Engaging in war with less than perfect information. Based on what you have researched what is your opinion on your own realization that current military technology in preparation are geared towards specific types of existing military factions and does that tell you anything about the decisions involved in waging future war . Guest i think the idea that people are always training for the last war and preparing for the last four and they get blindsided by the next one is almost true. A failure to understand the best equipment will be. The mrap story and humvees and Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense being lambasted for saying you go to war with the army that you have. He was absolutely right. It sounded callous at the time but would you have to do is remain flexible. One of the things i had run into in researching this story and doing the story was if other opponents know that counterinsurgency is difficult for us and we are moving away from that and not applying mraps mraps will they adopt the strategies to hit us in our weak spot. Its absolutely true. For that reason i think a lot of the lessons that were learned in iraq and afghanistan despite some distaste for warfare need to be maintained. Im not a big fan of getting rid of all but mraps that we spend tens of millions of dollars on. We may need them again but the idea that you are training for the last war at least in this case is not what they are doing. They are trying to train for what they think would be another war instead of a small war or counterinsurgency. I would like to think that they are flexible enough to be able to do both to preserve those lessons but the really scary emerging threats are happening on this larger level and cyber and missiles and we need to brush up on those, to to face losing face a Large Standing Army because in the last decade we have been concentrating on the exact opposite. In this way we need to rebalance and again some of the new Weapons Systems and new tactics that go along with those Weapons Systems hopefully would be useful in both. We have one of the most experienced armies in the world over the last 10 years. On the rifle level and in the air, they are incredibly experienced and very seasoned and i think with that experience comes a lot of lessons that they wont part with very easily. I think that is Institutional Knowledge will remain there so you can build an and counterinsurgency into the big war strategy and have the melts between the two because thats probably what you will be facing in the field. But you have to have both. That is what the exercises all about, making sure that if you are facing an enemy with tanks that the commanders have come up only fighting insurance insurgents would have that skill and mindset to be able to face that what they call highintensity combat. That is sort of where it is. Host all right, robert in massachusetts independent color. Caller good morning. My question concerns funding. We spend about 12 of our gdp on military funding which is probably the lowest its been since the beginning of the second world war. Do you see this sequestration, do you see a large defunding of r d in the near future . Guest yes. I think that there are smart ways to cut in some ways to cut that sequestration is not a good way to cut because its so indiscriminate. Im not sure that congress and the pentagon is able to discriminate and do that. I think that is one of the reasons why sequestration is here to begin with. But yeah the fear is that the big Weapons Systems that we have got going now the f35 is a 200 million for an airplane and the osprey was a Costly Development and for all of its virtues its a beast to maintain and cost a lot of money to maintain. I think its 70 million per plane and 11,000 per flight hour. Operating these systems is going to take up a lot of money and these are already things that there is enough costs that they are going to want to continue and the strategy depends on them. If that becomes a priority than the future r d really becomes a place where it would take a big hit. And to cut some of the benefits for servicemen and women its a terrible thing for this economy so our india through easy to say we dont need that program and that railgun maybe not so much. So that i think thats a very ripe area for cuts and another generation you will see the effects of that. You we dont feel the pain of that now but you will see it in the future and that is a dangerous cycle. I think the caller is absolutely correct. That is one of areas where they are cutting the deepest. Sequestration cuts from everywhere but that ability to do that may not look at r d. Host joe does the r d come from inside the pentagon . Who is directing and who is overseeing this new type of technology and tactics that you are talking about and how do they go about to enter quickly because the house is about to come in but how do they decide they will put the resources into the osprey versus Something Else guest yeah, i cant answer that in a short amount of time but there a lot of different areas that do a lot of different research. You have to darpa which is the blue sky stuff which is the farthest out timewise and intellectually and then you have got the office of april research which does a lot more midterm kind of things and then they graduate the technology from one to the other and try to sometimes convince the services that they would take up the reins for this. A lot of times you develop a military technology to a point where it works and its been proven that then you may need a service to adopt it and so a lot of times the r d money kind of falls off because no one wants to spend the money to adopt the program and bring it into the field. An example of the program thats going to be adopted for sure is that unmanned stealth aircraft that recently landed on the aircraft carrier. Host okay, im going to interview and i apologize but the house is about to come in. And Joe Pappalardo with popular mechanics, the cover story the future boy. Thank you for joining us on cspans washington journal as part of our spotlighted magazine series. Appreciate it. Guest thank you, greta. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] up next the president s of Carnival Cruise lines and Royal Caribbean international [inaudible conversations] my cochair representative danny davis is in a markup and will be with us when he is able to be free. We think Trayvon Benjamin Martins father, tracy martin, former congressman kweisi mfume who was chair of the congressional caucus as well and we welcome them back to the congress. Dr. Michael eric dyson and executive director david j. Jones at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for africanamericans , for the Public Service they are offering today in this inaugural event of the congressional caucus on black men and boys. In establishing the congressional caucus on black men and boys earlier this year representative davis and i sought to raise to the National Level beginning with the Congress Serious issues that we and other members of congress are grappling with in our districts, along with state and local officials and especially parents and relatives and and or Africanamerican Community itself. The issues are spread across the spectrum of the life of black males in america today, the closed in stereotypes from their years as a ways, as toys as youth and family as men. We seek a society that does not define black men and boys but allows africanamerican males the opportunity to define themselves as individuals. Todays event entitled the status of luck males black males cannot drill down to the entire multitude of issues that require remedies and candid discussions within the Africanamerican Community and with the Larger Society. The way to begin we believe is with an event and the nature of an overview offered by three distinguished and knowledgeable africanamerican men to introduce the subject. Each discussing a stage in the life of a black male in our country today. We are particularly fortunate that mr. Tracy martin the father of Trayvon Martin and founder of the Trayvon Martin foundation agreed to come to todays event to give opening remarks. The loss of 17yearold trayvon has focused attention on black males as nothing else has in decades. Overlaying the disappointment of africanamericans and the verdict in the zimmerman trial are many issues that trayvons death brings into sharp focus. With the loss of trayvon attention is understandably focused. With the loss of trayvon attention is understandably focused on a civil rights cause of action by the u. S. Justice department. Whatever the Justice Department decides we hope that todays event focuses us as well on a Lasting Legacy for Trayvon Martin. Today, trayvon helps the caucus brings black man and a ways to take on the challenges facing our men and boys and we ask our fellow americans and africanamericans to do the same congresswoman Frederica Wilson vice chair of the caucus to offer remarks. Congresswoman wilson i represent Miamidade County, the same county that Trayvon Martin represents. I am happy to have today his father and also the attorneys mr. Benjamin crump from tallahassee foundation. I want you to know that there is nothing more important that could be happening today in this nation then what is happening in this body. In 1992, i had been the principal of an Elementary School for 12 years. I resigned from that position to run for a school board seat. My parents thought it was crazy. I had three children to send to college. I was a widow and they said why are you doing this . Are you crazy . Is that im doing it cause i want to save africanamerican boys from the school to prison pipeline so i hit the ground running. At the first school to School Board Meeting i introduced a program for africanamerican boys and they miamidade schools. I called for a reparation for them and i won of the School District to wrap their arms around them and lift them up and let them learn how to be good men in society. The program is 20 years old now. And trayvons older brother jafar is as this a member of the program. He wears the red tide that empowers him so in our School District we have the staff of 10 people who operate this program and what we do is we take our little boys in Elementary School, middle school and high school and they are mentored in school. They dont have to go to the church, they dont have to go to the boys and girls club. They go to tallahassee and they are coming to d. C. This summer. We have to train them because there is no one to teach them how to be good. In the School School system k12 we have 5000 men judges, Police Officers and firefighters all kinds of men who have sworn to raise these boys up to a higher height. My goal when i was elected to congress was to make sure that if we can do that in Miamidade CountyPublic Schools every School System in this nation should have a program specifically identified for africanamerican boys. If we dont do that we are just spinning our wheels. I am so glad that tracy and sabrina are starting a foundation to help make some of these visions reality across this nation to help these black voice. These children are angry. All kinds of social logic will issues that i am so familiar with. Im hoping today when we leave this room we leave with a commitment that they are not to be feared. They are to be loved. They are to be lifted up and made to feel proud so that they can stay in school, obey the law and listen to their parents, listen to their teachers, graduate and then we send them to college. 10 million in scholarships to children in the last 20 years of black boys. They are all in this this capito i say to you thank you for coming. This is so important and trayvons murder has brought this to the forefront. Trayvon will go down in history as the martyr who brought to the forefront the causes, the struggles, the suffering of africanamerican boys. Thank you. Thank you very much and now we are going to ask mr. Tracy martin if he would say a few words to us. You started a foundation in the name of his son, Trayvon Martin foundation. Mr. Martin. Good evening. First of all i would like to thank the members of congress for having me here today. It is certainly an honor and a pleasure not only to me but to my family is well into the Martin Family and the fulton family. This definitely means a lot. First of all i would just like to take the time to let everyone know some of the things that they really didnt know about trayvon. First of all when we talk about one of the greatest gifts that a man can receive from a woman i think that greatest gifts would be a son and just to have your sons life taken away from you when you have molded him in becoming an upstanding citizen of this country is heartwrenching. That is something that you can never get over. I always say that trayvon was my hero. He saved my life and not to be there in his time of need is a real troublesome not to be able to save my sons life. And to have his name slandered and demonized i think as a father i think its really important that my message to the world is that we wont let this verdict sum up who trayvon was. I vowed to do everything in my power not to give up the fight for him, not only the fight for trayvon but for so many other young black m. Browns boys of this country. I think the point that president obama made 35 years ago that this could have been him was so important to the American People because obviously the most influential man on the planet is weighing in from an africanamerican perspective and just to have the president of the United States, and on our situation, it really touched home. Comments such as the president made, it sparks the conversation in every household over the dinner table in that conversation is what can we do as parents . What can we do as men . What can we do as fathers . What can we do as mentors to stop this from happening to your child . I think that is what where the conversation begins. A lot of our energy that we channel, if we take the negative energy throughout this whole process we have taken that negative energy and we are trying to turn it into a positive. A lot of people will tell you that nothing positive can come out of death but i disagree. I disagree wholeheartedly because what we can do tomorrow as a nation and as a people to stop someone elses child from being killed is certainly a positive, and that is why we are putting a lot of our energy into the Trayvon Martin foundation. The foundation is here and we are going to advocate against senseless crime, against senseless gun violence. We are going to have mentoring programs. We want to try to educate our communities on the florida statutes and the florida laws that really we need to understand how these laws apply to ourselves. There are so many positive things that can and will come out of this incident and that is why we are here. We want the members of congress to hear we are the voice for trayvon. There is nothing we can do to bring trayvon back but if there is something that we can do as a foundation to help other families than we are here. Thank you very much mr. Martin. You are very kind to come with mr. Martin, the man who so ably represent him mr. Benjamin crump. He worked we are pleased that you could be with us as well. The cochair of the caucus has arrived and i should ask him if he wants to give opening words at this event. Thank you very much. The only thing that i really need to say is to thank first of all all of the members of the caucus and i want to thank you for being the inspiration and part of the reason that we have established this conference. I want to thank all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other members of congress who have joined in and in fact are attempting to have the caucus function in such a way that we end up with not only looking at problems but generating results. Then i want to thank our esteemed group of panelists who have joined us particularly the two gentlemen that i have worked with for a number of years and a former member of this body, former chairman of this caucus actually the honorable kweisi mfume and of course my good friend from chicago. He has moved to a lot of different places but i still think he calls chicago home and that is dr. Michael eric dyson who is also with us and i think mr. Johns who has the responsibility of guiding an initiative that deals with education and africanamerican historical institutions and of course mr. Martin we thank you so much for being here with us this afternoon. We also commend you for the dignity that you have displayed, you and other members of your family throughout this ordeal and you are a guiding principle for many of us and for many people in america. Who love their country but they also love justice. They love their country but they also want equal protection under the law. So with that madam cochair please go right ahead. Thank you mr. Cochair. My cochair has been a leader in this congress and particularly on black men and boys and o