. for many americans, the iraq war is counted in troop deploysment. american soldiers killed than injured. humvees attacked. america s new three-letter flair. the ied. but in the middle east, the iraq war is measured very differently. sometimes, it is counted one girl at a time. on the outskirts of the syrian capital damascus in 2007, at a night club called the lighthouse, girls parade on a stage. they re dancers and some are prostitutes. some are under 13 years old. a few look younger than 10. they re refugees who escaped the war in iraq. their situation is so desperate, some of the girls father sit in
9/11. girls are free to go to school, the repressive regime that hosted bin laden is defeated. a month later, even kandahar, the taliban s hometown, is overthrown. kandahar failed, that was the last urban stronghold of the taliban and al qaeda. there were only 410 americans on the ground in afghanistan. 110 cia and approximately 300 special forces. 400 americans on the ground and they toppled the government of the taliban? 400 americans that were in partnership with our av gap allies. and that was really the key. the cost to america to drive out the taliban, less than $1 billion and one u.s. cia officer killed. relatively speaking, it was a very cheap and low-risk victory.
we can t do that to them. if you re listening to rick perry talk about social security on the campaign trail, you might hear his criticism of the program as indicative of his interest in actually strengthening it. it sounds like he wants to fix social security. in fact, in his book, governor perry argues that certain new deal programs massively altered the relationship between americans and their government, violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles of federalism and limited government. by far the best example of this is social security. rick perry does not want to save social security for the younger generation. the monstrous lie is not social security, it is more likely the monstrously misleading idea is that rick perry would like to protect america s most important social safety net for the next generation. the truth, rick perry is perfectly happy to have the next
choices of bush tradition, until four years later, another vulnerability. august 29th, 2005, hurricane katrina toppled the levees that protect new orleans. killed more than 1,500 people. destroyed nearly 100,000 homes, displaced more than 1 million gulf coast residents and crippled the mississippi gulf coast and southeastern louisiana. we watched as americans were abandoned on the rooftops of their homes, and we realized our system could not even get water to the people of a major american city for days. this, too, reminded us that we are all vulnerable. not only to the danger of foreign enemies but the neglect of public constitutions them lessons of katrina were critical lessons. katrina exposed the consequences of our aging, inadequate
al qaeda crossed over and built a new sanction ware next to afghanistan. and then what is called a greater strategic mistake, the united states found a new mission, a new war in iraq. al qaeda felt it was give igive a second chance. we never thought the americans would do that and get in that war. was iraq a gift to al qaeda? yeah, of course. yeah. it was a gift. a gift because iraq would inspire a new generation of al qaeda the fighters. that s part of a two-part series that airs starting this thursday night, september 1st at 9:00 p.m. day of destruction, decade of war. we hope you will watch. we ll be right back.