over. right? the war is ending. it s not over yet. we ll be back in two months and we ll have that conversation. well, actually, i wanted to ask you exactly about that. i mean, why was this such a surprising day? i mean, this status oft forces agreement has been in place. why is today so surprising? there are about 39,000 u.s. troops there right now on a training mission. so the combat mission is over. so troops aren t going out and invading cities anymore. that mission ended about a year ago in the footage you showed when we came out with that convoy. sure. since then there has been this, tens of thousands of troops training iraqi forces, officially deployed in uniform, on a mission, sent to iraq serving on bases. that was supposed to end always at the conclusion of this year. but there was talk mostly coming from different iraqi factions. they wanted to leave a residual force of 2,000, 3,000, 5,000,
peace when we can actually engage in some thoughtful conversation about war? yeah, melissa, when you said this is ending, not with a parade, but with a conversation, you re exactly right. i had a when i learned the news that osama bin laden was killed, i, like i think most americans, had a very emotional reaction to that. i had a bookend very similar reaction to this morning watching the president announce the end of the iraq war. between those two events over the past six months, the 9/11 era is over and the 9/11 era is the george busw. bush administration that was in place when 9/11 happened. no one will be able to sell to america again the crock pot cockamamy foreign policy idea of the bush administration which is war could be something constructive, a creative force for reshaping the world in a positive way that was good for america. that was a radical faction neo con idea that got ahold of the
america would be so much better off. well, look, you re talking here about the question of protests and right now in the streets, right here in new york city, right, americans are protesting on the questions of economic inequality. we have 40,000 troops coming home. 40,000. and the unemployment rate for veterans in this country is outrageously high. on the one hand, you know, richard and i were sitting here thrilled about the possibilities, about what it may mean for this war to be ending. on the other hand, what do you see as the domestic economic implications of this return of our veterans to such a poor economy? you know, the it s interesting. we did have earlier this week the president and actually the first lady announcing a major private/public partnership that was essentially a hiring program for new veterans. part of the american jobs act that the president has proposed would be not just a tax credit but sort of a mega tax credit to private businesses who would be
you, you said, quote, don t blame two weeks ago, you said, don t blame wall street, don t blame the big banks. if you don t have a job, if you re not rich, blame yourself. that s two weeks ago. movement has grown. do you still say that? yes, i do still say that. and here s why. wall street didn t put in failed economic policies. wall street didn t spend $1 trillion that didn t do any good. wall streetson going around the country trying to sell another $450 billion. they ought to be in front of the white house taking out their frustrations. i do stand by that. woo-hoo! blame yourselves poor people of america. do it for herman cain, do it for the nice middle class people applauding in the audience. well, this is the face of poverty in america. this is who s poor in our country. children. particularly latino and black children. last year, a year after the great recession, one in five kids in america lived in
and the in-the-street kind of protests that we have about wars and that we certainly had about the iraq war is it s an it has an indefinite and indirect effect on our politics. it creates a sense of crisis around which politicians must pick sides. and, you know, just looking at the reaction, partisan political reaction to what president obama announced today, it s a reminder about why it is really important that we have politics about these things. every single one of the republican presidential candidates except for ron paul has reacted to this by saying, you know what, i wish the iraq war was going on longer. that is a really important thing about, for americans to remember about our politics right now. one of the choices we have to make is whether or not we want to stay with president obama or whether we want to pick somebody instead who looks at the iraq war situation and thinks, man, if only that were going on longer and weren t ending,