I will try to do that very briefly because i am as eager to hear from ann as you are. So we are each year to talk about the book, and i think in many respects our books are radically different from one another. You can buy a copy of each one we are done and you can make up your own mind. But i actually think that the books are quite complementary and that each in its own way of firms the message of purpose of the other. My book is called a breach of trust, and the basic point of breach of trust is to to suggest that the relationship between the u. S. Military and American Society and i think justin just alluded to this is that basic relationships are pervaded by dishonesty. Historically we all support the troops. In practice, collectively we allow the troops to be subjected to cereal abuse as authorities in washington commit the troops to needless and unwinnable wars. This is an example, i think of what the larger and theologian dietrich von offer once referred to as cheap grace. It is grace said is unearned and undeserved and that has in essence turns a blind eye toward things that are fundamentally wrong or even evil. Now, my book is kind of a history book and no way. It is a history book in a sense, as it tries to recount the changes in our basic military system that have occurred since vietnam and evaluates the consequences of those changes. And the big change, of course him as one that occurred read the end of vietnam, the creation of the socalled allvolunteer force, which despite that frees you should think of as a professional army or to use the phrase that the founders of this republic would have used, a standing army. By and large, it seems to me, our fellow citizens today view the creation of the all volunteer force as having been a good and. Certainly the creation of the all volunteer force has resulted in our reliance upon professional soldiers and tessin the effect of relieving citizens of any responsibility to contribute to the Nations Defense and it has, in fact, lifted a burden from us as citizens, but one of the consequences of lifting that burden from us as citizens has been to give washington a free hand in deciding when and where to commit u. S. Forces. The American People effectively have forfeited ownership over what used to be called the American Army and that army has now become washingtons army. But in their use of that army, civilian and military elites in washington have proven to be both reckless and incompetence. The worlds best military, we were told we have the worlds best military, and by many measures there is no question that we do. The worlds best military is supposed to win wars. Indeed it is supposed to win in quickly and decisively. The end of the cold war along with Operation Desert Storm back in 1991 left that expectation of a military that would win quickly and decisively. But even since those days, particularly since the attacks of september 11th have to look radically different story. We know how to star wars, but based upon the evidence presented in afghanistan and other places, we dont know how to win them. We dont even know how in them. Once begun, wars tend to drag on indefinitely. And it is important, i think, for us to recognize and acknowledge the extent to which the American People are implicit in this outcome, and this tendency because the American People now have defacto defined their own involvement in american wars in terms of what in the book referred to as the three knows. The first is that we will not change. We will not change the way to live our lives simply because the nation as a war, and we will not pay. That is to say, we will not change our way of life karzai taxes, reduce our entitlement in order to ensure that the revenues provided to sustain the work conducted in our name, but, of course, we will not leave. Put simply, war has become not our problem but somebody elses problem. As a consequence of that, as a consequence of losing control of our military, as a consequence of indulging in that torinos what we have ended up with is too much for and too few warriors. 1 percent of the population bears the burden of what has become, for all practical purposes permanent war, and the other 99 percent of us are spectators. I personally believe that this distribution of service and sacrifice is not democratic. It is also not moral. It is, in fact, the inverse of the complaints registered by the occupy movement of a couple of years back, namely what we have is a 1 being exploited by the 99 . The side effects are likewise unfortunate. The disparity between washingtons appetite for war and societys willingness to provide warriors has created an opening for profitminded private security firms that are turned as mercenaries to enrich themselves even as they promote pervasive waste and corruption. Now, lets acknowledge that war has always been a moneymaking opporunity for some, but we live in a time when in many respects war has primarily become an opporunity for some institutions and some people to make money. President obama and hiS Administration have at least partially grasped the problem. The president S Administration has acknowledged that it is invading and occupying countries is a fools errand. After flirting with nationbuilding during the obama afghanistan surge, it has devised an alternative way of war. Missile firing drones, special Operations Forces provide the basis for what is in effect a campaign of targeted assassination. This obama approach has reduced cost. It cannot provide a basis for coherent strategy. The Obama Doctrine for the war sets a precedent that may yet turn the war into a free fire zone. I hope there is an all turned into the all volunteer professional military that we have come to accept. National service could provide a way to revive the tradition of the citizen soldier National Service means that all Young Americans will spend a service and country. Serving in different capacities guy environment, the elderly, that dispossessed, improving the community in various capacities, but all would surf. That said, implementing requires that we, the people, first recognize how defective the military system is that we have come to rely upon. With that i will sit down and be more than happy to turn the podium over to hand. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, andrew. Thank you to our house. I am happy to be here this evening and very honored to be the podium with one of our heroic historians. Hundred and very, very different from each other and get complement each other in, i think, some very profound ways. But whereas i support and use very practical suggestion or it seems very reasonable and practical if will live in a reasonable and practical country of National Service for everyone my would like to carry the argument one step further. My solution would be that we should just not having wars all the other. [applause] National Service to just fix the upper structure. We could begin with the commuter train headed by mayor would just like to read a few paragraphs in the introduction of my book and then talk just for a few minutes about the process that ive followed through on to of try to tell the story to back up the little bit of argument i am making in his introduction. Sooner or later almost every american comes home on a stretcher, and a box, and an altered state of mind. Soldiers returned or fail to return to families who love them or try to come of families to recognize the more not, communities and help them or cannot. That is what this book is about. Not the pointless wars which have gone on for so long that historians are already weighing in with their evaluations, using words like shipwreck, a disaster, a tragic mistake. Historian andrew j. Basin which reminds us, it is the soldier who bears the burden of such folly. U. S. Troops in battle dress and body armor home americans profess to admire and support in the price. I dont pretend to give a complete picture, but rather offer a series of snapshots of soldiers i met and the people around them, the caregivers and family members and friends to look after them when things dont go according to plan. They, too, pay the price of folly. I gathered these snapshots on military bases and in military hospitals in the United States and its war zones and in house is your town. They are not pretty pictures. They are what i saw. Perhaps darkened by the knowledge that nothing recorded in this book has to happen. One of we have to be trained for it. Soldiers and citizens alike. We have to be trained for it. Soldiers and citizens alike. And the wars of choice we were trained for. The wars these soldiers took part in need never have been fought. Contrary to common opinion in the United States fairly recent. For more than 90 percent of the time that him as a live on this planet most. Many languages dont even have a word for it. Turnoff cnn and reid. You will see. What is more, were is obsolete. Those dishes dont make more war anymore, except when coerced by the United States to join some coalition. The earth is so small, and our time here so short, no other nation on the plant makes war has often, as long, as forcefully, as expansively, as destructively, as well as fully, as senselessly, of or is unsuccessfully as the United States. No other nation makes short. Its business. This is not primarily a book of opinion, but that is my opinion. I would like to be able to convince americans that that is an important opinion. How could i do that . When i was on the Forward Operating base in afghanistan, watched the patrols go out every day, sometimes i went with them. Often they would come back, since we were and deeply troubled parts of the country. Often they would come back with menacing who have been Spirited Away in medivac helicopters after having been wounded on the battlefield, and it would not return to base. Then at the same time, one could read in american papers the heartwarming stories of young men who have lost both legs in afghanistan and wriggling on a mountain climbing trip with fellow veterans who also happen to have lost their legs and those wars. Was not this was in this wonderful . Well, in a way, of course, it is a wonderful testimony to the courage of those survivors who have worked extremely hard to carry on with their lives in ways that we can not even imagine. But looked at in another way it is the most senseless kind of waste and win. Why have we not heard the stories in between what happens from the time a soldier is shot down in the field and the time he gets to go climbing on his new titanium legs. That is what i set out to find out. Room so i was able to get permission to embed on the medevac flights and in hospitals that bring our own it home. And a major part of this book is simply a written account of what i saw and what i was told by the doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel who care for the soldiers in afghanistan, the Regional Medical center in germany, americas largest hospital outside the netting states, and eventually buy additional medivac flights to dover, delaware and then the hostels at walter reed in bethesda. And then in many cases, i followed particular veterans all the way home, met there families, heard what how the family was living along and began to understand more fully how the injury of one single soldier and packs an entire family, and through that family an entire community and beyond. The mother of one veteran of the invasion who had been at home in the better mothers child for most of the last and years since the returns from the war calls that the ripple effect. Think that is a word that does not begin to capture the full impact of that. And, you know, for years i have worked in afghanistan and other conflicts countries as in a worker, generally working on behalf of women and other civilians. Of course, the principal injuries in both of these wars have occurred among those civilians of the nations of we have invaded. I, having worked with those people for so many years, went to air for operating base to write a piece about women soldiers on that base and on myself on a base with four women and all the time a man of god they disintegrated before my very eyes. And i thought, theres a much more going on here than i have never been aware of. That is when i began to follow these soldiers and to understand what they go through them and how theyre torn apart a sudden and physically and mentally by the wars and how little understanding than 99 percent have of what they go through while there in the field and after they come home. I also depend upon smalltown journalist in these countries it provided a lot of information fed the of and affirmation. The violence that they bring with them and that they commit against others and, of course, at an incredible rate against themselves. So this is available ramble of stories that did not have to happen. I kept it short. So i hope people have the stamina to stick with it and read it and understand that this is not something that we can allow to continue. Thank you. [applause] [applause] [applause] so now we will welcome your comments and questions. I guess people who have questions should come up to mike. Were both going to stand here and try to era field whenever you have got, but i told ann without tipping their of that up was going to close the first question. So if i may do that. You know, i write books sitting around in my office at boston university, sitting in my study, beautiful, and reading books and articles. Its a wonderful life that is also pretty safe. And so my question really is why you do if you do and how did you come to do much to do . Bearing witness directly and immediately to the things that you describe and very much putting yourself a risk and no way that you approach your work . How did you come to be who you are . Im very nosy. [laughter] ira like to see whats gone on. Very often whats going on makes me really mad. And when i when i get mad i start writing about it. So that is the short answer. All little bit of context for that is in the dedication to my book. I finally made amends with my father by dedicating his book to him. He was a veteran of world war one highly decorated, came home, became one of those successful, small businessmen, civic minded, a wellrespected in his community and, yet a violent and dreaded man and withdrawn man at home. A famous comedian outside that house a silent tyrant within it. I grew up under that shadow that followed my father to the end of his life. He led the age of 80 still having nice nightmares about the war he had fought. So after each of these wars we have we are reassured by the pentagon that it is only a small number of returning soldiers who have any trouble reintegrating. And most go on to find careers. Well, my father was one of those who went on to a fine career, but that was not the whole story. So i have never trusted those pentagon statistics command that is one of the things that makes me nosey enough to put myself at risk to see what is really going on. [applause] really quickly, if you can line up for questions here, if he had difficulty coming to the front, raise your hand and i will come around with of the microphone so that you can ask them or speak. I just have a quick question. Is related in a direct way. Before the invasion, jim pal of the Atlantic Monthly row was one of the most. [inaudible] articles i think in did not get as much publicity as it should have gone on what we do after we win the war. And the idea was the idea of the article was we cannot do anything because we do not have a military that as a peacemaking wing that can go and and fix the damage the we have already done with our super weapons and held out in constructing a new country. That is quite a task in itself. But it illustrates, if you look at that problematic to map the bombing of the country gives you the eddy of the task that faces us, even if we do not have war. So i am just wondering what you thought, you probably read that article. No . I cannot remember what i had for dead three days ago. So im sure i care remember the article. But why was the United States military so unprepared for the consequences of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and suddenly being responsible for this country . The answer, i believe, has to do with the military response to failure and defeat in vietnam. And talk about the military and serving. The 1970s into the 1980s. This is a military that, above all else, the right thing, above all else was determined to avoid a recurrence of vietnam, to avoid being caught in another ugly, unconventional and protracted war. Hence, in order to achieve that vietnam avoidance, the mindset of the officer corps focus narrowly on operational questions, the overriding priority was to figure out how to win the battle. And there was precious little intellectual Energy Invested into the question, well, after you win the battle within . What comes next . What problems might be faced . I think it has played out in spades and the planning for Operation Iraqi freedom and the execution. It is clear that the commander of the u. S. Central command, at the time, general tommy francs very much of vietnam veteran, a product of the posts vietnam timeframe was focused like a laser on how to drive the drive to baghdad, destroy the iraqi army, and overthrow the government. Neither he nor his bosses by secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld paid sufficient attention to the question. Crime wondering if you are familiar with that paper and your thoughts on that . Has raised try to figure out the answer where do you see the leadership . Who do we support to make this happen . If war is not the answer, then what is the question . What is the question . We could struggle with the war part by dont think about questions that would take us to a different level. I am not familiar with the papers that you mentioned on security but i would like to say that if you talk about a seeing a long enough you think it is the most important thing in the world in the whole world thinks so and america is under the delusion whole world talks about more insecurity like we do. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Nobody talks the way americans do. In norway security is talk about all the time. What they be by security