Transcripts For CSPAN2 Jim Mattis Call Sign Chaos 20240713

Good evening everyone. I am so excited to see such a full house before i start i want to give a few housekeeping item items. We are more than happy to have you take photos but please turn the flash off and put your cell phones on silent. If you want to post anything on social media please tag politics prose and gw events. I am the partner manager at politics and prose and want to thank all of you for coming out on a vent we are out with George Washington University Joint venture also to bring jim mattis in conversation tonight. First a few other Exciting Events coming up in partnership with gw september 11 we have an event with Malcolm Gladwell it is a live recording of a podcast on npr on september 12 and james comey on september 16 septembe september 24 we will discuss the year of the marquis. We hope to see you at some of them this month. Secretary jim mattis a Pacific Northwest nave it is serving for decades at the marine infantry officer following two years of secretary of defense he returned to the northwest and is now distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution at stanford. Callsign chaos is the account of his career through wide ranging leadership roles in three worst ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the middle east. Along the way he recounts the foundational experiences as a leader exacting the lessons he has learned about the nature of war fighting and peacemaking and allies and the strategic dilemmas now facing our nation. He makes it clear why america must return to a strategic footing not just to continue to win battles but fight wars. Mattis divides his book into three parts of direct leadership executive leadership and strategic leadership in the first part he recalls his Early Experiences leading marines into battle when he knew his troops as brothers in the second part he knows what it means to commit thousands of troops to ensure the intent is understood by the most junior troops so they can form their own mission. In the third part he describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level where millet terry leaders reconcile wars with the grim reality of the human aspirations the complexity rains and the consequences are severe or catastrophic. Callsign chaos is a memoir of a life of war fighting and Lifelong Learning as he rises from recruit to fourstar general a journey about learning to lead and a story how he threw constant study and action developed a unique leadership philosophy making him into the man he is today. General mattis will be in conversation tonight with david brooks political and cultural commentator and currently a commentator on cbs news hour and all Things Considered and meet the press the author of on paradise drive. March 2011 he came out with his third book social animal. Which was number one New York Times bestseller and the latest will not stop flying off the shelves published in april. Please help me to welcome to the to the stage. [applause]. The first time i have ever seen an author work the crowd before the event. [laughter] that the campaign has begun. [laughter] there are many surprises i loved reading your book. And there are many bet the first was that you are hitchhiking around the west at age 13. Give us the basic facts about your family but give us the emotional tone. What kind of house did you grow up in quebecs military quick. No. I was not brought up in a military family at all. We liked being outdoors we would go camping on weekends. My mother and father traveled the world as young people my father was a merchant marine for 15 years my mother was in the army g2 cryptoclerk in south africa working there at the consulate so the world was a place to be explored they didnt know i was hitchhiking. But it was a more trusting time you could be picked up by the crosscountry truck driver in the afternoon not knowing where you would stop that night or those coming off duty they would drive you to the next town it was a great education. You are not the most devoted student in high school or college but you are one of the hardest working people i have ever met but when did that kick in quick. I never thought of what i have done was work but just enjoyment of being around the people but i wanted to be outdoors and explore the world. But i dont think i was much of a student because it seemed to structure to me and everybody has a different way of learning. When you join the marines everybody has to read certain books. There is a reading list when you make corporal there is a new reading list and with sergeant guess what heres another progressive a matter of fact when generals make general there is a new reading list to go back to work. They werent interested in your midlife crisis when you dont have time to do the reading. They were adamant so little by little i didnt like a lot of the jobs in the marines but i loved being around the young infantrymen who would do the dirtiest jobs in the most dangerous i learned to hate minefields at age 21 but i loved being around Young Marines who would crawl there to bite their lip still in their teens probing for something they did not want to find because if they misted their buddy would get killed. The only way i stuck around that lowpaying outfit is i like those young see others in marines who made up the units. This book is almost a love letter to the marine corps when you are in with the troops especially infantry you can feel your happiness. Hanging around 7111 day and then it turns into something different. First of all we are all volunteers so i came in at a time i probably would not have joined. I cant say that for sure but i probably would not have if not for the draft. You had to go. That was all there was to it. You could duck out but you dont want to look like youre not a man. s white will some went off to canada so we thought we would never be allowed to come home for parents anniversary or our brothers wedding. So you signed up to go do your duty and while there thats where i found the marines value valued. I ran an Obstacle Course once and another platoon ran through the fastest i realized i was going to be this guy easily because physical things came easy didnt give it everything i needed and i still beat him and then you climb the rope and touch the top. The Gunnery Sergeant laid into me you were giving it 100 percent. I am fed up with you he accused me of being a communist sent to destroy the marine corps. [laughter] let me make it clear young man. When you give 100 percent i will be 100 percent satisfied 90 percent 100 percent dissatisfied when somebody that big is inyourface you get the idea so you start learning about the word commitment and apply it whether your family or community or wherever you go that stays with you. Its a formative experience. Theres one passage in here where commitment to excellence is uncompromised and personal things are irrelevant. When i read that sentence i thought the last 60 years of American Culture just crumbled because personal sensitivity isnt making you feel bad is a high priority. Thats a good point. On the battlefield there is no secondplace much last night. You have got to win so you are brought up with a very grim set of skills by people who have been there and done it and are not really interested on why it cannot happen simply you have to carry through but pretty soon what carries you along you know everybody beside you will also be there when trouble looms they will come even at the risk of their life. It is humbling but is energizing your now part of something bigger than yourself and that is what expands you. It does not shrink you it expands you to have that. Earlier in your career you are running recruitment in your own area it sounds like you are working 80 hour weeks and an officer didnt want to do that and you bus to him and ended his career. What about Work Life Balance quick. There isnt but everybody does everything they can so you dont dump more of the work on someone else. And in this case i made it clear to the young man you can be a marine or a quitter but you cant be both i will not care more about your career then you do so tell me what you want to be. If you want to be a marine i will coach you and be with you all the way through he decided to test it but remember especially with the number of students who are here tonight you always want to help people but i wont waste my time and thats what i did 95 percent of my time in the marines i was a coach but i will not waste my time coaching someone who is not humble it is worthless just give it up. If they are not humble enough to recognize they need coaching if im not sure youre not then really you cant help them and any organization to become a leader you dont get to be a leader because you have a rank on your caller or a title on your Business Card your juniors determine if you are a leader and on the battlefield they will follow the 19 yearold if the 28 yearold doesnt know what they are doing. Just remember even jesus of nazareth had one out of 12 turned to crap on him. [laughter] i missed that part of the gospel. [laughter] did you have somebody who really coached you quick. I had to think about who are my mentors because now on the tour you look back the whole point of what worked for me not to follow blindly but to say does this make sense. When you are in the infantry you rise and fall on your nco with your sailors and marines hear the last officer in the chain of command to represent all the orders that have come down from those who are in our line of work to go into the killing zone. My first platoon sergeant was from the british indies and the caribbean. His name was Corporal Wayne Johnson he was only 21 years old and i was 21 at the same time. Of course with a name like Wayne Johnson everybody called him john wayne he was overseas for a long time he told me what not to do leave that alone let other people starting to handle it then i started to learn delegating and decisionmaking and responsibility. My second sergeant was also a corporal in the 1973 timeframe he was an immigrant from mexico in the same way, stern but yet who can get down to show a marine who was having trouble how to do something right i use to admire the way in a few sharp words could give someone to tension and turn them in the right direction, mostly spiritually and the physical and mental followed. Then a Staff Sergeant 15 years in the marine corps so i was also learning about the immigrant role in the us military and how they were overrepresented and it was broadening experience because somehow from my hometown 99 percent of the people were native born the military by its very nature will expand you in a way no other organization will in terms of diversity. Mentors come in all shapes and sizes and from all parts of the world. One thing that comes through the book is your affection for the marines i assume leading any size unit you have to be unpopular so you Close Friends with those around you or was there some distance between you and your command quick. I was taught that officers should come as close to the line that separates them and their troops as they can to be themselves without giving up 1 ounce of authority because there will come a time when the chips are down and you will have to point to someone and the enemy and tell them to go. And at that point everything in that young mans body will say dont get up. And you will need that authority. But you used a very critical word because it took me the word trust and respect if you dont have that as a leader that probably wont accomplish much. I knew the troops respected their leaders between 40 and 60 percent of those who tried to become officers but why were some units so good some 40 man platoons as good as 150 man infantry . It took me a long time to figure out the other word was affection in four months around it to start had 29 sailors and marines and informants all of them were killed or injured or wounded around me when you get around 50 percent in the sunni triangle is very tough fighting day in and day out. But what held them together wasnt affection for each other they would keep fighting the matter what happened affection is different the popularity. That brings favoritism thats why you see the military so anti anything to bring other impulses to inside combat assault units. Because to send them forward reading very old textbooks about one favoritism rotted a unit right out from underneath. So affection does not rest it is not about being popular making people get up and move when they dont want to telling them the first thing we have to do with a clean uniform is to jump in the mud puddle you want them to be reluctant to hit the deck youre not doing things that make you popular but that youve been honest with your troops and if they trust you they will stick with you for example deep inside city be watched boys taken half way through and the enemy is on the run and were told to pull out and then the Television Camera is put into someones face the reporter says this is terrible you must feel terrible you lost your buddies it is terrible now youre told to feel that he was a slow talking kid he just looked at the camera and said doesnt matter will hunt them down somewhere else and kill them. It shows the spirit of these young folks who sign up this blank check payable to all of you in this room to protect this experiment we call america but i would also tell you that if we had not been honest with that young man all along and kept him informed and if he didnt trust us he couldve said yet is terrible. And when morale goes down in a combat unit you know you will lose more people so affection builds on the trust and respect but not popularity. There was a grand study from 1940 that followed those from world war ii those colonels and majors and privates and to know what correlates with success it wasnt iq or socioeconomic status or courage but relationship with mother and they knew how to give it to their men with a deep emotional reservoir. You mentioned falluja this was the first battle which was an unpleasant moment you were given orders to take a town you didnt like being told to take it or stop what you started. How do you yourself march your men and women there are in operation you think is a mistake quick. To give some background, we were in a place the enemy was rising up what would be known as the sunni uprising against us. Had plenty of help and we were outnumbered and we were under troop caps so we cannot bring in additional troops even though they were waiting in southern california. Shortly after we took over the district from the Second Airborne Division foreign contractors in the battlefield used to be upset they wandered into a town called falluja and got killed and burned and bodies hung up and people were very angry. It was a tribal town so we knew we could get a hold of the tribal elements who basically to the people who had done and get the bodies back and find the people who had done it to hunt them down and kill them but going into their homes at night that sort of thing i didnt want to charge into a city of 350,000 people so after a couple of days of arguing about this i finally received the order to move in and stay and fight. My boss and the boss above him agreed with me that was a good fight they are called orders you dont have to like it use have to do it. Then what you have to do is say i will do this as well as if i thought of it you have to embrace it because going into that half way people will suffer. Only had two assault battalions innocent people as many evacuated as we could and then we went in swinging and i would tell you that the one qualification is im going but dont stop me. Deep inside the city they were had very effective Information Warfare with the artillery rounds crashing into falluja we never fired one i would have if we needed it but the helicopter gunships were giving us what we needed. But it was played as if we were doing that on abc and other networks i think they call them trailers so we were stopped deep inside the city and then we got order to pull back and thats when the young machine gunner was asked you just have to do the best you can because im on sometimes life doesnt go the way you want to go so you give 100 percent. How do you command a battle like that busting through walls and houses . How do you command quick. First of all layout very clearly what you want. The commanders intent is what it is called my aim is to destroy the terrorist stronghold inside falluja at the least cost to the innocent as possible and i want to move quickly with a two assault battalions and will bring them in as soon as possible but you must move fast enough they cannot resupply. We knew they had not gotten ready for the battle. Then you talk to the assault units and literally walk the line and pull them together in small groups and say ask questions that they ask and you go back and forth. If you could draw out of them what was concerning them inside then you would have the unit ready to go. That is the leaders job. If you train your people and they were very very well trained as assault units than you take your hands off the steering wheel. You give the initiative if you trust your young officers than they keep that social energy they call for the support and they do their job they will blow holes in the sides of buildings and go blow off the front gate. They know what they are doing. They know what they are doing. Either in the battlefield or somewhere else . Absolutely, you can feel it. You are trained to overcome it. Your body and mind will help you get through t through that and e things down. But the most important theres nothing strange about fear. Its going to be there. Its part opart ofevery fight. You are well enough trained but what drives you forward because you are probably going to be very, very tired i cannot even explain how tired you get in combat. Some of you here know what i am referring to. The fear is going to be coupled with a fatigue. Theres going to be also times of doom or acceleration going fourth moment by momenforth mome adrenaline is an thing and pretty soon you are pretty tired out and anyone can get tired enough that it just doesnt work that what keeps you going really is the affection, the love for one another that i dont care what happens, im not going to please him uncovered until you are back up on your knees firing for your body and the muscle memory kicks in. Memories are good at socializing people at the level of commitment when they come in so you go into a fight with a lot of confidence. Stinnett after that you were wed back to the states. You went to Fort Leavenworth and wrote a book. What was it like and this was the revolutionary document of the holy claim doctrine. What was it like writing a book that the marines were at home fighting is the part of the rotation in what was the process because it did revolutionize the doctrine. It took advantage of the Lessons Learned that this is the normal behavior of a learning organization. The organization is learning you bring some of your people back. Dave and i were old friends in thanddisrupted decorous kernels, brigadier generals and now has two stars were then asked as three stars, he was Fort Leavenworth and i was quantico. We had to write something and said okay lets map out the chapters on our staff did a di e said okay the army is going to take the chapters, and we would meet just like the senate, house of representatives. [laughter] that worked so well. We could give them a lesson. We turned out the book, very, very quickly. The most important thing that did it for me was the thing called design. I go back to einstein told when confronting a problem how to save the republic he composed his thinking and allegedly said he would give them one hour to save the world, said they would spend 55 minutes defining the problem comes if the world in five minutes, so the marines we got to take them to define the problem chapter, the campaign designed chapter, but for all of you as go into these kinds of issues, whether it be in corporations where School Districts in your local community, wherever you are at, take your time to define the problem to what i call a level of satisfaction. Dont go charging into a war and thethen pull the statue down one capital and say now what do we do. That isnt a good idea. That isnt a good idea. So, we put the book out, we think we learned a lot while we were there, david and i. , and if and when we put it off, we change the training, doctrine, the uniforms, mostly the cultural aspects of the service is going in and once we got enough people on the ground, we turned it around. M my favorite mentioned in the book immediately one of the first things you do is read other books o about the invasion and there is a favorite passage of the book is when you say that if you have them read these books you are functionally illiterate, which is good for politics and prose, but [laughter] you really did, i mean youve found time to read at every spot every day of your career. Will again com well again, the marine corps is expected. The marine corps doesnt mind its mistakes. The mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. They dont look out for your ego or anything when they go after you. He also promoted me every time i made a mistake. They promoted me every time i think the marine corps made it clear that they were not looking for they expected me to study but they didnt expect me not to make mistakes. And for all of you because you are all going to be leaders of something if you want to become that is your choice. Thats the opportunity that you will have and there are leaders in all ranks in society and on the job and families. Make sure you know the difference between a mistake and a lack of discipline. Now, in the Naval Service in memory coming t, and weve see n the ships on the rocks you are going to get hammered. You are going down and fewer senior you are probably going to go out. If your you are young you willa second chance. Maybe. But a mistake, human beings make mistakes. Ive made a lot of mistakes. Let me tell you, let me say a great mistake that ive made in the middle of the open desert, i commanded 1250 sailors, marines and arabs in my battalion and we were going through mine fields and in the middle of an open desert i get my battalion surrounded. Thats almost impossible. [laughter] i mean, i was at the top of my game but it was the wrong day. [laughter] and as i went into this and you know when they are setting up more for shooting this way and for shooting that way and later on i have seen they got me out of that is, too and walked around and said you were just checking us, wanted to see if i still have it. I got called over to the headquarters because they told us we have to break through the city tonight. They are starting to murder in the street and the iraqi army is retreating in front of us and they were committing atrocities, so they said youve got to get there and stop them. It was getting late. It was going to be difficult. They called us together, before Lieutenant Colonel swick lead nd the attack into kuwait city and when we got done and we were all moving back to the vehicle back to the units and say heres the borders, to go, and he called over and says jim, did you learn something today and i said yes, sir. Okay. He didnt say any more and didnt have to rub it in. He just wanted to make sure he knew i knew he thought he wanted to make it a bit field that didnt make a big deal of it. He thought thats enough and he knows im going into another attack and i dont need some song and dance about the tactics. I learned the lesson. So i think also, if you can help people get through mistakes and use them as learning opportunities, it doesnt in any way except lack of discipline or moral turpitude or Something Like that. But for crying out loud, lets not have a no mistakes world. Were old. I went to jail twice before i went into the marines and i would just tell you the marines forgave that, too. [laughter] when you make a mistake or when you make a decision that isnt a mistake and there are losses, do your torture yourself about it or do you say its a lesson and move on . Well, you do not forget when they lose their lives or what you did. You just have to live with it. Let me ask two final questions, first about obama and you have some places in the book you really didnt think that they were right civilian leadership just describe that relationship and your overview thoughts of him. I found him curious. Ive been in meetings with him but heres the thing. You heard when we were introduced that at times military leaders had to bring rewards he referred to the grim realities into discussion with politicians who are trying to go for peace and prosperity and health care, all the things we care about. Again, we defend the country. So it can have those things. Somehow we have to bring that thinking into the decisions made in the war which is completely alien to what we are trying to do in this beautiful democracy and bring the harmony of the team together, at least i hope we are. And so, with president obama i thought if we pulled all the troops out, the cia came down to brief the before i went up to the russians in the white house. And they said they would brief and say heres what the enemy will do in office. Office. One time im sitting there in all my admirals and generals are in the back of the room and the cia briefers were briefing me and sometimes wouldnt say anything for a long minute or something were to limit after a briefing so im sitting there and my guys are all smiling knowing somebodys going to break the silence here pretty soon. The young lady leaving debris from the cia said let me put it this way, general, you pull our troops out at the end of the year and by the summer of 2014, and this was in 2011, by the summer of 2014, and al qaeda growth stronger than ever and more resource than ever and more vicious than ever will come out. Im not sure which one. I think i know who it is. Im going to tell you they will. One of these groups will come and you will have to put troops back in. Our Intelligence Community with regards to anything youve read a newspaper, in terms of other peoples assessments, one of the best in the world, if not the best. Maybe not in each region. Its not the top, but overall its at the top. So i would carry that message in and about and on the issues of iran the president decided i would go and ladies and gentlemen, the words are users of the pleasure of the president. Its written right into the condition you get and he had the right to do it. The work has to mean something when he keeps you there or when you leave. I left in 2013 and 14 months later we had to go back in with troops with millions of people turned into refugees by the very people the cia briefer had briefed on. 50,000 dead and wounded in the first months of what was going on, cities falling, grows as young as eight, 7yearsold being raped and taken into slavery. Thats the catastrophic result of a strategic decision, so i gave what i thought was the strongest admonition of why we must not do this. But if you believe in the constitution and if youre going to uphold the constitution, then you keep pushing it and carry out the orders of the civilians. Unless you think that they are immoral, and iphoto was strategically unsound but underneath he did pull those troops out because that was just right as the elected commanderinchief and you do not suddenly think that you start telling the civilians when we are going to war and when we are not going to war. You just have to deal with it. Before we get to the questions, and on this book tour, roughly 500 journalists have asked you to dish on President Trump and so far the batting average is zero for 500th. Yet i am going to try. [laughter] i heard the opening arguments why you dont want to assess the current president. He said military people shouldnt discuss the sitting president for the military relationships, but you had no military experience with President Trump u you were a political appointee. Im not aware political appointees in the cabinet secretaries, but theres been much hesitancy about not talking about it, about a sitting president. [laughter] isnt that the right. We are all formed by our formative experiences. Where i come from first of all im from out west and you write for the brand and the grand in the u. Sandthe u. S. Constitutione constitution says you know, if a man is elected or woman is elected commanderinchief, go to the commanderinchief and secondly, its republican or democrat president calls you and says i want you to do something, you dont set up on the wall of the castle bringing your hand saying should i do it or not, just go to work. If you think that you are ready to do the job, roll up your sleeves, go in and give it your best shot. Now, when do you leave an administration over a policy difference and you write the policy difference in a public letter and cutely about, then you said why you left. That soldier is to it. And it was over alliances and food is our adversary. And i was upfront about it and i had a straightforward talk gni elboelement in the oval office. We had a straightforward talk walking out of the office. It wasnt an adversarial relationship. Those people that think i was doing things behind his back. I was very open i was doing. We would have lunch most weeks because we were in town, both just the two of us, and we were always up front with each other. But when you leave office, weve got a million troops right now, and many of them are deployed at sea. They are fighting in syria tonight and in afghanistan. They dont need a former cabinet official coming out and distracting from what the secretary of state, secretary of defense or the president are saying to do right now. I just dont believe that is helpful. The French College by the way a duty acquired for a while. Im not against coming out and talking about strategy or policy disagreements, and i did it with the last several president s. You know, i made clear what i think about what we did with iraq under president bush, but i dont believe that people with a military background should come out and make political assessments of civilian leaders come and let me be very clear, George Washington at newburgh said you will not do what you are trying to do here and these were his officers called the newburgh mutiny for a reason. He looked at them right in the eye and said he will not do it. General bradley after world war ii, the great general said when a general retires in uniform, he should retire his tongue when it comes to political matters. When i was introduced here tonight, when i walked out there and talked to some of you in the line, many people called me general. General. I may tell you im no longer reach him at all, but in many peoples minds, im still a general. And when the time comes that our military people start going out into the if they want to run for office, im all for it. Okay. Thats okay, but you dont go out and take part in partisan politics and start seeing how many generals you can line up on this person versus the person. Our military is the most admired institution in terms of the confidence of the American People year in and year out for the apolitical and when we start getting into the politics of it, i think that the bipartisan nature i had 87 of the republican democrats vote representatives, congressmen and senators vote for the recordbreaking budget last december before i left. 87 . Do you think that would have happened if we were politicizing the department of defense . The senator of michigan late 1940s, rightwing republican senator challenged in his home district, and his home state. Why are you working bathtub. The terrible democrat truman and basically says the defense of our country is nonpartisan, but hyou will hear often is politics stops at the waters edge. I stay with that tradition. I hear the other plea that the secretary carper, good friend, my predecessor, under president obama refused to engage in political discussions and he would order the military officer sitting next to him on capitol hill not to answer a question that a congressman was asking because it was purely political. Weve got to keep the military out of this. None of us have any fear of the military moving into the political realm on the way. Bubut the lead in most countries in the world are not like that. Ive gone on for too long. [laughter] now we will move from the questions i wrote on the notepads to the questions i wrote on the notecards. The military awards medals for physical courage. Courage. If there ever a way to give awards for moral courage . I think the rewards for the moral courage or the promotion by the time you get up and running in the armed forces, you really do get promoted for your moral courage. Its not just because you know how to do the science of the war, the art of the war. As a matter of fact i said on many Selection Boards as you do when you get a player in the ranks at the time that for example you were Lieutenant Colonel of the Selection Board is going to be promoted to captain and when you are a fourstar general, you are selected to be the one and two star generals, and the surest way to get passed over, the absolute easiest way to be told we are going to promote that guy or that gal is if they shown a lack of integrity. So any institution gets the behavior reboard. If their institution gets robbed him and you could have a problem with this, and its happened to institutions. Its happened to corporations and its why you have to be very alert to keep your personal and managerial integrity, but i think that the way that the award that we would give would be probably promotion. As a junior officer in cyber i see most of the general officers struggled with the technology and the cost of the dod as a result. How do we fix this before it is too late . I think one of the things you have to do is make sure that your organization is good for its time. A few years ago, we set up the u. S. Cyber command which is a Combatant Commander for example the command of the u. S. Forces command, and ive commanded u. S. Central command. That is the one fight in the war in the middle east. We now have a comman command cod we chatted for quite some time. This cyber command, and it works on that very issue. So, what you have now are people that are being promoted in the office for their skill in that very area. So, what you have to do is if you see technology coming forward like this, you have to organize the institution institt you start promoting people based on their capability there. We have been doing that for some time. U. S. Central command for example if you walk into certain operations rooms you see the intelligence people sitting there and then you would see the guy that is coordinating the strikes coming off of aircraft carriers is coordinating the strikes from the airports and ad coordinating the Army Missiles and you see sitting right next to them some of these cyber folks sitting right next to them and its just like its just another one of the supporting arms as we integrate it all. Some of the civilians sitting there at the headquarters because we have not thrown off the inside of the military, but it is coming fast an coming youg people coming in now. Some of the girls have more tattoos. Some of the guys have more earrings and a girl i dated. [laughter] they were darn good at their job he loved having them there. They were great. I break this question into two, with part of the greatest threats in terms of this world where we focus a lot on terrorism, terrorism is going to be with us. Its an ambient threat. Its not going away very soon. It reflects other things. We have decided and then try to set up the conditions of education, of economic opportunities. Its going to reduce the need for people to think that they got to go for the violent way and we just have to fight for the rest of them that in this world today the bigger threats are what i would call the great power competition, russia and china that want to give a Veto Authority to themselves over surrounding nations economic decisions, security decisions, diplomatic decisions. China that would come other president would stand in the rose garden with president obama and its a they would not militarize the islands and then they went in and put islands to the co weapons in and they would invade crania and take it over. We have to recognize russia is what russia is under putin, not the russia we want it to be, so that is where i would see it. Now terrorism goes on, youve got china and russia, russia is the declining power. I think in some ways that actually makes them more dangerous in the shortterm shot the longterm as i told mike chinese counterpart, we are going to have to find a way between you and i. , between our nations to manage our differences. Because we are two Nuclear Armed powers coming if we dont want to be as stupid as the europeans twice in the 20th century and engels the war. Whenever i hear about this rising power and the cowardice they did it did that come in nur when it hasnt always gone to war. In the nuclear age he would have written a different book. Okay, just trust me on this. Im old enough. Ive talked to him. But i think that there is a bigger threat to me. Go back and read abraham lincolns talk of the young mentalist in 1858 when he talks about there is no army coming from europe or africa that is going to come over here and across the blue ridge across the ohio river. Even if they have a bonaparte. He said that they cant do it. If they are going to destroy this country, we are going to do to ourselves. And the bigger concern i have right now is twofold. One, by color here or not maintaining fiscal discipline of the country, and we expect you could just turn this over to you young folks and the benefits on board youve got to deal with it. You are going to find this and by the way, how big is the death . As big as the recordbreaking budget was for the pentagon just this last year, recordbreaking. Probably by next year we will spend organ that every year servicing the debt. Spending that money in moscow or beijing or riyadh or tokyo, wherever its going to be people who thought the money. We dont think the person we disagree with might actually be right once in a while a. Im right and you are wrong. That is in the righ isnt the ro stay in governing to get yourself elected. To find the problems lets take time to do that. Look at what is going on in london right now. This has become dangerous we have two experience if we dont think it is valuable and precious. For you young folks in the audience dont wait until youve got my color hair to do something. Do your homework and make a difference now. Dont wait until later. The run for city manager or become the mayor. We need that right now. Im not so sure that we are turning over to you. We want some governance going on here and we are no longer accepting you can just sit on your hands when theres problems. Take the time to listen to others and think certain that you defined problems well enough you can then go to work and solve them. I dont know enough, i dont know the back channel. I know weve got some great negotiators here. The. The bee dont think those kind of rights are valuable from everybody in the world. In the dividend plan that her colleagues have shown. At me talk for a moment to those who are skeptical of Climate Change. I used to tell people im not going to get into who caused it because i was military. We are going to have to deal with it. There is an open body of water that from the Military Point of view we have to deal with it because the cia is no longer what it used to be. Maybe it is just science. Im not going to get into the politics of it, but now that i am in a position where im no longer just on the military side of it, i would say to those that are skeptical if theres a chance that its Climate Change and it can be as potentially catastrophic is something that could be, wouldnt it be good to have an insurance policy . I havent had an accident driving my car ever. Wouldnt it be a good idea to do that . Im trying to find Common Ground so we can move forward. At least about 80 . That is a magnificent wonder if you can reach it. But then weve got to do something about it in terms of national security. Theres a lot of what happened in syria and us relating to a drought that is hard to tell. It drove many Small Farmers off the land to the city, rand up, people were angry, a fruit seller sets himself on fire in tunis. My question to the skeptics would be cant you pick up an insurance policy on this . Descent happiness is to yield one thing wholeheartedly you are out of active service in the marine corps an in thomas Bernie Sanders asks you to come back into the arena what is your calling now ask i wanted to pass on what i learned along the way. But really while i had the absolute pure joy serving alongside a. Of time we did the operations of the spending of the money or the combat we went through and i really had a love affair with u. S. Constitution. You think you read ten times and find Something Else to great. As you read it and think about these young and old guys sitting there this experiment seems so precious to me that i will commit whatever i can to help young people become the leaders they want to be. [applause]