Speaker. Our interviewers are always welcome to send comments simply emailing speaker at heritage. Org and we will post for everyones future reference following todays program. Hosting our events james who serves as Vice President of our katherine and Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. Graduate of west point and 25 year veteran of the army serves as adjunct professor at Georgetown University and served as professor at defense university. He serves on the board of trust years at the Marine Corps Foundation and Advisory Boards for the west point center of history and the Hamilton Society and operation renewed hope. Please join me in welcoming jim fano. Pete is not only a great friend but define it is definition of Great American graduated at presentation tone princeston and harvard. Two bronze stars. Working with fox news and so having having put his life on the line im not sure what possessed him to write this. In the world in which we live you write a book about who we are and who we should be. It just seems old fashion but those who have walked around and walked by the roosevelt statute and seen of of the quotes and remember not just he is legacy that deciding who we are to being a republic and democracy that maybe theres not a better time for this book around i certainly applaud pete to share his thoughts. So pete is going to talk and then we will take q a. If you would wait for the microphone, if you would raise your hand for pete to recognize and wait for the microphones, state your name and affiliation, that would be awesome. We will do that, sometimes we start later at heritage but we always end on time. With that, please join me in welcoming the author of in the arena. [applause] well, jim, thank you very much. The heritage foundation, im grateful for this opportunity. You got the book early, you engaged with it and i appreciate that and offered to host. This feels like a family reunion, basically in this audience and i thank all of you for being here, so many wonderful faces, people that i have known and worked with and folks online thanks for sticking with us. First i want to thank a bunch of people by my former colleagues at concerned vets, im great thafl you are here. I wrote this book from 4 00 to 8 00 a. M. In many mornings while working while running cva and it was what we did at cva that was an inspiration for me and i think you will find that its a call to action that is exactly the call to action that is the organization. It was always a pleasure to work with you, i appreciate the work that you continue to do from jay and bill and sarah, tal and dan, amber, emily, kevin fred and even my brother phil who is in the front row here. I want to thank all of you and, of course, who was earlier with us, kate, she told me you have to write it and i took her advice. Im glad that i did. I also want to thank my very good College Buddy who is here and acknowledged in the book. This book literally would not have happened with nat, without him teaching me to write, argue, pulling me back from the brink of absurd things that i put on the pages of publications, that was the content editor and for good reason, thank thank you for your help on this project. So many others that are not here, my wife, boys, who i dedicate the book to. Southern names of the north. And i also want to recognize david vilavia, author himself and also encouraged this project from the the very beginning. To the book itself, when i was in afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay i carried a quote in a black frame, Teddy Roosevelts arena, youll see it. Its the quote, its not the critic who counts but the man who is actually in the arena, who strives or, comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but does actually strive to do the deed and knows great enthusiasms and spend himself in a worthy cause who knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and if at worst fails, place shall never be with those cold and timid solds who know neither victory nor defeat. Its a famous quote. Many of you heard it, many probably motivated as well. This book is not about my life. Im not a state senator from illinois. This book is always not about Teddy Roosevelt. Of course, it channels historic speech but its not about him, im not attempt to go litigate his life as a conservative im very aware of progressive lurch and what he gives in candy with candidacy with Woodrow Wilson. Its a call to action. To me is meant to inspire motivate and remind americans of every generation what makes America Special and that it is worth fighting for and some of us carried a rifle and many in this generation still do, but you dont have to carry a rifle to be in the arena and its our job to instill in every generation the principles that perpetuates what is an experiment in human freedom. You see, if the 21st century isnt an American Century, then the 21st century will not be a free century. Its just a fact. You look around in the world today there are threats, ideologies around the world are quite different than ours and a quote, something i put in the book throughout is the phrase history is not over, history is never over and all we have to do is look to western europe today to realize that when you decide to gut your military to pay for your welfare state and you forget who you are, you have a tendency to end up riding the way of history as oppose to shaping it. If getting off to a good start is important, then no one is more responsible for the 20th century being an American Century than Teddy Roosevelt. Charged up san juan hill, great white fleet around the world, chief for american involvement in world war i. If you remember Woodrow Wilson wanted peace without victory which i think would be quite difficult and very looking peace than we have today. In many ways the 20th century on the back of Teddy Roosevelt. Why then as i think about it, when i read the entire Roosevelt Speech thats when i really woke up to the power of the quote. The quote itself is powerful. The quote is motivating but it is in some ways, theres no value assertion in the quote. Its being in the arena, but what is the arena and what does it mean, its not your arena or you do you argument, theres the what arena for this exceptional american experiment that was gift today us 240 years ago and has to be perpetuated in every single generation. We all know the regan quote. You have to fight for it in every generation, it doesnt get past to generation. Difficult reality on a daily basis, you see the quote is one quote of the larger speech citizenship in a republic. Roosevelt gave it in front of 3,000 elites in paris, when i read the speech for the first time after just looking at the quote and never really thinking about the context i was blown away. It is sort of unpc before there was pc, to me struck me as the road map of what we need in America Today in order to restore our republic. Why should i stand up and declare what i think what i think the direction of america should be when instead i could chanel a fantastic speech, a historic speech that has timeless resonance today and reminds us of the very ingredients of republics that are required in every generation new york city matter what, no matter we have twitter or facebook, the ingredients are the same. He says the average citizen must be a good citizen if Great Republics are to succeed. The average citizen must be a good citizen if Great Republics are to succeed. Not great rulest or even great citizens necessarily heroic citizens in every moment, good citizens that on a daily basis in a gritty way, personal way understand what it takes to keep and make america the greatest country in the world. You see good citizens are the only aneck anecdote to big government. Good citizens that understand why america is exceptional and special they are the thin line between freedom and and tierny we understand that it was just that, an experiment. In fact, europe sort of laughed at us, a piece of paper, a constitution thats going to stand between you and a tyrant, you are going to hand over power peacefully, there was a sense that it wasnt powerful. They understood a balance of power which checked the nature of humans, pride, ambition. They understood freedom of religion as oppose to freedom from religion. They understood amendments like the first and the second are indispensable to free peoples, ability to articulate which roosevelt talks about in the speech, tolerating very different opinions, thats tolerance and the Second Amendment the right to bear arms and protect yourself. And also understand we are country of laws if not men. So he talks about good citizens and good patriots in the speech. Good citizens at home and good patriots in the world, and thats really the breakdown of the book, its intentionally in that order because i talk a lot about talk in fox and elsewhere, Foreign Policy, military and National Security, theres a lot to talk about but you cant talk about American Leadership until you talk about restoring an maintaining citizenship. If you dont understand who you are and what you believe and you dont educate in every generation, you can forget about attempting to be the leader in the world or attempting to project power and controversial in places. What is a good citizen . Its not just voting or jury duty, its not protesting necessarily, those are ingredients of what we do in republics of what citizens do. Roosevelt points out that its the gritty, civic virtues, he use it is word efficient which is usually a word we think of when we think of lightbulbs and starting pitchers, you dont think of it when of citizens. Who are you you as an individual and what do you do before deciding how others live and he uses the first principle is work. Earned success. The willingness to keep a job and provide for your family. The second is fight. Spirit for man and woman, holding your own. You see a bikehelmet culture when we should be thinking about female in the middle east. We teach our kids to be wimps. And we need to be willing to stand up for and fight for the things that we believe in whether its on a battlefield or here at home. The third is large patriotic families, demographics, roosevelt wrote about demographics and what i use often is of an afghan interpreter that i spent, not radical, hes in the United States today, he would risk his life for me and i would for him. And he we were talking about faith, religion, christianity islam, pete, its inevitable that islam would overrule the world, the prophet foretold it. We are having ten kids and you are having one. When you look at western europe today, when you look i mentioned theyre gutting their militaries to pay for their welfare state, when you forget who you are and you dont demand allegiance from populations that separate themselves and then have ten kids while youre having one, thats how london become it is most popular name in london becomes mohamed for newborn boys. And for us to think that things like that just go away, is willful blindness and so western europe whether its 25, 50 years from now is going to look very different. Its not an antimuslim phrase or statement, its a reality because they dont do integration, they vent done that well in western europe thats not the melting pot that american has been so far. And then things like the migrant crisis only accelerate problems we see there and as many of you know europe is a preview of america. Second chapter of the book is about france and what we can learn from france that was frankly formerly Great Republic that decided to give away status by making very intentional decisions at home and america can learn from that. Now we have massive advantage that is our revolution was different than theirs but still a lot to learn. The first aspect you can put is character whether its faith or believing in something greater than yourself, George Washington religion and morality are indispensable in for republic. Im not talking about social conservatism and in the book i as a former i still am a social conservative in many ways, campus and college, you go to war, you learn some things, you see some things and you realize theres other things in my mind that are a more important priority. Im not talking about prolife issues. I think thats a fight that conservatives should couldnt to fight every day of the week but i think we obsess over things like samesex marriage and inhibits the ability to talk about the real challenges facing families, the real challenges facing parents and kids in our culture. Then he talks about after you focus on yourself looking outward, he talks a lot about equal opportunity which should be, needs to be the star of conservatives and republicans, the left, of course, is the party of equal outcome. If we are not if we dont strive daily to be the party of equal opportunity, then we will miss the mark. And i think its fair to say republicans and conservatives and in many ways have missed the mark for a long time talking about marginal tax rates when peoples mine sets are very different and are seeing massive shifts in economy and the way lives are lived. We have to have clear eyes and not just unburdening regulations and problems for those pushing back against dependency for those at the bottom, but also making sure that those at the top play by the same rules. Its the regulations, its the tax code, its the lobbyist that, of course, rig the system so that those at the top are able to gain to their advantage and in many ways block out those who would otherwise have social mobilities, the left talks about income inequality all of the time. What we should talk about social mobility. Is the ability to rise. The ability in this country to have every opportunity that your parents or others had in previous generations. You have to start with citizenship. He always talks about what undercuts good citizens and its citizenry focused on rights instead of duties, citizens ri that believe that men are perfected and citizenship that is invested in moral relativism and theres no right or wrong, of course, we see that on the battlefield today. Theres no reason why the New York Times had to put it 32 Straight Days in the row. Theres no home team in america. The American Press or other places today because its passe that america is good and we support the causes that we undertake even though controversial. Roosevelt talks about he says at the end of the republic commences which is what we have seen whether its left, right, black, male, young old and we have seen classes and genders pitted against each other which is toxic to the body politics and you start with citizenship, because without citizenship you cant be the good patriots on the world stage that you need to be. You guys have all seen the i dont know if youve seen the Bumper Sticker, think globally act locally, its a popular environmental Bumper Sticker and i think roosevelt would rip that off and say, think globally, think lobing ally, act globally, remember who you are and be willing to act globally in defense of those principles which are indispensable that america is good, america is worth fighting for, america is truly exceptional and america has been a force for good in the world. Sounds like a very basic simple question. I talk about iraq surge. The line of freedom and journey often times decided in those really difficult moments when half of the country or a lot of people want to take a political route, lets pop smoke and leave this difficult battlefield and then the other half says, no, this is the exact moment when you need to be willing to double down, when you need to be willing to take the fight to the enemy and i have never been more proud than january 10th, 2007 when george w. Bush announced surge in iraq and did the right thing, he said, the future of our security depends on the battle of the streets of baghdad and ask yourself today if he was right and unfortunately, of course, he was, and the surge did work and it was successful and alqaeda in iraq was largely defeated. Political progress was happening. By january 2010, Joe Joe Biden was declaring achievement of the obama administration, achievement that he happened to visit four or five days ago, they took for granted the stability and the gains that were made through greedy decisions in a dark moment and assume they would perpetuate themselves without understanding out central defeating islamist was to their narrative and our narrative. Are we the paper tiger that Osama Bin Laden said we were. Would we retreat for every conflict or are we able to show forefathers and thats not a call for fighting every boogie man on the horizon, its a recognition that the lesson we should learn from the last 15 years, the lesson we should learn from iraq is that resolve works, not that all the middle eastern wars are terrible and just not get messed up there, thats it. We should and the did i feel part is the narrative in the republican and democrat moving to the wrong direction and what i basically do a couple of chapters is make the case that the iraq war is a war that we should learn from of what to do in the right moments as oppose to run from and i think republicans and conservatives should stand confidently in every form they can and point across the aisle to Hillary Clinton and barack obama and joe biden and say youre the reason isis is proliferation, it was mean retreat that created those seeds and its your policies that advanced chaos in the region and theres any numb theres obviously a more complex situation when you unfold every layer of that but ultimately a lack of military will, an