because they ve introduced startup new york. with the state creating dozens of tax-free zones where businesses pay no taxes for ten years. become the next business to discover the new new york. [ male announcer ] see if your business qualifies. we are less than three hours away from cnn s global town hall. hillary clinton, hard choices. as we take a live look, here we go. nation s capital. this is an awesome place to visit, the newseum, scene of the big event that starts at 5:00 eastern. christiane amanpour hosting this. hillary clinton launched her book tour about a week ago today and talk about the timing for the town hall. iraq is blowing up, benghazi, this first benghazi arrest. of course, she will be asked about both. the book tour hasn t exactly been a walk in the park. some pretty tough questions for hillary clinton and some missteps. we came out of the white house not only dead broke, but in debt. we had no money when we got
i sat down with michael holmes earlier today at cnn international anchor, correspondent, i asked him what he thought of bremer s controversial stance. michael holmes is joining me. you are our go-to guy on everything iraq. you have been there 14 times. you were there every single year of the war. you have literally seen baghdad burning. when you see paul bremer coming on national television, what was your reaction to the interview? you know, you can t lay the whole blame at paul bremer s feet. a lot of people are responsible for what s going on in iraq right now. but i can tell you what, what was obvious when we got off the air was the americans did a great battle plan to win the war. they didn t know what to do when they got there. within two or three days of me getting to baghdad, buildings were on fire, the whole city had a smoke haze from the looters. the big mistake that he made was firing the army, sent home a couple hundred thousand guys. he, bremer. yeah, with no pay and
they left, everything else has bubbled to the surface aided by nuri al maliki and him being essentially a sectarian dictator. michael holmes, thanks for sitting down with me earlier today. we are getting word, militants in iraq, just 30 miles away from baghdad. cnn s special coverage continues in just a moment. ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief.
his pushback with erin burnett last night, he said listen, iraq was on the road to success, albeit this whole situation clearly with isis, he said iraq was a success. he said take a look at life expectancy rates, they re up. he said take a look at the democratic constitution, look at the democratic elections, all six of them. you were there as recent as january. how would you describe it? totally insecure. i was there throughout all the things he said were going great. electricity was always horrible in baghdad. it was totally unreliable. there was sewage in the streets for a lot of the time. it was a mess. the infrastructure of iraq was total and utter mess. that s putting lipstick on a pig to say things were working okay. in terms of the stability, no, when i was there in january, there were bombs every single day i was there. in baghdad. in baghdad. there were six bombs in an hour on two separate days that we were there. it s extraordinarily insecure. when the u.s. was there
recent time was, but i m curious, i know in the regional level you have the tribes or even the sects, how they would feel about iraq being, as joe biden put it, in three pieces. well, the u.s. government under both bush and obama, for that matter, invested a lot of money in trying to create a competent central government in baghdad, and preserving the borders of iraq. what you re seeing now, though, is with the fall of mosul and the isis forces on their way to baghdad, the failure of one of the most important iraqi national institutions which is that military, and if the military cannot stop a terrorist group like isis, that really does call into question one of the most important facets of sovereignty which is the monopoly of violence. right now, the government of baghdad does not have a monopoly of violence in iraq. you bring up the central government, nuri al maliki, i was talking to bob baer this week, former cia, and he said he