Can share your stories of what its like to live off of tips. Celebrities are sharing their stories on the web site of their experiences living off of tips and anyone can so we invite and encourage the stories like we have heard today. Thank you so much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] so we are each year to talk about it look and that ink in many respects, our books are radically different from one another. You can buy a copy of each one when we are done and make up your own mind. But i actually think that the books are quite complementary and that each in its own way affirms the message or purpose of the other one. My book is called breach of trust. The basic point of breach of trust is to sit just the relationship between the u. S. Military and American Society and just and just alluded to this is the basic relationship is pervaded by dishonesty. Rhetorically, we all support the troops. And this, collectively we allowed the church to be subject it to serial abuse as authorities at washington commit the troops to need and unwinnable wars. This is an example, i think, of what a martyr and theologian feature on hoffer once referred to as cheap grace. Cheap grace is grace that is unearned and undeserved and that it has since turned a blind eye towards things that are fundamentally wrong or even evo. Now, my book is kind of a history book in no way. It is a history book in the sense that it tries to recount the changes in our basic military system that have occurred in vietnam and evaluate the consequences of this change is. The big change of course is one that occurred at the end of vietnam. That was the creation of the socalled all volunteer force, which despite that phrase, we should think of as a professional army. Or to use the phrase that the founders of this republic wouldve used, a standing army. By and large, it seems to me our fellow citizens today be the creation of yall volunteer hours of having been a good thing. Certainly, the creation of the all volunteer force as a result of that, our reliance on professional soldiers have had the effect of relieving citizens of the neighbors possibility to contribute to the nations defense. And it has in fact lifted a burden for months as citizens. What are the consequences of lifting that burden from us as citizens is 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. That army has now become washingtons army. But in the use of that army, civilian and military elite in washington have proven to be both reckless and incompetent. The worlds best military can certainly we are told we have the worlds best military and by many measures there is no question we do have the worlds best military. The worlds best military is supposed to win wars and indeed supposed to win wars quick we can decisively. The end of the cold war along with Operation Desert Storm back in 1991 read that expectation of the military that would win quickly and decisively. The defense of those states, particularly even 9 11 have told a radically different story. We know how to start wars. But based on the evidence presented in an and iran, we dont know how to win and. We dont know how to end them. Once begun, wars tend to drag on indefinitely. And it is important i think for us to back nice and acknowledge the extent to which the American People are complicit in this outcome, and this tended me. The American People now have de facto to find their own involvement in american wars in terms of what in the world i referred to by its the three notes. The first is that we will not change. That is to say we will not change the way we live our lives simply because the nation is at war. And we will not pay. That is to say we will not change our way of life, raise our taxes, reduce our entitlement in order to ensure that the revenues provided stand the word conducted in our name. And of course, we will not lead. Put simply, war has become not our problem. Somebody elses problem. As a consequence of that, as a consequence of losing control of our military, a consequence of indulging, what weve ended up with is too much for them to few warriors. 1 of the population bears the burden of what has become for all practical purposes permanent war. The other 99 of us are spectators. I personally believe this distribution of service and sacrifice is not democratic. It is also not moral. It is in fact the inverse of the complaint registered in the occupied move and of a couple years back. Namely what we have is the 1 being exploited by the 99 . The side effects are likewise unfortunate. The disparity between washingtons appetite for war and societys willingness to provide for years has created an opening for profit they made private security firms that are termed as mercenaries, to enrich themselves, even as they promote pervasive waste and corruption. Now lets acknowledge that war has always been a moneymaking opportunity for some. That we live in a time when in many, war has primarily become an opportunity for sending dictations in some people to make money. President obama and hiS Administration have at least partially grasp the problem. The president S Administration has tacitly acknowledged in invading and occupying countries is a fools errand. After flirting with counterinsurgency is okay, jury and the obama afghanistan search, it has devised an alternative way of war. Missile firing drones, special Operations Forces provide the basis for reaching what is in effect a campaign of targeted assassination. This obama approach has reduced costs. That it cannot provide a basis for coherent strategy. The obama doctrine, furthermore, sets precedents that may yet turn the war into a free fire zone. I think that there is an alternative to the all volunteer for professional military that we have come to expect. The alternative we should be talking about and considering is a program of National Surveys. National service could provide a way to revive the tradition of the citizen soldier also in reaching the reigning concept of citizenship. National surveys means that all Young Americans would spend a period of service to community and country. Some Young Americans would serve in the armed forces. Others would serve in different capacities. Per serving the environment, helping the elderly and dispossessed. Improving the community in various capacities. But all would serve. Thats sad, implementing the program of National Surveys requires that we the people first recognize how defective the military system is that weve come to rely on. With that, i will sit down. Id be more than happy to turn the podium over to ann. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you, andrew. And thank you to our host. I am very happy to be here this evening. I am honored to share the podium with one of our heroic historians. As andrew has said, our books are very, very different from each other and get complement each other and some very profound ways. But whereas i support andrew is very practical suggestion that seems very reasonable and practical if we lived in a reasonable and practical country of National Service for everyone. I would like to carry the argument one step further. My solution would eat that we should just stop having wars altogether. [applause] in which case we could devote the year or two of National Surveys to just fixing the infrastructure. We could begin with the commuter trains in this particular area. But if i may, i would just like to read a few paragraphs from the introduction of my book and talk for a few minutes about the process that i followed through on to try to tell the story to back a little bit of argument i am a keen and this introduction. Sooner or later almost every american comes home. On a stretcher, in a box, in an altered state of mind. Soldiers returned or failed to return to families who recognize them or not, communities that help them or cant. Thats what this book is about. Not the pointless wars, which have gone on for so long that historians tolerate the way with their evaluations coming using words like shipwreck, disaster, tragic mistake. Historian and are cheap aces andrew jay bacevich reminds us u. S. Troops in battle dress and body armor, whom americans profess to admire. The price. In this vote, i dont pretend to give anything like a complete picture of soldiers, but rather offer a series of snapshots of soldiers i met and the people around them. Caregivers and family members and friends who look after them with the dont go according to plan. The two say the price of folly. I gathered the snapshots on military bases and military house those in the United States in this war zones and houses here at home. They are not pretty pictures. They are what i saw. Perhaps darkened by the knowledge that nothing recorded in this book has to happen. Were not natural. We have to be trained for it. Soldiers and citizens alike. All right. Thank you. War is not natural. We have to be trained for it. Soldiers and citizens alike. And the wars of choice be retrained for and the wars these soldiers took part in need never have been thought. Contrary to common opinion in the United States, war is not inevitable nor has it always been with us. War is a human pension, and organized them a deliberate action of an antisocial kind. In the long span of human life on earth, a fairly recent one. For more than 90 of the time that humans have lived on this planet, most of them have never made to order. Many languages dont even have a word for it. Turn off cnn and read anthropology. Yost v. Whats more, war is obsolete. Most nations dont make war anymore except when coerced by the United States to join him. His coalition. The earth is so small and our time here so short, no other nation on the planet explore as often, as long, as forcefully, as it actively, as distractedly, as we slowly and sent to fully or unsuccessfully as the united state. No other nation makes for it is his. This is not primarily a book of opinion, but that is my opinion. I would like to be able to convince americans that is an important opinion. So how could i do that . When i was on a Forward Operating base in afghanistan, i watched the patrols go out every day. Sometimes they went with them. And often they would come back, since we were in deeply troubled part of the country, often they would come back with men missing who had been Spirited Away in that fact helicopters after having been wounded on the battlefield. And they would not return to the base. At the same time, one could read in american papers the heartwarming stories of young men who had lost both legs in iraq or afghanistan and were going on a mountain climbing trip with fellow veteran who also happen to have lost their legs in those wars. And wasnt this wonderful. Well, in a way of course it is a wonderful testimony to the curry h. Of those survivors who have worked extremely hard to carry on with their lives in ways that we cannot even imagine. But looked at in another way, it is most endless kind of waste. So why dont we why havent we heard this story in between . Might have been spend the time a soldier is shot down in the field and the time he gets to go climbing on his new titanium legs. And that is what i set out to find out. So i was able, after a year of struggle to finally get permission to embed on the medevac flight and in the hospitals that bring our rented home. The major part of this book is in league a witnessing of what i saw and what i was told by the doctors, nurses and other medical no who care for those soldiers in afghanistan, at Regional Medical center in germany, americas largest hospital out that if the United States and eventually buy additional medevac slayed to dover, delaware and defend the hospitals at walter reid and bethesda. And then, in many cases i followed particular veterans all the way home, met their families, heard how the family was getting along and began to understand more fully how the injury of a single soldier in packs an entire family and through that family and the entire community and beyond. As a mother of one veteran of the invasion of iraq who has been at home in the bedroom of his childhood are most of the last 10 years since he returned from the war calls that the ripple effect. I think that is a word that doesnt begin to capture the full impact of that. You know, for years ive worked in afghanistan and another conflict countries as an aid worker, generally working on behalf of women and other civilians. Of course, the principle injuries and deaths have occurred among the civilian of the nations we have invaded. I having worked with those people for so many years, i went to a Forward Operating base to write a piece about women soldiers im not a sin found myself on a base with four women and a whole battalion of men. I wouldnt have chosen to be there, but the air i kept my eyes open and i saw soldier disintegrate before my very eyes. He did know anybody was watching. I thought, there is more going on here than i have ever been aware of. That is when i began to follow these soldiers and to understand a bit better what they go through and how they are torn apart physically and mentally by the words. And how little understanding that 99 half of what a coat through while they are in the field and after they come home. I also depend upon smalltown journalists in this country who provided a lot of information that has never been gathered together in one place about the habit that many of the returning veterans do once they get back. The violence they bring with them and that they commit against others and of course at an incredible rate against themselves. So this is a Little Green Book of stories that didnt have to happen in. I kept it short. So i hope people have the stamina to stick with it and read it and understand that this is not found in the can allow us to continue. Thank you. [applause] so, now we will welcome your comments and questions. I guess people who have questions should come out to the make. We are going to stand here and try to field whatever youve got. I told ann without tipping her off whatevers going to say that i was going to post the first question. You know, i write books sitting around in my office at boston university. Sitting in my study reading books and articles and looking at stuff on the web. But it is a wonderful life, but it is also pretty sedate and pretty safe. So my question really is, why do you do what you do and how did you come to do what you do . Bearing witness directly and immediately to the dance that you describe and very much putting yourself at risk in the way you approach your work. How did you come to be who you are . And very nosy. [laughter] i like to see whats going on. And very often what is going on makes me really mad. And when i get mad, i start writing about it. So that the short answer. A little bit of context where that is in the dedication to my book. I finally made amends with my father by dedicating this book to him. He was a veteran of world war i, highly decorated, came home, and became one of the successful small businessmen. Civic minded, well did in the community and get a violent and dreaded man and withdrawn man at home. A famous comedian outside the house, a silent tyrants within it. I grew up under that shadow that follows my father to the end of his life. He died at the age of 80, still having nightmares about the war he had fought as a young man. So after each of these wars, we have we are reassured by the pentagon that its only a small number of returnees oldsters who have any trouble reintegrating. Most go on to find careers. Well, my father was one of those who went on to a fine career. If that was not the whole story. So ive never trusted those pentagon statistics. That is one of the things that makes me nosy enough to put myself at risk to see whats going on. [applause] just real quickly. As mr. Bacevich that, you can line up for questions here. If you have difficulty coming up to the front, please raise your hand and i will come around with a microphone so you can ask. I just have a quick question related in a direct way. Before the invasion of iraq, fallows said the Atlantic Monthly wrote what was one of the most press and articles i you didnt get as much publicity as it should have gotten on what do we do after we win the war . The idea of the article was we cant do anything because we dont have the military as a peacemaking wing that can go in and fix the damage that weve are deep down with our super weapons and help out in constructing a new country. Thats quite a task in itself. But it illustrates, if you look at that problem, after youve hummed out of country, it gives you an idea of the task that faces us, even if we dont have war. So im just wondering what you thought. You probably read that article. I cant remember what i had for dinner three days ago. Im sure i cant remember the article. I will respond to what i think is the question. So why was the United States military so im prepared for the consequences of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and suddenly been responsible for this country . The answer, i believe, have to do with the militarys response to failure and defeat in vietnam. Im talking about the military i was serving in the 1970s and through the 1980s. This is a military that above all else this is the ironic thing, above all else, was determined to avoid a recurrence of vietnam, to avoid being caught in another ugly, unconventional and protracted war. In order to achieve that vietnam avoidance, the mindset of the officer corps focused narrowly on operational questions. The priority, overriding priority was to figure out how to win the battle and there is precious little intellectual Energy Invested into the question. Well, after you win the battle, what an . What comes next . What might you face . This played out in the planning for Operation Iraqi freedom and the execution. It is clear that the commander of u. S. Central command at the time, general tommy franks, very much a vietnam veteran and i very much a product of this post vietnam. Was focused like a laser on how to drive to baghdad and then destroyed the iraqi army and overthrow the gove