Nothing compared to some of the bruises i got when i was fighting in the ring. When i was a boy, i dreamed of being an athlete. I listened to those games on the radio, baseball games, and i envisioned me as a man out in center field in Yankee Stadium or fenway park in boston, but the joy ive gotten with the work that ive done to the people of the state of nevada have been just as the filling as if i had played center field at Yankee Stadium. The job of minority leader, and the United States senate and is just a support as being majority just as important as being majority leader. It gives you so much opportunity to good things for this country and thats what i am focused on. But this accident has caused us for the first time to have a little downtime. I have had time to ponder and to think. Weve got to be more concerned about the country, the senate, the state of nevada, then us. And as a result of that, i am not going to run for reelection. My friend senator mcconnell, dont be too elated. I am going to be here for 22 months, and you know what im going to be doing . The same thing ive done since i first came to the senate. We have to make sure that the democrats take control of the senate again. And i feel it is inappropriate for me to soak up all those werent resources on me when i can be devoting those resources to the caucus, and thats what i intend to do. The decision that ive made has absolute nothing to do with my injury. It has nothing to do with my being minority leader, and it certainly has nothing to do with my ability to be reelected because the path to reelection is much easier than it probably has been for anytime i have run for reelection. Mrs. Reid i get a little upset sometimes when i hear politicians say that theyre going to go and spend time with their family after they decide that they are not going to be in politics anymore. Hes a wonderful husband and a wonderful father. So thats been more important than the other things that hes done with his life. Senator reid someone with my background, my upbringing, to have the experience ive had is really a miracle, i want people in the state of nevada to know that i am so grateful, and i have done my best. I havent been perfect but it i really tried my hardest to represent the people of the state of nevada. With two years left, senator reid and said that he will support senator Charles Schumer to take his position. In a statement, senator schumer said, iem honored and humbled to have the support of so many of my colleagues and look forward to our senate to my credit caucus president obama said, during my time in office, harry has a become not only an ally, but a friend. I am proud of all we have accomplished Mitch Mcconnell also commented. Here are some of our featured programs. On look tv book tv, Peter Wallace and wallison speaks. And then speaking on the economy. And on American History tv, cspan3, a discussion on the last major speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther king jr. And then sunday afternoon, on a real america the 1965 meet the press with Martin Luther king jr. Find our complete Television Schedule on cspan. Org. Tell us about the programs that you are watching. You can email comments to cspan. Org. Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Next the discussion about the negotiations on Irans Nuclear program. Then dr. Margaret hamburg talking about her tenure. Barbara bush, daughter of george w bush, joined other young adults on saturday to discuss issues that motivate their generation. Explored new ways that men up millennials are helping their communities. Here is a portion of their remarks. Hi, i am jacob, the editor of the National Interest magazine and i am moderating today on behalf of the center of National Interest which is invited that hasnt invited to guess to speak about iran and american politics. On my right is David Rothkopf the ceo and editor of Foreign Policy magazine and managing director of Kissinger Associates and has held several highlevel positions in the clinton and administration and is also the author of several books on international relations. To my left, dov zakheim, a longtime friend and also the Vice President of the center of National Interest vice chairman. He is also the comptroller at the pentagon during the george w. Bush administration and is the author of a quite provocative memoir about his ears at the pentagon, called, v ulcans tale. And today, we will talk about iran, it could hardly be more timely. The middle east is always in ferment. Today, it Defense Department officials were quoted in the wall street journal asking, who is going to be the person who shoots the archduke of the middle east, igniting a new world war one. With negotiations in geneva and the events in yemen, i think it is hardly a better time to discuss the role that the middle east and iran are playing in american politics. I will go to david first. David rothkopf thank you, it is a pleasure to be here. The observation i have heard most frequently since i arrived that the center of National Interest has the best lunch of any place in town. I have to agree with that. I do also want to make a brief side, before i dive in. Several weeks ago, i made a pledge not to appear on any panels that did not include women. Unfortunately, i see that there is not one woman at this table. But, good, i think we can do a lot to enrich well, yes. It is true. Move closer to the table. I hope you are not diminishing my point, which is, i think there must be more women out there interested in this subject to enrich the conversation. In any event, you know, i think it is apposite in a discussion of the middle east that we focus on iran, because it is central to the situation. Before we get into the iranian fax facts, we should jump off of jacobs point a moment ago, there has never been a situation in our lifetime, such as that that we see and the middle east right now. Every single country in the region is involved in a military conflict with the exception of one. Every single country. The analogy to the balkans is not over the top. It may not turn into world war iii, but we already see a fueling unrest in africa and parts of asia. We already know it has potential conflict or consequences for extremism and in terror attacks in europe and north america. Clearly has global consequences economically. It is clear, we cannot afford to walk away from it and i think that our impulse and the impulses of some administrations to do that is a contributing factor to problems we have here. But since the topic is iran and american politics, i want to zero in on that and then we can open it back to the rest of the region. During the 2008 president ial election when a barack obama was trying to differentiate himself from Hillary Clinton, in a debate when he said the approach ought to be engagement the questioner he faced said, with him would you engage . His first reaction was iran. In fact, Hillary Clinton responded with some skepticism. I do not believe that our interaction with iran over the course of the ensuing six years is therefore an accident. If you look at the chaos that followed in the wake of the air of spring and the changes that have come to the middle east one country has benefited. That is iran. Iran has benefited with greater influence in the yemen with greater influence in iraq, by very considerable amounts, it has benefited in syria, with its man assad now looking likely to outlast obama in office. It clearly looks to benefit from the upcoming nuclear deals, in some important ways in terms of sanctions relief and increased stature. At the same time, i think one cannot help but objectively conclude that u. S. Relations with virtually every key ally we have in the region have deteriorated and the only country with which there has been a substantial improvement or potential for improvement or fine thawing with our relations, is iran. Not only is it that the case, but our allies who feel shunned aside or neglected or distressful just trustful it distressful, feel that way for a reason. We did not respond to their concerns about growing problems in syria. They feel that way because they saw us embrace to quickly the more regime, not criticize it in egypt and embraced to slowly the possibility of the cc era in egypt and what it meant. While egypt is the anchor in the arab world. Our relationship with israel is at its worst, in terms of the leader to leader relationship. And our relationship with golf states who feel we have been in the midst of a slow with iran, even as they have had growing concerns, has also deteriorated. Although everyone is trying to put a brave face on it. This situation does not look like it will improve despite some optical sleight of hand this week that included general austin saying he would never have american troops coordinate with shia militias, which is preposterous. We are flying air support for the iranians in iraq and Everybody Knows it. If you do not collect coordination, come up with another word, but look it up in the dictionary and the word will mean coordination. We are playing telephone with the iraqis or doing it through back channels. But, that was sleight of hand, having the ship militias pull out. And our socalled support for the saudis going into yemen which creates the confusing situation of opposing an iranian backed group in yemen off fighting alongside them in iraq. Also that does not take away from this, particularly since the big looming issue on the horizon is an Iranian Nuclear deal. And that nuclear deal looks very likely not to be anything like the nuclear deal we thought in yemen. We sought in yemen. The primary purpose of the deal has to be, are we going to reduce the risk of proliferation in the region . Secondary, are we going to reduce the risk of threat from iran . The reason i put them in the order, if iran is it going to have this firepower offshore the deterred effect would work. The concern is that Iran Gets Nuclear weapons and other countries seek to counter that and that increases the risk that weapons fall in the wrong hands. If you have a Nuclear Agreement i create possibility that iran could go from the day it ceases to comply with the agreement to having a Nuclear Weapon within a year or if you months, then every state that is concerned about Iranian Nuclear power gets put in the position of having to defend itself and thus the proliferation risk remains. That is what we went from. We went from seeking zero situation to seeking a oneyear buffer, from not wanting centrifuges to now accepting thousands of centrifuges, those placed in bunkers, we went from what i think was much more gradual expectations regarding sanctions to i think you will end up with us getting into some pressure for greater sanctions relief. And we are going to do this in a way that will improve iranians standing ultimately with a lot of countries that want to deal with them. Even if the u. S. Congress blocks list this, and places it has power to do so, setting sanctions that requires congressional involvement. And so, you will end up with a less a ban ideal arrangement that will survive, will get from an interim agreement to a permanent agreement. The congress will not be able to block the agreement. The president will veto efforts to block it. And it will go through the u. N. And iran will have additional cash. And as iran hasnt additional cash, that will give it additional opportunities. Malia has economic problems at home. Iraq has economic problems, they are broke and unable to operate oilfield properly in the southern part of the country. And the iranians have put themselves in a sponsorship position with the baghdad government that is it it is a shocking reversal of what was in the past. They have who is hailed throughout iraq as the leader of the who has pushed back against isis. And if they iranians have the ability to help iraqis and we are disinclined to do so, which we are imagine what that will mean in terms of further iranian influence. There, in syria, places like western afghanistan. I think it is highly likely that we will come into the 2016 election cycle with iran being the big middle east winner from the Obama Administration, with the middle east being in the most precarious shape it has ever been in. That the approaches of the Obama Administration to the middle east, being seen as egregious failures even among those who would argue that the bush and administration had more egregious failures in its term. And by that i mean significant parts of the democratic party. It is pretty dark. And perhaps in our ensuing discussion we will be able to find some rays of light. But i wanted, because i know that dovs frame of mind to provide you know, a useful counterpoint to that he can now assume his role, which is to defend it what the Obama Administration has done. [laughter] for viewers, i would like to say that these remarks are coming from someone who served in the Clinton Administration and may not be sympathetic, but the situation is very stark. I am extremely sympathetic ask any of my daughters. David rothkopf i will now turn to dov. Dov zakheim i am afraid i will disappoint people here and the viewers and i will not defend the Obama Administration, i will take a perspective that is pretty much the same as davids but expand on it in a variety of ways. First, this guy used to sit at the far corner of this room, named and he was a leading journalist analyst, a brilliant thinker, quite a character and we will miss him. I wanted to mention that because he really was a regular here. And he contributed tremendously to the conversations that we had. I wanted to give you context that goes beyond in some ways what david talked about. You have to begin not just with the debate with hillary, you have to begin with the fact that the president as a candidate and pretty consistently since then, wanted to focus on nation building at home. That was his priority. Do stuff at home and try to keep the world at a distance if at all possible. One of his big legacy items obamacare is one he hopes to preserve, he is still trying to do something on immigration, he clearly has a pet for pushing the envelope on environmental issues, even if it means alienating canada. You start from there and you look at, ok, what has been his approach to the world . It has been one, if i can keep out of it, i will keep out of it. Pull out of afghanistan camera afghanistan iraq, no Ground Troops in libya, even if the country falls apart. Withdraw brigades from europe, and not restore them even as mr. Putin flexes his muscles. It we sent a company to each baltic state, that is not a lot of people. Only on the kurds with baghdads approval, and without more forces in asia, and so you see a pattern. How does iran fit into this pattern what i see is an attempt to, on the one hand create sends nixons condominium more than that. He handed off to the shaw, and in some ways i think mr. Obama thinks the way to deal with this region is to let the iranians handle it. Part of that, and sort of an outcome of that, is it too downgrade the relationship of the israelis. Treat them as a secondary power revert back to the relationship israel had with the u. S. Prior to the mid1960s. I think that is where he is headed. If you look at all the things that have a gone on, they all hang together. For example in the case of afghanistan, everybody is noticing that donny had a terrific visit here and we are keeping troops in there until the end of the year. One thing it does is help the iranians. The last people they need back and kabul is the telegram. They almost went to taliban. They almost went to war with them. That favors the iranians. Not providing support for the kurds, that favors the iranians. Because if you give the kurds too much military equipment, and they really feel they can go independent, and they have talked about it in a way that they had as a long as two years ago, but because of the collapse in iraq, they are now talking about it. If you do that, everybody notices that well, the text the kurds will be upset, but so will the iranians. So they dont want a stronger critic stand occurred to stand. I was in kurdistan for a conference and i came away convinced that we are working hand in glove with the iranians. I had a panel that included the National Security adviser of iraq, the Vice President of iraq the who is our emissary to fighting isis and the advisor and chief of staff to the president of courtesy and critic stand. I asked the panel four times, talk to me about iran. Nobody wanted to. I can understand why the iraqis dont want to, because they want us to help and they want the iranians to help. I can understand why the kurds dont want to. But why didnt mcgurk say a word . Nothing, zero. That tells you something. So, it is true obama has a dilemma in yemen. No question. He is supporting the guys that are fighting the iranians. But by and large that is iran is the direction in which he is headed. Look at the deal. Everybody is arguing for ages over how many centrifuges we will allow the iranians. It turns out not a matter of centrifuges but allowing the iranians to have centrifuges to which they give nobody access. They were supposed to close them down. And close down iraq. They are not doing that. We are giving way on the whole question of what they have done until now. Which they have been pushing, we are giving away on that. And you know, for an ancient empire, what is 10 years, 15 years, a hundred years and the middle east. Nothing. And then what . And then david said, look at the reaction in a the rest of the region on the part of people who are supposed to be our friends . I am not as worried about an iranian strike on israel, because