there are mountains and afghanistan. it is known for its mountains, and the mountains in this book to figure rather prominently. there are several travels in which people are traveling across the desert. and afghanistan is known for that sort of talk biography. i changed the wording. it was inspired by blake, although that is not the actual wording. tavis: since you mentioned typography, i know that afghanistan is always a central character in your novels. we will come back to that, but how does the typography, how does the geography play in this particular novel? >> well, there is a number of passages in the book where characters are actually travelling across the country and happen to whether the elements and typography, crossing mountains, and, in fact, the book begins with a fable, where one of the characters makes this rather difficult journey and ends up climbing mountains, and so on, so it is a recurring image in the book, and what i loved about the problem is the word eco. -- echo. there are things that happen in

prepares to withdraw the bulk of its forces from afghanistan by the end of two thousand and fourteen karzai stepping down with the elections coming up also in two thousand and fourteen what's next the possibility of a power vacuum in afghanistan and the question what demons can emerge from that vacuum is of great concern to the whole reaching a vacuum in afghanistan seems to be nobody's interest here's a brief and very rough breakdown of what players regional and non regional are trying to achieve in afghanistan you ren despite the rivalry with the us has three years supported the karzai government because having a completely chaotic and unstable afghanistan is a neighbor is obviously not good for them washington is of course interested in keeping the more or less centralized structure of the government in afghanistan for that the us is even ready to engage the taliban in talks and maybe see them as part of the government in the future that's right having fought the taliban for over ten years the u.s. is now talking about a political solution pakistan is the middleman here the messag

you don't have that in afghanistan. a lot of these people that come in and want to be soldiers or policemen can only be veted by the elders in the village. so you don't know who you are. what we tried to do was bring in bio metrics and you'll probably read about that now, how do we reset and establish a good background way to determine who should be armed and who should be in uniform over there and who shouldn't be and that's some of the things we were doing. corruption is very real. but it's acceptable. we don't like it but in afghanistan, people accept corruption as a way of life. so another challenge was how do we change the mind set, how did we make people realize it's not right to do the kind of things they were doing which was grafting, taking money and being a corrupt society, taking money from people just to move throughout their town. one of the ways we did that was trying to be sure we took people and spent time with the police officers themselves. we probably spent way too much -- too much emphasis on

every time you talk about afghanistan policy thales compare it to iraq and that is a big problem. second iraq did produce the u.s. military as the two-time foreign policy because they did not cause the war it was the decision of the civilian of the pentagon and the white house and the state department and the war it -- the way it played out that general petraeus and that being a hero of the iraq war and the surge in debt being the military solution to a catastrophe caused that way and as the expression -- expression goes they drink their own chalaza they can now thinking it deserved all the resources it could get and has the solution to the problem and definitely doesn't need diplomats or diplomacy. and thought it has reinvented the ending of the warsaw with world war ii we go to vietnam are varieties of war around the world but the diplomats and dip negotiating and to look at the balkans in vietnam kissinger are holbrooke were in charge and the military provided them to the with many to go to negotiations in paris with the backing of the military. so it came to be a coin strategy

you don't have that in afghanistan. a lot of these people that come in and want to be soldiers or policemen can only be veted by the elders in the village. so you don't know who you are. what we tried to do was bring in bio metrics and you'll probably read about that now, how do we reset and establish a good background way to determine who should be armed and who should be in uniform over there and who shouldn't be and that's some of the things we were doing. corruption is very real. but it's acceptable. we don't like it but in afghanistan, people accept corruption as a way of life. so another challenge was how do we change the mind set, how did we make people realize it's not right to do the kind of things they were doing which was grafting, taking money and being a corrupt society, taking money from people just to move throughout their town. one of the ways we did that was trying to be sure we took people and spent time with the police officers themselves. we probably spent way too much -- too much emphasis on contrac

as afghanistan's neighbors brainstorm over how to curb extremism after the u.s. troop withdrawal the threat is growing elsewhere with islamic unrest sweeping through bangladesh. plus the man known as russia's gray cardinal resigns from the government we take a look at the man and what could be behind his exit from the halls of power. plus when life in prison is the only line you can afford some courts in ohio jailing the homeless and people with disabilities because they can't afford to pay small finds . welcome you watching our team with make sure and pharma. the u.n. is calling for the immediate release of four of its peacekeepers held by syrian rebels the peacekeepers were abducted in the golan heights the demilitarized zone between syria and israel is our middle east correspondent. i've just gotten off the phone with the deputy chief of staff for the united nations peacekeeping force in the area and he says that they are definitely remaining there this follows the kidnapping of four filipino u.n. peacekeepers who are being held in the ceasefire between syria

you don't have that in afghanistan. a lot of these people that come in and want to be soldiers or policemen can only be veted by the elders in the village. so you don't know who you are. what we tried to do s

afghanistan could be chalked up as a mistake. i think it is important. it is not about afghanistan. it is about us, but we have to learn from it. you know, there were systemic problems in afghanistan like the overhang, the overemphasis on military, but i think there were tactical mistakes made in the white house in terms of announcing a deadline, not subscribing to a political settlement. i think if the president had from the beginning to all the military, you're going to get the point, but the same time i am serious of the diplomatic and , that would have, you know, had much more of a balancing effect, but i think there is something else happening, and that is that there is a sense that the united states is not just withdrawing from afghanistan militarily. actually wants to leave the region entirely. and that is particularly hard for our allies in the gulf and jordan and morocco who are basically saying, you made mistakes. we stuck by you. we stuck by you. now you came in and you literally pushed not only this off 30 years ago, but he pushed mubarak out and then did nothing for egy

i got back from our mission in afghanistan until we buried him here. i flew back over and finished the rest of the deployment. >> reporter: so you brought michael home? >> i couldn't imagine being anywhere else. serving and losing a brother in arms and getting to be here on memorial day, it's, i don't know, there is no way to describe it. it's the only place i'd want to be. >> reporter: we talked to both young soldiers from the 82nd just a few moments ago, found them sitting at the grave of their friend michael metcalf, trenton brought michael all the way home here to be buried in arlington about a year ago when he fell on the battle in afghanistan and that's what you see here all day long and what you, in fact, see every day and, of course, arlington, not just iraq and aphganistan, but if you look back up into those hills, you will find those who served in vietnam, korea, world war ii, world war i, and, indeed, ashleigh back to the civil war. this is a place truly where the nation's history is written. >> barbara, you just noticed in that brief flash

so afghanistan and the communist takeover of afghanistan which happened in 1979. china, the rise of deng xiaoping and his beginning of a turn towards the market and in the mao and this cultural revolution. poland as we mentioned, the election of the polish pope john paul ii and his return to his homeland in sort of a precursor to the solidarity movement great britain, the election of margaret thatcher and the real pommel over the british economy which i think haspart of the hie of britain after thatcher. some looking for becoming back to that. vin number five of course, the one probably that most people think of first when you think of 1979, the iranian revolution, the toppling of the shah and the hostage crisis in 1979. wow, that's an awful lot of ground to cover. let's start with thatcher. there's this huge outpouring, tribute to thatcher on the occasion of her death. and i've seen covers. your book takes apart some of the myth of margaret thatcher. >> guest: i tried to do that. it's always a challenge because you want to show why somebody is worth knowing about

they would keep telling us iraq is not afghanistan, afghanistan is not iraq. not only for reasons that you mention that the mindset of iraqis was different, but iraq is a flat country. it's much easier to think of coin. the taliban are very different from the insurgency. the taliban also have strategic depth in pakistan which, you know, the iraqi insurgency didn't have it. >> host: that's right. >> guest: iraq has a much more educated society. its military has more of a fiber because it used to be a real military at some point. so i think there was a lot more to work with. and in the region, you know, when you went to pakistan, you went to saudi arabia, you went to uae, you went to turkey, nobody believed that it was a good idea to ache coin. and then, secondly, they didn't believe that it would succeed. they thought that you're going to end up having another vietnam. that if you actually stayed with it, you'll end up with a 15, 20-year war. >> host: uh-huh. >> guest: so to begin with, they didn't believe us. and we argued with them, no, no, no, believe us. we

did in afghanistan. if anyone question the wisdom of empowering these criminal warlords, they were countered with the notion of we want peace he for justice. -- a for justice. the "new york times" had a great piece about the northern alliance in quest for women's right and painted them as feminists compared to the taliban. we know how feminist they are today. there was more coverage about the northern alliance, these men that the u.s. was proud to put into power. desperate appeals to not give them government positions. there was a statement put out, by the oldest women's rights organization in afghanistan. they put out a statement saying, the people of afghanistan do not accept donation of northern alliance. he did not get quoted in the "new york times." the the end of the bush era, a lot of talk about increasing troops to afghanistan before we can decrease them. troop surge got a lot of news coverage. it was pretty well discussed in terms of the amount of coverage that it got. most of the coverage cente

so, afghanistan, and the communist takeover of afghanistan which happenin' 1979. chine. china. the rise of dung xiaoping and his beginning of a turn towards the markets and an end to mao and his cultural revolution. poland, as we mentioned, the election on the polish pope john paul ii and his return to his homeland and the precursor of the solidarity movement. great britain, the election of margaret thatcher and the real thumb put over the british economy that has been lost as part of the historical narrative of britain after thatcher. so, i'm looking forward to coming back to that. and then number five, the one people thing about first, the iranian revolution. the toppling of the shah and the hostage crisis. that's an awful lot of ground to cover. let's start with thatcher. there's just been huge outpouring of honors for thatcher. and your book takes apart ofsome of the myth office margaret thatcher. >> guest: i tried to do that but it's always a challenge because you want to show why somebody is worth knowing about in the first place, right? there's been a lot of revisionist

. -- of iraq and afghanistan. i apologized to the iraqi and afghan a people for destroying their countries. >> my name is joshua shepherd. united six years in the states navy. these are not mine, they never were. they are instruments of control from this government. i will not continue to trade my heroism.for bald >> my name is barack mcintosh. -- my name is brock macintosh. i was in the army national guard from 2008 2 2009. two months ago i visited ground zero for the first time with two afghans. it is a tragic monument. dalm going to toss this meta today for the civilians in afghanistan that will not have a monument built for them. this is for the peace volunteers. >> my name is john andersen. i did two deployments to air , and all this to structure was not necessary, and now we will bring it to an end because we know the world is possible. we are unstoppable! we are unstoppable! i am an army veteran, i spent a good amount of time in afghanistan and i want everybody to look around, take a second and look around.

pushed into eastern afghanistan. the location was a trap, evident from the moment romesha's unit arrived in may 2009. >> what was your first reaction? >> first reaction was, i think the same as everyone that stepped foot there. this is a pretty indefensible spot. >> i thought we was supposed to be on top of a mountain. this is crazy. i mean, that's how i felt, you know. shooting up? but, i mean, you just -- i was there, you know. i can't be, like, this is stupid. >> the outpost was in the hindu cush mountain range in the part of the world where you're either on a mountain or in the valley below. in order to be close to the population or the road, combat outpost keating was at the bottom of three steep mountains. soldiers had been fatally attacked there before. in 2007, private chris pfeiffer. in 2008, camp commander captain rob yeskis. and near there a different camp commander, captain tom boss tick. as lethal as its position was the outpost's terrain. the camp was named for lieutenant ben keating, killed when his tr

and afghanistan allows for some number of u.s. troops to remain after the end of two thousand and fourteen the numbers have varied there's been estimates of as low as eight thousand and as many as twenty two thousand that the obama administration would like to keep in afghanistan after the the withdrawal of so-called combat troops this has everything to do with the neighborhood where afghanistan is located afghanistan doesn't have or along its own but it has a large territory in the midst of a very crucial neighborhood in terms of oil and in terms of the expansion of power the u.s. wanted for example to keep permanent bases in iraq that it could use as a base from which it could attack iran the iraqis said no the afghans will be asked the same thing will they allow those bases even if it's only nine of them to be used potentially to attack other countries in the neighborhood that's one of the things the u.s. is very eager for on a permanent basis it's not so much about the immediacy of the taliban everyone knows that the presence

there was none for afghanistan. >> narrator: rumsfeld scrambled, but cofer black was way ahead of him. in less than a week, the president initiated greystone. >> mclaughlin: we all assembled in the cabinet room, and the president lays down about 12 decisions, just like that, machine-gun fashion. >> interviewer: what did he say? >> mclaughlin: well, of course, the thing that stands out in my memory, because it hit me vividly, was... he said, "i want cia in there first." >> narrator: that day, president bush signed a key document, a finding authorizing cofer black and the cia to wage a covert international war. >> radsan: it was a very comprehensive finding. it was generally worded. it was: "go out and get the bad guys; disrupt them, kill them, interrogate them." this was an overarching authorization of the cia. >> rizzo: i had never ever seen a presidential authorization as far reaching and as aggressive in scope. it was... it was simply extraordinary. >> townsend: in a post-9/11 world, we weren't going to be so prissy. we were going to work and do what we needed to do. no matter how d

welcome back with international forces packing up in afghanistan the region's big news this china and india are getting very worried about the spread of radicalism so much so that the two sides usually don't see eye to eye a brainstorming of a high to contain afghanistan's especially brand of extremism. explains what the region's pa is have to face. the u.s. prepares to withdraw the bulk of its forces from afghanistan by the end of two thousand and fourteen karzai stepping down with the elections coming up also in two thousand and fourteen what's next the possibility of a power vacuum in afghanistan and the question what demons can emerge from that vacuum is of great concern to the whole reaching a vacuum in afghanistan seems to be nobody's interest here's a brief and very rough breakdown of what players regional and regional are trying to achieve in afghanistan you ren despite the rivalry with the us has three years supported the karzai government because having a completely chaotic and unstable afghanistan is a neighbor is obviously not good for them washington is of course interest

. >> about a year ago we began to hear stories of a massive migration out of afghanistan. a journey being made by thousands of afghan children, some as young as nine-years-old. they often spend years on the road trying to make it to europe. to get there, however, they have to survive what might be one of the most difficult and dangerous journeys in the world. >> reporter: beverly and dereck joubert have made movies about lions, more than anyone alive. they have documented some of the most dangerous and memorable moments of africa's big cats. they told us what keeps them in the bush after all these years is the thrill of making new discoveries. like the contribution to the discovery of these water loving super-lions. >> his physique started to change. you could see that they were getting huge pectoral muscles and huge necks. these lions were 15% larger than any other lions that we were working with. >> you are a role model and you know it? >> i think it is my responsibility to know it. >> well, good evening, los angeles! ( cheers and applause ) >> taylor swift is a role mod

you don't have that in afghanistan. a lot of these people that come in and want to be soldiers or policemen can only be veted by the elders in the village. so you don't know who you are. what we tried to do was bring in bio metrics and you'll probably read about that now, how do we reset and establish a good background way to determine who should be armed and who should be in uniform over there and who shouldn't be and that's some of the things we were doing. corruption is very real. but it's acceptable. we don't like it but in afghanistan, people accept corruption as a way of life. so another challenge was how do we change the mind set, how did we make people realize it's not right to do the kind of things they were doing which was grafting, taking money and being a corrupt society, taking money from people just to move throughout their town. one of the ways we did that was trying to be sure we took people and spent time with the police officers themselves. we probably spent way too much --

and you never really quite want to go into afghanistan. you always get kind of drawn in the secure will buy the politics of the play and that sort of happened to the british and in many respects that is what happened to us in 2001. i don't think anybody was keen. it was something we had to do and once we were there we couldn't leave. horse kutz the key part of. the was across the political spectrum that the u.s. was going to do something in retaliation for the attack that we had. last a dozen years later and that's the part about getting sucked into the dysfunctional politics on the ground. >> guest: it was just how different it was from how we faced today. many things are radically different. there are no radical leftist or secular parties in afghanistan today. that has all been pretty much wiped out. but in the 1970's, those were the powerful forces in afghanistan. the president and from the 1970's was a secular list modernizer not unlike iran and he was replaced in 1978 by the afghan communist huk decided to remodel the society accordin

right now is the fact that afghanistan is not making enough revenue right now afghanistan is bringing in two billion dollars in revenue the problem is that in order to be able to maintain the roads the bridges the hospitals that they are we are building they have to make between eight and ten billion dollars in revenue that's something that they're not going to make right now and that is very hard to see them make in the future so our reconstruction efforts are very questionable at this point does the special inspector think that the money has been well spent at this point he's questioning really over the sustainability of this project he's saying that right now just to give you some reference where you have spent five hundred fifty billion dollars in afghanistan so it's hard to say that all of that money has been well spent and though his problem is the biggest question of the reconstruction efforts in afghanistan right now is did the people want it they need it and a lot of those things those questions were not asked before we went into afghanistan and they're certainly not being as

central asia is always tricky and if afghanistan. goes through another bout of serious violence then of course it would attract many more militants from chechnya and from many other parts of central asia into of williston right. right down to pakistan and then kashmir where there is according to militants a a war to be found against indian groups how much were the u.s. responsible for the rise in extremism there there was a much concern in pakistan afghanistan about drone attacks it's generated a lot of animosity how much is the u.s. kind of to blame for what's happening here well the u.s. was able to or troll the taliban regime all within a few weeks in the at the end of two thousand and one. but then soon darling bun did. make a to send us by two thousand and three the hand started orleans a serious threat to nato forces and then of course in pakistan to the violence threat. there have been a number of bombings in in india in delhi in other parts of india and that have been attributed to this kind of resurgence of militancy so. onc

zero troops in afghanistan and say we are done? do we want to take our relationship with come captivate to pakistan completely for granted? are we on the right track? i think these are issues that are going to decide a global standing. and also, security issue. as we've been also preoccupied with for more than a decade. >> host: the conclusion of your book took me by surprise. it's taken many people because in the end, you say there is a gathering storm, you identified a lot of problem issues. but in the end, what do you see as the biggest issue that we have to prepare ourselves for because i think it will surprise -- people that haven't read your book yet are going to be a little surprised at what you identify as our greatest problem to come. >> guest: our biggest problem is global issue in china pity the administration has argued that this is completely separate from the middle east coming and we have a choice of either middle east or china. so the term pivoting towards asia was towards asia and pivot away from the middle east. t

troops and a german soldier are killed in afghanistan. worlde ice hockey championships in helsinki, germany suffers its second loss to russia. syria has reacted defiantly to fresh air strikes on targets in damascus, apparently carried out by israel. the syrian government says that the door is open to all possibilities after the overnight attack, that israeli officials say were targeting the militant lebanese group, hezbollah. this is the second strike in three days. has two iron dome missile batteries to the north of the country in the case of retaliation for alleged air strikes. this unverified internet video shows the strikes near damascus early on sunday. intelligence sources say that the shipments of the iranian missiles implement militia in lebanon. the state media say that they struck the military and scientific research center. of ar, there are no signs military response. will use allment means possible to protect the homeland and the states, and our citizens against any internal or a external aggressions. benjamin netanyahu made n

things for women in afghanistan have improved. i think if you were to go to a remote village, say in the south of afghanistan, you wouldn't know what year it is, it could still be 1999 or it could be 1950. so things haven't changed all that much. but i think in the urban regions, like kabul and herat things have improved. women, there have been significant advances. in the field of women's rights. there's a female provincial governor in afghanistan, that would have been unthinkable 12 years ago, before september 11th. women serving in lower house of the parliament. but i, like you, those business leaders, those women business leaders in afghanistan do worry. you know, i think, i think that the role, the role of women in afghan society have got to be preserved. women's rights has to be the one of the cornerstones of national rebuilding. if afghanistan has any chance of being a prosperous, peaceful nation in the future. i mean it's the way to lift yourself out of poverty is to empower your women. if you shot 50% of the population of

has continued role in afghanistan as well as other armed conflicts around the world thank you so much pleasure so should we be shocked at all that the u.s. is keeping this perpetual occupation afghanistan considering how we're in over one hundred thirty different countries nine hundred bases there is great debate within the us administration the government. what presents to keep in afghanistan you have people speaking with different voices generals at the pentagon have said we've got to leave substantial forces there the political leadership is saying no we want to keep out just keep a very badas leadership military presence enough to protect the afghan government from being overthrown the day after we so it's a contentious issue but would it seems clear to me at this point is there will still be a substantial american presence absolutely when if we ever really left a country that we are occupied or invaded. you've written article titled all colonial wars are alike where you state that the u.s. is reconfigured its army for colonial forces and warfare how did they do this will be going

afghanistan and elsewhere and you blind support for the u.k. blind support for u.s. policy whether or yemen or syria where valves i think all of that we need to take stock of that we can't just expect that we. blameless. and i've got more on this story including picture is the tears and live updates from london on our web site. news today violence is once again. these are the images the world seen from the streets of canada. showing operation to rule the day i. took police stations and dozens of cars have been set ablaze during a fourth night of rioting in the swedish capital clashes between did send police broke out on sunday in the largely immigrant suburb of spain before finding out across poor neighborhoods the violence comes as a shock to a country with a reputation for social justice and welcoming trees on her reports now from stockholm. we see the fourth night of violence here in stockholm wednesday had been relatively quiet so we've seen community leaders out on the streets trying to stop young people from rioting from setting fire to cars and other things as

the war in iraq, he's ending a war in afghanistan. he ran on that a a central campaign theme but today he told the country that he is prepang to end the state of war against al qaeda and its affiliates that's defined in the authorization to use military force. he was not specific about how he will revise or repeal that, but he did say that that was his intention. i thought thatas striking. he took what is arguably the most politically unpopular issue you could think of: namely; closing guantanamo and sending those prisoners to prisons in the united states, took it head on after having backed away after his initial efforts on that and said we must do that. and i was struck by the passion with which he spoke the words in his speech. but even more the way in which he spontaneouslyesponded to the woman heckler with whom he clearly was in some sympathy. how remarkable. this woman trying to scream down the president saying "your policies are creating ever greater problems for the united states. they're making the muslim world hate you." and

in afghanistan tonight. no one could bend it or sell it like beckham. that's about to end. the story next. story next. >> announcer: introducing the great weekend sale at hotwire. for a limited time, get up to 70% off any weekend hotel stay anywhere when you book a hotwire hot rate. the great weekend sale won't last-- book today. >> chorus: ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e, hotwire.com. ♪ anyone have occasional constipation,atins, b yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'. [ merv ] mr. clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. it looks like mr. clean has won everything. the cleaning games are finished? and so are we. [ male announcer ] clean more, work less, with the mr. clean magic eraser extra power. can you start the day the way you want? can orencia (abatacept) help? could your "i want" become "i can"? talk to your rheumatologist. orencia reduces many ra sym