veterans day. >> that is the summation of what's wrong. >> colin powell for the hour. this is piers morgan tonight. >> for many americans colin powell is still the face of the modern military, retired four-star general, the only african american to serve on the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of state to george w. bush. he's here to talk about a cause close to his heart, the state of america's military veterans. general colin powell joins me now. thank you for welcoming me to this extraordinary building. >> thank you. >> we're in the national war college. you were here 35 years ago. >> i graduated 35 years ago. that's hard to believe. we had our 35th anniversary. it has a great deal of meaning for all of us. >> when you were here as a young, fresh-faced colin powell, what was the big thing for you. >> i was doing well in the army, but i had no idea what the army had in store pe for me. i was here with a group of army officers and state officers as well as air force officers. surprisingly we all had a great time and had a lot of fun and learned a lot. then some 15 years later a number of us came back together to fight the first gulf war. about five of my classmates were now three and four-star generals, and i knew them. i'd known them for 16 years. so we were able to put a team together that was able to fight the war rather well. >> that's extraordinary. >> yeah, yeah. i learned a lot here. it was a point in my career where i was a successful battalion commander in korea, and now the military was trying to expand our horizons, learn more about politics, learn more about economics, about international relations about your allies so we can use you at a higher level in the organization. quite a few of my classmates mid admiral or general. >> the world has changed dramatically and it's changing super fast this year. it's remarkable what's going on. i'll come to some of that later. you as we sit here on veterans day in particular, what do you feel about the view of the modern american mill father? >> it's a great military. it's an all-volunteer force. it represents a relatively small percentage of our population, of course. i'm so proud of them. tom brokaw and i talk all the time about military service, and tom wrote that great book, "the greatest generation," talking about the world war ii generation. we've chatted about this and america is blessed to have that kind of greatness in every generation. there is no generation that is any greater than the current generation of gis in iraq and afghanistan and so many places around the world willing to give their lives in the causes of freedom and in the cause of giving people a better opportunity for a better life for themselves, their country and their children. we should be so proud of them. that's why we celebrate veterans day. you know the oor engine of veterans day. 11-11-11. it comes from world war i. it used to be called armstats day -- >> we still have that in britain. >> this place means a lot to me. we talk about the fact that everybody says we have all these difficulties now, all these troubled times. when i came here as a student in 1975 to graduate in the buy centennial class, our 200th anniversary in 1976, think what the world was like then? it was still a soviet union. china was emerging from the culture revolution. america passed through a difficult time. and we had a post-vietnam period and we had the counterculture going on. martin luther king had been killed a few years earlier. people thought america was down and out. then we recaptured our spirit and the values that made this country great. i like to give credit to president ford who came in and sort of stabilized us again, reminded us who we were. a few years later the soviet union was gone. we were still here. >> do you see parallels between that period and what's happening now with america. do you feel you need another gerald ford intervention? >> somebody will show up. america has always gone through these periods of difficulty of inspection when our economy is not doing well, and we're in a recession and we're a little unsure of who we are and what we are. what i'm absolutely convinced of because of my reading of history and my living through this history is we will find our way. we've always had problems. most of my time period is spent out in the countryside giving speeches and talking to people. the kind of sort of black thinking and talking that you see on television or you hear here in washington or in congress but i see such continuing confidence and opt mitch out with the public. they just want to see the political system in washington start to reflect their concerns and start to fix itself. as i say to my audiences, don't wait for superman if you don't like how they're doing it, vote them out. >> there's a fascinating charge over there, colin powell's rules. which of these -- i read a few earlier to myself. get mad and get over it. remain calm. be kind. have a vision. be demanding. very positive. very realistic, i felt. it wasn't saccharin at all. it was acknowledging there would be difficult times but encouraging people to, i think, think in a positive way to goit of it rather than dwell on negativity. very much for the time we're in now. if you were president and many wish you had run for the highest office, what needs to be done now? what advice -- let's not be to patronizing of barack obama. what advice would you give him to get america back on its feet right now in the modern world? >> you can't put it all on one individual. we need to take a deep breath and correct ourselves. one of the things that troubles me the most and i've been in the town on and off for the last 30-odd years. what troubles me the most is i've never seen much paul larization in our political situation. i've never seen a situation where you have people on the far left and far right who focus on their own extreme positions and hold these as theological positions that can't be amoved away from and changed and everybody is measured against these extremes. you know, our founding fathers also had strong beliefs and believed in extremes. and they were able in philadelphia in writing our constitution to compromise slavery. i don't like the compromise we made at the time because we kept slavery, but they said we're here to form a nation. it's not happening now because it's been made too difficult. a lot of the politicians might be toward the middle by signing agreements that i won't pay taxes that pledge themselves to positions that don't led themselves to compromise. i have to say, piers, under the current media environment that didn't exist 35 years ago or 40 years ago, it is constant, nonstop commentary all day long, all evening long. you are no exception to this, i might add. >> blame me, are you? >> i'm not blaming you. i'm saying it changed the environment. if you say anything that seems to drift off the orthodoxy of your party's position, you hear about it immediately either on a cable talk show or on the bloggers or on the internet. you're going to have to deal with the two sides. the two parties don't have the same opportunity to work quietly with each other. >> you're a military man, one of the fine estrogens this country has ever produced. you' this is relentless to bombardment and keep coming at you. everything you do is blown up. exactly the argument you used to me about the media. you dust yourself down and call your men together and say they want a washr, let's go to war, boys. you'd work out a way to win. the argument people have with barack obama who you supported is he hasn't done enough of that. he hasn't fought back against the modern weapon, which is multimed multimedia, the internet, all these things. he hasn't beaten his chest and behaved like you had in a battlefield. >> that's a fair criticism of the president. he is somebody who was used to getting people to compromise and seeing if we could not quietly find a way in almost a lawyerly manner. he still has that spark and enthusiasm about the country and his job that got him elected in the first place. in recent weeks we see him start to show that spark more publicly, and i've had conversations with the president over time. sometimes with congress you simply have to let them have it between the eyes and drag them in your direction and not think you can talk them into your direction. >> i wouldn't have him on a golf course with john boehner after what he did. i'd have him in a boxing ring. mr. speaker, you want to fight about this, your people is not going to do anything to get any bill passed here at all, let's have it out properly. >> well, that's an approach that can be taken. >> would you take that approach? >> i don't play golf, so i wouldn't have got on the golf course. at some point you have to say, okay, look, we've talked enough about this. this is very military. it's now time to go out and as we say in all of our mafia movies, go to the mattresses. we will fight on this line all summer line. >> go to the mattresses? can you clarify that? >> you haven't heard that before? it means hide in your bunker so people can't get to you, and then come out and fight in the streets. essentially, go to the mattresses. you put mattresses on a floor and sleep in a protected area and come out and fight it out. >> fantastic. let's take a sthort break. when we come back we need to know more about the mattress attack you've orchestrated and mapped out for the president. i think he's a transformational figure. he's a new generation coming onto the world stanl, onto the american stage. for that reason i'll be voting for senator barack obama. >> i have my special guest, general colin powell. we left it with go to your mattresses and prepare for war, which i loved. you endorsed as we heard there president obama in october 2008. it was a controversial decision. it wasn't expected at all. you're a republican, and you come out for obama. remind me of your thinking in that moment. >> before i do that, let me say that with going to the mattresses, that's with both parties. deal with your own party. do your party to do what you think they should do, and then you can take on the other party and have your forces in linem t alignment. in 2008 i look carefully at the situation the country was in in the verge of an economic collapse that occurred later on that year. i looked at what i thought the country needed, and after listening carefully to senator mccain i've known for 30 years and also president obama and then senator obama, i came to the conclusion that he was better able to deal with the challenges they were facing economically and with respect to rejuvenating the spirit of the country and with respect to making a generational change. >> obviously, it carried a lot of weight and barack obama got elected. several prominent people were very helpful to him at the very least. when you look at him now, what do you think has happened to barack obama after three years of presidency? what do you think you should be advising him as someone that supported him about how to go back into the election fray? >> the advice i give to the president, which i still do on occasion, i keep private. i don't share a lot of my conversations with him or his conversations with me. i think he is still the same person that we saw in 2008. he is a deliberate individual. he studies the issues before him. then he makes decisions, and many of his decisions i think have been quite sound. the financial system put back in a stable basis. some are now complaining too stable. they're going back to what they were doing before that caused this trouble. i think he's following through a correct way with respect to iraq and afghanistan and specially implementing some of the policies of president bush, former president bush. in some of the controversial things where people thought he would simply move away from some of the bush positions, he's adopted them. he's demonstrated a degree of adabtability, but at the same time the economy has not improved for the benefit of many americans who are on the unemployment rolls, and there is a malaise within the country about when is the economy going to start creating all the jobs that we need. there is also, i think, a problem that the president has with the business community. this one is a little harder to explain, because the business community, especially at the high end, is doing rather well. but he has not succeeded in convincing them that he has all the right solutions. as i go around i find that the business community is still quite upset with his policies. they feel that the regulations that are coming down, whether it's on financial services or consumers or environmental protection agency or the obama care as its called, they are uncertainly as to what all these regulations will do them and they're hesitant to make investments so they're not sure how to plan ahead. above all, he has to work hard and do everything he can, and i think he's pursuing this very aggressively now to create jobs for the people who don't have jobs. >> on the tick box of his score sheet, some stunning successes in terms of foreign policy many would argue getting bin laden. for you personally, you were at the start of that mission. where were you when you heard that bin laden had been killed? >> i was in my home, and i heard the news. i was absolutely delighted. this terrible person, and it was a marvelous military operation with the possibility of something going really bad. >> very awe addition yus. >> very bold. that's the kind of young men and women we have. these folks are really, really good. >> did you admire the president for the shear awe das city of the decision-making of that? >> you have to. he could have decided to go about it a different way but he told the bold action. a week later everyone wanted to talk about the unemployment problem again. we've seen a lot of evil people sent off to the hereafter in recent weeks, and that's good. the president should get credit for it. not just because he's the commander in chief, but, you know, which is parts of it, but we have to give credit to the intelligence and military and other agencies of our government that created the conditions that allow you to go after the people. >> as somebody who was seen to be one of the more skeptic members of george bush's inner team when it came to decision-making in iraq in particular, when you see what happened in libya, when you see the back seat that america took, particularly with troops on the ground, when you see no loss of life for american servicemen compared to the 4,500 that lost their lives in iraq, what do you feel about the overall picture, the strategy that was adopted to get rid of saddam in contrast to the strategy adopted to get rid of gadhafi? the huge difference in cost not just in human life but financially to america? >> i don't think the two can be that easily compared. we had a government in iraq that was every bit as bad as the government in libya. i remember so many western leaders in the united states were working with mr. gadhafi. in libya we didn't have the army or military force that saddam hussein had access to. you didn't have that kind of leadership coming from the europeans in iraq that we had in libya. but setting it aside, the president febush felt we tried e u.n. we didn't get satisfaction with respect to to hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs. our intelligence had it wrong, and i presented that intelligence to the united states people and the american people and to the world. it was wrong. nevertheless, we went in and got rid of a person who would have gone back to developing these weapons of mass destruction in my humble judgment if he had been released from u.n. sanctions. i was hoping that the u.n. would work. i persuaded the president to go to the u.n., see if we can resolve it that way. if we can avoid this war and satisfy our problem with weapons of mass destruction, we should do that. but he had to make the decision, along with mr. blair and other western leaders. so we went in, and we took out the regime. my big disappointment -- i fully supported that. my big disappointment is i don't think we were as efficient as we could have. we just hashould have put more n there so we could have taken control of the country at the beginning, which what i think the iraqi people would think we would do. an insurgency broke out. >> when you ever see footage of you selling that war with the intelligence, what do you feel? do you feel that you were in some way used? >> no. i had the same information, the same intelligence material that was given to the united states congress. the congress voted overwhelmingly to use military force if it came to that, and they did that three months before my presentation. everything that was in that presentation of mine was international intelligence estimate that the president used in the state of the union earlier speeches that secretary rumsfeld was using, our generals were using. they were planning against this intelligence. we thought it was solid, even though it was very inferential, we thought it was good intelligence. >> when you realized -- >> when i realized that a large part of it -- not all of it, but a considerable part of it was wrong and we should have known it was wrong, i felt terrible. i felt disappointed. it was wrong. that is the summation of it. it was wrong. >> let's take a little break and come back and talk republican field for the nomination. it gets more bizarre by the day and fascinating. i want to know what you think. i'm kind of a fixture in different parts of town... some folks call me a rock star, some call me the mayor... and i love it. and, i make everybody happy. i keep my business insurance with the hartford because... they came through for me once, and i know they've got my back. for whatever challenges come your way... the hartford is here to back you up. helping you move ahead... with confidence. meet some of our small business customers at: thehartford.com/business i don't think about the unknown... i just rock n' roll. i've tried it. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. to lead this effort at this unique moment in history, i picked a unique leader. many times over the past four decades, america has called on colin powell and each time he has answered the call. >> that was colin powell. general, let's talk about the republican field, because it's been up and down, roller coaster, five people in the front run and fallen away. mitt romney appears to be the stable eddie the group, but even he isn't guaranteed to win it. what do you make of it all? >> it's a remarkable democratic system we have. i think it's fascinating to watch all of these individuals step forward and put themselves in the spotlight, take on the risks of political competition, and some will prevail and some won't prevail. at the end of the day only one prevails. some came on the scene quickly and dropped off. i'm watching it very, very closely with great interest. i know all of candidates. >> are you watching it as a democrat or republican? >> i'm watching it as an american. i am a republican, but i have a variety of views. throughout my whole career and for most of the life i wasn't in any party because i was a career military officer. only since 1995 i identified myself as a republican. since 1995 i have voted for republicans and i have voted for a democrat. what i always tried to do is to do the best job of analyzing the needs of the country and the candidates that are before us and trying to support the candidate who i feel will do the best for the country, whether he is a democrat or republican or whether she is a democrat or republican. >> if the election was tomorrow, and it will be in a year, would you vote for barack obama as things stand again? >> i would never make that decision now. i didn't make that decision in 2008 until it was relatively close, and i had concluded that in my judgment anyway he was the best choice. i talked to both he and senator mccain. so i'm not sure we have seen the entire field of candidates at this point. >> really? you think more may pop up? >> i don't know. do you know? >> you would know more than i do. it carries a lot more weight. could we possibly see yourselves? >> of course not. >> why not? >> i rejected that 16 years ago, and i've given more than one explanation for it. >> you're relatively youthful in political termless. >> i'm going to be 75 on my next birthday. i'm in good health, but even if i was 20 years younger, it isn't me. as i've said many, many times. >> was it your wife in the end who decided? >> it was me. >> it was you and not your wife? >> no. i never woke up a single morning thinking it was the right thing for me. i served my country in other ways. secretary of state after making that announcement. i served my country for 40 years in government and trying to serve it every way i know and how now. worked at youth programs. one of our greatest challenges is to make sure we educate our young people for a 21st century world and 21st century economic system in the united states is different than the economic system 25 years ago. >> we talked about extremities in washington being unhelpful. to my mind that narrows down the republican field quite markedly, because you would rule out probably most of the tea party candidates, most people perceive to be on the extremities. so i'm guessing that your natural instincts would be heading more towards a romney-style, a huntsman-style candidate. >> you turned into a shrink. >> am i a good shrink or bad shrink? >> stick to being on television. >> are you more moderate by nature? >> yes. but here's the rub. you have to act one way politically to achieve the nomination of your party. if you just focus on achieving the nomination of your party either on the left or right, that isn't enough to win a national election. so you then have to decide how far can you come back from the positions that you took to get that nomination not going on the other side of the center point, but how do you get more of the people closer to the center point so you can win an election. it's really two elections taking place here. one to win the nomination and for that you have to show appeal to the extremes or, let me say, the further extremes of your individual party or democrat or republican. but then you'd better be ready in the general election to move back to somewhere closer to the middle nhin order to get the moderates who are judging you not on the basis of your party affiliation but on the basis of what are your policies? what is this person going to do? that's why i say we will see next year this campaign hasn't started yet. we have a year. >> what do you make of herman cain? >> i've known herman for 15, 16 years. when i started america's promise, our youth foundation that my wife now runs, herman was president of national restaurant association, and he was very helpful to us. a very dynamic individual that worked a lot with young people. now he offered himself up for the presidency, and i thank him for his commitment to service. >> he's a military parlance getting it with full barrels. is it fair what's going on with herman cain? is it the man you recognize with all the claims? >> i don't know whether the claims are valid or not, and this is something for herman to deal with. when you enter political life, you should expect these kinds of issues to arise. i don't know what the merit of these claims are, and we will see in the days and weeks ahead. >> if they turn out to be credible -- >> i don't know they'll turn out to be credible, therefore i'm not going to speculate on what might be the result. >> coming up -- 49 years, and you met on a blind date. >> yes. when i walked in, she was very attractive. she apparently didn't reject me outright. can i help you? 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>> very well. >> i've never been on a blind date. >> you ought to try it. >> for that moment when your wife-to-be walked in, that's a big moment on a blind date, isn't it? >> a friend of mine took me insisted that i go with him on this blind date. i was stationed in massachusetts about 40 miles outside of boston. he was interested in this young lady, and the young lady had a roommate. he asked me to go with him to pick off the roommate. the roommate was being told the st same thing about her roommate, and she didn't like it and she didn't think the parents would approve of her dating an infantry lieutenant. when i walked in, she was very attractive and she apparently did not jeereject me outright. the other couple never did form a relationship, and we were married about nine months later. >> you never bought her an engagement ring for years. how did you get out of that? >> she said an interesting thing. >> i bought her rings over the -- it's been 49 years. >> i'm coming to how it ends, but she said that your relationship would not be defined or be successful based on any ring you bought her at that time. you sorted your lies out and did what you had to do. the longevity of maernl is not based around -- >> people sometimes system me about her views on politics and other things. my answer to them, you know, we got married when i was a young first lieutenant heading to war. i was leaving for a year, and we had only known each other for roughly nine months. i would be gone for a year, and when came back i would be something still of a stranger. she took that risk. i never forget the fact she didn't marry a general, a secretary of state. she married a young first lieutenant. and she sacrificed a lot and i owe her a lot. it's been 49 years. >> what's the secret of a happy marriage? >> getting along. love. what you would expect. >> what are the key values to you that you think most people should really have as priorities? >> service to others, service to something greater than yourself, service to country, serving a purpose in life. why are you here, what are you doing? secondly, being kind to people. third, raising a good family. and i get asked all the time, what do you want on your gravestone? i said, i don't need much. just put good guy, he served well and he raised a good family and loved his country. that really is what has driven my wife, driven me, driven our family, and driven most of our friends. service to country, service to others. i'm very proud now i have a center named after me at alma mater at the city college in new york. we rejiggered the name. it wasingly to be the center for policy and studies. we made it the center for leadership and service. we're bringing up a new generation of immigrant kids out of new york city. they're from all over the world. they're minorities. they are not that wealthy, and this wonderful school has been educating kids like that for 160 years. that's where i got my free education. so i think that i am serving and meeting the value system that i got from my parents and i tried to develop over my life by giving back to my alma mater and helping a new generation of youngsters learn all about leadership in the service. >> what were your parents have made of your career? >> well, they were proud of me. i was raised in an extended immigrant family, west indian family, jamaican with a british background. they were british subjects when they came here. what they cared about was migt the expectations they had for us to get an education, get out of the house and get a job. that was it. you could be a doctor, lawyer, streetcar conductor. i have cousins who are subway conductors in london. i have other -- >> do you really? >> yes. and it didn't make any difference what you actually became. it was important that you became something. and that you never embarrassed the family and that you met our expectations. our expectations are you will do better than we did, you will get a job, and you will make us proud in your work. my father died before i became general. my relatives were not happy with me staying in the army, particularly my aunts. what are you doing? nobody stays in the army. you get drafted and come out. i like it and do it well. they were never satisfied with that answer until i told a more pushy aunts that you get a 50% pension after 20 years. i'll be 41 and i can retire. oh, good. that's all we need. the army was very good to me. it was my life and profession. i'm often calmed a statesman and politician. i'm a soldier and infantry officer. that's what i wanted to do when i finished my education, and i did to the best of my ability for 35 years. >> let's take a break and talk about your upbringing in harlem and how that can be relevant to the "occupy wall street" protestors. where you see where they're coming from, the lessons you learned on those hard streets all those years ago and what they should be doing. these dogs wake up too early! you know what else is early? medicare open enrollment. now through december 7th. can i stick with my old medicare plan? sure! or find a new plan with better coverage, less cost, or both. medicare plans give you free cancer screenings and wellness visits and 50% off on brand-name prescriptions when you're in the doughnut hole. it's part of the healthcare law. so it's time to look, compare... and choose the right plan for you. learn more at 1-800-medicare or medicare.gov. back with general colin powell. you were raised in harlem in the bronx. it's a tough place to be brought up. money was not prevalent or much in your early life at all. when you see the "occupy wall street" protestors and see them spinning out now around america, kind of reflecting the overall feeling of dissatisfaction with america's economy and so on, when you remember how poor you were and how hard you had to fight for life, what do you think of these protestors? are they well-intentioned? do you support them? do you think they're misguided? >> i was born in harlem to immigrant parents, and my parents always had a job. we moved to the south bronx. i don't think either one of them made more than 50 or $60 a week but we got along on that back then. both my parents always worked and they always had work. so people are are concerned now that there is not that source of an income. there isn't that work source that i remember. so what you're seeing with "occupy wall street" and the others are people who are unhappy, and they're directing their unhappiness right now towards wall street and towards those they think are doing too well in our society. i don't begrudge anybody who has earned a good salary. it's part of our capitalist system. so demonstrating like this is as american as apple pie. we have been marching up and down and demonstrating throughout the history. i get concerned when demonstrations turn into violence or when some of the demonstrators demonstrate absolute neilism and they're not interested in anything but destruction and tearing down the system. >> do you understand the anger particularly towards wall street, i think? i've said this many times on my show recently, because i picked this up from the protestors. what really gets their goat is that a lot of these banks and bankers got bailed out by the taxpayers. the first chance they got, when they got back on their feet, to not give themselves huge bonuses again, they ignored that temptation and put their noses back in the trough. >> well, you know, i don't know how to be too critical of that. i mean, it has always been the case that there are certain fields in our economic system, such as in the financial world, where you take big risk and you get big big rewards. one of the things that is of concern to all of us is there's an increasing gap between those who are doing very well and i'm doing well and those who are not doing as well and those who are not doing as well are not seeing their lives improving. there's frustration and angriness there and this is something our wall street friends, our business friends need to think about and something that our political leaders need to think about. it isn't enough to scream at the occupy wall street demonstrators. we need our political system to start reflekting this anger back in to how do we fix it? how do we get the economy going again? how do we get businesses that have a lot of money stacked up? how do we get them to invest that money and create jobs. >> you said before with foreign policy that america should avoid saying we are going to instill our democracy on everybody. that it should be more reform. when you look inwardly at america, is that what america needs really, rather than a massive dramatic overlord, to reform, to rethink it is thinking. >> i think we need to take a hard look at our political system, as i have sean said, and see if we cannot get our leaders, particularly in congress, to start finding ways to reform themselves. to close some of the tax loopholes that exist. to take a hard look at what our expenses are and cut those expenses and then see whether or not we have the revenue base for the expenses that are left. i have had a lot of business people sit down with me and say, you know, if i try to run my business the way the federal government runs its business i wouldn't have a business. how can we continue to run a budget of $3 trillion of which we borrow 1.3 trillion from outside sources. either printing money or borrowing from the china. so a lot of latin american countries now are focusing on world creation and fixing their economies and educating youngsters for the 21st century world. that's what we have to do. we have to get on with it. especially educating our youngsters. a third don't finish school. 50% of minority children don't finish school it. >> is outrageous. >> it isry outrageous. let's pay teachers more and give more incentive but not put it all on the educational system. the family and the home system has a great obligation to help us get these kids started properly. >> general, you have had an extraordinary life. when you look back on it, excluding marriage and children's births, what's the single greatest moment of your life. >> i never answer single greatest or worst a questions. what i say to young people, you are a product of all of your experiences, you can't single out one thing. i learned as much from the bad as the good. i graduated with a c average and now i have a center named after me and i'm called a founder and distinguished visiting professor. my professors of 53 years old ago would roll over their in their graves if they heard that. it is not where you started life but where you end up along the way. that's the message i give to audiences, especially the young ones. believe in yourself, believe in this country and listen to the people that care about you in life and just keep doing your best and be your own role model. >> when we come back after this short break, i'd like you to close with some final thoughts f you may, about veteran's day, about veterans and the current men and women who serve in the american military. woman: day care can be expensive. so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: are there flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. general, it is veteran's day, and there will be many veterans watching this interview, quite interested. also many current serving servicemen and women. what message would you give them on this particular day? >> i'm so enormously proud of all of those who are serving now and all of those who served in the past. we have been so blessed to have people who are willing to put their lives on the line for this country. i was in a hospital in california, veteran's hospital last week, and i go up to walter reed and see wounded soldiers and i have seen soldiers who have lost arms and legs, and if they know they can get back in shape, what do they say, i want to rejoin my buddies. i want to be with my buddies. on this veteran's day i'd like to offer my profound thanks and speaking for all of my colleagues in the military t who have served a special thanks for those who are serving now. iraq and afghanistan is one of the dt most difficult conflicts we have had. it is a daily war not just waiting for d-day or the battle of the bullable but every day and we have a lot of youngsters who are suffering as a result. they have been wounded. they have had traumatic amputations, dra traumatic brain injuries. we have a lot of veterans who are homeless, a lot of veterans who found it unbearable and committed suicide. we have a lot of work to do. on this veteran's day, one of the things we should emphasize it can't just be veteran's day on november 11th, it has to be veteran's day every day and with we have to do everything we can through our governmental services to help your youngsters and we especially have to in their communities help them. there's just so m