>> to the policymakers and the strategy makers. also, you know, cheaper tactics. what was a little used on this mission. but we have to ask at this grand strategy is working. i would like to hear your comments on so you had a problem with the all volunteer force? so how does that play into civil liberties, and why not just force policymakers to actually work going to were constitutionally? >> well, that is a tough one to handle. let's see. >> i can start that one. the first is the frustrations that we will never get away from. you know, i was a lieutenant. and whenever we were going into battle come you talk to the squad leaders and we were all basically trying to figure things out amongst ourselves. nobody knew the grand strategy. i don't know when you do know the grand strategy. colonel, do you know the grand strategy? i just think that that is -- that is a difficult one. >> the other part was the all volunteer force. i was wondering if maybe you could get america to put some skin in the game by conscripting the. >> i am not asking this in terms of the draft of the military. but i do think that there should be service. we want special people that can do the job. that is no shame but i would want to be in the marine corps with. how to read, teaching them to build service trails. it would be a lot cheaper, they're there are all kinds of things that can be done. the question about civil liberties -- you feel like you are a slave to government? >> this is a republic by the people for the people. it means that you have to pony up. when you pony up the taxes, you are being part of the community. to ask you to devote your time to earn money and then give it to the government, you can go ahead and feel that way. all you have to do is understand that that is community. that is not able liberties issue. and i think the same thing goes for asking people to serve their time between the ages of 18 and 20. do you want to chip in or not? i don't think it's a civil rights issue. >> hello, my name is andrew and i would like to honor you as my brothers and sisters in the audience for your military service. personally and sincerely, i thank you for your service. i'm also really grateful to be able to be here and that you offer this to the public. as he said, we are healing civilians, and as my friend says, it is peacemaking. i am really moved not just by the intelligence coming from you all here, this is important. it is important work, this idea of coming home and it is going to take a concerted effort, military and civilian. we are talking about the stereotype of the vietnam vets. i am not sure that i have this stereotype in my head. because those guys have all kill themselves. the fact is that many have been lost to suicide and many were killed in combat in the war. not just a few, but twice as many. when i first heard that, you got me, i got it. i am not sure which common it is, if you want to pick it up, mr. mcintyre. but your friend who suggested the change from ptsd to posttraumatic stress syndrome, do you have any sense that monica would have a better shot at the entitlement to the purple heart then ptsd does now? >> it would probably have less. i don't know how we will deal with the question of how displaced it is very hard to tell when the problem starts and it's very hard to know what the problem is. it's very hard to address a treatment. so that makes it very hard to assign and award the sacrifice that we have suffered. the thing that i'm operating in is that folks have been wounded come up wrangham home. you people home up to the moment they arrive. what they are thinking, if they come back to combat come back him as a flash forward. i would prefer to invite the state surgeon to comment on that. the vermont national guard state surgeon. this is a thoughtful and brilliant man with five or six tours under his belt and this is not a new issue. would you like to comment quickly? >> along the lines of what our questions are. now there are more people die of suicide and have actually died in combat. so this is one of the signature wounds of the conflict. i think that when you look at these issues, i think the issue of this, we have tried to blast injuries and concussions and there has been migration or not. it is a very hard thing. i think one of the things -- i don't know that there ever will be an answer to that question, you know what i mean? and i guess maybe sometimes the way that i look at that is that if the campaign that we have been given. when i talk about the consequences of the war, i always like to use the example. people ask how rough is it to go to combat. and i said, it is a very minimum thing. imagine going to work one day and not leaving for a year. i said that that is the absolute minimum that every soldier goes into. we say, hey, look, don't ever tell somebody. we are the society to these sheltered deaths. so we are not ready for that. and that is part of our culture. many other cultures have really integrated this into their life experience. that effect creates a lot of care and concern with our soldiers. >> it is very important how wars treat their veterans. the release early part of the 20th century, it was at least public policy. >> it was only with the g.i. bill that bill that was approved in the summer of 1944. we started giving support to anyone who served during the war. and that has been the pattern in the war since then. to okay. since we get several people lined up, that suggests to questions at a time. let's hear the question and we can conclude the answers together. let's talk about the active units on the ground in the military or on the seats. service members and their families, do you think that they will get swept under the rug and forgotten in the next couple of years as to how we dealt with insurgency and japan and how we had to relearn those things. >> my name is ben can tell. my question has to do with the constitutionality of several liberties. what about the constitutionality of forces abroad. and we don't have civilian support. i really don't understand what that means. can we see, and how can we put a change in society where people become involved? >> that's great. it is kind of a composite question, just like you just in the agreement. we even forgot about the wars we were engaged in. and if we keep that information from them, we are taking them out of the constitutional process. you know, electing their representatives to decide whether or not we should go to war and then sending our troops in harms way. you know, we have gotten to the point where we don't even have that discussion. >> there hasn't even been a constitutional declaration of war since december 8, 1941. and all the wars since then, korea, others, others have authorized them to send in their power and vietnam, those that gave lyndon johnson a blank check, both arrive in afghanistan, many think it's okay to take action to defend the united states. it was ambiguous, but it was a blank check and there has never been a declaration of war. and i do think that that is a mistake. we have had these words, we have stepped up the polls, now there is more nationbuilding in afghanistan. that is certainly novel not what we were talking about in october october 2001. there is a part of me that knows that no war is popular. it's a necessary thing and there has to be public and political support. we have not exercised that. most of the time, in the last election, 7% of americans spoke about the war in afghanistan. the fact that the politicians are ignoring it, it speaks to the fact that we have ignored it. >> talking about the fact that in terms of forgetting it, we have opportunities here. the first time in probably the only time that the national guard, separate armies from each state when people look at it have gone. our veterans would be forgotten? this is up to us and the upside is up to us. these are our neighbors and church members and let's remember we were there. we were there in quantity and ali. westminster, each of these towns, they had real people living next door. people there and the like. >> i was just going to answer the question about what we can do about making sure that people are okay. first of all, i think that if we have a clear vote going into war, declaring war, then each of those members of congress are going to go back to the constituency and explain why they voted that way. the way they do now, it is just like well, you know, you don't want any responsibility for that. you stand up and be counted. we must ask them before the vote whether or not they really want to war. number two is i don't think you should never do it on borrowed money. if you go to war, you raise taxes. everyone gets involved. there will be a surcharge. every april 15, the entire nation will look at that and wonder if they ought to. this time. or maybe we ought to stop, or what are we doing about it. my favorite example is that when i was at yale, there was a plaque on the wall as big as the whole stage. there were hundreds of names of those who fought in world war ii and korea. and we lost one soldier in vietnam. i think the universities today, they hardly send anybody today. it is very small. how are you going to get them back involved again? i mean, i don't know how anyone can do this under government money. if your kids are contributing, how are you going to get more money? i mean, it was like, come on, you guys. we are all in the same bowl. >> anything that we are integrating these jobs for our veterans? can you talk with us about veterans not been able to get jobs. this is another question. the social ingratiation of killing. it is accepted. also, if you can talk about spirituality as part of the battle. i'm just curious as i am considering that of a chaplain in a career. even with that, doctor mcintyre come you have mentioned the possibility of social security. i still have a lot of time to go. the people are going to be doing their best. how are they going to put this global footprint on things. because of this idea and your topic of moral integrity and military integrity and questionable leadership. how are we going to be able to identify this? at least from what i have seen so far, this is not something that we are taught. were we going to do in order to combat this? >> i think we denigrate those two questions. doctor roy, you know, with your work with the veterans groups, what helps these opportunities for veterans? is there any special treatment? are they feeling even more isolated because we -- well, i think that this population as a whole. there are still plenty of blue-collar jobs, especially after world war ii, that was the case. it was not the case now. so i do think that the education was critical for this. >> your work on the new g.i. bill is important. i would like to talk about the opportunities for returning veterans. they may not have taken certain courses, they may not have had some of these other situations encourage them. they need individual counseling. that is what i think. >> okay, is the psycho association a fundamental imperative for the soldiers go to war? >> i think so. we read about a british marine and a 14 or 15-year-old kid herding goat. the issue may have been paramount. but he couldn't do it. he was just a kid. if you are able to kill people, they think you're a psychopath or a sociopath. i wanted to address this issue of this young man. for the young man that wanted to be a chaplain. we had a really important football game against north catholic. and the local priest, father from my hometown come he was a real football fan and he came into the locker room before the game and there was none of this nonsense about nobody gets hurt, we all do our best. he came in there and he said, let's beat the other team. and so the father, i'm sitting there at the game and north catholic was the powerhouse. we wanted to go to the state championship. and i'm sitting here saying, but doesn't north catholic have a priest? that is one it hit me. god doesn't care what side we are on. god is upon us fighting each other. why can't we solve it a better way. god is about individual souls and what happens to the individual soul in the crucible of that fiery conflict people have no choice for where they are born, someone grows up in oregon, others grow up in north vietnam, they face each other on some war-torn area. it is a political question. so i think that is a chaplain, we focus on the soles and helping them through the crucibles. >> would you like to quickly answer that? >> i believe that every potential soldier knows what to do. you know what to do. you know what to do. you just get sucked into the hierarchy where we have to make it vision whereby our way out of the situation to save our butts were the commanders but. but i would just ask carl to talk about the kids. he basically said he just couldn't do it. he said he knew better. that is the reason that he wouldn't. in his heart and soul he knew that i am not going to do this. the only guy who came back alive stood up proud of who he was in the decisions he made. and he did not come back with one man or one woman. so where did we lose the idea that we know what to do. but we will do the right thing. we can see it, we just have to act on it. it's not a matter of courage, but it is a matter of necessity. you remember the rest of your life because you have made and i know you'll make the right one. >> i wrote a major character in this novel. every nurse i interviewed said i could not have done my job without a chaplain. i just hung out a striking fact. and that is why i wrote it or he is a recognized that is because you listen to other people doesn't mean you don't have problems too. >> i'm talking about a soldier that had a supportive family. including how society has changed. what i want to ask you is do you think that we should focus more on pushing our young men for our citizens to combat, or should we be more concerned in dealing with what they combat? >> i have noticed over the past few years that there is a bit of an anomaly forming especially with the views within our country are i think that we touched on it lightly earlier. he referred to it as the iphone generation. i have come to call it the xbox generation. but what i am looking at is a very gross misperception of war, and it seems to stem a little bit from media and tv shows and movies and especially from videogames. and i have seen children and adolescents and even young adult. more and more seem to have this complete disconnect between the reality of war and what has been brought to them in this fantasy world. and i'm wondering in the long run over the next decade or maybe the next generation, what kind of affect is this going to have on the military. and if there is a negative effect behind it, the only way to exit, what is that? >> well, let me answer the first one. we have to take care of the soldiers who combat, and we have to have soldiers overseas are this is not a choice. you know, we do not live in a world where this is easy. let me remind everyone that this was the first fireman killed on 9/11, he was killed by civilians the jump from a building because they were roasting to that. we did not make this up. this came to our shores and it will come again and again. the reason we went through a tennis then it because our government approach the taliban and said, you have a loud the people to build camps in their country and train and move equipment and have managed control. and if you will run them out, we won't have to come and get them. that is why we are in afghanistan. we can debate about whether it was done in an intelligent fashion and whether there are smarter ways to do this strategy. the question is about whether we need to have soldiers who combat. i mean, we all sitting here and i wonder what happened in the north korean border. one are chillier man makes a mistake and drops 130-millimeter rounds and kills 50 people. we have a problem. we have a problem. we are back at work. we have news for you about korea. so we have a great question. we have to prioritize what we are going to do and that is what strategy is. that is what resources prioritize and what we have not done as a nation. figuring out what effect we want and how much are we going to pay for it. until then, we have a problem. but whatever that is in it, a better include young men and women willing to do what needs to be done. it is what my son is doing in afghanistan. putting them back together, which is what the nurses are. or take care of them when they get home. the world is full of predators and if you want to find out what life is like as a sheet, one way to do it is in. >> on the second half of that, iphone, xbox generation games, i don't think it makes us killers. my two boys had stayed up all night playing the games and they are not killers. but i do think that there is some danger in the sense that empathy is learned. you were not born with empathy. letting 2-year-old beat up on each other and so forth. when you hit johnny, that her johnny. you know? empathy is learned and video games and xbox's and stuff like that are anti-empathy machines. and i think that is the danger and it takes appearance to say, okay, you just love this thing. but if that was a real person, maybe that would not be good. i think many kids say, i know they are not real. but i think another thing is even more dangerous than the xbox is the reactions of parents. if little mary ann little johnny are sitting on the floor and there is a tv show on. and someone is rudely murdered and their parents to get another beer -- they are like, well, mom and dad were not affected by that and it's no big deal. and again it comes back to the responsibility. to constantly be monitoring. you say, you know, this is horrible, we do not like this if this happened in real life area so this empathy is something that parents need to teach people. >> i like to thank you all for your time. thank you. [applause] >> tomorrow morning we continue with our book coverage on booktv. in a few moments, green corps commandant general james amos on the future of the marine corps. we continue with coverage. donovan campbell with his book, joker one. and later, we will re-air the symposium on the challenges the thing that since returning from combat. >> we have more coverage of nonfiction books here on c-span2 every weekend on booktv. along with our schedule you can see our programs anytime and join our online book club. follow us on facebook and twitter. >> now, general james amos. he spoke at the brookings institution for an hour and a half on the future of the marine corps and the next of automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. [inaudible conversations] >> the center on 21st sentry security and intelligence. all of us at brookings would like to welcome you and include the commandant of the marine corps. the general will speak for 10 or 15 minutes, summarizing some of his thoughts on some broad issues that i know will interest you as well. if i call on you in the course of that conversation, please be sure to identify yourself and we were a microphone before doing so. general john amos is from the great state of idaho where he attended college. he had been in the marine corps for his entire 30 some years career. he is the serving cheap for that illustrious body. a top adviser to the president and of course, the marine corps is top planner, but to tear, combat conceptualize her and so forth. yes had many jobs in the span of his career at different levels of development, different levels of command coming in 2000, with he and general petraeus teamed up to write a counterinsurgency manual to the the u.s. military. prior to that, he was instrumental in his combat aviator mode as a war fighter in the early stages of the invasion of iraq. prior to that, he had had