Transcripts For CSPAN Former Senator James Webb On Economic

CSPAN Former Senator James Webb On Economic Fairness And Foreign Policy September 27, 2014

Rick warily will military campaign against isis, and the longterm extremedefeating violence. And a Sports Writer reviews the Domestic Violence controversies involving nfl players and the leagues response to them as well as congress. Action by as always, well take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal, live at 7 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Former virginia senator jim webb was the featured speaker at the National Press club recently, where he talked about economic and Foreign Policy issues. Addressed speculation of a possible president ial run in 2016, saying he was seriously looking at the possibility. This is an hour. Good afternoon. Welcome. My name is myron. At theajung Professor George Washington University of public affairs. Former International Bureau associate press. The nash is the the national worldsub is the leading professional journalists. For we foster a free press worldwide. For more information about the National Press club, please press. Org. Ebsite at on behalf of our members worldwide, id like to welcome speaker, and those of you attending todays event. Head table includes guests of our speaker as well as working journalists who are club members. So i note that members of the general public are attending, not necessarily evidence of a lack of journalism objectivity. Id also like to welcome our audiences. You can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag npclunch. After our guest speech concludes, well have a question and answer period. Now its time to introduce our head table guest. Id like each of you to stand briefly as your name is announced. Doman, from your right. Wnew. Oman, reporter for gio lawrence, syndicated columnist. Clift, washington correspondent for the daily beast. And Mclaughlin Group panelist. James r. Webb, son of the clift, washington correspondent for the daily beast. Speaker. Analyst. Lds, political hun lee webb, wife of the speaker. Jerry wesky, chairman of the committee and former president of the National Press club. Angela king, White House Correspondent for Bloomberg News and former president of the National Press club. Webb, daughter of the speaker. Smoken, executive editor, cnn politics. Fales, columnist for military. Com. Mike eagle, principal, public affairs. A round of applause for our head table. Heres what we know about jim webb, our speaker today. Onetermrmer democratic senator from decorated marine who served in vietnam, a secretary of the navy in the reagan emmyawardion, an winning journalist, a filmmaker of ten books. What we dont know is whether hell be a candidate for the democratic nomination for president. But there have been some hints. Webb visited iowa last month and is planning a trip to New Hampshire. Not everyone who goes to iowa and New Hampshire becomes a contender. L but no one who hopes to be in those earlyores primary states. Two weeks ago, he tweeted a link article with times the headline populist could train. Clinton as he told a labor audience in iowa, quote, i am comfortable to senator elected with a union card, three tattoos purple hearts, unquote. [applause] while in the senate, webb served relations, armed services, veteran affairs, and committees. Onomic post911gition, the bill, is the most significant legislation since world war ii. [applause] as chairman of the foreign relation committees, webb called in eastu. S. To reengage asia. In 2009, he went to burma, the First American leader to visit that country in ten years. Though the trip was criticized in the prodemocracy movement, subsequently relations wereen the two countries resumed. Webb graduated from the naval 1968. Y in when he returned from vietnam, he got a law degree from georgetown. Webb was a staffer on the House Veterans Affairs committee anore being appointed assistant secretary of defense and then secretary of the navy. In addition to his public varied, webb has had a career as a journalist, winning an emmy for his coverage in beirut in 1983. He wrote the original story and of thecutive producer film rules of engagement. Webbs books include a history the scots, irish culture, a novel set in the vietnam war, i heard my country calling, a memoir of his early life, published this year. Webb has been to the National Press club on several previous occasions. Welcomere very happy to him back to the National Press club. [applause] thank you very much. I appreciate all of you coming today to be with us. Noticed i should point out here, at the outset, that jerry has enough questions, i think, to last for about an after im done. In theope youll be kind questions i hope hell be kind in the questions he chooses done. Am first, let me say how proud i am of my family members are with me today, up here at table. D who asst daughter, amy, a small child used to ride on my disabledome of friends from vietnam, as they wheelies in their wheelchairs, wheelchair races in i think hospital, and she found her calling at a young age and now works with the veterans. Merican [applause] jim, who left penn state the iraqe height of infantrynlisted an rifleman, fought in some of the infighting in the wor the war, and my wife, hun, who in many ways represents what the about. N dream is all her entire family, ex tenned extended family escape escaped from vietnam on a boat. G they were rescued by the sea. D states navy, at she spent time in two different refugee camps. Neither of her parents ever spoke a word of english. And through all that, she ended graduate of cornell law school. Folks, is that represents the best of what our country is all about. [applause] and ive said for many years that the truest legacy of my Public Service will always come from the contributions of those who either under my command in the marine corps or on my staff. Has heard and will continue to hear from these talented men and women, wherever go and however they choose to serve. A good number of them have made over here during a busy us. Week to join which did great things during those six years. They continue to show us that in aare allstars multitude of endeavors. Id be pleased if they would be recognized and right now. [applause] there have been a lot of things going on in the last couple of days, and im sure im going to get questions about them. But what id really like to talk about today in my opening remarks is whats going on in our country and what we can do to make things better. Let me begin by stealing a quote vidal. Re gore vidal, as many of you know, irascible the most and Brilliant Minds of the postworld war ii era. Wrote you never know when you are happy. You only know when you were happy. The same holds true, i think, for the times in which we live. Areeldom know when we living through a period of true historic challenge. Its overow after that we did. Workings of National Policy are not a part of most americans lives. You wake up every morning. You go to work. Maybe you try to find a job. You take care of your family. You pay your taxes. You turn on the tv and watch as they were behaving this morning, screaming at each other, about how screwed things are. Sometimes you agree with both of them. Sometimes you agree with neither of them. Things happen in the world. And that will never change. Time, i think it is it has been rare in our crasheswhen our economy at the same time were at war, as has been the case in the past or six years. Our in america, Multicultural Society lives in a state of constant disagreement. This is frustrating. It is also creative. But the discussions during recently years have taken on a different tone. The very character of america is into question. Who are we as a people . That u niets us rather thanits us divides us . Where is our Common Ground when centrifugal forces are spinning so out of control, when inple at the very top exist a distant outer orbit, completely separated in their associationss and from those of us who are even in middle . And completely disconnected from those who exist paycheck to at the bottomose who are often scorned as takers, who simply want a free ride. Think about that. We say were fellow americans when tens of millions of people are being quietly off . En not only by our most wealthy but politicalny of our leaders, as hopeless, who will never be fully employed, and who or should be avoided on the street, feared rather than enter the american mainstream . Live indisputably in the greatest country on earth. Americanse of the dream is that all of us have an equal opportunity to succeed. Honest. S be if youre ten years old and in eastd living baltimore and going in the bathroom in a bucket because the landlord wont fix your plumbing, and your schools are places of intimidation and violence and the only people on the street who seem to be making money are the ones who are howing drugs, no matter hard you work, you do not have the same picture of the american a kid your age being groomed for prep school and then ivy league. The or if youre a kid growing up in Appalachian Mountains of clay county, kentucky, by most accounts the poorest county in america, which also happens to white, surrounded by poverty, drug abuse and joblessness, when you leaf your order to succeed, and when you do, you are welcomed a cynical, unbelieving stares and whispers of an no longerat understands your cultural journey and policies that can from a fair shot at education or employment, with the false premise that if youre white, you by definition have kind of socioeconomic advantage, what are you going to think about the socalled own government . If youre a man, a woman who time in prison, as have so many millions of todays society, and you paid the price for your mistake, which could be as simple as a sickness, a drug moment of or a absolutely but culpable topidity, and you want reenter the community that you left behind when you were locked abusedlected, possibly and definitely marked for the rest of your life on every thatyment application youll ever fill out, how do you do that . When there are no clear programs transition that can prepare you for the structured demands or societyforce itself . Which is going to fear you, time inyou spent prison. What do you do now . We, as a government, have an obligation to provide a assist you so can that the rest of your life is not wasted, or have you merely become just another throwaway like the kids in east baltimore kentucky . Unty, years olday youre 30 without a high school diploma. Maybe you hit a rebellious streak when you were 17. You went out and got a deadend ab or got pregnant and became single mom. Now youre looking at the rest of your life and you feel hopeless. The big debate between the two Political Parties seems to be a higherou should get minimum wage and whether the government should start to put kidsograms into school from prekindergarten. What do you need more than a minimum wage . I mean, even if if your kids prek, what happens when they come home . Is your life already over at the 30 . Of would it change if we had a Second Chance program where you could finish school, show your kids your own diploma and tell studyo stay in school and job that example and a pays more than minimum wage . Thoseould it take to turn things around . Or is it impossible . Or should we just decide that something thats beyond the role of government . Societal dislocation has been happening at a time when americas place on the International Stage has become increasingly unclear, both in as thef our position economic beacon of the Global Community and our vital role as the military guarantor of international stability. Decades sincetwo the end of the cold war, our in its has been adrift Foreign Policy. The greatest military power on lacked a clearly defined set of principles that would communicate our National Security objectives to our allies, to our potential adversaries and most importantly to our own people. Or that same period, our debates policies and fairness at home have become more polarized, driving our people even further and further bringing themhan together. In many cases, deliberately onggerating divisions based race, class, gender, Sexual Orientation and geography. Surprisingly, the American People have grown ever more cynical about their national parties. P, in both and increasingly more pessimistic about the future. No mistake. How we resolve these two is going touestions determine what america looks like ten, 20 or 30 years from now. Future,ottoodistant depending on how we resolve these questions, we will look back and judge ourselves. We have the courage to face the hard issues, to make the weficult decisions, to prove were worthy of the sacrifices of the generations that went before us . Did we fail . Watching passively, the greatest nation descended into mediocrity, because it burned with trivial Party Politics and the inability of our leaders to come to grips sorts of challenges and to Work Together to actually solve them. Have reached an unavoidable and historic crossroads. The way we choose to address the deeplyons that now so divide us over the next few years will define who we really people and what our future will look like. The responsibilities of our government . Heres a list. Provide for the common defense. The general welfare, maintain order and Public Safety whether youre in east baltimore or north arlington. Erect standards of fairness when comes to the opportunity to succeed. Dont pick favorites based on corridorscess to the of power. Barriers that the have too often divided us, im to believe that those of us who love our country ourcome together to rebuild infrastructure and to repair the torn divided fabric of our national spirit. True fairness is not an nor is thedream, notion that we can return to a time when we can look at a fellow citizen and feel a moment of camaraderie rather than a mistrust, dislike or fear. We need the energy and the of every american, trained and put to use in ways morewill make him productive. Their neighborhoods more vibrant. And our country stronger. More than that, every one of us should view this as a duty, as a andzen, if nothing else, participate in the national discussion. Me mention a few areas where i believe we can maker a make a difference. First, we must develop a clear statement of National Security policy. Ign an understandable statement of our National Security interest is the basis of any great policy. Foreign clearly understood principles and the determination to stand essential to stability and also to public support. Our allies will be able to adjust to our clarity. Know wereries will serious. And our people will understand the logic of our place in the world. Now. Not have that right our Foreign Policy has become a many cases ofn what can only be called situational ethics. What does the United States stand for in the global arena . Under what conditions should we risk our national treasure, our credibility, and more importantly, the lives of our military people . Heres a quick bottom line. Our National Interest is, how were going to we will knowd how we have accomplished our mission. Unless you can do that, you dont have a strategy. Once the cold war ended, our way. Ally, we lost and we have yet to regain it. In the area of international relations, its not a healthy thing when the worlds dominant hastary and economic power a policy based on vagueness. So we ended up and continue to trapped in the neverending, en entanglements of the middle east, beginning was the pandoras box that opened in the invasion in iraq and continuing through the stillfermenting nightmare of the arab spring, particularly our inadvisable actions in libya. I was one who warned before the iraq that our entanglement would destabilize empower iran and weaken our influence in other places. It me quote from an article wrote in the Washington Post on september 4, 2002. Five months before we invaded iraq. I quote, americas best military know they are accountable to history, not only for how they fight wars, but how they prevent them. The greatest military victory of bringing an expansionist soviet union in aom the cold, while averting Nuclear Holocaust was accomplished not by an invasion, but through decades of maneuvering and continuous operations. Situation into the iraq, our military leaders know to haveities that seem been lost in the narrow debate about Saddam Hussein himself. Oftenrst is that wars have unintended consequences. The second is that a longterm occupation of iraq would beyond doubt require an adjustment of elsewhere and could eventually diminish american influence in other parts of the world. And then later, in japan, American Occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends. Quickly they would become 50,000 terrorist targets. Should our governing principles be . First, if a president wishes to conduct offensive military operations, he or she should be able to explain clearly the threat, the specific objections of the operations, and the end result. Should honor all our treaty commitments. But we are not obligated to join the treaty partner if they elect to use force outside the direct of our commitment, as in libya, for example. Will maintain superiority in our strategic systems. Nuclearludes not only weapons but also such areas as technology, space and cyberwarfare. Fourth, we will preserve and exercise the right of selfdefe

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