What else . Well, i think ive about worn out my welcome. I appreciate as coming out, especially on a fight when theres lots of things to do in the local area. I hope you enjoy the book. If you want me to sign it i will be happy to. And ive got a standard website and harpercollins has a Facebook Page for me if you ever want to get a hold of me direct. I do get back to everyone who contacts me. It may take a while but i do. They put videos on their of interviews and of thanks and ill answer any questions you may think of later. Anyway, thanks for much for coming, and i enjoyed it. [applause] and thank you for coming. I would invite you to lineup on that site and come around in front of the desk if youd like to have your book signed. Thanks again for coming out on friday night. [inaudible conversations] you are watching booktv on cspan2. 48 hours about nonfiction authors and books every weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. And now an booktv, authors doug bandow and Herman Pirchner join david keene of the Washington Times to talk about Foreign Affairs and the ongoing conflict in ukraine. This discussion, part of freedom freedomfest is just over 45 minutes. Youre probably wondering what ive done wrong to have been dragged up before congress 75 times to testify. Never been in guided. Indicted. Its a great pleasure to be here with you today. Where our topic of today is hot spots around the world. Thats the bahamas version, the smaller version of the freedomfest last january i gave a talk on ukraine, and thats before the thing had heated up and marked that it would be a good idea to look at the places around the world whats likely to happen. We have no better panelists in the group we have today, because weve got gentlemen who have immense experience working in many areas of the world, and i think youll enjoy what they have to say. To my far, far right is david keene. And david is now the opinion editor of the Washington Times, means he oversees all the editorials and all the commentary. And Washington Times is in the process of greatly expanding. Theyre doing and National Digital edition. I suggest you all subscribe because that makes it easy for you to get my weekly column also, plus all the others, and its a great newspaper, and its a growing unlike most other newspapers in the world. David is a good part of this change. You may remember david for many years was the chairman of the american conservative union. He was also president of the National Rifle association. I know a lot of you are opposed to that, but hes done great things all his life and has been in and out of government, in positions advising president s. Then just to my far, far right is Herman Pirchner. Herman has been a longtime president of the American Foreign policy council. And they do great work looking at all the time to hotspots around the world and trying to anticipate whats going to happen long before it does. You could sort of say they are different from the Obama Administration because they actually look ahead. Herman doesnt have to pick up the newspaper as being surprised by whats going to happen next in the world, because he and his staff have been there, know whats going on, and do great jobs anticipating it. Most recently, he was in front of the ukrainerussia difficulties. Its a great publication. I suggest those of you who of a few hundred dollars, you may want to join the American Foreign policy council. I expect all of your are interested in Foreign Policy, and its a way of keeping uptodate. Very low overhead operation, but they do great work on Foreign Policy and intelligence. And then to my immediate right is my old friend doug bandow, who i knew first back in the Reagan Administration when he was assistant to the president. And hes a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Digesbut has turned out i dontw many books, endless articles, one of the worlds most prolific authors dealing a lot with Foreign Policy. Were going to do a bit of a general session today rather than each specializing narrowly because we all have an experience in various parts of the world, and a lot of things overlap. As we were speaking earlier, one characteristic now is, as we laugh, the world has gotten smaller which is really too because the planes, the plane ride from tehran to north korea is ver pretty short. And so the question is, is that the mideast, or is it asia, or wherever . Were going to start off with the david keene all, because hes my boss at the Washington Times. Id like to begin one more line before. David is going to set the stage of a truly a great global struggle thats going on among the political forces. Then well get into more of the specifics. David. Id like to begin by this great selfpromotion that were doing to suggest that you need to subscribe to the Washington Times also because doug bandow writes for the times. Not as much as id like. Thats the problem being the editor. The pages are open to Herman Pirchner as well. Seems to be a nobrainer for the audience. Actually its, i think important that were meeting on these subjects today because the American People are confused as to what the stance of the United States ought to be in terms of Foreign Policy and our place in the world. Theyve gone through a period in which our Foreign Policy has been dominated by folks who thinks that perhaps the world could be remade in the american image without much relationship or understanding of different cultures and the like. One can argue that in the middle east we are still struggling with the shadow of the great war which we are celebrating the hundred years of its beginning. I guess celebration is the wrong word. And i remember from the intimate papers of colonel house who was the advisor to woodrow wilson, he said at one point that he had a busy day because they have spent that morning redrawing the map of the world. But fortunately they had managed to finish by noon and enjoyed a good lunch. Thats the kind of attitude that dominates some of the folks who involve themselves in the Foreign Policy debate even today, and we pay the costs or that in terms of blood and treasure and wars and struggles that we dont need to be involved in. On the other hand, there are those in reaction to that who are saying that the United States cannot be involved at all, and that the best policy for the United States is the policy we pursued in the early days of the republic, which was to trade but stay away. Although even then early president s dealt with barbary pirates and the rest when it appeared with our perceived right to trade and other parts of the world. So there was never a complete separation of our Foreign Policy from our economic interests. But the question that the American People are struggling with is what are the interests of the United States, the legitimate interests that ought to be protected . That goes to some extent to the question of whether you are, for example, the middle east as we did perhaps in an early age with the communist empire, are we facing what amounts to an existential threat to a threat of, from sources that are bent upon our destruction regardless . Or is it some of the kind of a threat . Do we have an obligation, as bill kristol might argue, to export democracy to the world to to try to remake the world and our image . If we could do that, would it work . If we could do that, should we do that . Do we have a right to do it . On the other hand, can we afford to withdraw from the world and ignore the kind of problems that are developing . I like to point out that our modern president s, the two president s the loss fewer americans than any other in foreign wars were Ronald Reagan and dwight eisenhower. Neither one of which could be viewed as an isolationist and fairly, neither one of which could be viewed as a neoconservative in the modern parlance. Above who were known in the world as people you could only push so far, so that the american presence was there, and the basis of the reagan Foreign Policy was that if you are strong enough, you didnt have to go to war. If you were strong enough, people knew what the limits were and he wouldnt go very far. You may remember reagans comment when the libyans under Moammar Gadhafi i forget what it was, he said he called his people, and he said its about time we teach those people that theres new management over here. The problem that the American People face is is what do we do now with the kind of management we have, and how do we proceed . As always in the case of Foreign Policy questions, defense policy questions, thats linked to specific problems, their sources and their meaning for us. I think thats why these topics, these high points, these hotspots if you will, are so important to discuss today. Thank you. Maybe ill stay up here. Would you . [laughter] anything to get away from you. As you can do we are all old friends here, but herman, why dont you pick up from where david left off and give related to reality now. Well, thanks for your comments, dave. I want to pick up one question you raised, and that was the question of islamism versus communism as historical problems for the u. S. Like all of us up here on the stage, im a veteran of the cold war. But i have to say that in many ways the problem of islamism is going to prove more difficult than the problem of communism. Communism almost utopia on earth, but the time came where you have 20 million dead in the soviet union, 80 million dead in china, and no utopia. When that was seen by the sons and dollars of the elites running those countries, daughters this idea could create paradise on earth the lepore. Wendy when it went away, the fear went. When a fair wind, china evolves and the soviet union collapsed. But just imagine bin laden goes to allah and allah says eternal damnation, you heretic. Everybody that follows bin laden on earth thinks hes being rewarded. The id is still alive and as long as that idea still alive, the idea that jamaica to paradise by killing innocents, this problem of terrorism and other problems associated with islamism, will exist. We are essentially giving with islamic theological question, a multicornered theological war within the islamic world, and thats a war in which we have little sway. How can you be involved in theological discussions about islam if youre not a muslim. So its a problem thats going to be with us a great amount of time. American Foreign PolicyCouncil Publishes something called almanac of islamism. Its not a polemic. Its a reference work on islamist movements worldwide. The book itself, hardcover, is 1150 pages but theres an online edition. In the course of looking at the great depth of this islamic problem, you understand what a longstanding struggle its going to be to deal with islamism and the many forms that it exists worldwide. I want to switch now briefly the ukraine. Its the title of the panel. Ukraine is playing out in the following fashion. You soon will have the two cities in the eastern part of ukraine that will be surrounded by forces loyal to the ukrainian government. In these cities will be a couple thousand rebels that are largely taking orders from moscow the Russian Military intelligence, the gr you. Maybe go be a negotiated settlement where they leave and go into russia. Maybe there will be a fight if there is a fight, the militants from prorussian forces are likely to try to make it as bloody as possible by positioning themselves in hospitals, in old age homes and so forth. And will do that with the hope that things will become so disruptive that putin will be moved to move in russian forces. If he chooses to do that, the ukraine army has no capability outstanding with them. They probably could be in kiev in two, three days. But if that happens it will be the foreshadowing of very tense, longstanding tenseness and relations between russia and the west. And it will be the beginning of what would be a long guerrilla war in ukraine. Ukraine has some history of that, anticommunist forces fought for many years after the close of world war ii against soviet forces. And my sources tell me that are now some tens of thousands of ukrainians with some arms that will harass russian army if it sits there. When you get to this point, the consequences are a little bit unpredictable. Ive probably eaten up by opening time. Will get back to that in more detail, but first, that, can you talk about the mideast aspects . What ever you want. I like that idea, whatever i want. We live today in the world great but man who was the bosnian serb terrorist who shot the archduke and his wife 100 years ago and effectively triggered world war i. So many questions we have are the final bits and pieces of that war including the middle east, the balkans, many of these countries created out of that conflict. There is a good news and all of this. Theres a lot of hotspots and all just very briefly mention them but for the most part theyre hotspots that dont directly answer threaten the United States. This is not world war three. It came out of world war ii with the cold war with opponents of Nuclear Weapons. We train School Children to get under desks if missiles though but we talked about soviet troops pouring through the gap. None of that is with us. Colin powell when he is head of the joint chiefs commented im running out of enemies, im down to the dell has to and kim ilsung, both of who are nasty characters and neither of them came close to Joseph Stalin or mao tse tung in terms of the worst they could impose. Were looking at a world in future of a lot of chronic conflict as a postacute once. That is in terms of islamic threats that will be there, to raise him, they will be with us and they will threaten is not extensively but they will be with us any number of other ways. If you look around the world we have a world full of a lot of messes. We have missiles falling in israel, bombings in the gaza strip, we see the israelipalestinian Peace Process one of which every time they make a go at the bit i wrote my eyes, the 300 or 400th time they been trying. You look at egypt which basically has a regression of the mubarak dictatorship so get to choose between a vicious muslim brotherhood. We look at syria which is riven by a civil war where we have a government that i think none of us like on the other hand, the of cyclists such wonderful folks that run around crucifying christians and people they dont like and shooting schoolchildren if you thought to blasphemy. Those are our allies in the syrian civil war. Iraq of course we all see falling apart and it turns out one of the main forces against the government that we supported by the opposition in syria. We are in this odd situation of opposing, fight the bad guys but were in favor of the government in iraq fighting the same bad guys, assuming our friends in washington get this straight. We look at iran, a country which presumably would all think is after Nuclear Weapons. None of us want that to happen. Theres a negotiating process going on. No one wants and of Nuclear Weapons by launching a major strike against iran i think would be catastrophic for whole host of reasons. We should look for any option outside of that to solve it. My friends, the north koreans, are constantly busy. They are mad because the new movie the interview is at the which james franco and seth rogan want to go out and assessing kim jongun. I meant i call the cute leader. We had the great leader, the dear leader, why not the cute leader . But they are very, very, very unhappy and to threaten war over the terrible movie. Hollywood has become a tool of american imperialism. China has a sharp elbows in the south china sea, the filipinos are worried, the japanese are worried. The vietnamese want us to come, our old enemies so they want us around and would like to have us help them out. Then we get to ukraine where clearly in a sense of cold war in some sense is being recreated. Its a difficult situation but the reality is no one in america wants to go to war over ukraine which means the russians have the capability what they want, though i suspect put in some missions are probably somewhat down. Im not sure whats to bring in a lot of ukrainians. You look back to world war ii, ukrainians dont like it if they are subjugated to put in grad the only area that had russian population and that was an overwhelming. You bring in those areas, you bring in 60 or more ukrainians, thats not likely to be stable for you. I suspect that will be chronic problem in the future. There are others, moldova, georgia and others in the same situation with the russians. Were looking ahead, the world would be a mess. The good news for the us is they can stand back and assess each of these carefully. Theres no reason to submit to jump into all of them or some of them. Theres no clue what and which we want to get involved. It will vary i think i think the world today gives us more options than we had in the world of the soviet union which ron reagan correctly termed the evil empire. The evil empire other cause you got to do things today that likely there is no evil empire. We stand alone in terms of the summit of military power. We have the options we didnt have during the cold war. Let us pick up on all that. One of our colleagues at the Cat