In this weeks show is family boeing 737 Crash Victims meet with the u. S. Transportation secretary max remains grounded but for how long but 1st afghanistan our biggest longest war is there a success outcome in the meantime whats the real cost home and cook in washington this is the big picture on our t. America. Afghans are now ready to fight against the soviets if they get weapons they say they will win what is u. S. Strategy in afghanistan no strictly speaking we dont have one but we were going around that would mean 3 of the guys here bill is in money the sudden influx of modern weaponry would draw attention drawn attention in Charlie Wilsons war tom hanks plays the flamboyant texas congressman who found the funds to arm the Afghan Resistance that drove the soviets out getting them out was one thing getting us out is another. After failed talks about having talks at camp david with the taliban americans longest ever war drags on 8 teen years later why lets ask former u. S. Marine and pentagon and state Department Official matthew hoh now a senior fellow with the center for International Policy he was part of the iraqi occupation and resigned from the government over the escalation of the war in afghanistan when his critical Resignation Letter was published he was shunned by official washington now hes trying to help other whistleblowers send us a certified peer support specialist for Mental Health and Substance Abuse disorder hes helping veterans to matthew welcome talk about your personal struggle i holland thank you for having me on well my struggle is not that much different than. Other veterans whether have been veterans of this war veterans of the vietnam war veterans of world wars its really the same for veterans of any conflict throughout history. Youre inundated with p. T. S. D. You have issues with depression you have issues with Substance Abuse whats different for i think my generation of veterans is that many of us have. Traumatic brain injury which results from surviving lots of attacks that previous generations of veterans wouldnt have survived were we ride around in vehicles that can survive hits from 1020300 pound bombs things that would have killed men and women in previous conflicts in this conflicts we tend to dust ourselves off go go forward but years later brain injuries start to appear because of those. Of those those events that we survived so my story is very similar to what many other men and women are going through right now and have gone through its also no similar its also no different than to for the afghans or for the iraq ease or for the libyans or the syrians people who are beset by these wars in many ways of course its much worse for them because the wars are taking place in their countries but there are also too just to say the vietnamese have been afflicted with issues of leftover explosives in agent orange the same occurs for the iraqis and for the afghans and for the syrians the iraqis for example have maison lehi incidents of birth defects and deaths that birth due to chemicals leftover from our occupation so we see the flag draped caskets and count the bodies of fallen american troops seems to be just scratching the surface because the folks who do make it home alive and as you mentioned the folks on the other side are really walking time bombs arent they oh absolutely and so for those who make it home. According to the u. S. Department of Veterans Affairs numbers about 2 iraq it afghan veterans kill themselves every day which as you do the math of that you realize well thats you know more than 700. 00 a year which makes it come close to since the start of these wars weve had between 910000. 00 vets. And kill themselves from these wars as well as we know the incidence of suicide rates for previous generations of veterans for example if youre a world war 2 veteran you have a your rate of suicide or potential for suicide is 4 times greater then men and women who are your age who didnt serve him war and then as you just said for those who are in these wars the civilians the people who are the suffering is immense and it doesnt let go it doesnt stop with time. True or false we are fighting in vain here against the scourge of drugs here at home in the usa meantime were in cahoots with the drug figure you have described as a tony soprano like figure talk about that and tell us what else were not being told about what were doing in afghanistan well the United States has had a long history all empires have with. Illicit activities i mean certainly you look at the British Empire and the opium wars in the 19th century thats for people whove been following issues in hong kong thats how britain comes to take control of hong kong but the United States vast amounts of wealth were made me United States from the china tree which was opium trade many key American Families the forbes the kennedys the roosevelts the kerrys. Got their money from being involved in drug activity in china that extends now throughout the rest of of American History you certainly know the issues with the United States military and the cia with drugs in the vietnam war and you have the same issues in afghanistan where as the United States is complicit with the drug lords the largest drug lords i worked with man and again a stand called goal sherzai who was a tony soprano alike. Figure and he controlled vast amounts of poppy fields any had not just the Afghan Police and army at his disposal to eliminate his competitors he had the United States army and its commandos in the United States marines as well as da to take on his competitors so weve heard often that the taliban had all are involved with the drug trade and thats true but the mortar bigger issue is that the Afghan Government controls most of the drug treuer in afghanistan matthew hoh thank you for your service and your conscience and your time here on the big picture thanks i want to now lets bring in our tea defense expert longtime pentagon official Michael Maloof why cant we just leave afghanistan well one time we probably probably could have if we worked with folks in the region however we cannot now more so now than ever because. And isis have basically moved back in not to mention the taliban which has taken over about 50 percent of the country added to that is if we did leave just picked up and left the place would fall back into a civil war because you have tribes that are going to be fighting among and you have the rise once again of the Northern Alliance which we supported against the taleban sure and we had the we had defeated the taliban and then we shifted focus to iraq back in 2003 thats when we lost it. A couple of minutes ago we showed a clip from the beginning of that movie Charlie Wilsons war and at the end it really looks like we dropped the ball because this guy scrounged up billions of dollars you know Stinger Missiles and all the other hardware and then he couldnt get a couple of 1000000 to build schools and hospitals in the beneficence bin ladin family both incorrect well that was part of it but afghanistan was his base and you had the saudis visiting him pleading with him not to attack so any arabia because the United States by then was occupying saudi arabia in preparation to go into iraq while afghanistan dragging on for so long so validate this deep state caricature we hear about from President Trumps apologists how has this war survived president s from both parties because we havent had a policy approach we havent included other countries the key to this problem right now i believe is Pakistan Pakistan created the Afghan Taliban they can control them but pakistan has its own designs on afghanistan but we need our rig the regional players to come together now the russians have been trying to do that they have a Standing Working Group and as a consequence they have invited the United States but the United States doesnt go in and talk to him because we dont like the russians we dont like the chinese we dont want to talk to the iranians but theyre there in the neighborhood and as a consequence nothings going to get done and this is allowing practice its allowing the the taliban to flourish more and more and every day were seeing it time and time again their ability to go in and hit and hit that government which was installed by the us itll go away tomorrow if we leave sadly war is good for business how much of our continued presence there is about the military Industrial Complex eisenhower warned against well its become a symbiotic relationship were seeing that constantly in a. To justify such massive fixed expenditures you have to create the crisis and in order to create the crazy go out and you have to go and create the war thats the only way we can justify that terrible expense and rather than rechannel that those funds in other directions like Infrastructure Construction or reconstruction this is what we should be doing but weve developed a reputation for going out and bombing rather than building so spend to be the good guys and so theyre spending to be the bad guys but its not its not lucrative for a lot of cities and companies and consequently its not sexy enough and i want to build roads i want to build bomb bombs absolutely wellman how about this on and off camp david foley and john boltons exit how must the usa look to other nations friends and foes alike let alone the taliban well i dont think it was a very popular proposal busy they came up with the United States came up with with the u. S. Ambassador who helped negotiate it there was no guarantee that the taliban could give us to insure against al qaeda or isis from using afghanistan as a base they also were still refusing their reneging and wanted to talk to the u. S. Installed government it was really a nonstarter trump i think was just looking for a way out of it and i think he was right but the reality on the ground today is we cannot leave in fact i wouldnt doubt that we actually increased troops as well as private military contractors going in there and and maintain that presence at one time that might have been possible but no longer if there is such a thing and the way you are talking there may not be but if there is such a thing describe us success in afghanistan. The u. S. Success has been to blunt the. Force of the taleban and that shariah influences at one time when we had them out. Afghanistan began to flourish again now a lot of countries in the neighborhood have would like to invest in afghanistan develop its resources because its resource rich why cant we get something go and have a us an issue to have to do that and steer away more and more from the from the military approach and ok talk to the taliban but again theyre fractured some of them are joint isis some of them are going to fight with other tribes other clans i mean we there needs to be a stabilizing force right now its not there cant just convene a meeting you know Michael Maloof thank you for stepping into the big picture thank you coming up next month it will be years since that 1st 737. 00 max crash and the fleet remains grounded well that ground your Holiday Travel plans this is the big picture on r. T. America. There are growing indications the wests anti russias stance may be softening a case in point is the recent visit of frances top diplomat and defense minister or take for example the New York Times editorial calling on trump to better relations with the kremlin as a way to block china an important question remains can moscow trust the west. With this manufactured consensus to public wealth. When the really close. Says protect themselves. With the famous merry go round if the one percent. We can all middle of the room say. A total of 346 people died when lie in the air flight 610 went down in october and in that Ethiopian Airlines crash this past march it took until may but President Trump eventually ordered the 737. 00 max grounded while the Federal Aviation Agency figures out what went wrong 6 months to the day after that march Crash Victims family members met with u. S. Transportation secretary elaine chao here in washington they told the media that while child valid matts would not fly again until they were certain it was safe they say she stopped short of committing to let various investigations play out for as he was recently sworn into Office Federal aviation administrator Stephen Dixon was more committal vowing that this plane will not fly in commercial service until i am completely assured that it is safe to do so f. A. A. Is following no timeline in returning the aircraft to Service Rather we are going where the facts lead us and diligently ensuring that all technology and training is present and correct before the plane returns to Passenger Service although max only represents 5 percent of its fleet Southwest Airlines flies more of them than any other carrier and after earlier. Moving match from the schedule through november 5 they have now extended to january 5 but that is shallow consolation to those families who lost loved ones in those crashes can you imagine how they feel our next guest can jamie finch is former director for office of government public and Family Affairs at the National Transportation safety board jamie a former title says that all too often when we hear National Transportation safety board in the news its after real bad news and after seeing those families go through what they go through it must be so frustrating if you have seen this coming boeing has a reputation for hubris here in Washington Well earned and well funded correct that is correct having a boeing is an 800 pound gorilla if you will in this town and has been lobbying the lawyering up since these crashes of occurred and these ongoing the Ongoing Investigation is happening what has been the most disconcerting but concerning for me and many other people about this has been the fact that they have been pointing their fingers at other people all the time and constantly rather than kind of doing a more of a self analysis and being quiet while the investigation is going on and taking process well to that point jamie too often when things go wrong its because the government let the fox guard the henhouse is boeing one of these companies that runs amok with self inspection and other authority well the entire process where the. Selfserving cation was allowed by the f. A. A. Was always very tenuous and in this particular situation the public trust in this in this type of dynamic was broken it was always very very delicate. Both sides both the government and the Public Sector had a private sector had to be very very careful and honest and forthright as they went through this sort of occasion process because the f. A. A. Frankly does not have the wherewithal the financial means and Technical Expertise to be able to keep up with the Technology Like bowling or some of the other aviation manufacturers what the problem what this situation has caused not just a problem for boeing its caused a problem for the entire Aviation Industry which has been allowed to sell certify these types of new types of equipment and new new pieces that theyre designing and as caused a big rift within the industry itself at boeing because theyre very theyre very frustrated with boeing angry with boeing because they are actually putting their own self sort of occasion process in jeopardy and the government is just too small and the industry is just too big for the oversight it requires rect thats correct while politicians love to rail against Big Government and candidate trump promised to cut 2 regulations for every new one is the Airline Industry in general under regulated. No i would say that the in general the Aviation Industry is one of the most regulated industries as well as should youre when youre flying people at 35000 feet in the air at 500 plus Miles Per Hour to their destinations which is become commonplace but obviously when you start looking at thats what youre doing you need to be extremely regulate the you would not what you would not like corporations to start cutting corners to in safety and so thats why regulations are so important now you went out with the industry it was boeing this this this selzer vacation they has has put all of