comes a report on our. people after all the work we've done there's nothing else we could do besides bill take military action but of course you take military action it is unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon and the us is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn't happen even if it means going to war with iran but given the media blitz down drones and assassinated scientists it begs the question has the war already begun. i would like to extend my sincere condolences. well sometimes sorry just isn't enough pakistan is hitting the brakes on its relationship with the us and close in key supply roads to afghanistan and now russia might have to do the

same if the us keeps taking advantage will dig into the root of the problem there is that thirty three cured media submitted two and a half to three men half million doc about lifestyles of the rich and famous meanwhile millions are struggling to make it through the day even scratching lottery tickets trying to get lucky they may seem worlds apart but this great american divide is a well within walking distance. it's tuesday december sixth four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v. we begin tonight with a question is the u.s. close to war with iran tensions between tehran and the west continue to escalate recent events show both countries are engaging in a serious dangerous political game just this past weekend iran claims to have shot down a u.s. drone flying over the country on the same day explosion. outside the british

embassy and bahrain this after the u.s. claimed iran is behind a plot to kill a saudi ambassador in washington right here on u.s. soil there's been a series of other mysterious explosions as well as assassinations of key scientists meanwhile the u.s. is cracking down on the country through a series of sanctions all this has some asking are we already at war with the rob well let's take a look at some of the headlines on the web today these are the headlines from the daily mail the atlantic and newsmax all of them ask the very same question are we already at war with the country now officials on both sides have not shied away from rallying to go to war how can you forget senator john mccain's performance a few years back. you know that old beach boys song bomb iran. anyway and more recently republican presidential candidates have said that we aren't being aggressive enough with iran take mitt romney for example to recognize the greatest threat that america in the world faces and faced was

a nuclear iran and he did not do what was necessary to get iran to be dissuaded from their nuclear folly what he should have done to speak out with dissidents took to the streets and say america is with you and we're going to covert basis to encourage the dissidents but with everything that has happened is this proof that a covert war is already taking place here to talk more about this is anthony shaffer and director for x sternal communications center for advantaged defense studies welcome anthony so we just went through all those events tensions. going high between the two country is in some instances turning violent but is are we already in a covert war with iran well i think it's pretty clear that these are no accidents to quote the line from jaws this is no boating accident the idea is yes i think everybody has equities here there are issues relating to military which i think there's no practical way i know you here want to see it rattling look there's over

three hundred sites that have been identified as potential nuclear really nuclear related sites in iran so no country is going to go in to start bombing things at random secondly we really not determine what we want to do here let's remember one of the things about iran these are persians these are arabs they're more western european than they are arab and the people is that mr romney just stated you know in july of two thousand attempted to rise up that's what we should be focusing on helping the people gain freedom not on what the government's doing other than to try to help the government go away right and you know we are we are seeing these covert more more low key operations do you think that this could be a pretext. an all out war again i just don't know how anybody would be able to sustain war iran's a very large location and let's remember one of the key factors here for everyone no matter who you are they are the third largest producer of oil on the planet so if the anything happens to that supply all resources all prices go up so anybody

who's considering military action i don't think fully understands the secondary and tertiary effects of a military action and how bad that would be for everybody so we really aren't a position he did because of the draw downs of forces from afghanistan and iraq or the practical application of force being that that you would lose at least for disrupt one third of the oil supplies to the planet i just don't think of any way we can do it militarily at this point and even if it's not feasible or not practical why then are we seeing it that this language in this push on both sides seems like we are heading in that direction we're nonpartisan think tank we don't take the right or left and one of the things that i think you're seeing here is one side that the republicans essentially taking up this reduce republican party a lot of conservative but frankly the idea here is that they're not thinking this through they are saying what they think the base wants to hear and not actually looking at this thing logically if x. y. and z. does not mean you have to bomb them you have to find

a way to essentially make sure that the nuclear weapons if these are established can't be used against us in the best way of doing that is by government reform government changes letting the people become free and i think a free society would not be so predisposed to having this against the west i think that's the way we should look at this and i want to ask you what with all this talk that we are seeing that gives the indication that war at least is definitely not off the table who stands to benefit from going to war with iran well that's a good question it's an excellent question frankly no one if the iranians are attacked they may have capability right now to retaliate against the. the israelis against other targets in the middle east the saudis would be one of those the saudis sunni shia thing is still an issue so therefore there's really no benefit to going to war now the question becomes what will the iranians do how aggressive will they become and frankly we do believe that they are doing things to be aggressive

the developing e.m.p. weapons and nuclear weapons which could be used but again that the idea of them using them would not be in their benefit either because they would be devastated if they use for a nuclear weapon or any what and first they would be devastated so i think there's no doubt upside for anyone using military force at this point in time we do see israel. at least prepping right gearing up salute at war with iran right and if that happens is it inevitable that the u.s. is going to follow suit and also be at war the first part of question absolutely this they fired the jerk-o. two missile about three four weeks ago showing that they have this ability to launch missiles clearly i've talked to folks who are on the ground there they are clearly worried but the very question you ask me what will we follow with them is one they don't even know frankly i don't know if we know the why no one really has been able to ascertain what the white house would do with pushes come to shove on this issue so i think that's the one thing perhaps even this ambiguity of policy may be helping by the fact no one really knows what will happen and while we are

seeing this plush to go to war on both that not everyone is on board i want to play you a sign here from from iran per. iran does not have an air force that can come here they don't have they can't make enough gasoline for themselves and here we are you know the only in this case please please they're building up this case like just like we did to wrack buildup to war propaganda there was no al qaida you know wracked had nuclear weapons and we had to go with it and i'm sure you supported that war is well it's time we quit this it's time it's trillions. just want to get your reaction to that. he kind of called out some of the other candidates for playing into this war propaganda so i debated representative paul i think is a good guy we debated on the john stossel show on fox news all back you know i don't agree on everything but this is an area that i think he is more right than the other candidates again we've got to understand not only the fact that maybe

they do have a nuclear weapons program that they are developing but what are you trying to achieve and if you use military force what are the downsides let's remember we had a huge downside of invading iraq things that people i think all argued after the fact that the intel wasn't there to justify the military action and frankly the benefit of us going in is never been proven to anybody so i think that's ron paul's position i think he's correct in this and this area of his debate may have an elf i want to ask you to kind of take a step back it and beyond iran to take a look at the region tension is mounting not only with iran and afghanistan and pakistan especially after the u.s. accidentally. struck. twenty four twenty four pakistani it's pakistan is now taking action there telling the u.s. to get out to get their drones out of there right now in the region we are seeing this growing and the american sentiment what is behind this well it's hard for us to be both daddy warbucks and the bad guy in pakistan but that's what we are we're

the one paying the bill the same time we're being derided for what we're doing and just right here earlier today it turns out that there was a fire foreign exchange of gunfire in kashmir between the indians and pakistanis this is the issue we continue to not understand the indians or the real issue with pakistanis so we've got to figure out how to deal with that realistically and get us out from being in the middle of this whole conflict where the issue right now frankly there are things when you look at what your larger and last question you're back on iran how imminent do you think war is that what with all this that we're seeing. are we talking weeks days i don't think anything's going to happen this month i think the israelis are on a time line there of their own timeline. and i think if anything's will happen to be late january early february the soonest but the concern is obviously will they be able to make a nuclear weapon to a missile that's the big piece that we're looking for now as soon as the years really stink that may happen i think they may take action scary stuff anthony thank you so much for weighing in on this and i was anthony shaffer and director for accidental communications center for advanced defense studies and as we just

discussed the recent deadly air strikes in pakistan have had some serious repercussions putting the u.s. is ongoing mission in afghanistan in danger by cutting off much needed supply routes into the country washington may have to shift gears and go into a different direction in order to reach the country mainly through russia. can have more. supplies are would keep the war running nato actions have put all operations in afghanistan in danger. after attack that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers islamic art cut off one of the alliances major supply routes to again this time. i would like to extend my most sincere condolences. but feel pakistan washington's condolences were not enough to repeated incursions by the u.s. military in pakistan really left no choice and also the humiliation that the

pakistani military faced in front of its own soldiers and the pakistani people left no choice before the government this time but to cut off the supply line was relations between the u.s. and pakistan as unstable as ever in order to keep the warring of ghana's stand running nato relies more on its other major supply route coming from the more. here it is the northern distribution network you see all these blue lines and here is the route that pakistan shut down now the northern supply network was thought it when russia agreed to provide its territory and air space for transit of non-lethal supplies to nato troops in afghanistan it proved to be a very reliable route more reliable than pakistan now it accounts for half of nato as non-lethal supplies on trucks railroads and by air supplies travel through russian territory from europe and from russia's far east all the way to afghanistan and the reliance on this route is set to expand in the last three years russia's

cooperation on of ganesan as being key to nato operations there. i set down with professor michael lee haas who stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity the u.s. has a very tenuous kind of placement. in afghanistan and it is highly vulnerable it's highly vulnerable. to pakistanis but it's more vulnerable to russia i mean if russia were to withdraw its permission for us to use its rail lines we would be in a very difficult position in afghanistan the northern supply network could now be in danger because of a failure in diplomacy moscow says because washington turned down all of its proposals on the missile defense issue russia might have to resort to other arguments including its cooperation with nato on afghanistan. their processes which are critically important for russia which are about russia's national security one

of them is nato expansion into russian borders and the fact that washington goes ahead with a robust missile shield program in europe without taking into consideration russia's concerns gives must gather to use any leverage it has to be heard by its partner but even the mere possibility that russia could cut off the northern supply route threatens the viability of all western operations in afghanistan nato risks leaving almost one hundred forty thousand of its troops in afghanistan without vital supplies if diplomacy doesn't win the day with pakistan it's about people there being fed up with russia it's about their national security if washington does not seriously address the concerns of its partners even the best partnerships can fade i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. and now to the u.s. economy we know that one in six americans are currently living in poverty and although the recent mass occupy wall street protests have been calling for an end to wealth inequality in the u.s. those voices continue to be ignored r. t.

is honest aasia churkin a takes us to new york where the gap between the rich and poor is wider than anywhere else in america. diamonds worth millions of dollars apiece the earrings are four hundred to six hundred thousand and the necklace is two million to three million cheaper deals at pawn shops for those slightly less well off the reservation shoppers with big wallets lured in by the most glamorous items and ninety nine cents stores where customers count pennies. even this. change i'm thinking might pay me and i give them they're in the state of new york it's home to around nineteen million people it's worth three hundred eighty thousand millionaires and seventy billionaires live meanwhile three million people on food stamps new york city is split into two different worlds the richest and poorest

districts in the united states are right here. perspire ready and poverty brushing by each other on a daily basis although many seem to be blissfully unaware it's being promulgated by our new leader obama and i think it's a tragedy that he's making a michiru in an election this year economic inequality in the big apple has reached crisis levels the gap used to be between the rich and the poor it's now the tween the super rich and increasingly the super poor people who are just not making in our society the idea and they did it strike luxury for those who can afford it is a plenty new york social clubs display hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art the finest interiors and one of a kind cosmetics services its skin rejuvenation its very private. used to be in the taishan only. it is the most innovative skin care business in the

world auction houses tempt the rich with the most exquisite jewelry it's a thirty three carat diamond elizabeth taylor diamond he estimates two and a half to three and a half million. and we do expect it to achieve at least that we do expect everything to sell but to speculate on the final price is next to impossible while millions are spent here just across town money is only dreamed of the mega if you catch a number you can win two hundred thousand dollars buying a nice because that's not for the ball people we all are reaching people back towards three buy a couple of days ago. present the wing limos are packed with glam riders of the big apple i think they ought to go get jobs and there's a lot of jobs if you really want to work you can find work the seventy five year old grandmother of seven fixing her old car with her own bare hands begs to differ folks seem to think that you know somebody everybody can get

a job in new jobs if these days even b.b.b. gets that job meaning mother snipes works at a church and knows the face of poverty all too well it was done you know and some people are you know shame to. accept you when you're trying to get people out of being sad to see although very visible in new york the extreme gap between those well off and those struggling is a trend all across the u.s. thirty years ago the united states had less inequality than most other advanced industrial countries today thirty years later we are the number one we have the most extreme inequality between rich and poor and it's scattered all over the country this is what made occupy wall street protests spill out and stick around on the streets of america things are really bad we're seeing our society is broken to face those things it's to face a huge challenge and i think people are great. and it's

a big change that's needed to improve the disparity make those who've done real well over the over the last thirty years. give some of that back there. some of us argue for taxes on rich rich people in this country but this is not happening any time soon more than half of the members of congress are million earth so they're very wealthy people and when all their campaigns are funded by big corporations by the wealthy you know all that if they want to get reelected they're going to have to be good to the people who are giving money to their campaign this leaves behind those in need are those who in fifty dollars. with nothing left but to hope for a miracle this holiday season. and. and for more on all this here with me now is writer and activist jesse let greg i'm going to various i'm going to introduce you talk more to him and just a moment. but first i want to show him. and show you to take

a look at some more of these examples of this great american divide take a look at this it's an airman as a diamond crocodile skin bag with a retail value of one hundred forty thousand dollars and if that doesn't satisfy your need to spend exorbitant amounts of money and how about this a d k n y per fuel bottle with a one and a whole bunch of zeros behind it it's a fourteen karat gold case with some two thousand nine hundred diamonds around it that make up the new york skyline. meanwhile the number of americans on food stamps at an all time high just think so when when you see. when you see this that effect ha to me what does it say about the the social and economic state of the u.s. today i believe that our state of economic strength is crippled in a large sense because if there are millions upon millions of americans who go

without health care without access to affordable education without i mean literally on food stamps and losing their homes if american families are economically horrible then the america itself is on a level economically grab and we've seen over the last you know two three decades stagnation of wages at the same time the cost of living standards are going through the roof when we ask our leaders to defend us they refuse to the cater to the rich the painter to the rich and they literally just turn their back on millions of working class people so to me this is a conversation about not only america's future but the world's future because what type of world we want to be what type of country want to be are we going to be a country that allows one sixth of children to live in poverty while at the same time we have half of congress more than ever congress just dying to find new ways to talk cut taxes for the wealthiest among us to me it's a matter of values and my values say that i protect my family or protect my community i protect in favor my country and it makes me question what their values really are and we are seeing this growing income inequality gap this wealth

disparity gap can you talk a little bit about what is contributing to this this going gap this this disappearing that all class well i think it's a combination of the union busting has been going on since the days of reagan and even before that is since reagan has really stepped in overdrive and now this congress and many republican state houses are engaging the same sort of university that makes it more difficult for people like myself to get wage increases to get benefits that i can use to strengthen my family at the same time we've flattened the tax rate we've contacts is on the which left and right since bush we flatten the town. away that cost more for working class people as the wealthy and corporations pay less in taxes the burden is shift on the people like myself you know when it's your i made ten thousand dollars i worked like crazy to find a job and then when i got a job i worked like crazy to keep it and we have an economic system that despite my education despite my hard work i'm not getting anything out of it other than higher credit card rates now the guys who are c.e.o.'s of these companies their salaries

are government exorbitantly since the seventy's could anybody say that c.e.o.'s are working toward fifty times harder than they were in the seventy's they are today certainly not but americans are working longer hours for less pay with less benefits and we've seen this gap expanded so too with it's no longer sustainable and i want to bring up something this a mayor in france his name is patrick many which minucci i don't know if i'm pronouncing that correctly but he was actually quoted the other day as saying i don't want he doesn't want his town to become. big to drop to the level of crime and poverty levels in his city he doesn't want to become the next bronx he doesn't want to become the bronx kind of symbolizing that the bronx is this all time low exactly what you don't want your city to become and it seems like people around the world are recognizing this this income inequality gap that we have in the u.s. and so if these politicians are noticing it why why is it that politicians here in

the us seem to be turning a blind eye to this this gap was one of the reasons i really enjoyed coming on russia today because i feel that the american media is honest with the american public but that foreign news providers such as russia today and other stores they are allowed to see it a little bit clearer i'm a new yorker myself i've been up in the bronx me a disappearance i want to be the guy to bash the french but at the same time i think it's starkly appearing to be people around the world that the state of our economy as a nation is no longer tenable if we have millions of people moving. of the middle class and into the ranks of the poor at the same time that wealthy people or ten times world year than they were a generation ago if that it says to me that we no longer have the sense of values as a country we need to return to that seems spirit that built the middle class during the fifty's and sixty's and people certainly are angry. that's why we're seeing these occupy wall street protests across the nation i know that you've been taking

part of them since the second or third day and today is kind of a unique that way because you are taking it directly to congress and i understand that you were outside of john boehner his office today tell us what happened what kind of reaction you were getting. for they talking to you and what what what what what went down there was lucky enough to make conversation with a few members of congress some of them understand we're working class people who are coming from right now that we or suffering with jobs without pay increases at the same time that the wealthy have it better than ever so people who are honest understand that message and people who are slowly exist to to turn corporate welfare back to their benefactors that fund their campaigns the wealthiest one percent have there are the members of congress that are understanding oh there certainly are but at the same time we need to apply pressure to both parties i don't want to cuddle the democratic party or the republican party i think they should both be made aware of the fact that people are hurting at

a time where they're gridlocked where they can accomplish anything you know i haven't seen a jobs commission i've seen a deficit commission but not a jobs commission where's that coming from so john boehner is off as the doors closed people are standing in the hallway waveform people come and go but they're wabi as the rest of us don't quite get to say and i think that's indicative of the entire divide across america right now. ok great and so well what is your ultimate goal with taking this. to the congress. in the car he parked at that's on wall street occupy wall street we're now taking it directly to the government. what is what is the goal in taking it to the actual steps of congress wall street in washington d.c. are very much joined at the hip in the what i call corporatism i think the end goal for our why wall street should be changing laws and i was one of that state and i wanted to continue we should constantly party pressure on politicians but the goal is to change laws to reform wall street to insist on real campaign finance reform progressive taxation that taxes those who have the most money and gives breaks to

the people who have a politician is going tree the goal is to change laws and channel of corporate power and if that is what we're aiming for we're doing the right thing and it's not a surprise to me that they're attacking us jesse thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on all this that was writer and activist jesse in. all capital account is up next on our team let's check in with lauren lester to see what's on the agenda lauren. how's it going i heard you earlier talking about iran and analysts and articles that are asking if the u.s. is in a covert war with iran already we are going to look at that from a different perspective liz we're going to show you what that could mean for oil what saying sions would mean what any kind of combat would mean because of course it would have a huge there you have iran saying that oil could go to two hundred fifty dollars a barrel if exports were abruptly reduced or abruptly halted and we have a great analyst who's going to talk about how he sees it great well that thank you lauren of that is coming up next that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered at r.t.

dot com slash usa check out our you tube page at the you tube dot com slash artsy america you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall the capital account with lauren let's start is up next we'll see you back here five.

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