Attacks in syria our Senior Correspondent rob ghastly afflecks at what responsibility washington should take for its involvement in the conflict the end justifies that means they say some things no matter how horrible just have to be done because youre hard core fighters they have to be rooted out this is an ugly business but it is necessary business its only after when the dust settles and you see what youve done that you start having second thoughts this is when you say damn what did i just do. The devastation goes back as far as you can see it is almost beyond description how deep the damage is as many as a thousand strikes a month on record alone just strikes not including. Tanks and all that more than eighty percent of the city was deemed unfit to even by the u. N. A city hall but raised so lets start with the obvious incredible work has to be done just to get people back into their homes except we wont pay here is the disclaimer stabilisation not reconstruction the us will help fix the pipes but someone else is going to have to sort out the rest of this mess. The Coalition Freed you you do the rest we humanity ariens including the un do not have access to iraq a city because of the presence of explosive has a certain time a nation which is endangering people trying to return to iraq a city and its also endangering humanitarian access over two hundred people have died while trying to return to their homes and hundreds more have been injured from our understanding of the reports that we have only a limited number of neighborhoods in iraq a city has been cleared or overturned and thats mainly in the outskirts so who is going to pay to rebuild an entire city the guys who helped the straw it say they wont the civilians returning from tents in refugee camps the Syrian Government which doesnt even control rocka who. The doping scandal surrounding team russia has taken another twist just weeks before the Winter Olympics begins in south korea russian athletes will not be allowed to represent their country but will compete is neutrals however the International Olympic committee is set to release an official list of competitors who will be allowed to compete at the games and it already looks bleak even for russian oscillates whove never tested positive for banned substances Jacqueline Vega has more details. Tensions in the sports world are hitting another high as the i. O. C. Has confirmed that the number of russian athletes that are eligible to compete in the upcoming Winter Olympics is to be reduced now unexpectedly and without explanation now the full list of who is eligible has not yet been released but the russian Olympic Committee has disclosed a number of names that are thought to be who will be disqualified and that decision is ruffling feathers not only in russia but abroad as well a french sports outlet has published a article online condemning the disqualification of two athletes in particular we will not be embarrassed to speak about a denial of justice. And banned from the olympics because they participated in the sochi games both have undergone hundreds of anti doping controls since two thousand and fourteen and dozens more in recent months control is carried out abroad controls carried out by independent bodies by federations and analyzed throughout europe never in russia the result over the last four years a biathlete has never tested positive. In the is a by athlete who brought a gold home from sochi and he and his team mates. Are leaders of team russia and were both two main hopefuls for winning medals and south korea as well theyre both World Champions and in all of their years competing neither has ever tested positive for doping and thats one of the reason the the decision as an injustice the tone of this editorial will not please everyone thats obvious but there are still questions about the integrity of the Decision Makers since when can we condemn innocent sportsmen to punish the guilty is obvious to ban the russians that dont go for the rest no the i was he has promised to publish the full list of eligible athletes on sunday just under two weeks before the start of the games leaving an appeal unlikely and that means the number of russian athletes who are still reeling from the fact that they will not be able to compete under their own flag will now be hit with another blow others said to be excluded from the list are prominent. Players figure skaters again all of whom have never tested positive for doping and yet they will not be forced to watch the games from the sidelines with forty three other other teammates who have been hit by a b. And earlier and another Gold Medalist who is also thought to be excluded speed skater victor that he thought korean by birth which means that his dreams of competing in his home country are looking rather dim at this point and while condemnation of the decision has continued to flow in but unlikely to change the mind. And number of International Athletes as well as hands of the Olympic Committees have condemned the potential banning of clean athletes the head of the Olympic Committee says everyone who took illicit substances must be punished but that the measures taken against russian athletes have been politically motivated one french by athlete has claimed that the finger is being unfairly pointed at the whole country and the International Biathlon union had to go as claimed the organization has not been involved in the Decision Making process russian athletes from seven different disciplines are said to be missing from the list that includes five Prominent Russian short track speed skaters three by afghan champions and a two time World Champion crosscountry skier none of them have ever tested positive for doping a number of russian hockey players bobsledders and figure skaters are also missing still the humanitarian group has been targeted in the eastern afghan city of jalalabad well bring you more on that story after this break. Kaiser one more of my guide to financial survival this. Is a device used by professional scallywags to earn money. Thats right these are all sorts of clearly not accountable and were just getting more and more. Totally destabilize the Global Economy you need to protect yourself and get in for. At least two people have been killed and twelve more injured in the afghan city of jalalabad a Suicide Attack had detonated a call boma the office of the humanitarian group save the children reportedly up to fifty people in the building at the time its now announces temporarily shutting down work in afghanistan and according to afghan media i saw has claimed responsibility for the attack heres how witnesses described the assault. First i heard the sound of gunfire then a very big explosion took place i think it was a car bomb there were several other explosions and more gunfire. Im sure people first i heard gunfire when a car bomb exploded and Suicide Attackers came short in this area several residents were brutally killed the situation is very proud. With the security situation deteriorating in afghanistan the u. S. Is increasing the number of combat aircraft it has in the south of the country according to a nato press release washington wants to step up efforts to cripple taliban controlled in perspective and cut off the fundamentalist movements Revenue Streams its estimated that the taliban effectively controls around forty percent of afghanistan on sunday it was behind an attack on a luxury hotel in kabul that left at least twenty two dead political analyst muslim. That he believes there will be no stability in the country until the u. S. Withdraws. Present carries out of the hand of his government as a value criticize saying you are dominance and i mean afghanistan at all and there is no chance or do you is new hope to be a stable afghanistan under the dominance of United States the big question is why are you day by day the situation is going to do really good day by day the Afghan People has become hopeless if the United States is couldnt defeat i is all taliban in the country so they should come first that. The World Economic forum is underway in davos with some of the worlds biggest players readying for talks on the lecture east with resort and this channels Deputy Editor in chief has been taking part in a panel on fake news during the debate the b. B. C. s representative went out of her way to criticize r. T. And question our role as an alternative voice in the media. Theres no equivalent solomon you know the b. B. C. Yes you say archies just a National Broadcaster just like the b. B. C. Is you know b. B. C. Is subjected to. Independent you know. Regulator which is nothing to do with the with the government and the b. B. C. Regularly makes reports and in this investigation which criticize the government. We absolutely do that on our we are regulated actually by off com as well all of our programming and just as joe was describing the process. Of less than the be on the b. B. C. And never find like the b. B. C. Has so this is but this is this is this is the probably where you moving the goalposts were constantly moving the goalposts something and this is the problem that errors that our t. Has made and of course weve made errors in our reporting and weve addressed them weve corrected weve issued clarifications to were informed our audience but when it comes to r. T. Or other alternative voices legitimate alternative voices in the news media those kinds of accusations become a way of just summarily misrepresent the nature of what we do. Pretty editor in chief and i believe that despite the hostility from certain quarters there is widespread support for alternative voices in the media. You could see from the very beginning of the panel just how quickly the participants lost. Sort of a common. A common target of what it is were supposed to be fighting. The same journalists or media professionals who are very quick to for instance. Ridicule or. Pick apart statements by donald trump or ridicule his deployment of the term fake news as a way of dismissing any kind of reporting that he doesnt like are doing in fact the same thing themselves they are doing it for instance to r. T. And. Completely wrong and baselessly accusing him of things that our network has never done does not do as a way of silencing an alternative voice in the news media space among the positive sign this was after the debate and we didnt get to see that the encouraging thing is how many people from the audience people from a wide range of countries from every part of the world cup approached me and told me how refreshing it was to see an alternative voice to hear dont sort of voice to see an alternative perspective on a stage like davos and i think it demonstrates the real need the real demand for voices like r. T. Someone else you are you from would you be offended very question as to racism after a social Media Campaign was launched in sweden and he explains. Well from sounds like an innocent enough question doesnt it but it could land you in trouble heres what i actually had to explain that i first need to tell you about an online Campaign Launched in sweden to help expose racism hash tag no stranger we hope to raise Awareness Regarding the extensive issue of racism that actually does exist in sweden although many want to believe that we live in the worlds most tolerant country they had a wrist shakespearean sense of being subjected to racism and ten south asking why are you from rob some people up the wrong way even though i was born here people always ask me where im from i hate it when they do that nobody put ari decide where my home is where i come from doesnt concern you and it shouldnt matter i say shouldnt we ever ask people about their country of origin to be on the safe side. Well heres some advice from a man behind the hashtag no stranger campaign you can also question just make sure you do it right its ok to wonder about someones country of origin but it should not be the very first thing to ask a stranger about because the reaction that follows is usually very stereotypical and racist like oh youre from viet nam i think its quite terrible that you guys eat dogs. So its named fairest or originator and no follow up questions got its. More than two hundred high profile side arabians are on the forefront of the gulf states corruption crackdown dozens have been detained at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in riyadh however criminal proceedings may be dropped if they agree to pay a hefty sum for their freedom. A little. Toast with those suspected of corruption were expected to end this month with a haul for the detainees already agreeing to pick up the check local media report that almost one hundred of those who didnt pay up will soon be referred to the Public Prosecution for trial. So violence all round up of our top stories dont forget to check us out on social media on twitter you tube and our web site that saucy dot com ill be back at the top of the out with more news so stay with us. Seem wrong why dont we just dont hold. Me. To shape out just. How to. Engage with equals betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. I played for many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i got. Football isnt only about what happens on the pitch for the final school its about the passion from the fans its the age of the street the money just kills you narrowness and spending she didnt twenty million and one flyer. Its an experience like nothing else on here because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy my great so well all chance for. Peace this minute. But you know the stand have him her. Out all over them white house. I know it i know right now i think that our brother you know tough it out before for now to kidnap. A lawyer that i love him but i dont cut him then you cut him and keep an eye on what i have to lose a child for truffle is not good and it is living up. To me bottom line and i want to show a little side of. A lot of the. Members of the high on the innocent. Because its called place choice the i knew you have and pay off big time and terry has said elaine is she ought to give up from my lot farther than half of the whole fucking around mr hates it for jim and then where i hope that our freddie macor. The money. Hello and welcome to cross talk where all Things Considered im Peter Lavelle days ago the u. S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis updated and revived americas Global Defense strategy it is a dark vision of the world and calls for a massive defense spending what he calls a Defense Strategy critics say is a blueprint for wars without it. Cross talking endless wars im joined by my guest michael de la hosts in washington he is a professor of strategy at the Johns HopkinsUniversity Also in washington we have Christopher Wayne he is a former army Police Sergeant iraq war veteran and contributor to the hill newspaper and in personal we crossed to Philip Giraldi he is a former cia counterterrorism specialist who is now executive director of the council for the National Interest or a generally crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you wanted i always appreciated philip let me go to you first and percival i read the report and i and i will repeat what i said in my introduction i found it to be rather dark vision of the world is less about Defense Strategy then preserving or advancing had gemini around the world and i find it remarkably lacking in any kind of discussion of International Law go ahead philip. Well yes i mean International Law did not enter into it yeah it is not a as it describes itself a Defense Strategy its an often strategy and essentially what it does it takes away any genuine threats against the United States and against the American People like isis and its it shifts the defense burden on to being competitive with other countries in the world most specifically russia and china and the centrally it creates. A case if you want to call it that for spending vast amounts of more money on defense basically to promote american interests which have nothing whatsoever to do with defending the country ok well that was my reading as well michael weigh in on that ok of course and i think we would all agree that the United States hows an adversarial relationship with russia and china i can accept they all have their own National Interests and they will pursue them however the way shifting away from terrorism taking away even talk of the climate i got this feeling we did a point were going back into the Nineteenth Century of great power struggles here but difference is these powers have Nuclear Weapons go ahead michael. Well this is primarily an exercise in strategic rhetoric and as such it lays out a kind of highly aggressive ceremonial strategy what you might call a fierce face strategy and that is simply because the u. S. Has entered a historical period where its leadership is declining and will eventually find itself say like spain did in the early seventeenth century in a position where it can no longer orchestrate the kind of hedge im on expand this that hit had come to define itself on and so my sense is the u. S. Is staking out highly aggressive histrionics and theater in order to maintain others fear and in order to cloak the increasing insecurity that we feel because as as you said peter although we are pursuing a kind of endless war strategy as spain found out in the seventeenth century endless war feeds on itself and at the very end of that youre kind of used up and thats where we are now were entering into a kind of twilight period that may last as long as it did for spain as long as forty years before we finally give up and say well we cant do this anymore ok chris or let me read some of the words from james mattis when he was introducing the report here but i found quite bewildering here to those who threaten americas experiment in democracy if you challenges you it will be your longest and worst day so what does this have to do with National Security i mean who is attacking americas democracy other than the Democratic Party cheating Bernie Sanders and possibly the d. O. J. Trying to undermine in a legally elected president of United States i find it really quite galling that the defense secretary is talking about democracy when one can make the supposition that its very challenged in the u. S. Itself go ahead christopher. Sure i think that you know secretary madison is a marine he understands war i understand war and i think that taking this position hes asserting himself hes establishing the tenor on the on the global stage and were just sort of stating the obvious that these are global powers on the on the end of a long history i mean post World War Two the main power players have in some ways stayed the same but the u. S. Role has expanded i actually look at this a little bit differently in reverse and i think we want to the u. S. Is focusing on nucular deterrence and the idea of this strategy is focused back on deterring Nuclear Powers namely north korea from continuing to be aggressive while reducing endless war i think weve seen i think russia and the United States as both seen the experience of endless combat with forces that are sort of magic things like isis you know we theres ways to control those without having those endless conflicts so its a recalibration focused on principled Security Networks in asia and preventing those kinds of conflicts and yes china and russia are powerful nation states theyre sovereign and and those who are the traditional you know sort of power players and so were just focused on the basics ok you know philip can i read to you some more own words from the from the secretary quote we will develop it during coalitions to consolidate gains we have made gains i repeat gains weve made in afghanistan iraq syria and elsewhere to support the lasting defeat of tears as we sever their sources of strength and counter bear about iran i mean gains i dont know what hes talking about whatsoever the candidate trump said that he didnt want to go down the path of nation building well the United States now is involved in nation building in part of syria ok that it path is being continued here i cant see any gains in the countries that i just mentioned i dont know what hes talking about. You know i dont either i think that hes completely delusional if theres another comment in the report or by mattis where he said the report basically says it is a confusion by the russians chinese and iranians between civic issues and military issues now what country in the world has has confused civic and military issues more than the United States so i really dont get this i think that theres certainly have been no gains nothing but disasters in those countries that he cited and theres other stuff in this report im sorry its not a conventional allaying gallup of american strategy moving forward. This is more so a a a ticket for mischief on the part of the. Administration and if theres a if we go to the issue of Nuclear Weapons obviously Nuclear Weapons should be a major issue and theres a common here that basically says that the in the report that the United States when confronted with with the issues of National Importance like the standard of living of americans will be able to use Nuclear Weapons in a first strike capacity and this is quite incredible stuff and thats a good in that kit includes countries that do not have those kinds of weapons i would like to point out is well ok michael you know im really kind of confused here is that and i want to ask the same question of christopher is it is this Donald TrumpsForeign Policy because its very its stark contrast to what he ran on ok everything thats going on right now from from yemen to syria again. In being targeted here i mean it seems to be such a continuation there doesnt seem to matter whos the president of the United States its the deep state that decides who our enemies are and how that they will be dealt with a. Ok because i discovered i cant the contrast is so great that ive never seen it from a candidate to a president in my lifetime go ahead michael. Well candidates get captured when they move from the campaign and from their own voice however authentic or inauthentic it is and then they get a subservient into the imperial worldview of the Imperial City and the courtiers or the deep state if you want to call it that instead reshape their worldview and in many ways the over arching sensibility in washington today in terms of strategy is one of tremendous anxiety and insecurity now and so a grandstanding strategy a grandstanding strategy that looks like its doing things that looks aggressive like the war on isis its all a wonderful kind of demonstration and display the u. S. Is not going to risk a big war with either china or russia but it will grandstand hence the ten thousand or so barrett fifty caliber sniper rifles to ukraine is grandstanding the same with rocket man in north korea its a way of the u. S. Boasting forcefully but what i would bring home i think is the contrast between forceful boasting of trump and the very much more successful forceful boasting of Teddy Roosevelt and the difference is that Teddy Roosevelt was announcing americas debut on the world stage and america had forty percent of the worlds manufacturing today its absolutely the opposite in terms of trends and direction ok let me go to Christopher Christie year in iraq war veteran i mean if i could just ask you personally i mean it seems like we have a continuation of this mentality