We will be discussing shakespeare and the rules of war. At this point i just want to remind everybody to please hold your Electronic Devices and to let you know that video and photography are forbidden. It is my honor to introduce tonights moderator. Is a member of our board of trustees. He has chaired our annual fundraiser for many years. He is the head of Government Strategies at mcdermott will. He served as general counsel to the Senate Committee on International Affairs alongside others. He has served as deputy counsel for organized crime, directing investigations. Other criminals during the reagan administration. Represented a Financial Literacy group over the past decade. It is my honor to welcome him. [applause] thank you very much. Honor toleasure and bring this group of speakers to you. Youre going to have a great evening tonight, it is a part of our classical theater where we tried to relate Current Events while thinking about the rules of war. For being a part of our group. Tonight the first panelist i would like to introduce is my favorite author, bernard cornwall. [applause] so, what do you say about a guy who has written 60 books and he is your favorite author . You tell people if he has not and seeing it or trade by sean being you have not begun to live. He began in the tv business at the bbc. His books have been turned into some of the most notable productions. A greenriginally denied card for entry into the United States. Then he has sincet spent a great deal of time with us. Stories are really about english history. The last kingdom is just a delight. We fight over the books over who gets to read it first. Hopefully you have seen that on the bbc. Important to our work here in the theater, he has continued to write and is currently writing a book about the first productions of shakespeare. I am sure we will work that in. Thank you for being here. [applause] we should really , dale thank you. [applause] the general is a spook, he was the president s first Senate Confirmed director of national , and information sharing executive for the director of National Intelligence phr. That was his title. Ok, spook. O is also an expert on international strategy. Intelligence and military 9 11 the general was in command of the airspace over america. The warriors we are going to put as chiefhe also served Information Officer for the air force commands. At one point he control all of the satellites that are in orbit. We cant talk about that. He became the first chief of Information Officer. You can see a pattern here. During desert storm and other wars have been an has fought, he experience on who to target, what the package what like, how to justify to do. We are uniquely pleased to have him with us tonight. [applause] so, now, on the artistic side of this group we have the real pleasure to introduce to you one of the hottest young directors in america. Now, one of the great things about theater is because joe pat gave michael kahn the gig of running a classical play in new york at a very young age. He took the same thing of picking out the hottest young directors and bringing them to work on classical plays. Macbethbe directing on may 1. I asked her if i could get around calling it the scottish play. She said you dont sound the theater person. [laughter] she was born and raised in south africa during the apartheid era. That experience, obviously, is something to reflect on today. Her family moved to massachusetts when she was 15 and she received her from the smaller known college of Brown University and the trinity repertoire. Shes directed theater all over the United States and shes known not just for classic plays but for bringing out the personal experience and stories of people to light. She believes theater should be meaningful. Dont we all . And able to change the audience. One of her latest productions, tells the story of five liberian women who try to survive toward the end of the second liberian war. This production actually became the first ever all female cast play written and directed by a female to premier on broadway. I will pause for applause on that. [applause] last summer, she made history as the first woman of color to have a tony award nomination for best director for production of eclipse. Shes now in rehearsal for the for her interpretation of macbeth. We will talk about that a little bit tonight. You have got to come and see it. Anyway, thank you very much for taking time for rehearsals to come tonight. [applause] this is a starstudded panel but here comes the big stud. [laughter] and that the honorable ryan zinke of the secretary of the interior. [applause] so, heres Teddy Roosevelts roosevelts successor as the owner of public lands. This man controls one fifth of the landmass of the United States and he has a property that he is a controller of in 12 time zones. He used to serve as a member of house of representatives and immediately became a star on the hill. That is the production we do. We still have the pictures of that. [laughter] he went to a very famous literary school, buds, basic underwater demolition and became a seal seal. There are many books coming out of that and he has a terrific book that im going to recommend to you in a moment. He was a navy seal for over 20 years. He deployed and carry out [applause] the mission of our country and he directed the training of the seals and he trained the men who killed Osama Bin Laden and carried out all of the things that were necessary to protect us. So, ryan zinke, not only is a warrior, but trained warriors who still protect us today. At football. [applause] at football, he was the center of the oregon ducks before they were cool. [laughter] they were really close. I have to Say Something that was improper. Many women fans thought he had the best butt. [laughter] with that you have a warrior was is now a member of the cabinet of United States and hes taken time to be with us tonight to talk about this. I want to say i want all of you to read all 60 of bernards books. Every single one. [laughter] i also want you to buy zi nkes book. It is a terrific book. It, before he he was going to be secretary of interior, he talked about his philosophy for public lands. I want to give a really warm welcome to secretary thinking zinke and the rest of the panel. [applause] now, because been armed is bernard is one of my favorite authors, thats a conflict of interest by the way, i use this to ask my favorite authors. I will ask them to start off. Off this discussion about shakespeare and the rules of war at this time and bring them forward two to ours. I know he will Say Something utterly entertaining and you will love it. Thank you. I dont have a lot to say that shakespeare in the rules of war. Have a great evening. [laughter] he does mention, but he does not call the rules for. He calls it the laws of arms. At the end of henry the fifth , talking about something thats happened on the battlefield. He said it is express against the lord of arms. What was it that shakespeare saw was if you look at the prospects of what you said it, it seems obvious. Henry the fifth was just killed. An incredibly brutal passage of the battle. The french attack in two ways. Both ways had been repelled. Many prisoners have been taken. Prisoners were kept for ransom. They were sold behind the english lines. Suddenly a third line seems to go out to advance. What henry says to prisoners who havent had the hands tied, will join the battle again by attacking his been from the back. He ordered them killed. That isnt what he is complaining about. He thinks thats a good thing. What he is complaining about is [inaudible] right around the back and they invaded the english camp. They managed to steal all the crown jewels and they killed the pages. What he is complaining about is that they simply killed them, and that is against the law of art. I think something will probably keep coming up this evening because how do you impose law on warfare . Warfare by its very nature is lawless. We educate our children and say thou shalt not kill. And then we train them to be killers. This is the heart of western civilization and others, too. Way back in the 12th century, they tried to draw a distinction between what he called homicide. Homicide and malicide. Homicide is illegal. Its murder. Malicide was killing somebody who is evil. That runs all the way through law. What shakespeare is saying is you can kill someone who [inaudible] is that a law of war . Youre a lawyer. This is the only panel that has one lawyer. I brought reinforcement. [laughing] its still pretty remarkable. You have more degrees than anybody ive ever met but not one with a law degree. [laughter] the very first attempt to codify the laws of war and i am sure was called the lever coat. It was drawn up in the united 1852. States in by a man whon up taught at columbia, south carolina, then moved to columbia. When he fought at waterloo he was a 21yearold boy from prussia and his Sergeant Major was a woman. She had three decorations of bravery. Everybody in the army knew she was a woman. They thought she was terrific and he fought all the way through waterloo with her. Lever two up a coat of war which is very much the ancestor of the geneva code today. You cannot kill noncombatants. You mustnt use poison. You mustnt kill the wounded. Im not condoning this story, but it has relevance to shakespeare. The British Marine royal marine sergeant found guilty of murder because he had shot a taliban that conviction of murder was turned into manslaughter and i think he is being released from jail. Im not condoning what the man dead. I dont know details of it, but im sort of proud to tell you that his last words to the doomed man were hey, mate, its time you shuttled off with this mortal coil. [laughter] it is true. [laughter] would be you he entertaining. Hello. So, for all kinds of reasons this is probably my seventh production that dealt with war on stage. And possibly because of the way i grew up, possibly because the way i came from and activist family, its something i spent a lot of time in my childhood thinking about and observing. I have directed a play which took place and what had to be staged was government soldiers and two different kinds of rebel soldiers as well as civilians and miners all in one space. , it was onlypsed five women, but the skills with which it was written really got a sense of the larger civil war all around you. Ive also done a play in europe which is about Doctors Without Borders and the experiences that they had. It just seems be something that i keep coming back to. So when michael asked me to macbeth, my job as an artist and as a director is to do test analysis, get into the mind of the writer, the playwright and try to understand what he or she is trying to talk about. And then think for me, think about who my audience is and think about especially with classics how can i get this story into their life so theyre not sitting back and watching a experience, like wash over them. It has to feel immediate for me. I dont see any purpose in going to sit and watch of keith a satedthat makes me feel and safe. So after i excavated macbeth, the fact that i was doing in washington, d. C. , and i thought that what macbeth is about that ive never seen when i seen a production is actually about grief and grieving for ones country. And that is certainly something i can relate to. There were books written about my country, books called cry, beloved country. Feel,e grief had the same having a dictator, tyrant in power, and the question of what has to happen to leaders, to citizens, to make them take up arms in their own country and fight civil war. That to me is the center of this play. And every scene that sort of every scene of violence is about a father losing a son or a mother losing a daughter, or a child. The message that sends to me from shakespeare is that he is trying to show the personal cost of war. We come from a country that loves to glamorize violence, that loves to glamorize war. So i took that challenge from shakespeare and i took it very personally. So there are strands of this production of macbeth that are really about what it feels like to be inside of a civil war and what the personal cost of war is and what grief for your country is. [applause] in washington, by the way, youre not allowed to have a cabinet lot lead off, but ryan zinke is actually quite a humble man and said he would go third tonight. Its truly an honor to be with you. My background, as commander. Upfront i was never the best jumper or diver, explosive expert, but i know who was. I was also a commander of special forces in iraq. So my experience is a little different. I dont think we glamorize war, at least not those who have fought. I think the decision to go to war for those who have fought is a solemn one. I, like many of you, are a father and i dont want my kid ever to go into war and less unless we can win. And the rules of engagement are part of it. But i think we owe it to our kids as we send them in the interest of our country, want to make the decision if we have to go to war, but you need the right equipment, the right training, the right rules of engagement. And i would say you would add one more. We have been in battle for longer period of our nations history by almost twice with the right pause. I will explain that. But the rules of engagement today are much different. Seals look at threat, nonthreat. If a threat is clear, engage it. Eliminate the threat. But what is a threat in a symmetrical warfare . Is that a person with a gun . Is that the person with a cell phone in the corner . Is it a person that is supplying the ammunition, the intelligence . Its a difficult process to. Ort and select if you were to walk in to an iraqi location where theres a group of people, how do you sort and select who is who . Ando how do you sort select in this room if you have 20 noncombatants, five combatants. Are the combatants hardened or not . How do you do it . And ultimately that task comes to judgment. Thats why we rely on our nations best. It is a judgment call. If our rules of engagement dont allow us to fight, and in the case of afghanistan theres been plenty of cases where individuals go out, they are engaged in combat. There is in ac130 overhead , which is a gunship. They are engaged in combat and they dont get the support. The reason is because someone is making a judgment call on whether engaging that ac130 will lead to civilian casualties. In fact, if the enemy is firing from a building within the building, are they in fact enemy combatants . But when you are there and you are being fired upon and your teammates are getting hit, to not have the equipment available to you, i can tell you, if they cant depend on going out, and all these operations are wellplanned and they have their Quick Reaction force when you go out. They will climb it. Trouble, how fast can the calvary get there . Do they have artillery . But if they go out and get engaged with the enemy and they cannot get aid, they are smart, they will not go out. Or they will turtle up. When they do go out, they will go out heavy. They cant rely on any other force to render aid. So ill go back to the most important part is you got to trust your people. And thats where training comes in. Nobody that i know of thats fighting wants war. Is it because weve been engaged in combat the longest period in our nations history . And my daughter, i told her to think. Dont join the navy and dont marry a navy seal. [laughter] she did both. Shes a navy diver. She married a navy seal. Hes a fine young man. Hes a senior chief. He has gone to war at least 12 deployments. 12 times. Normal to him is not here. Normal to him is over there. Because he has spent more time over there than he has here. So how does that affect him . I need to go to the Grocery Store with him because hes aggressive behind the wheel. But the pause, because when these troops are coming back and were fighting so much for so long, they forget about normalcy in our society. They become hardened. Their judgment on the playground is threat, nonthreat. Thats why we fight over there so it doesnt come here. So im glad to be with you, but i can tell you this. In my experience, you should never ever engage in warfare and unless you get the troops what they need to win. Your sons and daughters deserve it. Unfortunately, we find we face an enemy that is determined, that place by no rules of humanity when you burn pilots in a cage alive, and you behead children. This is what we face. Its ugly. So with that, steve. [laughing] thank you. That was uplifting. [applause] and now if you really wanted to see what it looks like from outer space, you could ask dale. Dale, could you reflect as an air commander, your counterparts . Someone who shakespeare couldnt contemplate, talk to us about the air commander and the decisions that a professional soldier like you have that are different. Just think of me as he saved the least for last. [laughter] pause before we have q a. [laughter] i am pleased to be here. But what the secretary talked about had a lot to do with when are eye toie you eye. But the rules of war, the rules of engagement extend everybody who was in support of it as well, or somebody whos detached. Ill give you when i conclude my remarks, ill give you a real instance about how rules of engagement in fact, change how we fight, change how we fight even today. Even though it was 21 years ago. The element of rules of engagement are not that old. In fact, they are an outgrowth of the korean war. Because the joint chiefs of staff to get out that weve got a new framework for conduct of operations, combat operations. The idea of war and world war ii and previous is gone. The idea of limited war, the idea of all kinds of other things fall in the shadow of the cold war. And so i think its important to realize the basis of rules of engagement. Theyve got a political purpose. Theyve got a military purpose and they have a legal purpose. They also have to expand all the way to the people i represent down to all levels, ranks, services, to the people that secretary represents, folks on the ground. So rules of engagement are classified. You may or may not find that hard to believe, but large part of them are classified because a lot of them are related to tactics, as in what weapons you can use, what targets weapons can be associated with. To include what we can spy on f