iraq's loose ends. it's the "inside story". >>> welcome to inside story. in a world of don't go theres, donald trump has a way of going there and stomping all the way. one of the most rigidly observed bits of stated belief in the years since the invasion of iraq goes something like this. that the war was worth fighting, that the bush administration could be forgiven for being wrong about the presence of weapons of mass destruction because everybody, everybody, everybody agreed they were there. no-one could have predicted how things were going to turn out once the u.s. toppled the bathurst ray jail and the-- regime and the real mistake was getting out too early and bankruptly. a set of assumptions assertions and convenient inattention to inconvenient facts. enter donald trump. >> george bush made a mistake. we can make them. that one was a beauty. we shouldn't have been in iraq. we have destabilized the middle east >> you think he should be. >> you do whatever you want. you call it whatever you want. the

involvement in iraq. and i have with me a distinguished panel who have years of experience in iraq and who i'm going to ask them difficult, reflective questions to try and draw out how we can really bring lessons learned to bear on our future engagement with iraq, which, frankly, as much as we've tried to turn away from, it really is a country in which we need to have long-term, strategic engagement. and so, the more foresight and strategic thinking we can bring to bear on that, the better for us all. so, i'm going to start with ambassador crocker. ambassador, you were ambassador to iraq between 2007 and 2009, which, as we all know, was a period of really quite dramatic stabilization in the country. when you look back to that time, how do you account for the shift from violence to stabilization and the shift from a very, you know, part of the population being very alienated from the political process towards their willingness to really take part and to give baghdad a chance? >> well, thanks, and it's a pl

iraq task force. let me note our event is on the record and is being live youamed online for those of on twitter, i encourage you to #futureiraq i am delighted to welcome our distinct group of speakers could we have two former ambassadors to iraq. ryan crocker and jim jeffrey. a former commander of iraq and nato training mission, general michael barbero. thank you for joining us today. with four civil wars in 2015 and isis' rapid growth over the past 18 months, the middle east continues to be fraught with conflict and instability. that has exacerbated security concerns around the world. we are here today to do a deeper dive on one particular state, iraq, that holds strategic importance in the middle east and across global communities. as defeating isis dominates the agenda for many countries in the middle east including iraq, it is crucial we also take into account the deep-seated dynamics pre-existing in each of these countries that will need to be addressed when crafting sustainable solutions for pe

we shouldn't have been in iraq. we have destabilized the middle east >> you think he should be. >> you do whatever you want. you call it whatever you want. they lied. they said there were weapons of mass destruction. there was none and they knew there were none. there were no weapons of mass destruction >>> you can hear the boos he got. republican crowds rarely heard anything like what donald trump just said, not from republicans anyway. his primary opponents were not ready to have that conversation. for instance jeb bush. >> i couldn't care less about donald trump's insults. it is blood sport for him. he enjoys it. i am sick and tired of him going after my family. my dad is the greatest man alive in my mind. while donald trump was building a reality tv show my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. i'm proud of what he did >>> for different reasons we got a different answer from marco rubio. >> i just want to say at least on bhoof p behalf of me and my family i thank god that it was george w bus

and the people of iraq rose up. the shiites from the south rose up, spread like wildfire, all across southern iraq. the kurds rose in the north, as well. units hussein's military began to join the uprising. they thought, this is the end of saddam hussein, they wanted to see him done away with as well. but, when it turned out that it was a popular uprising, not just the military going to get to take charge, but a popular uprising, the united states got scared. george bush and james baker were fearful that iran could extend its influence over iraq. they were afraid that the kurds might try to establish an independent country and turkey would not like that. everythingll this -- in the region, they needed to put a stop to it. they turned their back on the uprising, they refused to meet with any of the rebel leaders who are desperately trying to seek them. and further, they of course, it is well-known that they let saddam hussein continue to fly his helicopters against the villages and towns, going in with machine guns a

i will start with iraq. iraq just passed a budget through its counsel of representatives with a very important provision, article 40 of its budget. it allocates already percent of what you call the popular mobilization force comes from provinces actively fighting isil. almost 30,000s sunni fighters enrolled in state security services to fight isil. we have almost 15,000. they are being paid. they are being paid about $680 to $750 a month. that might not sound like much to us, but the rural earning for an average worker is $36 a month. the private us or has put his money where his mouth is. it is reflected in the budget. he tells us every day he wants the local sunnis in the fight. we are helping. president obama made the decision to deploy u.s. such -- special horses to the air base east of ramadi. right in the heart between ramadi and falluja. out thered them immediately to get him back on their feet and integrate sunni tribal fighters into the fight. that has been a success. our special services are elsewh

iraq was relatively stable. and our fighting and particularly casualties both iraqi and american were way, way down, and, we were on a glide path to withdraw all of our troops by 2011. he went to camp lejeune, gave a speech in february of 2009, where he essentially endorsed the entire bush administration program for iraq calling for our country that would be secure, stable, ally and friend of the united states and a partner in struggle against terrorism. . . >> things might shift in a bad direction given some of the clouds that were looming in the region, particularly from iran. and so we recommended, myself and lloyd austin, at the end of 2010 after a government was finally formed that we try to keep troops on.ç and at the end of january, beginning of february, president obama personally took the decision to do that. and after the usual fits and starts that characterize our government, we announced that at the beginning of june publicly to the american people that, lo and behold, we were actually going to try

iraq particularly important for iran neighboring state. of a rant-iraq war. competing center of shia islam. but, in the state system, an independent state. in the world of the middle east, an arab state. in a region that take that seriously. iran has no totally free hands. phenomenon not all that different from beirut. governments, weak major forces able to bear arms and serve as militia. and more loyal to their and or iranian surrogates than government they are able to exercise tremendous influence. we see it every day. i rate iran's influence as higher than that of u.s., a rant influence in iraq and ours are not higher than iraqi people themselves. push and pull. body, to maliki in a thati had a lot of traits contributed to rise of isis and alienation of sunni-arabs and the kurds. leader, he would stand up to the iranians. feeling -- a good feeling -- he was trying to play americans and irradiance off and balance each other. body is a man a sympathetic to u.s. and west. also, iraqi patriot. has to be aware of what is happening. in shia coalition and his cou

he was a former al qaeda and iraq guy from iraq. that just shows the connections between isil core and libya. it is concerning. fightersr of foreign in the united states -- i think numbers.hose specific i don't want to give it to you off of the top of my head. i believe it is in the low hundreds. over this all problem. and they are doing a great job to protect the country against these threats. they will continue to do so. i'll follow up with you on the figures. out, the my time runs boko haram, is there any exchange between fighters? to fight? to syria this asabaab a part of --l in mr. mr. mcgurk: there's a symbolic relationship. they are unlikely to get out. going to kilonem in iraq and syria. libya is an emerging threat. pouring up.s are mr. smith: thank you. you.hairman: thank gregory meeks of new york. you, mr.: thank chairman. let me start with this. i want to follow up with mr. cicilline said. arabia's about saudi thevities or asked about contributions on the humanitarian level. isis andng against isil or isil in syria, et ce

many parts of iraq. i can't tell you with a decline of the popularity of the establishment, the parties historically since 2003 there is a lot of change now that i think needs that we have to force ourselves to forget the experience and use it just as a backup and support rather than let it overcome or over shadow our work. i think this is going to be maybe where success and recreating iraq's group report will be there. and, again, i know i would love to talk to you about it at another time. thank you for this excellent panel and wishing you all the success and luck. >> because we have just a few minutes left i will collect all the remaining questions i have starting with representative bayon. >> thank you. i am bayon of the kurdistan regional representative to the u.s. being kurdish i'm going to talk about borders. ambassador crocker, you said these borders endured remarkably well or words to those effect. that's true. but at what cost? there has been genocide, chemical bombardment, war, bloodshed repea

i'll start in iraq. iraq just passed a budget through its consular representatives at the very important provision. article xl of its budget. it allocates 30% of the popular mobilization force is and that authorizes almost 30,000 sunni fighters enrolled in the state security services to fight isil. we have almost 15,000 now. they are being paid about $682,750 a month. that might not sound like much to us, but the rural label burning for an average iraqi workers $36 per month. prime minister a body has put his money where his mouth is as reflected in the budget. he tells us every day he wants to help. president obama made the decision to deploy just east of her body, right between the body and falluja, deployed immediately to work with the iraqi security force to get them on their feet and integrate sunni tribal fighters into the fight and that his and his success. our special forces said they are working with three local tribes now mobilized and actively writing. in syria, mr. chairman, you had something

in iraq and sir. i can't u.s. policy in both countries has come under scrutiny and carter has had to defend it. i sat down with the secretary at the pentagon earlier today for a wide-ranging conversation. we talked about u.s. strategy, the role of technology, his goals before leaving office and more. here is the one-hour conversation with the secretary of defense. mr. secretary, you said in a speech recently the u.s. faces a dramatically different security environment than in any point in the last 25 years and that it argued for an increase in military spending to confront an array of threats like the islamic state and russia, and you were no longer able to focus on one threat at a time. i would like to walk through those threats, if we may. >> sure. >> rose: what's the biggest threat to the united states today? >> well, all five of them are large, all five of them have to be countered, so we don't have the luxury of deciding one has the highest priority over the other. they also call for different kinds of capabi

. >> ladies and gentlemen, we have a huge challenge in iraq. we have succeeded in combating daesh on the ground. the area we have liberated so far is more than half of what was occupied by daesh before. now we have almost all areas liberated from daesh apart from two areas. we intend this year to make it the final year and the last year for the existing of daesh in iraq. this reflecting of the area which is occupied by de -- daesh and this is a huge moment as oil has dropped in price. it is a huge drop in two years in a country where the budget relies 90% on oil. we have many during the 2015 where oil prices were also very low. they dropped to something like a third to what it was before but we managed the country. we managed the war successfully during 2015. we liberated tacrete and ramadi. some people say ramadi was lost and regained. but we lost a small area of ramadi and regained a larger area now. it is not only restoring or liberating the city of ramadi. we have liberated a large chunk of anbar which was never under control of the iraq fo

>> no, i don't think so war in iraq. the war in iraq is a disaster. i have a great relationship with south carolina and the people. i've known them for a long time. i've been there many times. i have great relationships there. they're very smart people. they understand that the war in iraq is a disaster and was a disaster. it totally destabilized the middle east. when you look at the migration, when you look at all of the things that are happening right now, it all started with the war in iraq. and you know what, we got nothing. we have absolutely nothing. iran is getting the whole deal. >> mr. trump, i have to leave it there. little short on time this morning. i look forward to speaking with you again soon, i hope. thanks for congresswomanming on safe on the trail. >> thank you very much. >>> moments ago i spoke to senator ted cruz of texas. and i began asking him about how he might go about replacing justice antonin scalia on the court. let me go to litmus tests, do you have them for potential supreme court justices? >> well, my litmus test for he o

with the government of iraq. iraq just passed a budget with a very important provision, article 40 of its budget. and it allocates 30% of what he called the popular mobilization forces. 30% have to come from provinces that are actively fighting isil and that authorizes almost 30,000 sunni fighters enrolled in a state security services to fight isil. we have almost 15,000 now. and they are being paid. and they're being paid about $680 to $750 a month and that might not sound like much to us, but the rural labor earning for an average iraqi worker is about $36 per month. the prime minister has put his money where his mouth is. it's reflected in the budget. he tells us every single day he wants to get the local sunnis in the fight and we're helping them. when ramadi fell, president obama deployed u.s. special forces just east of ramadi, in the heart between ramadi and fallujah and we dee ployed immediately and that lhas been success. we are working with three local tribes mobilized and actively fighting isil. we're

there are three components to iraq. we vastly prefer a multi-sectarian iraqi state to any form of disintegration because we know where that leads. sectarianism leads to the kind of thing that isil represents. but for that to work in iraq, the sunni's must be represented and part of the fight to take back their own territory. charlie: does the iraqi government recognize that? are they agreeing? do they understand that the previous prime minister drove them away? sec. carter: we certainly understand -- you are speaking of maliki, used sectarianism, and thereby directly contributed to the birth of isil. the current prime minister, abahdi, does govern and a multi-sectarian way. he tells us that and he has challenges governing because there are these three factions. we work with them to work with all three of these factions. the alternative which is sectarian division -- we know when that leads. charlie: let's talk about the iranians. what is their goal in iraq and syria, and how much of precipitation are shia militia and th

it also hurt iraq a great deal. it wasn't just a one-way back against i.s.i.l. >>> you raised the issues of the payroll, members of families. if enough members are captured and killed these costs appeared up. tell me how that works into a targeted strategy of defeating i.s.i.l. >> that's a side benefit to a targeted strategy. what we did find is that they basically had a promise. they have a payroll and they continued to pay families, payroll was based on family size. they continued to pay families if a person was detained or killed. what we saw was that their payroll costs were mounting throughout the 2000s when u.s. operations came large. so they either stopped paying, and that would hurt morale, they're breaking their promise to their members' families, and it was hurting their operations. we found a statistical relationship between the number of money that they sent to a specific area and the level of attacks in that area. so as we degrade their ability to raise money, we're also degrading their ability to krukt

>> well, i'll start in iraq. you know, there's vestiges of what used to happen over the -- under the governor of prime minister -- former foreign minister maliki in which the relationship was different. i want to be clear, every single shipment of weapons or supplies that we wanted to send to the kurds has gone. nothing has been held up by the central government under prime minister. >> but they're not paying the soldiers. >> well, a lot of people in iraq are not getting paid. but what's happening in iraq in terms of the oil allocation, the kurds are exporting their oil on their own. and keeping those revenues. and they're not therefore getting the revenues from the south which is actually an equitable exchange. but as i mentioned, iraq writ large is focused every month on $5 million funding deficit that's a problem writ large. for the kurdish peshmerga there's a $400 million monthly gap. peshmerga salaries are about $50 million a month. so we want to focus on this in a holistic way. working with the imf, i think

bush did send some americans into northern iraq to say in effect hands off the kurds. can't do to them what did you to the shia. >> this is somewhat of a the more urgent crisis is really all of the bloodshed in syria. they have a tentative cessation of hostility. we should all hope that takes. >> one important thing in all the complexity is there are divergent political groups right? the shia, the school of espionage after in iraq then the school of common iran and the school of najaf, there are interplays you can actually use, you can force compromise and say american power, hey, we'll side with you. do this. america with nato. it's complicated but do-able. >> the truth is american powerball is receding and certainly under obama and i don't disgrea entirely he says, look. it's a horrible mess in syria. we're not going to put american forces in there. i think most americans fundamentally do not want to get involved in these wars. trump is playing on that. cruz is playing on that. rand paul played on that. >> and somebody should have donald trump, ask donald trump wheth

what happened in the last 12 years in iraq? therewas liberalization, was the freeing of a free economy, but the problem is, every time the government takes this day forward, it takes another step backwards. this is not let anywhere. now, we have to be concentrated and steadfast in the right direction of reforms, no going back. we very much are encouraging investments. course, in the cities which we have liberated, tikrit is an example. 90% of the population are back. those people had been living in camps. like displaced people. now, we have brought them back. and people are eager to go to their homes, even if their job is incomplete. we were hoping to do reconstruction of these areas. that, of course, reconstruction takes longer time, and quite a lot of funds. decided,ion, we have there are essential elements, and these things must be provided for the citizens to go back. they must be cleared from explosive devices. like water,ervices electricity, schools, medical care, major roads in the cities must be able to be open for the

. >> are you for invading iraq? >> yeah, i guess so. i wish the first time it was done correctly. >> reporter: trump was asked about his comments during cnn's town hall. >> do you remember saying that? >> no. i could have said that. >> reporter: and again this morning. >> you said you were for the invasion. >> you can see i was not exactly strongly in favor. >> reporter: trump is explaining his evolution to south carolina voters today. >> the first guy to ask me about iraq was howard stern. before the war started, i was against that war. i was against that war. >> reporter: to prove his opposition, trump points to comments he made in 2004 to "esquire magazine" where he said look at the war in iraq and the mess we're in. i would have never handled it that way. that statement came more than a year after the war began. >> your brother and your brother's administration gave us barack obama because it was such a disaster those last three months that abraham lincoln couldn't have been elected. >> as it relates to my brother, there's one thing

and, yes, he was in american custody during the iraq war. al baghdadi has shown his face publicly only once. last year when he gave a sermon to his followers. but back when the u.s. had him under lock and key, he was seen as, believe it or not, a man who could be trusted. >> the americans seem to see abu bakr as someone who could keep the prison quiet. there are 24 camps within the sunni side of camp bucca, he was allowed open access to all of them. >> he wasn't considered from everything that we know now a high-level detainee, and he was allowed to, you know, lead prayers, he was allowed to give religious lessons. >> the future leader of isis was giving other inmates lessons on islam. those inmates were jihadists or former ba'athists, henchmen of saddam, or simply common criminals. >> it most assuredly was a jihadist university. unquestionably. >> put them all together in the baking heat of southern iraq, with al baghdadi, a man who dreamed of a new kind of terror, it was a recipe for isis. >> they were meeting, they were playing soccer tog

iraq was relatively stable. and our fighting and particularly casualties both iraqi and american were way, way down, and, we were on a glide path to withdraw all of our troops by

now, iraq is harvard for terrorists. if you want to be a terrorist, you go to iraq. it's harvard. and what did we do? you know, we spent all this money, lost all these lives, have all these wounded warriors. what did we get? iran is taking over. not only did they get the $150 billion in the stupid deal we made, one of the dumbest deals ever, but now we're taking over iraq, they have been fighting for years to try to take each other other. we decap tate the one country. they're taking over, and people don't realize iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world. so we took -- we just hand it to them on a silver platter. how could we have been so stupid? very sad. i mean, honestly, to me, it's a sad subject to talk about. >> on the way in, in the back, i saw a gentleman with a bernie t-shirt on. i said, what are you doing here at a trump rally? he said, well, the tickets were free. what is your answer to hillary and bernie when they're grabbing so many of the young people with freebies. >> who is the bernie guy? >> i think the rest of these folks ran him out. >> can guess he

as we sit here they're taking over iraq. we get nothing. >> let me give you one more issue where you sort of went counter to what is perceived as republican orthodox and that is the issue of israeli and the palestinians. you said wednesday you wanted to be neutral in that dispute. explain what neutral means because some heard that in the pro-israeli community and thinks, oh, he's going to be anti-israel. explain what you mean by neutral. >> no. i'm very pro-israel. in fact, i was the head of the israeli day parade a number of years ago, i did a commercial for netanyahu when he was getting elected he asked me to do a commercial for him, i did a commercial for him. i am. but i don't want to be -- look, the hardest thing to do is that in terms of deal, if you're a deal person, right, the ultimate deal is that deal. israel, palestine, if you're going to make it, that probably is the hardest deal there is to make. people are born with hatred, they're taught hatred. and i have to say it's mostly on the one side, not on the other s

of nick howell's ambush and beheading in ramadi, iraq. (mccoy) first problem with this video, your honor, is that it lacks proper authentication. we have no reason to believe that it is what it purports to be. where'd you get it, ms. melnick? it was first posted on a jihadist website, your honor. exactly. for all we know, it was staged. the al jazeera television network, which confirmed e details through eyewitness accounts. and found it trustworthy enough to broadcast. al jazeera. in any case, what happened to nick howell in iraq is irrelevant to mr. pope's murder. irrelevant? it provides the context for this case. so ms. melnick is conceding her client's culpability? no. in which case, the only rationale for this brutal piece of footage is to manipulatehe jury into an acquittal. judge fischer, this ambush demonstrates that jeffrey pope was an incompetent cowboy. he cultivated a long list of enemies who may have committed this crime. you can esblish that through the testimony of your clients without the video. that's fifth amendment blac

we should have never been in iraq. we have destabilized the middle east. >> you think he should be impeached? >> i think it's my turn, isn't it. >> you call it whatever you want. i want to tell withdrew. they lied. they say there were weapons of mass destruction. there were none. hay knew there were none. >> the next day the "washington post" headline reading "debate rips over gop wounds and party risks tearing itself apart." "the post" noting the series of deeply personal ferocious attacks the candidates lobbed at one another as well as suggestions by mr. trump that president bush deceived the american people. some are now likening his remarks to a democratic talking point. but mr. trump wasn't done repeating his attacks against george w. bush on the sunday shows and, again, today in south carolina. >> the world trade center came down during the, you know, reign of george bush. it came down. i'm sorry. but we weren't safe. the world trade center came down. you obviously had the war which was a big mistake. i think few

that is alive and iraq as well. if there's one thing it is unite kurds, arabs sunnis, and arab shia, it is the desire to go make. in earlyeek in iraq 2009 at to go walk through downtown ramadi. was bustling, buyers and sellers everywhere. i went to a couple of shops that were selling housewares. they were made in new york. i said how do you get this stuff? they have a middleman. we get a good prices. they willliveries, never meet him. it is great doing business with them. that spirit is everywhere out there. that will be something that we look at. leastn the state at allow, if not encourage, iraqis to do what they do very well which is business. >> thank you. this flurry of questions to try to think of something intelligible about to some them all up most i usually fail, this time i will try. in looking at all of these things, let's empower the people, 70% under 20, let's find the militias, let's do something about a courtesy regional government for the sunnis. -- with a, let's find lot of it is. none of this works

-led air stris in iraq and syria in the past hu year? >> i mean total air strikes, kes congressman, it's about 10,000 now. i can get you the breakdown. total air strikes as of yesterday, 9,901 to be specificr there's 6,615 in iraq, 3,286 in syria. the u.s. has conducted more tha. 7,000 of those and the rest of the coalition about 2300.lost 4% >> and in that, the past year i isis has lost 40% of its territorial gains in iraq and 10% of its territorial gains ins syria? >> yes. >> okay. isis -- the one thing that's constant in reading michael weis's book "isis inside the army of terror", the one thing that seem constant about isis il change. and isis. has evolved in its k i reach and organizational ability. libya i presencebin ing. think is particularly disturbing. it's a pivotal strong hold in it north africa.oit. africa is -- there's a lot of instability to exploit in nt africa. got, you know, 55 countries in that continent, many of which aresu very, very unstable from sudan to just -- there's a lot of countries to exploit. you know, my c