An hour with Gen Richard B Myers

from the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas kbr presents an hour with general richard b myers i'm kate mcintyre general richard b miers was the nation's fifteenth chairman of the joint chiefs of staff having more than forty years in the air force as chairman he served as the principle military adviser to president bush the secretary of defense and the national security council he began his term just a few weeks after the september eleventh terrorist attacks myers is a native of kansas city kansas and graduated from kansas state university where he currently serves as the foundation professor of military history and leadership he also holds the talent culture of leadership at that same character at the national defense university in washington dc where he now lives my ears is featured as the two thousand seventh and that his remarks on may second two thousand seven and now here is general richard b lyons thank you all it is

good to be back in kansas it's good to be at kansas university and i did need a permission slip from the other school to come here and i will tell you that all of my family went to kay you my mom her brother's sister my cousins one cousin was editor of the jay arner is senior high beta kappa and one other cousin was on it a scholarship in electrical engineering i decide to become a doctor veterinary medicine so i went to kansas state university and while i never became a doctor veterinary medicine and they become a veteran of that i can settle the lord intended in those that worked out that way but that but here we are so i have a lot of fun memories of kenya's universe just on some folks ready for dinner i am forever on the case they rewrite and israelis when i was in high school remember following a big guy one time and fred slaughter of the peak of high school friends

about six six about two hundred twenty pounds went on to play center for ucla when a day's main hazard a good rich shoot the ball and they won several national titles and he was all seventeen and six foot six and won the next time we're probably on the old track i don't know what's happened to the track and i thought nobody that big can ever be me and disparate emperor and i wound up watching his backside four hundred and twenty yards in the center right candidate has gotten some nelson collins at some point the other day your experiences very vivid and lots of them are in parliament is dating my now wife here on that because we are a lot of friends that would come down the court from time to time so we have some romantic memories of kent university but the one i remember is as a senior in high school up here for men's glee club steak competition and one of the musicals and with a bit of water and a member of that i'm standing there next to the blast

source of lead in big cities around this or the lobby area and i was backing up and i fell over the door stop and they're to get myself i put my head against the glass door which probably broke and activists about my hands are basically which decides to go into the infirmary of a few states has a big bandage and present members because on my whole thing can understand why they are on track to track with his manager because song is of course your run track are justin is a meat directly as that of course tracks say wind up government to rent is throwing hand i don't ride i'm sure has inspired my wife is here my niece's husband john wood the new us attorney mckenzie missouri for the western district of missouri here john hold your hand up who moderated a lecture from john dingell still so like that but it's like ah and minuses from on piano and

her husband bob mon amour the balance or the artist or writer and my wife's murder of orphans and the reason i'm here is traveling along gaza's people people most gotten to know that she's like a bulldog she never gives up a lot when she gives an idea by golly it's gonna come true before he lets up on the end this was seizing either do this sometime i said i almost got him so much and i know i'm talking to bill lacy reading your stories and then we're going to a serious part and then we'll finish up against them questions on anything you think i'm about to have been talking about if i were here in uniform as i did the scans before in uniform there would be probably six or seven ten people around you know the ad or the public affairs person security detail all these folks making sure you get around okay and everything you possibly one so to say that senior officer circled the pattern that regard may be absolutely right

but there comes a time in fact we found one summer on the night and the dole institute pretty remarkable my staff it's a really remarkable myers but there comes a time in your career when you know are in your life and you know the parts over been pampered mean zero for being anybody cares about you and wesson are it might've happened when as the story goes and the people inside the library don't dispute this when his complaint is assistant editor just returned from the military says business phones making this terrible wreckage you go you're going to just fix the system assistance of service pilot on a very good friend of mine now a very different a minor fall the relative if you're such a louis university's for university here probably no john morton the artist from it flows no job workers job just terrific

and when you leave office as a german trenches after authorize a portrait and we pored through you know proposals from hardest working artists from all over the country and we get this fall john martin because of his portfolio return and i didn't know that you are six blocks from the high school i went to mission kansas i did know it no ticket you probably supposed to write there is a wonderful artist and we just had a portrait of alien not too long ago and i'm this is also brings you doubters in terms of we really think you are and that the portrait of alien was it to not clock in the morning and so i walked in the pentagon my family nine o'clock in the morning and i know that my successor will be placed by that time the morning has had his cia briefers member the joint staff has had his briefing there has been a popular secretary defense had that morning meeting and probably come back and then some more paperwork before nine o'clock and then the post are certainly

and i said well that pig cadavers for you and me now says i used to do that but i spend all morning between time i woke up again here on my two she goes around picking up poop so why does the way it probably is not exactly right this was a pretty full i spent four years the military the plan and out of our music and the stated plan was never do that the plant's five years and come back to the city and work for my father a couple things about the motor in that i think that he's got somebody that server you serve you might not understand the role well but the things that kept me and of course it was the flying to help me but then i was that the culture that you live in is that the fact that you you've got to trust one another not just a matter of the woman a right to get the mission then often for your life and this idea of trust and integrity and those that haven't

continue almost don't have it you get rid of somehow was important to me the idea that is it's a meritocracy as a very modest rule your skin color your religion and here believes if you can produce then you have a chance of advancing and that was very appealing no tolerance for discrimination also very appealing and finally this idea of serving something bigger than yourself and i don't know why that resonated with me but it did and it made an nfl going getting up in the night for a some kind of like preaching at four five in the morning to go fly was always ok because you thought as you shaving put your clothes on was is about more than just me it's about and our country in a different country so that's that's why i stayed for years but nobody can displays are minorities

here and many rumors that will we're sure to mars will be a general and probably the chairman joint chiefs of staff that would never been said i'm really sad about many people are so many factors have to come together and make that happen so one thing led to another and forty years three months later i guess get out there and the pipeline never really been my intention my intention was always to come back to kansas kansas city work in business with my brother that sort of thing so some things you never know exactly i contain the four years as chairman or the most fulfilling years of my life of people say that you have found the charm us the mobile telephone years but but they were fulfilling because the challenge was so great you may remember i was nominated in august to be chairman nine eleven happened and i'm done i'm an officer on one oct seven days later or war in afghanistan things happen professor jonathan walking around

fort myer economic as a winner we're totally as chairman every chairman has some couch some big deal or water or something and i wish i had asked the question because this couple weeks later we found out that johnson is going to be out there are some things that articles for years and mr robles serious issues i don't want to talk about first wall went on from there i believe that in a lot of our debate about our national security data reported at the wrong thing they're very much focused on iraq which is a very important situation not talk about that but the thing i think we should be debating is the threat that we face from violent extremism it was not extremism that was the wake up call on september eleventh and it was really a hammer blow to the head but there were plenty of warning signs are go back decades and you have to go back very far what ninety eight when the summit want or more on this and say well it's a small group and what can i possibly do to

us culture our way of life and with the east africa bombings and we have the uss cole an egg harbor harbor in yemen and well that's overstating foreign workers in those are many folks are at risk in a meeting and we did after oh natalie's after mom and me but for post cruise missiles into afghanistan in the training camps at the archive but they had very little effect obviously because of the wrong mission and it was it was always difficult to figure out how to go to a landlocked country in and do battle apartheid and joe allen and then became the sensors it became a little little richard and i said in uniform and i said out of uniform and oh by the way the remarks lent mr marx i'm not running for political office and the work of the government mailer forum use of my views the law and but when i tried this a test question whether senate city's western europe were quickly

lowered transition how many folks think the chairman joint chiefs of staff the difference on military advisor to the president the national security council is in this political in the sense that the senators political president's political or are we a political instrument restored within one and better resolution last two thousand far less lanzer is the chairman is a political and you work very hard to be apolitical but when you stand next to the president and that's central time people make assumptions of course those were the hardest thing to do as a professional tremendous maintain your profession and not be drawn into the politics of and that's where the constitution reads the law's land in burundi we'll be very thankful that's the way it is for some countries it's not that way were motoring does get little eventually sometimes takes over the government from time to time which is not anything we'd wish on interstates of america the list right and my the youth is the most serious threat the threat

about extremism that we face in this country for way of life since the civil war that's my view they don't have many organs and i get anywhere else but that might be true and a tail i think is true this is an enemy that's a term and it's an ending it has a long range plan they have used to be an outright website you can go to i don't know lincoln's final i can't find that anymore i think it's been long since been down but their website shows are planned for a hundred years and they cover countries read where they had to turn to their form of extremism and have any government that they are kind of a place in it you've got a hundred years in the north american continent is turn red canada united states mexico mean that's their long range vision and they're small but they're undeterred and you combine that vision of what they think their patients and their vision and you combine that with things like look for ruthlessness and a disregard for human life

and the nexus between that and a biological weapons or god forbid nuclear weapon or a lot of vice this is a very real threat to have a big impact on how they work where they saw what it's a big threat is not because the army's navy's and air forces as well because they're gonna come down main street here in moore it's less like an idiot and all are in a work our minds like to work in the mines around the world a vote for that used terror to create fear in nineteen forty one president roosevelt talked about four freedoms and more those freedoms was a freedom from fear because he understood what fear how to grip our minds if you take your ticket self back to nine eleven think about your particular circumstances i mean your business is now they're just recovering from the effects of milan i know people still fly on airliners because of the fear being hijacked and went into a building around and it had a dramatic affect a lot of our countrymen and people around the world that's how i work a work through fear receive iraq every day

is inevitable hospitals and schools and that sort of things they went after the mayor moran after major comment on the line after a tamale you when she's there in baghdad were liberal wing extremists or rockets and anti israel indiscriminately <unk> having military impact what they do know is we're going to create fear and we are afraid that we don't think a lot of what we start to make several mistakes or read our government we do this or that that's why i think this raises is so dire not imminent and i don't think we were raised revenue for the threat and this is it's been lost in the other basic were having on important issues no doubt about the central issue that the president be ruby once i don't think it's going to be a rally over nafta and in my view and what a voice

what's their strategy a strategy after nine eleven and by the way the day that the president came back to watch an after nine eleven you know in eight months of working with the commander in chief you got to know him a little bit and it was in a room sort of bounce bounce your step and equipping the typical what would be buyers texas plate case they on saturday we made a bet or someone and so the monday morning and he said he said now i don't even know his he's come in the room you know and he's already you know they so that this this time he came in the room and i've never seen a more somber percent i think to his core of this is my my belief he was actually shaken by the events of michael evans often as commander in chief and president of the united states a gonna let the country down and it was german never let that happen again and he said something at the end of the session and we have a massive

critique of them being rationed eased when the white house way down deep cervical warlock or part of a white house and something that her boss probably herbert from mali with the reversal of her meetings in and at the end of a meeting he said something that it was gratified a lot of us ever sounded and i think probably because there is little hammers but it was ok whoa wait a week but then i mean it was i'll try that we didn't have any real plans for the next mover is talking about in general what we have to do and the president said no he said folks i think probably in the next couple years revenue something to be very unpopular to secure our country and that means this is a four year presidency then soviet and also thought that was that's good commitments the president forces people and resources thirty two more subtle and on the backend for usa then somebody what do you think the president is right or really think is wrong i think that's what

motivated him early on to what you want to do is return not let this happen again on our soil and find innocent hasn't i mean i think the probability of more terrorist attacks are landowners probably think you'd be foolish to think it's not high there have been thirty major terrorist attack since nine eleven and the rest of the world thirty you remember i mean if you think about it you probably think before on iran the strategy initially was off as the fans and then some sort of long term strategy of the defense your week started there department of homeland security in trying to figure a way to better secure country through the ports images of government and they can do that there is a reform intelligence community and that was one of the white house and congress list of ways the director of national intelligence so we wouldn't again have this inability of our civilian law force bases in our national intelligence agencies and

their inability to communicate and talk we fix some of those problems that we started stood up the military command called northern command of colorado springs now to the norad was always or more and was here and missile defense command with our canadian brethren this is the one that's focused on the security that we never had before because i don't think we were felt that the real need to have a command focused on our security was just improbable other defense air missiles that somehow we've come under attack but this is a new a new century and so there was that but the realization was that no matter how much you borrow weren't around something romney was your bill you know somebody dedicated to a mission and went and i know cause you really can protect yourself adequately so that in an office if component the first part is on afghanistan there are just for techies and the audience

it's a lot of the movie's four years it's about the cia and have these cameras are seeing people running i'm from washington dc well early on in the campaign in afghanistan we want to make sure that the tal law outright into this is a different kind of the united states armed forces in the street or cruise missiles that came in their last time we're going to put americans on the ground and we were on the ground we were on the ground in afghanistan we were still trying to get our special forces and with the northern alliance of north and we took down the leader of the taliban mullah omar's compound it looked like a small it looked like leavenworth prison the federal prison system kennan manager and the fascinating thing was through infrared technology you can watch all this happen in washington dc and real time you could see that helicopters land was a nighttime visit us for a look back with pretty charges on the doors russian there and that we know would probably be a foul tempered terms of any intelligence games are over but

the people you want to be calm but we didn't just say this is going to be a different author and advocate for the psychological impact and he could watch them from washington some people like that some people would like to control things like to be but watching from washington think if i just had a seventy five hundred mile screwdriver i could dial this thing and pretty well they offer gets a cigarette seller you made this table right here in your off season not on your life and i haven't gotten your force us and these assets of the things in these pictures the streaming video and say you can you can do a post mortem on what could have gone better but while their efforts going on is that commanders feel that can talk we can observe and i don't remember observing another activity like that but that one we didn't exist for the techies know it's it was quite quite amazing the half hour away what are your troops rescued a mission and little light in a landlocked country so we've had a

defense of the office the part of what's been just a minute i'm on is the long term strategy will make this real easy i'm from kansas or like real simple melodies and give them to chuckie cheese lots of votes been to admit it there yet yet you never know you never know there's the diamond take your kids are afflicted by the games and i don't think all the game today climbed back for a long time that the you know the white dome on the same road signs popped up i would say there's a very crude analogy but you know our strategy is more like the whack a mole machines they were but your thoughts are really whack him okay and that's been somewhat effective but in the end in the end if us safer land for our children are graduating travel the world and various other cultures and architecture and the arts we need a safer place and he got it to the point where men and women don't wanna join jihad and the

way to do that is not a blending in the period that the back of the sing off and change the algorithms that control who was a popular ad that is people say well we could never get to that strategy would say the same thing about the cold war reporter was looking pretty bleak i mean france was going on as italy the chancellor is going on as though the wall went up all these things that but what made things look pretty bleak that became a strategy in the end our success formula for eastern europe that took decades my guess is and he had a strategy along this line to get to the point where the moderates of the world our people the world i nominate those have respect for others will take decades but it's not right to get there if we don't start the strategy in the strategy will be a lot more other instruments of national parliaments in the us military the military will play rollers or sayings of the military it's going to have to do in space in helping other countries develop their own security apparatus

the army for police or whatever it is and you know the state department begin to police training primarily other as the semester car what the policy like education like economics like information and these are all or is it need to be blended together the strategy not just the us strategy but a strategy with our friends and allies says much of the international community must be part of it to start working on this problem so come this friday you know if your strategy starts to work on the water to less mosque in the world that preach hatred towards the west or they'll be some a draw says that will decide the city's other things other than the crime in terms of bringing the young men and women for life in the twenty first century inaudible that's possible but i know they do nothing that this problem was never going to get any better and there are people out there my friends around the world that all different

religions and persuasions that all want the same thing is now talk about we want a secure and safe environment for our children our grandchildren to grow up and that's what we want and there are a lot of people like that that that don't wanna fall some extreme extreme view and i think i think this part of a strategy the white house website remote look our strategy to this point i think where things you'll find missing the strategy is that its way to us centric and we've got assessed and international effort and i think the the nice places to be the engine i have to help this along but it's gonna take a lot of help you know perfect perfect work of the un that they could muster most of the town to do this but that's that's what's lacking in strategy a ruggedly on how we're going to get a couple stories look ma i think the outside i would put it this way if osama bin ladin on nine eleven

had a border board directors andy daly about seven people that he counted on and he'd be answered about a certain set of board directors find out either kill or capture and that's the good news and their ability to operate in the world has been severely curtailed by all the efforts of the decade by the military and law enforcement internationally domestically there's been some good effect on curtailing their ability to rome there are a lot of territory but they are deterred and it doesn't take very many many onetime of the songs of government to cause real happy i don't how many were involved in the heathrow plot but just imagine if that many are letters and blown up over the north atlantic that would've been many thousands probably that so that means a restaurant and it news of the deal with but with a very serious way so

they're down but not her and something as places to get agreement of resources and all that that's a good question for the q and a curator on afghanistan you know now that nato is in charge of the security stability and the reconstruction from me from that standpoint in the country that say and they've been edging towards that but now they have the entire country is are the responsibility of the american in charge of the nato forces now the only way probably to summit from rick later on this is a big deal when an organization brussels it's been so you're separating so focused on the soviet union in the past is now about his flag in kabul and his word about about that country i think that the atrocities elected government and they're working they're issues that the decision afghanistan from my standpoint is the fact that's been through decades of war that their infrastructure to support it was is it's almost nonexistent so what they need in that country is a

robot programmed the power and transportation the water so they can have alternatives red poppies which is relatively easy to do and a lot of late very profitable so if we think that also go away anytime soon is not the good news is i think the international community is very much focused they're so i find i feel pretty good about about afghanistan and as that bubble is also taking cooperation from there neighbor pakistan for a better job of trying to control that order for the tribal groups those that are friendly to the tall are a little on the controller their movements a little passe favorite places illegal for medical treatment so forth all this takes time and the number of diseases it is that there's a vessel has to happen and you're probably more questions arise when i left office i was pretty optimistic about iraq because what happened is we've had a vote at a constitution that most people thought

was pretty liberal by the way president bush made a big point in this was a decision point us in the right on that yet but it was a it was a if you have a political science folks who owns the recent twitter friends well as you may know the united states is not opposed to get involve other garments work from time to time and in my first one and it's a but there was a s as elections looming in iraq the question was well how much and baldwin as they said to the president said as he wrote this will either democracy whatever it is that we may have people that we think would be better in the government than others but in the end they're going to have to open sir rog and the findings of these folks that we can't stand that maybe in iraq and you haven't figured out what i thought well it was the right stand but we have a constitution for a liberal

constitution for the part of world football in the sense of a mutt can't find the time we have to talk a bit of precast addition most people thought the parliament was elected in a government that was elected government wasn't elected when i left office and analyze it stayed about the same level for a couple of years which was not good but iraqi forces are still being felt we were about the first year but another rocket forces and the police force and more to come there love that term and in every two thousands of the bombing of the mosque and tomorrow we'll be restored we talk about that i think the key is that i think some of the debate in washington over two years how well the iraqi government performs and i think there's a big question mark there they've done some things well the other thing is they don't appear to be willing to take the action needed to quell was allegedly done so but in the president's speech on top of the surge i was gratified to see even bought just about troop buildup be talked about what's likely to be done and

economically what had to be done and it's important services if you do the research and services you find out for the most part that is not just a security issue that is not just a political issue or economic issue with all three of those have to sort of progress basically simultaneously and we had lots of base the white house over just more secure in a better political progress or whatever security is the country unless there is some investors are working the bat the best decision and reverse and reconciliation and also other issues and so and that's what has to happen and so i think we i think that's a lot of the debate is in washington trying to people trying to put the pressure on the iraqi government to perform and our second call does in the workplace related to summon the dissenters as more i think every every night before i went home and i'd sit on tropical prime minister ian mccall promised march is a really facetious but i mean you need constant pressure and they have a lot of pressure on her to know that as long as are spending our blood and treasure they didn't for

what's it take to win it takes all the loss of national power when iraq afghanistan border issue it takes patience which we do not have very much of the country will resolve which we have a lot of it for properly informed which leads me to a comment on what it takes to win i think our debate today is so fractious so vitriolic so political of nature's harder stand for by listening to your normal routine matters and you have to have you better have sources using do a pretty good job of writing new perspective you need so you can be in for democracy only works when we're well informed it has not worked well and will endanger ourselves if we make our decisions on an unformed basis and i think the day that they were being denied a good information ever live in the human eye scores on for margaret voland townhouse in soccer

morris returned them those are watching cable news and yours haven't worked with him at a lot and i sold my goodness is how americans are getting their news from some stuff to the news they go from the bust our summer to some important national security issue they give about two seconds and we get back to the bus fire and in the end the debate is so charged politically brian jenkins wrote a book about the us six seven months ago eight months ago on terrorism is a fellow at the rand corporation studied or terrorism for about thirty years ryan made this comedy set in our debate now so so fractious city reminds him of the crips and the bloods we have these two camps like these gangs the crips and the bloods except they have better players and i think there's some some truth to that arm to switch gears a little bit to troop morale one of the things i did right before i left office in august of all five

i may actually i decided that i could do as women working folks now four almost four years bert really really hard lots of folks abandoned and combat families and then going back home what is what is the troop morale and i said tomato and serve god and my divorce was a you know i don't take a trip around the world and and see the troops and i was the furled to open had no chance of that was just to go see the troops and the terms of the charles ago around the world has actually showed a lot of airplanes it's really easy and i called her my friends and you're so i said you know that was it over on the fight in prison entertainment a lawsuit brought a couple of comedians that were pretty funny guys and then we looked for sports figures we try to find an iraqi fortune figure someday still active in sports you think about august who can you find an audience is not engaged in either working up at a sport or just booming

down the sport and you really can't find anybody so we went to the nfl it has been a great supporter of monitors you know from similar and similar things they do at the super bowl and other football games and they can assemble will give you an nfl hall of famer and they get together and they do you know the name of the author amato story on the also makes pennies on campus or not you can ask you know this is true or his version and by the way we went around the world ten days twenty five thousand miles fifteen thousand troops eighteen different kind of shows and showed the eyesore of talk among both thanked them for their service to the surfing the committees come on deal with ambition and the little show them about mental and take pictures and shake hands until the next location they respected me they were respectful if you expect they lack the comedians but they

get tears horizon was applauded deal and the human curators can say we start out that you ensure that during the longest produces is going to be safe and my comments to be a safe is well reprise i feel particularly because you're close proximity were really really find it a very uplifting message you must operate tested here at kansas university i guess is disease so important things around around the country the world and until this one story on and we go to a city on the persian gulf and it's a it's august the persian gulf and run the hangar deck it's it's hotter than blazes every time and mentorship in the persian gulf it was december as tolerable august me and that they were trying to get here through the hangar deck a good and we had all the sailors in the few marines that wrong and from russell about a group and fight off for under way we were reporting record deal but we land on on the death of a helicopter pilot

from his lab on helicopter coming in late is to have it give me straight here on long terms of the petard as a dribble proper plan that has a year these laws that they use it backwards and saying it has no windows as well as a couple levels but not worried because the hours and the days trapped and wrote it out of a five point harness and you strap and you have your most illinois it's such a it's such a basic airplane you feel like just been a pattern here you're part of the structure because it all comes around you when it's applied to underpin adroit flew in the vapor from interrogation without land on the carrier and the tail it grabs in and it's a no brainer to your face and backwards all the pressures words on your back with an outdoor show they know about the show is what the committee says it was too hard and took his pants off an enormous idea that as public affairs officer

navy captain who's running across from a raw chicken and the people are like emotions on one every month is comedian ever in earlier this is not appropriate to please put your pants back on when i got to get back on the cob now this time of course when she dropped the cabinet where you go from zero and for now they're basically about two seconds and all the forces can be against the stress scientists and backwards from that there was obviously going to force this way as a setback for an unusual not fasten your career you know those things get deeply unpleasant and that's real noisy it's hot it's noisy they have a rap on the back of that year was no additional of the stuff and they bought it up in the new year that you've put on the nose gear and you know it's about time you're in his run up and inspire greatness of ernest moniz inspire greatness heart and then two seconds you're born in addition just in a row that sends deadly quiet and as

severe enough until services here he turned around looked at many with this what really does it every day doesn't it also starred as those internal thing was even talk of course one more little anecdote about britain around i think if you ask anybody at the data service brown actually and i and i still try to take the polls whether it's with the votes of four around editor farrar not too long ago us armed forces the work very hard at recruiting attention justice to sticks are all good national guard doing great i'm a kansas national guard major going back to iraq for the second time and whether or not it won't go down fewer solar and i said wiener back a second time to the guard has in them quarterback poisonous the volunteers that your volunteers as yes the basement were very unhappy but i am it is because my unit i went the first time now the rest of the

unit is going and i know the place and i know the hazards and how to get along and i thought either go back and help of the second time through massive capital reassurances the kansas that i majored in the kansas national guard one story about walter reed i was watching you can do it too and what courses visit with those of the wounded and course you know lose to their terrible because we save and with the body armor that's a blast then would serve the extremities to include the head in some cases this one young man had lost a label the announcer they're talking to and his moms in the room and she'd say i just stood there and she was a very gentle looking lady i'm not an average others from her but she was just the most the journalist looking at the receding just a typical american long and when i say talking to a soldier

on the way out a judge nelson said not talking in the halls of course we've got the whole you know terry have a chance to talk to chairman joint chiefs of staff said just last link on that i was that therefore you know why are such an idiot to whatever's going to come up and i was floored by her what she asked me and i'm telling this because this is not as this is not outside two standard deviations attack on the seventies we get the first thoughts of all that maybe burritos one sign said oh you know my son and there is always wanted to be an army ranger you think that injuries to keep him from fulfilling his dream and said holy mackerel mom and i prefer my son or daughter and their about a thousand questions for the chairman that would not be the first one that's what she was thinking of and heard her family and think of her son my guest is but if he wanted to he could be an iran because iran has reportedly articles still certified when you break through translator i know a civil servant the right to drink but he would be the first one

like it's sort of a record if i'm not mistaken so meta dude you want to however the vote seventy seventy six with that call i think it's a terrific book because it tells your i've talked about this threat that has not been easy for it to deal with we talked a lot about you know some bad things didn't happen and we haven't talked at all because we don't have the time except this little bit to talk about the american spirit american character i think you're a lot about that and seventies seventy six yes we're young but we shot a lot of things and send in seventy six we show courage and perseverance i think they showed a little bit of a sense of humor when or general washington was kicked out of boston and new york was down in new jersey in the winter of seventy six and his army went from tens of thousands of you know less than a couple thousand or a couple thousand and yes we had a victory then at the end of the year but in the meadow hears army's get kicked out of all these major cities by the british what we

do we signed the declaration of independence at that show some optimism and we're a little bit of humor in there to you know take this guys will be back and we were eventually and it teaches a mouse with a little too and join our staff addressed that foresight and his wife rose came out if you haven't met them they're wonderful people we talked about seventy seventy six when it perhaps one of the larger meanings and we all concluded that that the declaration independence our constitutional rights are wonderful documents great prose liberated on her partner read well but they really don't mean a thing unless you're every citizen is one to sacrifice to bring him to life and a map of bell the military are not endorse of nine eleven all in this together and whether you're an education or religion or in music or

in the military are in the business whatever it is you do we all have to pull together ever going to be successful in and the threat that i talk about are in foreign entities that these issues that this country faces and i think that's why one of the books and it's only six percent of talking today to talk about was a wonderful wonderful experience when they leave a quote for you that you and i if there are historians in the audience i've got my standing ten dollar bet be careful to a military garrison now i'll keep potential referendum they can come up with the author of this crowd but there were things you get to do when you retire is that iran remains in uniform you're forced to read whatever comes across your desk as you now know some of those nonfiction solo section that they're reading a way that remark this year so there's a quote i didn't get as a non reactive approach and it's fine

for the deserted it sums up where i think we'd be thinking about on a daily basis and it's from a former chairman of the joint chiefs is that it's more reasonable like it and its record on freedom and sell those frieden nor has ever been uttered that has held up greater sacrifice needed more to be nurtured blessed more to develop dan morris distortion store your work and closer to being docile on earth may america and to be his protector and guesses all any definitive answer when he does get answers or rather your first chairman joint staff and he said that in nineteen forty seven after work to experience thank you very much for your questions it's bleak i would certainly grant you that any have religious extremists is willing to form self opens a threat to

this country but i failed understand the relationship between loss or victory in a rack and that threat coming to this country which the current administration is now arguing virtual it's one of the things that is on the current debate in a very long way you have to worry about what happens to iraq for a lot of reasons then what's likely to happen was like they have more influence and so this so called to grass and start marching towards countries everyone timely word about iran is the principal enemy you can think of a country that rewards one chapter in particular words about rama the saudi arabia but also the nation's mental states to go to jordan and egypt we worry about my country so you have to have a strategy that that falls off or whatever to throw around the house you have to have some kind of strategy that progress toward chaos and he was madeline

albright who said you know we need more of an international effort in iraq because we've got to be successful there i don't agree with that and he was here but i'm worried that the quote was about seven months ago and when i read your words on i share her she was of his npr interview authentic connection i see is that it goes fact that the connection i see it is they've addressed all the dresses are senior military commander iraq it's just and i think accurately that the principal enemy in iraq there wasn't a mine in some orange every two thousand six a member what they say they're going to do that mr up sectarian violence in iraq and they have done a very good job to get the godlessness shia militias running uncontrolled basically a real problem if this comes down to a result i believe it does we are not successful as a major then they are terrible and

they'll be they'll be happy when we read intelligence about our pride of lions on activity if we could find where they were complaining about their finances if we could find where they were are debating with each other over issues they did there were on one debate with almonds are problems they have a leader in the rock at the time i want to have they were debating over the sectarian violence will someone was really for that the cards that we have to do that and we have to kill our own brother and to get there and osama bin laden was not of that persuasion isn't good they're fighting amongst themselves i can almost i mean i don't know that my guess would be if you're violent extremists and you see us talking about things that are the real issue you take some part of it so i think it's an excellent will result in the end and i think it's it would be a parcel same oversight the first time we've got the first summit with the region

almost at all cost a lot but i do think they're being there be very serious consequences to world security in this case rose and an ours included an innovative just embolden folks and would only deepen born safely are going through the castle and talk about intelligence outright and as a literal one we got some intelligence report that when that would just a ruin that the president vice president the ashen face because we know it's a it's a tough prominent they could they would oh that's what's i think it's i think it's i think it's connected not i don't go back to the point where it was connected before and rockets into the issue that's not the facts of particular thank you general and carol brooks i teach history here at the university of kansas unlike became so you know omar bradley's i was guessing it might in either brad

eisenhower question relates to your statement that what we need is a strategy that takes advantage of all of our assets and i wonder if you think they're persisting in the present course in iraq which has caused surveys show most people around the world to conclude that were doing the wrong thing and the wrong way really represents a sensible way to pursue the kind of strategy that you're asking for well i think they're there to hear two questions why i do think we need a better strategy meanwhile put this delicately that people say well nobody respects the usa today more i find that the bs as a military leader i'm around the country's natural i was chairman joint chiefs is that there is no military is more respected in the world as its military man don't be like a symmetry like justin macumber schools and whenever they love they love interstates of america so now the polls may show that every

time he made some missteps i think we have made some missteps within actor was over language i think we start out too much of this is us against the world as the week we set up some very bad predicate for what past the fault so i when i would like that directly on a rock i mean if the rest the world was like overgrown rocco more that would come from oh without question cbs the biggest economies is sort of them really tempted to have the jews americans are marking this all up the meat area from american military says viewpoint there's not a moral truth it then you can do than give other people or freedom there is nothing more interested in now whether we had to go and all that that's a debate i'm saying the sacrifices his country is making in afghanistan afghanistan and iraq for people who risk their allies to go vote rizzo they don't want democracy you remember the pictures you know to the fact they went and voted at their own risk

quick story amin province the center of afghanistan or women there were told to vote in the election marie curie the evidence was a month earlier minibus stopped people had voter id cards due in a given him were talking off the bus and kill whether women a bombing and promised to face in effect a gunman killed they could be killed when the polls they basin dressed as if they're under on funeral in the martian poles there were thousand the ngos like that across afghanistan and rock ribbed every situation they nevertheless i still think it's important to think about some of the restaurant and read the polls i don't know what the questions were but i i'm not sure they thought this through how was the alternate violence ok troop withdrawal great fighter strategy is an idea but not a strategist ready has to be true for all and then what because you're legally the region and where shape without

without of the more with a chaotic iraq so i love paula and see that i think dissipated in a lot better and actually early on and i think we're fighting an uphill battle to kind of back on on top of the issue not the least of which is a bigger way in the mid nineties with the us information agency we've made it much more difficult for a lot of people more world leaders than americans about so there are lots of pieces of this i was a cop a quick question you ask you know forget the justice but that's bedeviled why maybe some time are playing some emails thank you guys you've received for you've just heard a lecture given by general richard myers former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff recorded may second two thousand seven at the door institute of politics at the university of kansas the recording engineer was joe dimino i'm kate mcintyre kbr presents it's a production of kansas public radio at the university of

kansas who gave us mr lansky and tolstoy and chekhov and tchaikovsky and stravinsky and shostakovich and who gave us mint to live in poverty income of north in this instance next time on cape here presents korea carlson professor of slavic languages and literature at the university of kansas on does russia matter china has eight o'clock sunday night as carson talks about russia's search for identity after the collapse of communism we've seen that of course the russians were going to follow our lead hadn't the russian people suffered under the communist regime for seventy four long years waiting to shake it off so that they could become just like gas well spent sixteen years and for the russians it's been a sixteen year roller coaster ride at our present every house and eight o'clock sunday evening on kansas public radio it's big

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