Zones, 2027488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. If you are in iraq veteran and want to give your perspective, you can call us at 2027488002. Can text us by calling texting us at 2027488003. You can post on our social media sites as well. cspanwj is our twitter feed and our Facebook Page is facebook. Com cspan. Reporter joins us on the phone, a Senior Correspondent based in baghdad. We thank you, good morning. He will join us shortly for this conversation. If you want to let us know about your thoughts, you can give us a call on the line. 2027488000 in the eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. For veterans if you are a veteran of iraq, give us a call at 2027488002. Text us by giving us your name, city, and state at 2027488003. The Washington Post has a perspective piece taking a look at why iraq is the center of the dispute between iran and the United States, this is a piece done by adam taylor. One of the questions they post is what relationship does iran have with troops in iraq and syria . Iran has been a long long accused of running a network of proxies using shiite militias to undermine rival governments. The exact nature of its relationship with these groups is the level of a tommy a tommy is hard to gauge from the outside, which gives them plausible deniability for antiu. S. Action. Frequent have led to increasing ease and the apparent able to reach the u. S. Embassy, surprised observers. The New York Times has a picture featuring what was going on the last couple of days outside the by gettya picture images. A spokesman said the group in thed to erect tents street for an openended sit in to leave iraq. The United States has about 5200 troops in iraq. In addition to a number of civilian contractors, the troops are stationed northwest of baghdad. Their task is to trade Iraqi Security train Iraqi Security forces. On, showing going video being posted online of what is going on outside the u. S. Embassy. You want to give your thoughts on these attacks, the number is 2027488000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. In the mountain and pacific time zones, 2027488001. Or iraq vets, 2027488002 we start in carlsbad callow, phallic carlsbad, california. What do you think about the recent events . Caller good morning, pedro, happy new year to the world and thank you for cspan. We should have learned from benghazi. Downnk we let our guard significantly. We have let our guard down when it comes to the middle east. President trump declared victory, as did president bush and the minute we let our guard down, the enemy comes in and attacks. Is u. S. Soldiers, u. S. Diplomats, and they should be protected extremely well and i think after benghazi, it should have been quite fortified. Massachusetts is next, and iraq veteran, this is ronald. Good morning. Caller this is ronald calling from massachusetts. Host you are on, go ahead. Caller when are they going to wake up . It is 2020 and they are still fighting. Every time you get a republican in there, there will be many wars. Host you served in iraq . Caller i served in the vietnam war. Unit in with the best the United States army and my brother. Host if you are calling the iraq veteran line, those are veterans that did serve in iraq. Just to let you know. , you are next. Y morning, pedro, and happy new year to everybody. I think it is sad what is happening in iraq with the embassy being overrun. It seems like the iraqi people do not want us there. Since 2002. There i dont see how the u. S. Can continue at this rate. The American People do not want this for an intervention. This obviously blowback. We are in these countries and go into these countries and the problems with iran go back to us overthrowing their last democratically elected leader and that was a u. S. Coup. Interactions that have set the town the last 40 years has been blowback from u. S. Overreach into these countries. Host the attack on the u. S. Embassy is straight from irans playbook in 1979, a sign of control over shiite military groups. We must protect our citizens. Off our twitter feed, this is robert saying the president will not allow another benghazi to happen. He is a real president. Jim saying the president tweeted in iraq that would be held responsible and stated this was not a warning, it was a threat. Is Facebook Page facebook. Com cspan. Mark esper in releasing a statement about the deployment of troops and activity in baghdad writes this saying at the direction of the commanderinchief, i have of arized deployment response of the irf today u. S. Central command area of operations in response to recent events in iraq. Approximately 750 soldiers were deployed to the region and Additional Forces are prepared to deploy over the next several days. This is an appropriate and precautionary action taken to increase threat levels and the United States will protect our anywhere they are found of the world. Are teresa in florida, you next up. Caller bear with me, i have a head cold. Lets take a walk through history. First of all, it was not irradiance that attack iranians that attacked us on 9 11. 3000 americans were vaporized. Our bestaudis are buds. Figure that one out. And george w. Bush stood in front of cameras and said i am sending my planes to iraq to drop leaflets telling the army to put down their guns, do not fire on our soldiers and i will help your families out and he betrayed them. Host what about the recent actions and what about the current u. S. Efforts . What do you think about those . Fallout fromis the that disaster is war we were lied into. Host some of the attacks thoughts on this these attacks. In the8000 for those eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 in the mountain and pacific time zones and if you are an iraq veteran, served in iraq during wars there, 2027488002. In georgia, hello. Caller happy new year. Host thank you, go ahead. Caller lets put the shoe on the other foot. If iraq was over here for 17 us,s bombing us, shooting what would we be doing to the Iraqi Embassy . Just put the shoe on the other foot. Actionsu are saying the by those forces are justified . Caller what would be be doing if iraq was here bombing california, texas, montana. What would we be doing to their embassy . Do you think we would be doing nothing . Next earlyp is up early in california this morning. You are next up. Caller thank you. I think i have an issue with the fact that we are getting very close to impeachment. This is almost a duplicate of what took place with clinton. It seems like as soon as it is time for the senate to confirm the impeachment, all of a sudden. E are back in war with iraq i hope something comes that will show host what do you mean by that statement . We ended up going to war when clinton was impeached and we seem to be going back to war now that trump has been impeached. Host are you saying this is a planned event to distract . Caller i dont have any evidence of that, but i think this is something we need to look at. Host Washington Post analysis adds this to what is going on, tensions between the United States and iraq cap escalated under President Trump and it was the iraqi president who said he would reject President Trumps idea the United States could keep troops in iraq. Sundays airstrikes broke the status of forces agreement that allows u. S. Troops in iraq. Irans influence is a point of contention as thousands took to the streets to protest the government. Some even burning down the consulate. That took place in early november. Rob in new york, hello. Caller good morning. I agree with the woman from florida that this is a repercussion from the lie that got us into the iraq war in the first place and the last caller saying it is a distraction, it is a distraction. Host what leads you to that . Caller declassified afghan papers where it admits the media and the government, three president s and every talk on tv lied for decades. Host how do you connect those dots to the events of the last few days . Caller i dont think it is hard to connect the dots at all. Host how so . Caller we are over there and we should not be. We spent trillions of dollars and it was a lie, a lie to bring in a police state, surveillance state and we are screwed because nobody in the media except cspan, some callers like me will address it. We are being herded down a bad road. Host that is rob in new york. Lets hear from robert in kentucky, you are next up. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host fine, thank you. Caller i believe we are being seen as an occupying force. We have been there so long and another part of this is nobody is talking about the iranian interest pushing this demonstration at this point in time. They fought a war in the 80s, the 1980s, iraq and iran and america has a very short attention span. Host what is irans interest now . Caller they have always wanted to come down and have their oil fields. That is what they fought over in the 1980s, so this is a continuance. Their mindset has not changed since 1979. Host the military times has a profile of some of the troops being called into service over the actions of the last couple days saying u. S. Central command said the detachment of marines deployed to the embassy to reinforce security. Marines were requested by the state department and the deployment was approved by Iraqi Security forces. Patchy attack helicopters are providing overwatch. The state Department Spokesman told a military times in an email statement there had been no breach and that there were no plans to evacuate the embassy. Clear support a sovereign and independent iraq. We are monitoring the situation and call on the government to protect our diplomatic facilities. That is the state Department Spokesperson telling the military times that yesterday. Florida is next, we will hear from pamela, good morning. Caller good morning. Am i on the air . Host you are on, go ahead. Caller i am wondering what is going on. Iraq again . , on. What gives them the right to attack us again . I thought we had it straightened out . Now we are back in the same boat again. No one is taking care of our country, no one wants to deal with it read our country should be first. I thought that was what it was all about, america. We are supposed to help people, not be torn down, right . Michigan, hello. Caller how are you doing today . Host i am well. Happy new year, go ahead. Caller i would like to state i dont see where we should put anymore american lives in harms way. Marines die, had leadership is a joke. You have a good day, sir. Host does it matter because it is a direct attack on a u. S. Installation . Caller everything matters, but it is our leadership that has got us to where we are today. Host as far as the current activity, do you support it or not . Caller i dont support any american lives being wasted. For the27488000 eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones. For you iraq vets, it is 2027488002. Next up, we will hear from warren in redwood city, california. Caller good morning. Believeling to say i this whole mess has been caused by President Trumps 2027488002 President Trumps failed Foreign Policy. This can be tracked back to the fact he has failed us completely in every Foreign Policy agenda he has tried. Host could you track that to the previous bush and obama administrations as well . Caller absolutely. Al qaeda can be tracked back to bush and the prison in baghdad. It all started there. It is completely a disaster the there middle east policy has been from the very beginning back to world war ii. Host in the right up for reuters, taking a look at President Trump and his role he played in this saying directly accusing iran of orchestrating violence saying iran will be held responsible for lives lost or damage incurred at facilities, this is not a warning. He was asked later in the day about the possibility of the war the tensions spiraling into a war. Iran should want peace more than anybody, but i dont see that happening. That was an exchange with reporters in florida. Massachusetts, hello. Caller my comment is we brought this on ourselves. This is what happens, you always push people around all the times, we are the bullies of the world and this is what happens to us. I feel sorry for the men and women over there. I was in the military. If we minded our own business, it is never will because all about oil. That is all i have to say and thank you for listening to me. Host ron is next, arlington, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am ex military. A commentke to make to what you what he said to a caller. Wasnt there an attack on a military installation . Not really. They are not like military installations. There have been u. S. Soldiers and contractors killed repeatedly, but we never conducted an airstrike. Does the public understand over 6000 airstrikes in afghanistan in 2019 . We should be asking ourselves what we are doing. Host just to be clear, the embassy in iraq is a u. S. Installation. Caller we are not talking about the embassy right now. Host we are talking about the embassy in relation to the strikes. Caller i will give you that. We have to understand the difference, why doesnt iran have the right to protect themselves . What are we doing . We are not really paying attention to what is going on, we just think we can throw our weight around. Look at israel, they can just kill anybody they want . Host back to iran, what should we do . Caller with iran, we should sit down and have a negotiation or we are going to have a world war and you will not have your show anymore. Host rita is next. Caller good morning. Happy new year. Host thank you. Says in thebible last days there will be wars and have you allump, ever seen the world in the shape it is in . He needs to be impeached and throwed out of the country. Host from louisiana, good morning. Historically, leading thing, probably before that, our involvement has been all wrong. Our cancellation of the iran deal is the problem and that is probably one of the reasons iraq is in such a mess. Host why is that a problem in your mind . Caller if we kept iran in check, we kind of had them in check because we had diplomats handling this stuff who knew what they were doing, but then we withdrew from that. We let iran to say we are not going to honor our deal. Here we are. Iraq, still in afghanistan, still everywhere. Aboutwhat do you think the current response by the military in this case with the embassy . Is it an appropriate one . Ourer i want to protect people, but i dont want to kill anybody else. I understand why these people are protesting. It reminds me of the ken burns vietnam saga, they want us out, they want their country back. They want the iranians out, everybody out. We would not want these people occupying our country, so who can blame them . I dont know what the answer is. Host the Washington Post adding to the analysis of what is going on the last few days, particularly with the response of this administration saying President Trump viewed the deal with suspicion and argued the Previous Administration had not done enough to curtail iranian influence. Reimposeday 2018 and sanctions on iran. Sinceited states has targeted the religious and political figure, also designated the iranian guard as a terrorist organization. There has been no indication support for militias has been curtailed. Iran has been linked to attacks on a saudi oil facility. Most of the parties remain in agreement. Iran also started enriching and stockpiling uranium at a higher level than allowed by the deal. Lula in ohio, good morning. Caller yes. Host you are on, go ahead. Caller you talking to me . Host yes. And if you would not mind, turn down your television to make the conversation easier. Caller i am going to do just that. This government of ours is supposed to be of the people for the people and by the people. We are the ones who are supposed to be in charge. We are supposed to tell the politicians what to do because we put them in office. Host how does that relate to the attacks on the embassy . Caller they dont do what they are supposed to do. You let the politicians run around like wild children and do whatever they want to do. Dont say nothing. Host lets hear from david in new york. Hello. Caller i am going to depart a little bit from what people are saying here. Would like usaqis there because they look at this country and see this is Political Freedom and economic freedom. There. Nt have that i believe the iranians probably feel the same way, you talk to the average iranian citizen, they would not mind being like us. I remember one reporter in an saidview one citizen quiet quietly looking askance both ways, we want to be like you. It is the other countries that cannot survive. They are the ones working against us, i dont buy that. Usn in vietnam, they wanted to stay. We bailed and that was not good for them. Host how do you connect to what we are seeing play out in baghdad . Caller i think that is radicals, all government inspired. I think there are Interest Groups that cannot function in a free market. They will not have power in that kind of a world so they foment this. That is the only way they can have their way. Thatarket economy, is what i think. Ast do you think this is shortterm issue or longerterm issue especially with iran . You have got to overcome all those special interests in those countries. Iran is run by a small group of clerics. They cannot live where you have free elections and free markets, so they do anything they can to adjust it so it serves them. Host we will take one more call from greg in michigan, your last call on this topic. This straightget trump turnedwhen his back on the obama attempt at peace with iran, i thought to who rushed in where angels fear to tread . Then trump turned around and said obama had given billions of dollars to iran in cash. Wet money was from 1980 when froze American Assets in iran