of staff to secretary of state colon powell. thank you for joining me. i want to get your reaction over the last hour and a half or so hearing first from the president and then senator lindsey graham. well, i hate to rain on the parade of geography, but i m 75 years old. i ve seen three presidents embroiled in impeachment. what i saw was the shadow of impeachment. what i saw in the foreground was a president trying to use this spectacular success, not by the president, but by those delta forces on the ground, pilots, soldiers and everything, to essentially show himself as a very pragmatic, very practical, very detail oriented, very capable commander in chief and president. so that s the way i see it. he s using this, lindsey graham, the same thing, i know lindsey well. he s using this to kind of tenuate some of the pressure around him with regard to impeachment.
by the roadside as they shout allahu akbar and proudly saying film me, film me. multiple u.s. officials say the video and photographs appear genuine. the turkish-backed militias which u.s. officials say include al qaeda and isis supporters, are also apparently taking prisoners. kurdish officials say turkey is on a campaign to ethnically cleanse kurds off their land. turkey is defending its operation saying its targets are kurdish fighters who turkey designated as terrorists. the situation on the ground is deteriorating rapidly. joining me is colonel wilkerson, former chief of staff to secretary of state colon powell. i wonder what you make of the fact that this decision was made by the president without consulting his national security team. funny you should ask that,
across the region. so far iran has denied any of this. some allies are skeptical as well. the united states narrative is being questioned even in japan. saying it s not convinced that iran is responsible for what happened. second of state mike pompeo said the proof is unmistakable. colon powell made a similar case 16 years ago about iraq and we re still paying a price for that misplaced uncertainty. for decades the foreign policy issue with the biggest effect on your life has been the permanent crisis on the u.s./mexican border.
triumph of diplomacy. malcolm nance, author of the plot to destroy democracy, mehdi hasan of the intercept and colonel lawrence wilkerson, former chief of staff to secretary of state colon powell. i want to start with you, because i feel like we re watching a rerun. you have john bolton, who s been spoiling for war with iran for a very long time, in charge of our national security policy. i m not even sure, do we have a secretary of defense yet or an acting like a boeing execute? and you have donald trump who doesn t know a whole heck of a lot about foreign policy or the world, which was the situation we had with george w. bush. are we setting are we being set up for a rerun? i think we are, joy. there are two possibilities here. bolton is the being, i ve got my finger on the trigger rocket man for donald trump, trying to intimidate rouhani and zarif and the other leadership in iran and then he s going to get negotiations because they re going to beg for them, or we re
people in the military and the police that have not been leaders of atrocity, the rank and file just following orders will not be displaced in a new government. a huge problem, different situation. if you look at iraq where we dismissed the entire iraqi milita military. that was a huge mistake. the top political level would have to be stripped off. charles: colon powell said that was one of the biggest mistakes we made over there. if always else fails, how do we go with respect to the use of force? i don t think it would come down for the need for the u.s. to go in. unless maduro does very bad things or threatenings our national security. it s good the president hasn t taken it off the table. these regimes always look tough and solid until they re not. then you look at the long history of regimes that have