona pennsylvania, a look back at his life and career in the Boston Sunday Globe has a look at College Tuition inflation, even with aid. Of joseph is joining us from san diego. Welcome to the program. I think the issue in the sayle east republicans it is a failure of obama. It is a failure of islam. I served in afghanistan. Four out of five afghans are illiterate. The british tried to colonize them. The same thing and iraq. The these people not modernize. Islam is incapable of being modern. Theres no respect for human rights. Women cant even drive. Of i served in bahrain and we had a female pilots that couldnt drive over there because they are not allowed to drive in saudi arabia. Islam does not want to modernize. Of we need to be energy sufficient and not be held slaves to saudi arabia. Host thank you for the call. From the New York Times. We have great professionals that. Ome out of college the one in five young adults still lives with his or her parents. This is the cover story of the New York Times sunday magazine. Family,sation about including the fact that when they first got married Michelle Obama clean the bathrooms and barack obama did not get high grades for folding the laundry. Of this takes place in washington. Welcome to the program. President obama said he will attack any terrorist iraq is now overrun with terrorists. In the sense that he is going to do with those terrorists. When he ran for election this last time he said the good fight was in afghanistan. It is about to go into another iraq and fall apart. What is going to happen when we pull out of afghanistan and the entire battle starts to turn into another iraq. I dont know what is going to happen better than anybody else. Now we are going to have to countries that we invaded. It will end up being another multitrillion dollar mess on our know whatwe dont were going to do with the policies that are created. You have one finger pointed out like he does to everybody. Of you have four fingers pointed back at themselves. Another viewer saying it is hard to distinguish the policy from president obama and president bush. Istin says president obama wondering who is the next few people have heard of dave brat a few days ago. The Political Climate lays and their fever. That plays into their favor. Among the candidates profiled is joe hard. The tennessee primary is august 7. We will talk politics with debbie schultz, democratic chair of the national committee. What thethe questions, survey means for the president. Here is a portion of the conversation. [video clip] it shows the president s popularity is sinking. I see no matter that suggests the president s the president will gain the house in the seat. The president s are going to do better in the next congress and the house than they are in the next term. The republicans are fully engulfed. When push comes to shove and you have a republican candidate for say democratic candidate. It will be Democratic Candidates set win because were focused on creating more opportunities, investing in education supporting more opportunities for young people can go to college. That is the path to making sure life that you envision for yourself and your family. We also help on the political side of things. There are some new ways in which we recruit candidates to run against republicans that have embraced that. Voters comestream partly democrats and independents to these animate your voters . The president s Approval Rating is 41 . Andow the democrats go out go out in full force . This is not going to be a referendum on the president. As much as the president would like to make it about barack bema, this race is going to about local issues, issues that are important to each Congressional District and each senator race. The question is going to be does the candidate have their finger on the pulse of what i care about . The pulse that republicans have their finger on his right ring extremism. Host we will continue the conversation with are presented of Debbie Wasserman schultz. Including her thoughts on cities and the democratic primary if Hillary Clinton runs for the presidency in 2016. That is coming up at 10 00 eastern time. Story,er political taking a look at two key senate races, not only in mississippi but in the louisiana. Also pointing out there trying to thread the needle between the africanamerican vote and the white vote for their own reelection efforts. Place thetakes runoff will take place on tuesday. Of senator rand paul and marco rubio our guests on the sunday morning program. 9 00 for those of you on the west coast. We are going to take a short break and when we come back we will continue on we will continue our sin continue our conversation. Lrine will look at are watching and listening to cspans washington journal. We are back in two moment. In a moment. An f on transparency and freedom of information. I think my colleagues in journalism would give a similar grade. The freedom of information process has become a joke. The reductions, the excuses, it is really shocking. Strongly of the information they withhold. There is no sense of that when they ask for it. A they arevered as private corporations, rather than understanding rather than information on their behalf. Atkinson on the changing face tonight at 8 00. Lawrence strickland heads the National Telecommunications and information administration. The Clinton Administration determined they wanted to move the operation out of the federal government and privatize it. Im what we announced was the completion of what started in 1998. Cspan two. Ght on for over 35 years cspan brings Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences. And offering them complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House, all as a Public Service of private industry. The cablee created by tv industry 30 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your cable and satellite provider. Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Host we want to welcome act a welcome back anna mulrine. Let me begin with a broad question about the options for the president and his National Security team as secretary of state john kerry travels to egypt today, trying to figure out what to do with iraq. Guest there are tough options here and not a lot of good ones. Will theuestion is u. S. Administration help out the u. S. Trikes . Military has essentially been saying, listen, we will do what we need to. It is a political problem right now. Situation is the put together a pretty sectarian government, has used to carry out his agenda to the detriment of national unity. Do . Much can the military host we talked about this this week with our listeners. You can bear some of the blame. Him the iraqi army was crumbling long before its collapse. Of iraqsng out for 14 divisions virtually abandoned their post. You also heard from the president saying we dont want to pullout. Guest i thought it was interesting to see dempsey within capitol hill on thursday absence simply on thursday of sensibly to discuss issues. Said we did have these for iraq he military divisions that crumbled. And i was warning maliki. I warned general dempsey a year ago. I let him know that he really to getbe more inclusive the sectarian agenda under control. Be aware of the growing problem of isis. Did not respond to those. Feinsteintor dianne answered that question. [video clip] in your estimation, why did iraqSecurity Forces he Security Forces perform so badly . They didnt universally perform badly. Wereformed around issa had convinced some of the sunni elements. Was tens of thousands. They turned their leaders in the absence of leaders of a military formation the soldiers are not going to stick around and wait to see what happens. I saw was able to coopt some of the leaders of those two divisions. Building the iraqi Security Forces from 2005 2 2005 two 2007, a few things were clear. It would be hard to give them the logistics architectures. The hardest thing is to build leaders and have those leaders supported by Central Government that is working on behalf of all the people. That is why those units in the north collapsed. There are forces that are standing and fighting. Enterprise is at risk as long as this political situation is in such flux. Host the chairman on capitol hill. This is what the situation looks just over the weekend, the fighting that is taking place in baghdad. The sunnis continue to make inroads, including some of the oil reserves and Oil Refineries in parts of the country. Guest we had word recently that issa forces had taken over what was a former chemical weapons plant. That was cause for alarm. Pentagon officials were essentially saying that most of prettymicals should be well defined, they couldnt be used to harm anyone and if the rebel fighters were able to get into these chemical weapons it would do more harm to them than anything they could weaponize and put together. Still an alarming development. Senator reed and the senate going after the president s Foreign Policy. What are the alternatives . Alternativesk the are essentially president obama said we are going to send in 300 advisors. The question is will these advisors be doing. Are they strickland and advise or assist force . Traveling to areas throughout iraq. They will be in joint Operations Centers with iraqi forces, harkening back to before the end of the war in 2011. They will be paired with some iraq he military commanders and they will be assessing the skills of the iraqi Security Forces. Then they are going to take it from there. We were asking does this mean the folks who could be carrying out the airstrikes to . Pentagon officials are saying it is too early to say right now. Host what is the difference . , it stands for different things. Iraq. The Islamic State of it as an Islamic State of iraq. Some call it the Islamic State of iraq. Isis andhy or hearing other different organizations. We have been asking pentagon officials about it. Put numbersling to on it. Say in the neighborhood of we had reports between 800 and 8000 fighters. These numbers can be hard to nail down. Some news organizations were 20,000 if you combined the core isis fighters with groups that have joined their ranks. Ranged widely. At the pentagon is not offering a lot of clarity. Host we talked about the shiite, which is the government controlled sunni forces. According to the cia world staff book come in iraq the shiites constitute between 60 to 65 of the population. Of the is that a trend that we keep about, at hearing caliphate. Fighters are sunni fighters. Of there once the head much everything in the country through Saddam Hussein. This was a realization of the majority of the country, which was shiite. Theres always that concern on the ground in baghdad, particularly among prime folks that theis sunnis will take control. That is the fear under which he has been operating, and the fear under which he has been running his government. Part of the big problem with the iraqi Security Forces is that right minister maliki has used them as is own personal guard. He has used those special forces to surround himself, he has taken over as ministry of defense and ministry of the interior to direct these forces and use them to prop up his government. Not in the way that the u. S. Military had trained and hoped ,hat these forces would be used and had worked for years to make sure they would be an inclusive force. The u. S. Ambassador to iraq has an oped today. The wisdom of the 2003 invasion will be debated endlessly. I certainly had doubts about it. But the point i made during my tenure there was that once you are in, you are in. You cannot undo an invasion fared you can, by contrast, undo an unfortunate disengagement i read engaging forcefully before it is too late. Guest that was a pretty strong oped these, i recommended to readers. He essentially said we need to , theour folks in there policy is vital. That is what u. S. Forces were working toward, the commanders on the ground became important effective diplomats. Defacto diplomats. Essentially, we need to train the iraqi forces to be more more tacticalve skills and logistics which the military always talks about very y to figure out how to talks about. How to order their own supplies, budget. To bet to teach them how responsible stewards of the government. But the problem general dempsey made a point of is that the government has not been responsible. What do you do would be treated fighting force to be responsible stewards of a government that has been irresponsible . Anna mulrine of the journal cspan. Org of the Christian Science moniter. Caller there has been a loss of laying before lot of blame, blaming president obama for what is going on in a rack. Iraq. In world war ii we could leave forces in these countries, they welcomed us. These are people with different ideas, and they do not want foreigners in their country telling them what to do. They want to control their country, good or bad. We cannot leave forces in iraq for 100 years. There have been different powers in there, who have stayed for a long time, and to did not change anything. We americans need to understand we cannot control everything, every country. Host thank you for your call. John mccain says we have made a difference in south korea and north korea by maintaining troops there for the last 55 years. Yes, tens of thousands of troops. The caller raises a great point about the tensions between these two. Had great successes in south korea, and germany, but when u. S. Troops have been in and afghanistan a polarizing force, a force of occupation, and his stuff when youre building a democracy it is tough when you are building a democracy. Part of a democracy is to kick out foreign forces. Theink that is what administrations have been grappling with, certainly in iraq, over the past decade. Findis that tough to spot between helping these Security Forces, and not allowing the u. S. Troops to be their own polarizing force against any names that the u. S. Might have in these countries . Host this is a broader question. On our twittere page, why do americans assume that every culture should be like ours, or would want to . Guest that is a great point. Really thet is challenge that we have had as a government, trying to bring some of our ideals of democracy into a rock them into afghanistan into iraq, into afghanistan. The forces one the ground when we are trying to support these free and Fair Elections . These are the Big Questions you set out toe go and rebuild whole nations. The this is looking at options on the table for the president. We should prepare to bomb iraq, that is a report issued by the center for american progress. The u. S. Should prepare for limited counterterrorism options against isis. It certainly left it open, he did not embrace it very he stepped back from in a little bit. An question of airstrikes is interesting one. Do we need question, to get the politics straight first before we go into these airstrikes . There was an interesting point last week, we do not want to be led air force for the shiite civil war, essentially. That is a real danger. You do not want this u. S. Air force to be used as a tool of insect. Regime. At the same time we do not want an area that they can operate a safe haven, which is what we have been fighting against for the last decade. The Big Questions that the u. S. Military commanders, the ones who are retired and who can talk about this, have said we need to consider our what is the purpose of these airstrikes . To mass tonding force a fight. The taliban has learned not to do that. Are in urban warfare, and that did not work for them either. Isis has not learned these norms , so there is a target for us these there. For us there. If we are trying to route them from cities that they have likedy gained control of, Saddam Husseins hometown, that is a much more difficult prospect. That would entail boots on the ground. We certainly, when you hear that we are going to have boots on the ground to do the strikes, we withoute that before that. The entire gulf war was waged without boots on the ground. You do not want to create more enemies with airstrikes. An argument for more forces to really target these. Aost anil mulrine ann the Christian Science moniter. Patient on theen phone from texas. Thank you for waiting. Caller thank you for taking my call. Military, and one of my main concerns is that it looks like without a backup system, we have no way of protecting those guys who go over there. We do not have assets on the them toho could use direct fire if that is what theyre going to be doing. It a suicidell mission, because i support the president 100 of whatever decision he makes, however we may create a 300 hostage situation in iraq, because i would be very reluctant to stand under maliki and expect and the 299ct me other guys were sitting there whatxpect us to do president obama wants us to do. Guest i think the caller makes a great point. This idea of force protection has been a big concern for the pentagon, and part of the concerns they were trying to assuage last week. That is a question, when you bring in 300 u. S. Troops, not a ton of troops, so how do you ensure their own force protection when these are part of the people who are bringing Embassy Protection as well . They areomething considering and looking at them and they have made allowances for. Too, weer big question, did not leave our contingent of troops in iraq would we made the decision to leave in part ofmber of 2011, that was because we could not negotiate the Security Agreement , the status of forces agreement. Underas the agreement which u. S. Troops might have stayed in the country if we had hammered that out. But did not happen. One of the main sticking points government would not allowing hud for u. S. Troops. If something happened, if there was a crisis, u. S. Troops could by thejailed iraqi forces, that was a big concern. Do these have the same guarantees . The pentagon has been saying yes, but they do not have diplomatic immunity. Sticking pointa for the sofa agreement, under what processes are they operating here . Host one of our viewers responding, saying the difference between korea and germany and iraq is that when our soldiers go off base, they are beheaded, blown up, or captured. Guest that has been a big difference in these wars than vietnam. Sometimes you see films were these soldiers might take a jog neighborhood,qi and also in afghanistan, and those bases are completely locked down. There has been some debate about that. Let ourshould we have troops out and about a little bit more, there would have been a risk of kidnapping, but we would have an american face on it. We would be charming come a not coand not charming, so scared. The administration has tried to camp that down as tamp thatssible down as much as possible. Tweet ther us from joining stanton, michigan. Your thoughts . Caller hi. Anything that president obama decides, i am for him. I am not saying he is right that time, but i am saying particularly as far as these wars go, he did not want them in the first place. Believe that he is almost done with his second term and he still has not gone out of the wars that he did not want in the first place. A greathe caller makes point. That has been the refrain of diplomats throughout these past 10 years that we have been fighting these wars. It is hard for a lot of americans to believe that afghanistan is our nations longest war. We have been at war longer than anywhere else in our nations history. Dale,a cautionary that when we get involved in these military endeavors, they are no joke. Can be a greatit experience like the first gulf war, and then we are out quick experience like the first gulf war, and then we are out. These are always difficult to fight, general powell said if you break it you own it. Ok. We went in there, then the pentagon says theyre the last was to want to go to war because they know what is involved. But once they go, they go. You have all of the consequences that come with that. It is never easy. You look at our veterans today, we are going to be we have been at war for 10 years, and we are going to be dealing with the effects of that for some time to come. Host the cover story, the and the barac the end of iraq. The breakup of iraq as a nationstate appears to be all thabut an accomplished fact. Was talkingor biden about the need for partitioning iraq. You have the kurdish north, about 20 of iraqi citizens are kurdish. They are functioning pretty much as a separate state right now. Kurdistan. Wn as they are a highly trained, very on theed force , and have gone into kirkuk to secure the oil there. It is very different now from what you were seeing in baghdad. You get some support for that partitioning. It will be interesting to see how that lays out in the months to go. Host our guest is anna mulrine from the Christian Science moniter. Caller good morning. Have, answers we need. Obama and these generals do not have the answers. You had a service man and the in the last segment that had it right. These islamic people do not get along. Only the servicemen should be answering this question. Paid back get financially for all of this money we wasted trying to rebuild countries. Some to have two to get some money out of this. Guest the caller makes a good point, it is a lot of money. There are about 350,000 iraqi Security Forces throughout the country. That is helpful to keep in mind when you think of this isis isil of being upwards of 20,000 at the highend. That is helpful to keep in mind. Quite a bit. Wendy 5 billion to train these 350,000 iraqi Security Forces thesellion to train 350,000 iraqi Security Forces. We lost 4500 u. S. Soldiers, and far more iraqi lives were lost in that war. What was it all for . Over 1 trillion in the war overall. It has been a lot of money, a lot of sacrifice wit antigunfice, what the likes to call blood and treasure. About 3. 7 Million Barrels worldst is the seventhlargest crude oil producer. Go back to the military operations and the options for this white house. Here is the headline from the washington post. Heres a portion of what a former general had to say. [video clip] there has to be a huge idea here, and that has to be that if there is to be support for iraq, it has to be support for a government of a rock that is the government of all of the people, and is representative of and of ansive to all elements rock. President obama has been quite clear on this. This cannot be the United States being the air force for shia militias or a shia on sunni fight. For all ofe a fight iraq against extremist who do have to be who do happen to from the sunnis. This has made progress in certain areas, but has certainly not capitalized on that enormous opportunity in the way that we had all hoped they would. Be this outreach, there has to be a government that is trusted by all elements of the society, and if america is to support, it would be support of the government rather thanemists one side of what could be a sick area and warp what could be a sectarian war. These feared militias were grouping in cities and elsewhere. Tens of thousands of volunteers are signing up. Guest this is a fascinating development, because you look at these shiite militias, who may be throwing in with u. S. Forces, but these are the same group that we were fighting against in these areas of east baghdad, so these militias are run by cl erics. There was an influential cleric who called for the standdown of his militia in 2008. Now he has asked them to come together again. These young men are once again grabbing their arms and ready to fight with malikis forces to forcese advance of isis toward baghdad. The question is how strong are these isis forces coming into be baghdad . There likely reaching a natural but they doforce, not have the means to necessarily keep themselves going. Will they advance on baghdad . That would be a different prospect that some of the more sympathetic sunni cities they have taken already, they would be in for a pretty strong fight. These militias, most poorly, are backed by a rainy and forces importantly are backed by a iranian forces. The pentagon has been very adamant in pointing out that we are not working with iranian officials on any sort of military operations. Senator lindsey graham, who has been one of the more hawkish areences in the capital saying that maybe we should talk to the iranians. They are fighters, but maybe this would be useful to engage in dialogue. This is certainly a critique in the early days of the obama election, whether he would ever consider a dialogue with iran. Now that is what some of the republican lawmakers are calling for. A gives you a sense of the dramatic shift on the ground. Page, bigur twitter question is do the people of iraq and afghanistan want a democratic elected government . Their actions say no. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I can honestly say i can agree with general petraeus. Before we do anything we should guaranteedeed be that they want an inclusive government. I think all of our advising and everything like that should be toward isisctly and not the sunni shiite civil war. That is our national threat, isis, not the sunnis or shiites. In my opinion, i think it should be very strategic. It should not be an allout war, and i do not wish to get back into a war. Guest i think that is definitely what the white house has been saying. We have military options at artist bozo, and that is what at ournted out disposal, and that is what you and general pretorius pointed out. We do not want to use them to prop up a sick. Government a sectarian government. This is very nerveracking to ie sunni residents of raq. You look at the other contingent of sunnis, and that is a nerveracking prospect to see these militias forming again. How do you promote inclusiveness and get these warring factions to the table to come together to try to build an inclusive government with all of this violence on the ground . And with a legacy of violence. I remember being in a town just north of baghdad, a lovely palm tree lined area, that was once a summer retreat area for sunni leaders. Heart of some of the worst fighting in the iraq war. You had shiite aleutians who ias whounding up milita were rounding up sunni men and cramming them into cells. That is not the sort of thing they forget. Youre talking about a tough legacy. We do not want to get embroiled in a war. Host another comment on we sent, saying that if in troops every time warmongers be called for them, we would at war with at least a dozen others. Keeping us out of war is heroic. Isour twitter page isis only 40 miles from baghdad. March 2003, and lasted eight years, nine months, 12 days. 1. 5 million americans served, 4500 died. The price tag was 1. 7 trillion. Our independent line, good morning. Guest good morning. What i would like to know, there is so much money over there, money that we have a sickly basically given as spending so much money on contractors like blackwater. Why can they not hire blackwater themselves, they are former special forces, and then we do not have to spend any more of our hardearned money. An interesting question, hiring mercenaries to fight. It is another thing you hear often, we have a number of ors, people do not realize they are still on the ground now. When we pulled out our forces, we left behind 150 u. S. Troops who were there for Foreign Military sales. Another big Money Exchange opportunity, which was part of the legacy that the pentagon wanted to leave behind, selling these modes of equipment. One of the big sales that we were putting forward were for f16 fighter jets. A lot of people do not realize this, but iraq just took possession of its first f16 fighter jet in texas earlier this month. They are going to be giving about 36 usmade f 16 fighter jets. They will be receiving delivery in december. T is a deal worth billions of dollars to u. S. Defense companies that are making and selling these fighter jets. How is the maliki government going to use these fighter jets, how will we use our forces . We left behind a lot equipment. We gave them a lot of money and a lot of equipment, and that is a part of the concern when isis is advancing. That is what made a lot of people stop and take note of this, that as the iraqi Security Forces were abandoning their theirand taking off uniforms, understandably so my that the isis forces were produced many en masse as confucians, it was devastating taking part in mass executions, it was devastating. They have been driven all the way from syria to help them in their syrian campaign. You can see the future allegations of all of the equipment we left behind. 300 officers that will be in a rock. Iraq. They will be divided into small teams of 1000 or so, partnering with the iraqis. Based on that information, how long will it take before the takes Signs Initiative . Guest they will be scoping things out, but the diplomacy is really what the intense focus of the white house has to be in the ased on whate b they have said. They need to know that they have some major sunni government officials involved as well aired in the meantime, as well. Have u. S. Ntime, we Carrier Strike groups in the persian gulf. Those, equipped with a series of fighter jets, most likely iident missiles which are am sorry, tomahawk cruise missiles, which are currently accurate. To beave the capacity sent to a target and loiter over that target while we receive Additional Information to really hold any accuracy of these tomahawk cruise missiles. We also have a number of reaper drones that have really been stepped up in the last days that are reviving content read a lot of information coming in, the question is when when will we use it, will we use it . The nationallrine, defense correspondent for the Christian Science moniter, thank you for being with us. The sunnis, the shiites, and the conflict that they have that dates back to the seventh century. We will get some perspectives and answers from Shibley Telhami. A professor from maryland talking about the impact on the islamic world. Also, opec countries and oilproducing nations around the world. Cspan twod on booktv, we travel to st. Louis, missouri. We will visit Historic Sites to tell the story of st. Louis, including the famous word case, the court case, the dred scott decision. Heres a preview. And a lot of times i ask myself, why is it important to have a historic structure, to preserve it . A lot of times we could just read about the history, and you get that little moment where youre thinking that is amazing, that this event happened where i am standing. Of a that is the value historic structure. That you can get those personal moments of connection between people who are just Walking Around today, and maybe thinking of their own thoughts and lives, and suddenly they can jump back into the past mentally and at least have some sort of a connection with people from the past. Courthouse, itld is a building that is no longer used for the courts today. It has not been since 1930. It is a very Historic Building that has been preserved to try a little but a about a lewis history. Little bit about st. Louis history. This is where dred and Harriet Scott to do for their freedom sued for their freedom. It went all the way to the u. S. Supreme court, where they decided that they would continue to be held as slaves. A look at the grand scott decision, and a look at st. We hope you tune in for American History tv. You can check out all of our programming any time at cspan. Org. We continue on this sunday , aning with Shibley Telhami professor, and the author of the world through arab eyes. We appreciate you being with us. Back,t to take a step because we have been hearing so much about the sunnis and the shias. We thought it would the interesting to give our audience a lesson into this conflict that that dates back to the seventh century. Guest as a cautionary note, to understand that a lot of these divisions are the logical, and the principal political theological, and in principle, political. When the prophet mohammed died, there was a battle over succession. The majority selected the successor, there was a minority , also hisd his cousin soninlaw, to succeed him. Means the party of valley, from that beginning. It was a battle of succession that flared up into a battle for iraq. Of hussein, who was also the expected successor, was killed. From that point on you had this very deep divide in his long. Still, there were very much a minority in the muslim world, as they are today. If you look at over the billion muslims in the world, the shia represent 20 of the total muslim population. Even in places where they are a majority, and that is not that is very light. Into enronand did not become a shia state over 15 centuries, it was like the rest of the muslim world. , where we now have the shia majority, over 60 of the population, thats shia majority also did not expand until much he 18th,ntil bt 19th, and 20th centuries. Many of them were political and economic reasons. That isthis fissure deeply divided throughout the centuries. Every step of the way we had bloodshed a confrontation and confrontation. Togetheristed and live for a well at different stages. They just consider themselves muslims. There are times when the conflict was bloody, and you see especially when they are trying to establish the central authority. Everyone has multiple identity, and the question is which one do you embrace . Interestingly, you suggested that we would talk about the shia and the kurds. Mostly sunni muslim, and yet we talk about them as a separate group because they are a separate sect. They have a different ethnicity, and yet we do not lump them with sunnis because they are allied in thee shias government and the coalition interest. The fact that you have some sunnis in coalition with these ias, tells you part of the story. Headline, of another in the shiite heartland setraq, volunteers get for defensive jihad. Whot you have the kurds are sunni but not involved in the fighting. , and justbout 25 west of baghdad all the way north to this iraq and syrian border, the u. S. Was having a lot of trouble because most of the sunni arabs lost their l elite status that they had dating back to the inception of the iraqi state, when it became onarchy. Laterrtainly in the years, when Saddam Hussein took hold until he was overthrown in 2003. Even during that time, one of the things that is not clear, now the party that is associated with the sunni elite had a majority of shia members, and only later did that change. And when the u. S. Took over in 2003 after the iraq war, if youll recall the u. S. Just repeated what was called the deck of cards, the 52 most ed withpeople association w Saddam Hussein. The majority were shia, not sunni, which tells you something about these arent. As for what is happening now, the problem is not just the sunnis being disenfranchised in the new iraq meant that has been hasbattle that the u. S. Faced with the maliki government that is principally shia with an alliance with the kurds and. Eaving out the sunnis while most iraqi arabs essentially want to have their voices heard him and they want a piece of iraq, you have this who considers everyone who disagrees with them as heretical. Inse are the Islamic States syria thatia and is ruthless. They have basically allied themselves with the enemy of my enemies, not an embrace of these radical and extremist, but they want their voices heard. Is that youpened have these extreme militant groupsical ruthless succeeding, which terrifies everyone else and the outside world of what might result is a product of these militants who have no place for anyone who disagrees with them. Guests onelcome our cspan radio. To your calls in just a moment. You can also send this in email to journal cspan. Org. With you anhare yo ad from the New York Times from 10 years ago. Barack is a deeply divided society that the u. S. Would have to occupy and police for many years to create a viable state. Al qaeda poses a greater threat to the u. S. And thus iraq then does iraq. War with iraq will jeopardize the compare against al qaeda by diverting resources and attention from that campaign and by increasing antiamericanism around the globe. Guest there were 33 scholars, realist, people who are open to some wars that are in our national interest. It was a good idea to have this added organized because a lot of people confused you conservatives and realist neoconservatives and realists. Is adjusted we put our money where our mouth was in this case by people who write oped like me. We thought it was very important to go on the record to state and put it the way it is, that if go ahead anin iraq, it would be Pablo Maddock down the road. Problematic down the road. Theres no question in my mind that what we see is not so much sectarianism per se, but as of the collapse of the state. Sectarianism,he and it has roots, and people ask liked it, and there are a lot of strategic layers who benefit ,rom having sectarian conflicts especially saudi arabia and iran are waging wars for influence. But nevertheless, you would not have had it had you not had the state collapse, particularly the disintegration of the iraqi army. Think, ther they collapse of the army seems to be a graver mistake if these groups take hold. Islamic state of iraq and syria, whatever you argue about what happens in iraq for my even without them winning the war, and they probably could not win the war because they are outnumbered, and they have a basically, they are threatened and frightened by them. Imagine a situation without them and with a iraq, global agenda and controlling some of the oil revenues that give them resources and money to influence events outside, that is something that is quite dangerous, far more dangerous than even Saddam Hussein was to america. Host cynthia, independent line. Caller good morning. Good morning, professor. Three months after we are rate ciaaded iraq, the the law we violated by attacking a country that did not attack us. It encourage more terrorism. Weeks before Saddam Hussein was hong, he sent a message to the iraqi people to not fight among each other. I found this very profound. Been interfighting for many years, but we did not discourage it. Themything we encouraged to fight among each other. Guest Saddam Hussein was a many do dictator, and not want him, regardless. But theres no question in my mind that the iraq war was the singular most devastating event in recent American History for Americans National interest. Anause it really wasted historic opportunity for the United States to assert itself globally. In the 1990s, they were the decade of american influence and dominance following the end of the cold war. The u. S. Had resources, and yes they were attacked horrifically in 2001, but they could have reacted differently. Americathe anger with and the diversion of resources has affected us very negatively globally, and were still paying the price. Line, goodlican morning. Caller it was nice that we had someone from Johns Hopkins Host University of maryland. Sorry. I am trying to be positive this morning. These suggestions have been tried before. Maybe this is the time that this would work. One, the americans pay the sunnis that have been [indiscernible] before, according to their rank. Thatecond suggestion is saudi and kuwait fund the isis. Since they have agreed in the past to take those people that were in gitmo, and collected off ,he battlefields in afghanistan and our Retention Centers overseas, back to their them, is to reeducate am wondering if they could do and play the same role that they had played before. Fighters offe isis the field in a rack, and into , if thatducation camps would perhaps, like the ,eakettle that tends to boil up if that could be a construct to of things so that a lot could get through of a remedial process if they had any chance of continuing to be a continuous country. The proper course is not reeducation. The problem is having voices heard. I think when you look back, the american occupation, whatever happened after 2003, if there was going to be a chance at all it was to figure out a way to bring all iraqi factions together in a new iraq. Debt, everyonese recognizes dismantling the government was a mistake. So nowoo late for that, is a question of how do you do it . In the years when the u. S. Was here and was a manpower in iraq, there were some that were more successful. They were reaching out to sunni tribes, and they understood that they wanted their voices heard. To give themed support, and find a way for them to be engaged and take them away in iraq. Aeda most part they succeeded. They would have had to be some structural changes that kept them in play throughout the and i think it is too late for that. Wanted, can heou stally reach out to mop sunnis were not happy with the iraqi state and syria . Werewere not people who intolerant. Ending, buta happy is a case where people rallied behind the ending of my enemy enemy to haven their voices heard. That is the game that people play. Also a senior fellow at the brookings institution. He has written a number of books. One of our viewers says this, insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different h regards to sending those advisers to iraq. This is from laurent, who says it has been terrible. What Foreign Policy , and arlene says president obama is doing the best job possible with the cars that have been dealt to him and under the wings of the advisers who surround him. One must always keep in mind that there are many press polities and powers of the larger equation and he is just one leader doing his job conscientiously. Democrat line, good morning. Caller good morning. For coming to cspan this morning, i appreciate your knowledge and history in iraq. Are you there . Guest yes. Caller unfortunately, we are so dependent on fossil fuels. I am wondering, how much of our oil comes from iraq . Host thank you for your call. We will be focusing on Oil Production in about 20 minutes. Independence on even middle eastern oil has dramatically declined. Depend onnd the world oil, and will for a long time to come. It is not where you get your oil, it is that we are all sipping from the same cup them and therefore when the price, when there is less oil coming out of the middle east, it is higher for the entire market. It is not so much as what we get from iraq and the middle east am a it is that the world market is dependent on oil from the middle east because the middle east has the largest oil reserves. That is likely to continue for many years to come. That did not happen. It did not happen because of what we see in civil conflict and the need for foreign investment. The oil has become part of the problem in iraq. This is driven by National Security for us. It has consequences not just for iraq, but the relationship with iran. With saudi arabia, which is unhappy with Foreign Policy there. With syria because of what may happen if the Islamic State is empowered. Those are really the issues, not so much the oil. The oil itself is become part of the internal. Who are increasingly able to useave been some of the oil under their control and sell it independently even though the president of iraq is occurred. The government his act we asked and they have used that leverage and their relationship with needs that. And they are trying to get a hold of some of the Oil Resources and refinery because that income is going to fund the operations both domestically and internationally. Different kinda of an issue. Host good morning. Of oil is anssue old wives tale. The problem is the invasion. They had america attacked and innocent country. 300 people is just going to make it work. Host what about the handsoff approach . Guest sectarianism does exist in the middle east. But we dont always come to grips with is people are complex. Is a shia. World,e a citizen of the a father or a mother or a teacher. All of these things are not the number one priority for them. Just like in the case with the kurds, their deciding on the basis of wanting kurdish autonomy. Divide. We dont have a there are very few shia in egypt. All of them consider themselves to be religious. 99 of the population of the population says they are religious. It is about the power and who is going to govern. They are now in a zerosum game of confrontation. Need sectarianism to explain the political game. In iraq, said terrorism is part of it. In part is because it is indigenous. We dont understand the tribes. Along sectarian lines. There is that. There is the intervention from the outside of the people who fund them and have an interest in bolstering the sectarian a moment of it. That does not take away from the fact that we are in the middle of something that is very much sectarian. Host we are getting a history on the sunnis and the she is from Shibley Telhami. It is interesting. When you look at it originally, the principal commitment to this the fasting, all of these are the same for both of them. Mecca, thereinto are no differences asserted. The two principal differences to theh regard succession. Shia have come to believe oft only those off spring mohammed. S of my, most of them believe there are 12. That is something that does not exist in sunni islam. Believe in more rituals in regards to shrines and places of worship. Sunni muslims are averse to that. If you compare catholics with protestants in terms of icons. There is a difference in the way they function the rule of the imam and the religious authority in the community differs. Majorare no obvious doctrinal differences about the nature islam. That is, why i say if you look at it historically it looks much more of a Political Division and political been a division more than a theological division. Host i want to come back to that point in a moment. We dont understand. That is why we should stay out of iraq. We have jared in michigan. Caller think of are taking my call. I have two questions. The region has been in conflict for centuries and that is not true. That is not to say that there were no conflicts. Conversation the and the topic. Could there be a three state solution . Is that viable at this point . It seems to the cat is out of with iraq as a unified state. Would it be better to be three separate entities . With the first question, youre right. To say that they have been fighting for centuries is a total exaggeration. There have been differences. When you went to iraq in the cities, sunnis and shia were married to each other. Even in lebanon or you have these divisions, they have commonalities. In lebanon in the polling that i what is the people . Ost important identity all of them said they arent lebanese first. That is because they worry about sectarianism taking them to war a disaster. There is a lot of exaggeration in this course. That is why people are pessimistic. Us. Are justifying they are just terrible people who have been fighting each other and they have profound differences. They have the princes and there is sectarianism, but that is not the real problem. Flareup . E seeing this guest it is the disintegration of the state. People will resort to other identities. Some are geographic and some are tribal. They are broken down along those lines. Aidle provide them with want to reinforce those identities. The shia will get support from iran. Saudi arabia will support the sunnis. It reinforces the identity. I write about identity in this book. I have a chapter on arab identities. We have multiple aspects of our identity, which won the services to the top at any given time . I am multiple things. Everybody is multiple things. The one that rises to the top is the one under assault. The one that is the most threatened, people rally behind that. They also rally behind the one that is most. Against there going Islamic State in iraq because they see how it is threatening to them as an ethnic group and the religious sect. People rally. The christian identity is rising. You are what you have to to defend at a given time. When the state is not there to defend you, what are you going to rally behind . Lets realize that when people have no recourse, look back at the iraq iran war. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the 1980s. Have the shia breakaway and support them and it did not happen. They were loyal to iraq. The arabs toet live in iran along the border to breakaway and become agents of iraq and it did not work. They were loyal. These loyalties are connected. To go back to the question about the three states, he asked if this is viable. Term it in the short looks like we are headed that way. The kurds are getting more autonomy. They are going to extract even iore concessions from malik if he wants to stay in power. They are selling oil to turkey and others on the outside. The Islamic State controland syria will more territory, it is hard to see in the foreseeable future iraqi armyand the can dislodge them. I dont know who will send roots into that mess. We have this point from rate who says there is no solution. All they want to do is kill the infidels. That is us. I want to bring your attention n editorial by former senator joe lieberman. This is Available Online. Travis from new york is on the democrats line. Caller my question is about syria. Serial . S this mean for guest it means a lot for syria. Serial policy how changed in the u. S. , even before it was clear that the American People were not in the mood to intervene when the president suggested striking syria for the use of chemical weapons. There was a lot of reservation about what the u. S. Should be doing. Discovered that Al Qaeda Affiliated groups were wasing ground and everybody looking at the prospect of them controlling. They clearly see the United States as an enemy and have done everything they can to attack american interests and would if they were further empowered. What is happening here is you have two trends that are going on the same time. People are more terrified about islamicpect of the state of iraq and syria taking hold in syria. People have more reservations supporting the opposition. People want to differentiate between operation that is militant and opposition that is not. Youll find more people dedicated to fit defeating them. Two defeating them. Their control of certain parts of the territory and having funds coming from oil fields and refineries that they control is troubling for everyone in the region. You see it already in a country like saudi arabia which was thinkont they want to see the rise of the Islamic State of iraq and syria. This is a terrorist group that we do not support. This is going to be consequential for the way they are behaving in relation to both places. Host i want to conclude with a question about the orders. A quick question from wyoming. Caller i think it would be helpful for all of us to have a colorcoded map of the muslim world so we could see sunni and shia areas much the same as we do in the u. S. With red and blue states and red and blue cities and election time. It would help a lot of us understand. We refer to purple states like colorado. Would that be possible . Guest what you will see is an sunni. Llmeaning see of they are majorities only in those are very small portions of the muslim world which is 1. 2 billion people. You will see mostly sunnis. This is limited principally to those areas. Host can you give a brief history of how the borders were determined . Guest this is part of the big problem that people in the arab world have dealt with. This is since the inception of the end of world war i. The Ottoman Empire controlled what is now iraq. I, the british took control. The british in their own way divided the middle east into spheres of influence with the french. Ony had basically decided borders largely in matters there were conducive to them. They controlled the oil regions kuwait, which was not a state. Andthe United Arab Emirates all of these golf nations gulf nations, that is why the iraqis find that kuwait was part of iraq. It was just carved out by the british following world war i. British imported people from saudi arabia to help them for their support. They promise them monarchies. They appointed a king who was brought from saudi arabia. 1957. Ed iraq until he was overthrown. The republic was established. Happened,k at what have aost immediately coup. He was an Arab Nationalist and semimarxist. He threatened to take over kuwait because he said that was heart of iraq. There was always this disagreement about the nature of the borders. Worldnd that in the arab about the drawing of the boundaries every now and then we have transitions about how these boundaries or artificial. What we see now is these boundaries in some ways being redrawn along order lines. We see the most obvious one between syria and iraq. Will happen with the kurdish areas . They are roughly 30 million people. 50 of them are in turkey. That is a substantial population in ironic and iraq. Iran and iraq. They have always wanted independence. The they now have far more autonomy within iraq. They dont have autonomy in iran and turkey. This is going to eventually lead to more redrawing of the boundaries. Host we need to conclude on that note. Theley telhami from university of maryland, he is a member of the council of Foreign Relations and a nonresident fellow at cooking tear in washington dc. Thank you. Guest my pleasure. Host a number of you are weighing in on oil and Gas Production in iraq. That is the subject of our next section. Jon kingston will be joining us from new york. He will be talking about iraq and global oil supplies. Morning, june 22. We are back in two moment. Gruesome, but was it was an international sensation. It was called the truck murder. It was in 1885. There were two englishmen who came to america and they were traveling salesman. They decided to go across america and they wind up together in a nice hotel in st. Louis. One of them was richer than the other. The poor guy suddenly had a lot of money flashing. He tells them that his buddy when outoftown. The hotel room starts smelling. And he isrmaids go in in the trunk dead for several days. The police start to chase him but he has taken the ship from San Francisco already. This becomes a Big International case. You have two guys from england. You have a manhunt from st. Louis to the other end of the world. The new Zealand Police stopped them. Went to get him. It took 10 weeks for the roundtrip. , when they came back to the train station half of st. Louis was there to see the guy. Interviews galore. Oh he winds up being hanged. Gallows at the a Police Headquarters like a lot of downs did. We will look at the history of st. Louis, missouri on American History tv on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Is joiningkingston us from new york. The men begin by asking you about iraqs royal role in Oil Production. Producingyve been 3. 3 Million Barrels a day and exporting it. They are in the top five of exporters. So far, and he feels that that is not being affected. There is a little drop in output in the north. And 100 he production of the exports are in the south area of baghdad. They have not been affected. Exports will continue at about that level. Which a a scenario in refinery is shot because of a lot of battles, that was having trouble finding a home is losing another one. There will have to be some shutins there. That might be a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. That is not that much. This is a market that is been hit with a lot of interruptions from all over the world. On top of Everything Else that is been going on, that is nothing to sneeze at. Host lets take a look at the opec producing happenings countries. One thing that might surprise many people is iraq is the secondlargest producer within opec. Can you explain in terms of numbers . Is the second largest because of the sanctions that of and put on iran. The u. S. Put pressure on them to various sectors in the Financial Services sector. Iranian production has been pped by all most one bert Million Barrels a day. Iran was number two. You have anywhere between 800,000 barrels a day of iranian output that is on the shelf. It is debatable how fast that can get on. If there was an amazing rate through, there is a big debate on how fast you to bring the production on. Back and taken a step the iraq esa become number two. Host this is from bloomberg businessweek. It makes the point that for more than two decades the kurds have built an enclave in the north of iraq with stability standing to start contrast to the rest of iraq. Explain that part of this component in terms of the issue of iraqs Oil Production. Guest there are two issues. The first is the field of which the ownership is disputed. It is in the kurdish region. Thee is the issue of contracts that the government has with countries for exploration. Chevron has one and. He is there. Arounds a scenario going with everything that is happened that the government in baghdad has made it clear that this is the oil experts are illegal. Only the experts should go to the Iraqi Government. They have warned buyers that there are two cargoes floating around that are unsold. There is a scenario in which an order to push back on the sunnis, the government gets tighter. They will produce a more autonomous manner. There are some significant reserves in the kurdish stan area. That is probably held them back. Host if there is a disruption in the flow of oil, can saudi arabia make up for it . 2. 5t they cant make up Million Barrels a day. Task. Turdays have a one of the key numbers out there when you look at supply and demand is the opec call. When you estimate world demand and take away output. What you have left is the amount of crude that opec needs to be putting out for the world to balance things out. For the last couple of years, that number has been running below opec output. Producing more. That is good for consumers. Opec call is above what theyre producing now. Just to get things up to the call and keep things balanced, theyll have to tack on another 400,000 barrels a day in the second half of the year. They could do that. They already have their work cut out for them. Massivead some overthrow of the baghdad government, which is highly unlikely, i dont think the saturdays could fill that. They can ramp up every last barrel. It is not easy and it might be impossible. Host this is what the New York Times says. Guest one of the great reservoirs of unused capacity is the iranian output that is been cut back. Oil production is not like turning the switch. It damages the reservoir. It damages the ability to produce. Natural gas it can bring up prefast, but oil you cant. They could bring back this back in short order. It will take billions of dollars of getting that industry back to normal. The oil industry never gets back to where it was. The iraqi industry has just gotten back in the past few months to producing the most since 1879. You can see how long it took. They could come back on. If you put aside all the politics of it, the iranians could supply more oil to the market. Back to the statement about iraq and the industry, the biggest concern here in my view is not just the loss of some oil to the market now. 22035 which ist the target date for when world Oil Production is going to hit 112 Million Barrels a day, they will have a major role in that. Cheap and easyis to produce and there is lots of it. It, they willat have a key role. If the country is in turmoil and partitions into three areas, i know youre prior guest just address that, it will make it that much tougher. That is the biggest concern. Right now it looks like the southern part of the country down to the persian gulf looks safe. Things are going ok. This is a two to three week story. We dont know what is going to happen in six months. The idea of iraq being this gigantic producer, that is in doubt. Host i will come back to that point. Our guest is john kingston. He is joining us from new york. John from South Carolina is joining us. Good morning. Caller good morning. Gentleman, to this it is amazing. I have a couple of questions. Do we produce enough oil to sustain us . Guest i cant answer that yes or no. What is the definition of sustainability. Lets look at some numbers. With the growth in u. S. Production, imports are down to about 5 Million Barrels a day. Lets put that in contrast. It used to be over 13 Million Barrels a day. We have sliced 8 Million Barrels a day. That is stupendous. If you take away canadian imports, now youre talking about 2. 5 and 3 Million Barrels a day. Barrels of 19 Million Barrels a day. That sounds sustainable to me. I dont think its terrible if from mexico or saudi arabia. We are in the best shape the we have been in for a long time. I would say yes. Host let me ask you about this map. Want . S what does isis would you look at where the fighting is taking place, there are reports that isis has gained control of one large refinery. What does that mean . What can isis do with refineries . Guest i think it is more symbolic. Going to thet was refinery came from two fields that are still controlled by the Iraqi Government. They have had to cut way back. They lost their customers in the refinery. Victory and it is symbolic and they drove the government out of the refinery. The idea that theyre going to drive everybody out and shoot some people and run refinery on their own is laughable. It is going to big hunk of nothing. Host this is from our twitter page. Instead of sending trillions, how about trillions to get off oil . You can join the conversation. Monroe richard is joining us from monroe, new jersey. Appreciate the gentleman who was on before. I want to point out mohammed and the family tree line. It goes back centuries. That is important. I appreciate given us the knowledge. 1970s, opecin the stopped reducing oil. Since the euro is backed by the uslar, how would that affect and our alliances . Host thank you. Guest im not totally sure i understand the question. There was nobody except saudi arabia who is in a position to overproduce. That is not what they do. If you look at the opec nations, everyone except maybe the United Arab Emirates, everybody elses full out. Nobody is keeping oil off the market except maybe the saturdays. The question is if they overproduce will be the impact on the dollar, i think we are an oil import dependent nation. A glut of oil would strengthen the dollar. There is nobody out there who want to rush to market. Host steve is from texas. Go ahead. Guest good morning. Born in an oil field. The blessing of god is underneath this. Is manipulatedt politically. We have never had a shortage of oil. I have heard experts go on about how there is a shortage of oil. We are blessed by god almighty with oil and gas in this country. We have never needed opec. We dont need anything from saudi arabia. Acknowledge the god of heaven and earth and know that america stands strong. We have no leadership. Saudis wel the would take their oil at 30 a barrel. They can coat the good desert with it. We need to stand with god and god isedge the fact that the god of america. Besides the religious aspect, let me address something. There is no doubt that the end of oil has been predicted. Build a model of the perfect market, but construed up his government. Why look around the world right now i see so much political interruption to oil. The iranianaq, cutback is politics. Libya is a disaster. The nigerians are in the middle of one of their usual messes. Venezuela should be producing 3. 5 Million Barrels a day. You can talk all you want about resources being there and they are there, there is no doubt the supply would be there as well. When you inject politics into done, the as has been analysis of the color is not as simple as would be indicated. Host let me go back to this. Is courtesy of the guardian newspaper. To give you a sense of the shia population inside iraq. It is in the southern part of the country. It spills over into iran. When we look at some of the Oil Refineries, there is this from one of our viewers. That refinery supplies the rest of the country with fuel. Turn off the lights and take control of the country. That is the goal of isis. Guest i see what he is saying. , youe refinery is closed will have fuel shortages in that part of the country. You would truck and supplies. The southern part of the country thinkhat i know, i dont the shattering of the refinery would result in electricity shortages or fuel shortages. That can always be accommodated by tracking. That is not efficient and it gets expensive. There is a lot of Refining Capacity in the world. If the sunni militants were shutting down the oil fields, that does have an impact. Host jim is joining us from california. Good morning. Can you contrast the iraq he oil output during the saddam years with what it is today . Years cover adam lot of ground. There was the prekuwait invasion years and then the ones after that which were a lot less. Year, it wasf this 3. 6 Million Barrels a day. That did bring it up to the saddam era. The prekuwait invasion saddam era. They were making good progress. I dont think they were making fast enough progress based on some of the models. They could be a 12 million a day producer. Touched the height of the saddam years. Steve is on the phone in pennsylvania. To ask a would like question, if i may. Why is it only the United States of america faced with immigration, faced with oil russia ore you think england or china or japan would take the abuse the dead states is taking from those terrorists . Guest let me talk about the oil aspect. I will spit take to my knitting here. These are global in scope great oil is a global commodity. You can take glut from one area and use it in another or there is a shortage. This is one of the drill baby drill crowd shortcomings is they argue that if we produce more oil than we would have lower gas prices. Them we could have irrespective what was going on in the rest of the world. We are always going to pay the worlds price. Everybody is. Youhave a system where subsidize the consumption. The country is still paying it, its just the government is pain instead of the consumers. We were never going to cut herself off. Cut ourselves off. Nobody can. This is the cover story of time magazine. Your assessment . Guest let me stick to the oil issue. There really comes a question of do we want to put aircraft carriers in the mediterranean guarding the sea lanes . I go back to my earlier point. We are importing less and less of the middle east. The saudis are here in a big way. They own refineries in the u. S. We question becomes why are guarding the middle east . To my earlier point, oil is a global commodity. It is important to the global economy. We are part of that global economy. There is our military role. Host with excess Refining Capacity in the world, why do Companies Raise rices . Prices . Guest i was looking at some prices yesterday. They do not set the retail price. That is set by the owner of the station. The last point in the supply theyll e host wholesale distribution point. I was looking at prices last night. They actually have raised them less than some of the World Markets would indicate they could have. The prices went down rapidly. I know people dont think that and i have a hard time believing that because they see prices at the corner that drift down slower and faster. That is a decision by the station owner. Have to bele numbers responsive to the market going up. They have to be responsive going down. I disagree with the basic premise of the question. Host you can get more information from the website. Youre on the air. Caller i have a question. I am a vietnam veteran. I flew cargo all of the world. Is all of the wars the we have in that area, why dont they pay us back in oil . And weke our training rebuild buildings to get blown up again but they dont pay us back. Were the only country that seems to be pouring money into these countries. We are not getting anything back in return. Host ami take part of his point. Let me take part of his point. Who is producing oil in iraq . Guest iraq was a country like a lot of middle eastern countries. The government controlled or thing. Saddam came out of the and the new government was initiated, they did start contracts for western companies could invest. Shell is there, bp is there. Exxon mobil is in the south. Chevron is there. It is pretty much the whole range of companies that you would expect to be there. It is early. Countries have different terms of what it takes to do business. The iraqi terms were very tough. We sent our troops in there and a lot of them died, how about a little break . We didnt get that break. Going forward, the Iraqi Government may not be asking the same thing. They are going to need foreign investment. It need more to western investment. They have made it tough to invest their. Oil companies have shifted their focus. The emphasis used to be on how much can we produce . The price they have no control over. The price goes wherever it is. The emphasis is on shareholder value and dividends. The terms had better be good going forward. Or they will not get that investment. We are looking at how the situation in iraq is affecting the oil market and world economy. Lou from rainville tennessee is next. Caller good morning. The gentleman before me ask the question i was going to ask. Mention the tv station. They had a special on that i watched for two hours regarding what went on before we went into iraq. I know this is a political question. Recorded and i listen to it. Mr. Cheney and rumsfeld and wolfowitz had a meeting with all of our Oil Companies. They were all the ones you named. It was recorded. Theser. Cheney is said to there,en was you go over this was before we attacked iraq. Military to to send guard the oil fields. Do you know anything about that . Host was this on the Discovery Channel . She hung up. Guest adam had to address that. I dont know how to address that. I dont know how Companies Like halliburton or hired. Want. S. Government did not saddam torching all the wells like he did on his way out of kuwait. They may have taken steps to ensure that. I cannot address that question. Host dennis is next. Good morning. Isler the question i have people dont believe the news. We are all being programmed. A lot of americans died over there. What do you say to those people who died for oil . As a treasonous to use our military to help corporations get oil and other things . Face wears a suit has a flag pin on the recall could lapel. Thank you. Guest i dont have a flag on my lapel. Terrible, iomething am not expecting to go to prison. I am not an elected official. I dont how to respond to that. Host tom is joining us in north carolina. Thank you for waiting. Is the gentleman familiar with books written back in the 1980s . They were written by a french economist. Are you familiar with those books . Guest no. Host whyd you bring it up . Caller he documents everything about opec. They have not boosted prices so much that exxon mobil could justify making step setdoes not prices. If there was some great conspiracy between opec and Oil Companies in the 80s, they did a miserable job. The price of oil started to fall in 1985. If you take out the bump that it got from the iraq invasion of kuwait, and fell for 16 years. If there was a giant conspiracy, there was a massive failure. 1999, the inflation adjusted price of oil was its lowest price ever. Host i want to go back to this map. We are looking at Northern Iraq where the refineries are located. You have a sense of how much oil is in the ground in that part of the country . Guest a lot. All i can say is that all of the estimates show a very bountiful future. The production can be accessed easily, even under 10 a barrel. It is 60 or 70 a barrel in north dakota. Iraq has lower costs. Companies would want to be there. It is amates are grossly underexplored region. The projections would help the world meet its Oil Demand Going forward. Been thrown away because of political instability. It is significant. With best Case Scenario 300 elite forces going into iraq, what can a compliment terms of the issue we are talking about, which is Energy Production . Guest best Case Scenario is they and the iraq he army make stays north of baghdad and does not get into the infrastructure. Worst Case Scenario is that it doesnt. It is that simple. Host camera is on the phone. Caller good morning. My comment is to ask mr. Kinks then if he could help americans understand that the worlds inlth which is unprecedented the history of man, we are more wealthy than we have ever been in world history, has very much to do with the fact that we have oil to run everything on. Instead of having americans , they couldompanies be grateful that we have this amazing bounteous resource. Guest thank you for that question. I agree with you completely. Sorts of progress on renewables and other alternatives. The poor people of the world are not going to get into that wealth. Theyre not going to add to it without fossil fuels. Of negativity. It is just tough to beat it. A barrel of oil has a room in this amount of energy density. It is easy to transport. It amazes me that at four dollars a gallon, you can produce this in the most hostile parts of the world. That still amazes me to this day. Displacing oil is going to be difficult. Aboutought in a question spending trillions of dollars replacing it, that is the problem. It is difficult to displace. I wonder whether you need to spend that much to do that. It is a tremendous source. If you want to put a tax on it youclimate change reasons, dont want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Pretty much better than anything weve got in the 21st century. , we thank kingston you for adding your expertise to the debate. A reminder, you can follow us on twitter. Continue thest conversation. Steve lemons will be among our guests in the morning. Large for thet atlantic magazine. We will talk about hospital while he care in regard to the Affordable Care act. A debate over those ecigarettes and the fdas role in regulating them. We will talk to a reporter from bloomberg news. 7 00is tomorrow morning at eastern time. We hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. Have a great week ahead. It you can follow us online. Cspan,g up next on newsmakers with florida congresswoman and dnc chair of the wasserman schultz. After that General Motors Ceo Mary Barra testifying before congress about her companys handling of an ignition switch problem and its cars. And then the circumstances of Bowe Bergdahls disappearance, and the exchange that led to his release. Host joining us is represta