you're doing well so here you guys this week has been filled with news and headlines all around the country and the world will start off with a few of them the first one we're going to address is the iraq study group which is a study group consisting of ten different people  came out with a report of what changes need to be made in iraq it was a very interesting report they came out and said that the u s is not winning the war in iraq you know came out with a dozen different changes that need to be made to see if it is taxable and to this this difficult situation there in the middle east what you guys think of that well i think this it was it is long overdue and this is a good report and it's p r staying the obvious that iraq is not working out and so now what we need to do suggestions some of the changes that the support wants to make an act dozens of these changes have been i've been passed but there are a few changes that a simple spending a big issue like the ports and just direct talks with syria and iran stabilize the middle east the madness i believe obviously bush inch and don't want to do that but i believe that america has to establish diplomatic relations in that part of the world in order to see a good and for iraq well gates has said that he is also from the view that we are losing in iraq and it's interesting to see where he goes with this because this will be a crucial step i don't think america needs to necessarily go  sandwich diplomatic relations with them and that's a very good point let's just say that this iraq study group has been a huge success you have five democrats five republicans on the board here for the study group and you actually see for the first time in a long time democrats republicans getting along and getting the job done i know i mean that's what i'm hoping to see in the next couple years with the senate and congress but you can you actually really see here that they had an issue on the table and they dealt with it and now we can see a lot of change in this country which is well needed change i think it's a very good step in the right direction we'll just have to see where it goes and how the people really in charge like the president deal with these  george w bush one of his main one of his main things has been look i won in iraq i felt it was necessary to go in iraq so now we have to stay the course in iraq we discussed that that was not working is he now on sunday after this report came out already this is a surprising opportunity for george bush right now to improve his image he people don't want or don't like the situation in iraq you know now there's an opportunity with suggestions that could implement change so if george bush jumps on it he could end up going down as not such a bad president he could also also frame withdraw from iraq and his his stepping aside from his core strategy as being forced by democrats but he doesn't want to be doesn't want to be the president to back out of iraq yeah but what he could do what i think is necessary right now if we had a new president change today then have a lot of delphic altie in knowing where to start with the situation that what this iraq study group can do is influence the president and the president can make start making changes that will help the president that the new president two thousand and eight move steady move along steadily instead of being stuck in like a hole with iraq so he george bush could help move the process along instead of just standing still and i even though bush has enemies and he doesn't like certain people he's still  american he still wants this country to do well so i think that if he sees an opportunity to you know help help america move forward in the future even when he's not president he should jump on it but i don't think i don't believe that believe that the next with the next administration we are going to see troops coming out of iraq and coming this iraq study group demands is that most of the troops the majority of troops are out of iraq by two thousand and eight and the troops that are still left in iraq back out not are in baghdad or her they end up moving to kuwait and other surrounding countries and in case they're still there in case the people need them but they pretty much let iraq handle things on their own now be a great thing if that happened two thousand it's not that far away so they can get that to happen you know will be moving in the right direction also britain in italy and other coalition members are said to have to be withdrawing their troops by two thousand and seven britain read that it will give one year to its army in iraq and leave afterwards so britain makes up the second biggest force right second only to us and if we lose them as iraq we will have to either institute a draft to supplement or or just leave there yesterday george bush met with prime minister of the u k tony blair and actually turned out to be a very good discussion george bush  admitted that there needed to be change and that he was going to take all suggestions very seriously that's the first thing to seeing improvement is willing to listen other people's suggestions with george bush has been hesitant to do so you know maybe he's actually seeing that what he's doing isn't working and you know we'll see we'll see what happens with this yes so we're moving on to another issue we're talking we're talking a little bit of robert gates robert gates was nominated by president bush to become his next secretary of defense to fill don rumsfeld position a day after this iraq study group came out with their report rumsfeld was confirmed by the by the senate  you know confirm but do you think that even he's been in office now for a month about doing some business with president bush do you think he's already with you that we've already seen an impact and you think that's been and is a good move for the  is in the study group you know one of the let's remember just because he has looked at them with the issue with other members of the government you know that's that's a very he's not he doesn't seem i haven't met him and i don't really i haven't read too much about his personality but it seems that he's really willing to listen to others he's been in these groups he was a former cia chief he seems have a lot of experience listening to people and doesn't seem like a very struck a personality he's making an impact he hasn't done anything yet because again he has been not even to be estimated impact i think that people are beginning to feel comfortable with him because he's been admitting that change needs to be made which rumsfeld and president bush have not done so the country might  deep breath on this and i was washing his his questioning with the senate and he seems to be a lot more frank because i gave very quickly answers trying to hide everything from the senators and gates was not at all he was the opposite he said in  those exact words we were when he was asked if we were winning in iraq he said no sir we're not and i think that just outlines his position yeah i mean robert gates will be sworn in as the newest secretary of defense on december eighteenth so  that is a pretty big day for him yes we'll have to see what happens in regards with robert gates as the secretary of defense and offense and what happens with this iraq study group and what changes are implement let's move on to a more international issue talking about the european union there's been discussion in the european regarding the e u there taking a look at a proposal that was sent by turkey to admit turkey into the e u turkey is a majority muslim nation it would be the first muslim nation that would be in the european union says it's a good move for the is about it's i think it's a feel that it's checky shows a wellness of the middle east a change and it can be a vehicle for the shoe foster change in the middle east also since since turkey nationalist muslims in check in turkey itself by putting more pressure on them and helping the secular government as we know like i mentioned turkey is a muslim a muslim nation and if they were admitted into the european union they would be the second largest country in the e u to germany would you guys think that the countries in the european union right now are ready for this change since they have such a drastic view on the world between turkey and other european countries well out of all middle eastern nations i think turkey is closest to the you in world view what might happen are economic problems with turkish turkish workers being paid less than german workers for example and some of the labor conversation whether turkey will get into the e u is very new so we're going to have to see what happens over the next month or so whether they will be admitted into the we really can't predict what's going to happen now but also let's bring up another point that has a eventual effect the world is that john bolton the u n in basad or the u s ambassador to the u n has officially resigned this week and he's going to be stepping down from the job guys what do you think of this move and how will this affect the united states in the united states in regards to the u n diplomatically but i'm not sure about how who can replace john bolton a position of power because she was a everybody is a bunch of yesman sometimes this will be very important and i want to see who replaces him because that will be very important for the future of the united states the medical issues i think as an organization   part to the world but people don't take it very seriously and they don't really get a lot of things done there are reasons for yeah i know but so i would like to see some change in the unit the un is a very important organization because it lets all different happens with the u n and how will this change by the u s affects the u n i mean all these issues we're talking about today we don't really know what the answer is to see down the road what's going to happen let's move on to our major topic of the day which is we're going to be discussing the genocide in darfur it's been a very serious issue that relates to the u n and what the u n has done to improve this conflict what's going on right now is over the past three  two have been fighting the jonjo we who is the supported who is supported is the muslim muslim for supported by the arab government so it's been a really horrible tragedy over there over a million people starving and displaced and clinging on to twenty five million while it's an unbelievable number we have and we have overflow on a three year span four hundred thousand plus guys first question on the table today is has the u n done enough to restore and keep peace in the region well it's its and sent token forces i don't think that's the i don't think it's done enough it's sent it's talking forces that and has had plans to send more forces that were rejected by the sudanese government the u n is do then is is sort of the police officer force and talk to him to talk to the president sudan and they need to they need to have him prove that they need help and the need to have him show what he's doing to crisis what it is is that the u n and the president know that there's a crisis on the table what the city's president basically is saying is that i've got it under control it i think is time is up three shortly so we might get a new u n leader coming in there now but more the morality mehrauli issue is a big one around the united states we've had students and citizens sending money and doing all sorts of things to try to help all the people struggling in sudan right now online with us right now we have ben davis a junior at trumbull high school who is the vice president of the save darfur club and his high school and he's going to let us know why he's doing this and you know i think it's shows that kids and adults are all around the country think it's a very important issue to be discussed ben are you with and what is what exactly does your club due to help this issue what as a club can you do to get this issue out there or and mice the same time this question is what w think should be done about this issue well at the club that we've probably been going on for about a month and a half so far the main purpose is really to raise awareness because we believe that it's an issue that really appreciated enough by a lot of people do that what we've done is own article for the school newspaper that went out in the last issue so that was the one thing i did thing was we rented out the way that i live or in the school awareness also we have a few weeks back we took a weekend and we're selling wristbands that are very similar to the live strong cancer risk band except they're green and they say  dollar for and we took them to a lot of the popular spots around town like starbucks and the grocery store and we just sold them out guys there and in one weekend from that also other members of the cross on them individually we've raised over seven hundred dollars  that's why we're actually having this show today we really want to raise awareness and are you guys planning have you guys planned any events to raise awareness or do you are you just continuing to focus on the school community  you envision this solution to this problem being in in the future what do you think that the u s or other countries should do you about this crisis  know it's really it's really pretty hard to be any kind of solution because the government just like cooperating with anything oh i really can't see what type of a currently speaking really appreciate you taking your time and explaining to us about your club it's a very great idea and you're really doing a service to the people all round in your school and all around your community so thanks one for being with us and continued good work thanks for having me on thanks a lot done well that was a very great story to hear out of trumbull connecticut from ben davis who like you just heard started up this what do you guys think is from your opinion what is the solution to this conflict it's certainly going to go away by throwing money at it although he does present a good idea with the fund raising but as the fund raising him for something it either has to be has to be transferred to the a  u the african union force which is now a complete token force in africa they don't have training they lack equipment they lack anything except for beautiful wrist bands which they were say you on them that's all  but it's we do the un does need to support solve this issue from the inside and that is a that's the best way to solve this issue and to channel funds to the a you and have it me to like put a grasp on what you guys think the media should be doing about this issue i mean that's why we're bringing up is we don't see it on the media at all i mean it's very hard to find information on it in the united states so what you guys think the right thing for them to do is well after katrina all these fun fund raising dries for the back cross the salvation army the same thing needs to be done with darfur and again that's the best way to go around with a camera there is actually gunfire in the background and filming these crimes because these are crimes against people real crimes against humanity and instead of instead of that which is really relevant  watch britney spears drive with her baby in the front seat very good point i think the media should take a look at what they're actually showing what's really important to show but guys like we heard from ben what he is doing to help out his community what do you think what if you could do one thing right now after learning from ben and other people what would you guys do to help the situation well if i could if i could do anything you're asking you know i think it all right i would go to the u n national simply and yelling at the top of my lungs to stop stop being biased because look at how much press the lebanon war got right with israel lebanon were involved in that got huge i mean they is just because they're powerful nations they got a charter like that and they got a resolution now things are going steady over there but this is we just want to today get people's awareness of that this is a terrible tragedy four hundred thousand people have currently been killed and it's just continue to be on the rise every single day so guys final thoughts on today's show knowledge the more people it's hard to deal with this issue because no one really knows what's going on over there and don't know what's going on it's hard to come up with solutions and to form a public opinion of this so information and media need to step up and talk about this issue people need to realize that paying attention goes a lot farther than looking at the blackboard doing calculus it goes it goes farther it goes around the world and realizing some problems are a little less important than others and doing with the important one i really think that hopefully the show and continuing media coverage continuing efforts by people around this country will really begin to show people that this is a really serious issue and we want to stop this tragedy fast it can happen so just remember everyone that just a dollar takes to buy one of those wristbands and i will now help a little kid over there who has whose parents have aids that will help him so much in the future so do all you can to support the cause over there will be continuing to update you on the story and currently speaking to you guys want to remember that all opinions you've heard on our show from ben davis or any of us don't reflect the  media center or the comcast cable network these are our own opinions and our thoughts and beliefs so please remember that they don't affect anyone else so you guys have to say one thing to remember what's important your family your friends and not who won the bruins game last night you've got to focus on what's important and remember how lucky you are to be living in a country where you don't have violence all the time so remember stay tuned for currently speaking next week and thanks for listening to this very important discussion about a horrible tragedy that's going on over in sudan right now that's currently speaking we'll see you next time