long my name is carla hanson the story i share here is the result of discovering my own voice during an incredible journey of seven weeks in iran during the spring of two thousand  i invite you to join with me as i dedicate this for huge to the innocent victims around the globe who screams for help bounce back to them in silence while world powers fight endless wars in their impoverished and beat leaker to countries before going to iran i worked with fellow peace activist and my iranian born husband to create a banner with messages well the banner did go to iran and this simple gesture of friendship was very well received wherever we w i could have ended this story on that note but my life is maybe like yours on the way to somewhere something unexpected happens to change our focus i knew this i happened as i entered the remote village of karcher ga and became the first american to visit there carter god is a kurdish tribal village located just five miles from the border of turkmenistan and less than two hundred miles from afghanistan in this mountainous remote region of iran life is simple and often a struggle just as it is in neighboring afghanistan and like their neighbors in afghanistan a wedding or an engagement is a rare celebrate tory pause in the daily struggle in car to god i was a guest at an engagement ceremony of two promising young villagers watching their story unfold before me i marveled at the common threads of ritual and celebration that weave together our human experience no matter where we live in america these happily ever after moments are taken for granted and that in the last waiting to you attended several pride's maids lined up behind the bride in shades of lavender royal blue or turquoise and the groomsmen fidgeting in their rented patent leather shoes perhaps you were the father of the pride walking your radiant daughter down the aisle and wondering all along how did she curl up so fast on the other side of the globe simple celebrations in tribal villages are often shattered by uninvited guests united states unmanned military planes dropping bombs these robot planes operating without pilots inside are called drones circling high overhead and see and heard before launching attacks that show death and destruction into the lives of innocent civilians on the ground civilian deaths in the war in afghanistan is growing more u s led air raids that have killed more innocent civilians increased number of civilian casualties  civilians were killed three thousand civilians were killed in this conflict last  regularly americans benefit from the constructive distribution of u s tax dollars for example we drive over the paved roads supplied by a portion of the one cent each tax dollar that is delegated to and we drop off our children at the corner elementary school supported by three cents out of every tax dollar that is spent on education the tax dollars funding us militarism around the world create a totally different reality for millions of families the lion's share of our tax dollars well over one third of the entire federal budget goes to fund the devastation and suffering you are about to i invite you to watch closely and listen intently as the volume is turned up on the silent screams of the victims of current u s military aggression in afghanistan pakistan and iraq and then ask yourself could i be silent if these were my children good three days after i return from iran this sixty minutes news story of the unmanned aerial vehicles commonly called drones was beamed into homes across america every so often in the history of war a new weapon comes along that fundamentally rewrites the rules of battle most people know them as drones the air force calls them unmanned aerial vehicles they become one of the most important planes in the united states a home to the only wing in the air force when none of the pilots emma leave the ground what most of america did not see was the story one month earlier as a small group of dedicated peace activist help vigil outside the gates to creech air force base there in the place where the drones hunter killer missions are directed the peacemakers stood in solidarity with the afghani victims of drone attacks who are seven thousand five hundred miles away and who like the villagers in nearby iran are real people and not just to sticks crossing over into the base fourteen of the peace activists were arrested for their act of civil resistance to the killing of innocents in warfare run by remote control times for the nobel peace prize was among those arrested at creech that's a tough question if we have the resources to make sure we're right in battle in combat the fog and friction of war and there are always going to be times that your judgment isn't them more precise than piloted planes in april two thousand and nine a report on the sixty predator drone attacks launched on the border between afghanistan and pakistan from january two thousand and six to april two thousand and nine revealed only ten drones hit their intended target fourteen al qaida leaders were killed while six hundred eighty seven pakistani civilians perished the precision of the robot drones touted by the air force works out to be two percent while ninety eight percent of the deaths were civilians in pakistan protesters taunt the drones as revealing the fears of americans to take casualties there this translated first is shouted to the world's most powerful country for sending robots to do a man's job america's heartless terrorism killing people like in se but honor does not fear power the drones also fuel humanitarian crises including three point seven million afghan refugees who have fled attacks over the past twenty years into neighboring countries with one point five living in iran and over two million in pakistan did you expect from those children who lost their feet or there are more their mother or their father doing that kind of bombing what would you expect from them do you expect them to join the peace process expect say i have excused you a courageous young woman came to my hometown of to morning iowa during a two thousand and nine us speaking tour for security purposes she speaks only as s representing the underground organization of the revolutionary association of the women of afghanistan the rawest message to american people is that as media is speaking an occupation of afghanistan under the banners of bringing democracy women's rights and a war on terror completely failed and people in specially women and young children are facing many many new problems regarding insecurity in the country the question of what is security and what security needs to exist before we can do other things that i think is one of the most profound questions of our time and i think wars national governments have chosen to define security by wars and by weapons and by a process of trying to sort of escalate an arms race which has never made any of us more  the one of the most important issues for the states would be reduce the defense budget and put them into the development part i really wanted that the afghanistan  and paste expansion of us militarism is a formula that relies on powerful interests working to maintain the mirage of extra nl threats to persuade america that war and militarism is justified in order to lay claim to the majority of our national resources and tax dollars with the help of mainstream media the mirage takes on a life of its own beginning with the demonization of another country convincing americans they are under attack or the threat of attack and then denouncing the peacemakers as lacking in patriotism and exposing the country to danger i believe real terror is felt by parents in america who lay awake at night worrying about how to provide basic needs including health care for their children at least five million children in the united states do not have health coverage these children's cries echo those in the war torn region on the other side of the globe as the dollars for real health care reform are increasingly spent on war and militarism nearly one in six americans do not have health insurance and tens of millions of others are significantly under insured the cost for major health care reform is projected to average one hundred billion dollars a year for the next ten years the cost to continue the wars in iraq and afghanistan are estimated to reach one hundred billion dollars per year the choice becomes clear our well being or continued destruction perhaps if we can begin to envision the real threat to our security as the diminishment of our quality of life here at home then perhaps there is hope to turn back the tide of escalation that is currently threatening to spill over into neighboring iran as the next target of u s military aggression presently it is increasingly apparent that the united states israel and their allies are ramping up the demonization of iran for what could predictably be used as justification for yet another devastating military strike in that region of the world the cut and paste formula setting the stage for attacking or escalating economic sanctions against iran following nine eleven america fell prey to the hysteria that laid the stage for the bush administration's illegal invasion of iraq after false claims of weapons of mass destruction in an overwhelming frenzy of distorted news coverage mainstream media fed america's increasing trend toward something i have learned to call to routine the feeling of helplessness that comes when we terrorize ourselves with our own thinking looking for enemies around every former u n weapons inspector scott ritter warned against this kind of reaction as he stood as one of the lone voices of truth disputing the claims of weapons of mass destruction and  hasty military occupation of iraq currently his principal voice of reason brings perspective to the debate on u s iranian relations well my next guest was a former  n weapons inspector in iraq in the one nine hundred ninety s scott ritter's the author of iraq confidential and target iran his forceful coming book is called dangerous ground america's failed arms control policy from f d r to  iran is a signatory to the non nuclear nonproliferation treaty it has a complete inspection regime can be conducted by the international atomic energy agency it's not been found to be in  noncompliance and yet here we are condemning iran for doing its job declaring a facility inviting inspectors in and the conclusion that reach from this that they're producing nuclear weapons this is politically motivated hype iran is not an aggressor iran has not attacked anybody iran is simply trying to do that which is legally allowed to do produce enrich uranium for the purposes of nuclear power it's israel which by the way is not a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty claims it will never be a signatory and has a massive nuclear stuff weapons capability it's israel and the united states which are creating a crisis out of nothing but i don't think we've really gotten to a point where  can make these humans in any less our brothers and so i conclude my story back where it began marveling at the common threads that weave us together and  believe that people on the other side of the globe are any different than each of us cherishing their children wishing only for peace prosperity and the opportunity to experience the