it grew and its nine countries including the united states. it needs to be bigger. we are growing in asia, the fastest area in the world, fastest-growing economy in the world. we are growing in a bowl of noodles trade agreements. we have the assian, we have bilateral agreements. we have got to come to get fair and begin to address the critical issues in trade, which would address 55% of the world trade. you put the u.s., canada, mexico involved with japan and the nine right now come and live away, we have split them why? ..

>> well, this is a real reunion. six of us have a terrific time and make it together, which is this morning. we have had a lot of time and i agree with a lot of what mickey has just said. at a few points of differences, but this morning we will discuss a variety of trade initiatives.

some stalled, some negotiated in some simply dreamed about. and in assessing relative importance, i always like to think about what a good trade agreement can accomplish. in my view, a great multilateral trade agreement should strive to accomplish five strategic and i underline strategic goals. one, to open global markets, which will generate growth for rich and poor nations alike. too, to reduce global poverty, which furthers the united states development goals. dr. william kline has done a wonderful study connected with the peterson institute for international studies, showing a 1% increase in trade by poor countries reduces poverty by 1%. three, to advance our security

games. impoverished nations don't govern well. they can't seal their borders. they become failed states and they become breeding grounds for international terrorism, crime, and aquatics trafficking and a lot of that beings. for, to integrate poor countries , bangladeshis, indonesia, pakistan, and two are treating system and that creates future markets for our entrepreneurs, just like the marshall plan. so they get a dividend, but it's down the road a bit. and finally, to enhance rule of law and transparency. bilateral and pleural lateral agreements can accomplish some of this. but because they are geographic reach is so much more narrow, they can accomplish as much. but it's big enough they can stimulate the members of the multilateral community to move forward on multilateral

liberalization. the uruguay round had collapsed in brussels in 1991. we came home and begin to negotiate the nafta. president george h.w. bush signed in december of 1992 and it was put through congress the following year. within four or five minutes we completed the uruguay round. people came back. they did not want to have the north american market, which was so large to not have the benefits for the global economy. my friend to my lectures thinks that delhi is that. i agree it is on life-support, but i also believe there is a way to bring it back. any still on my left. [laughter] no change at all clear.

and i believe doha could contribute to the five strategies you just mentioned, but i don't have time to go through. but i tell you there's a simple package that would poppers and gains than i would move forward if i had the chance to do so. the transpacific partnership is the only trade agreement that this administration is negotiating a and i think occurred, could be grave. the stated goal and i quote mr. bring together economies from across the pacific, developed and developing into a single trading community to serve as a platform for broader regional integration and eventually a free trade area of the asia-pacific. now is making as mentioned, the transpacific partnership involves nine nations. we have trade agreements with singapore, chile, australia and peru, four of the nine. emperor knight, new zealand, malaysia and vietnam would be

add-ons. the potential for the trade is kept at the current size he is quite small. the five largest asian economies, china, japan, indonesia, india and south korea are not included and they account for over 75% of the gdp, of asia and the great majority of asian people. so were canada, mexico and japan who want to be admitted to join with real hot after these liters, that is the canadian prime minister, president obama and president calderon met this past weekend, prime minister harper said to the press, well, the administration has slipped on whether they were canada and in mexico's economic minister

ferrari said he wants an answer by the end of the month. in my view for the tpp to achieve the five strategic goals i think are important, that will require the addition of additional economies. while i favor the concept of moving forward with the tpp, i want to point out that idc for risks if we keep it small. one, it would not accomplish the administration's goal of bringing together developed and developing economies in asia into single trading community. two, it would divert trade from asia's poorest state, cambodia, laos, burma and make them worse off because of the diversion. three, it would split the odds and 10, which has been so strategically important to the united states. we have established an austrian ambassador in jakarta.

we have supported an aussie and secretariat and to split them at this point i think would be a loss. fourth, it could -- it could induce a competing trade bloc because china is not in. these concerns would be diminished if we house the transpacific partnership into the wto, making it open to any member that wanted to be bound by its terms. open architecture exactly what we did the government procurement agreement, which has served us well and with the information technology agreement. moving with the pacific and atlantic, with a high-level working group study the possibility of the u.s. e.u. free trade agreement.

inspired by the true group's financial challenges, together we command more than half of the world's gdp and hence a bilateral agreement would have realized since both of our governments face tight financial circumstance, we might, might able to come an agreement removing or reducing agricultural support and that is a question for my slant to my rate. also with those negotiated a similar trade agreement with south korea, which could be used as a starting point for negotiations and expedite the process. a u.s. e.u. accord a platinum quality code like the nafta did with the uruguay round stimulate incentives to move forward on the multilateral fund. and finally in the western

hemisphere, now that the u.s. is treat agreements with every single government the orders the western pacific except ecuador, why not focus on purcell? president of brazil will be here on monday and will be meeting with president obama with commodity prices high in brazil seeking agricultural reform, they might pass backgrounds are very interesting conversation. with the dirt still love for its usually in our government continuing to spend more than it collects, trade is providing a much-needed economic cushion. whatever we do, let me just say that we have to work closely with congress. whether we're able to get trade promotion authority, so-called fast-track, we need to meet very regularly with congress to explain our strategic drive, what we can accomplish.

because if we don't have an arrangement with congress, is very tougher trading partners to sit down and put their tough political issues on the table, take the heat a home and not be assured this agreement will be voted up or down. so if you want to double or exports by 2014, reduce global poverty, advancer development goals rather than handing out cash, create future markets for entrepreneurs, strengthen our security and enhanced rule of law, we need a trade strategy and move ahead aggressively an opening world markets. thank you. >> well, i just say amen to all of that. what a pleasure just to see everybody here this morning and see everybody on the podium with all of our long-time friends here, all of whom think pretty

much alike as has been indicated before. i'm going to try to cover mostly agriculture this morning because obviously that is of interest to everybody. you don't put much if any thing in the way of the agreement for u.s. congress if you don't have agricultural support. so whatever the context, that is really critical. sonoita u.s. agriculture things at the moment about trade issues is pretty important. the first thing on everybody's mind without question is tpp. i don't think agriculture is totally given up on the doha round, carla. the boy, there is just a sliver of potential but remains they are. but multilateral market access and agriculture is pretty important. tpp is where everybody's focus

is at the moment, not because there is a lot there now is carl indicated. there isn't for agriculture, but because of its potential. and that starts with japan among the three countries but has indicated an interest in joining. if japan comes in and that makes everybody's eyes light up in terms of agriculture because there is a lot of protectionism in japan it could be eliminated over time and that opens up some excellent trade opportunities. it is also important for japan to be in because it could jumpstart the economy for the first time in 20 years. know what japan needs to do to be invited is another matter. we have had a lungs dinning controversy with japan, almost as long as the doha by negotiations and that needs to be fixed. fortunately, it looks that japan is a week into that and may fix

it soon. we hope that is the case. another long-standing controversy as japan post, which has implications in the u.s. insurance industry in which japan at the moment seems to be going in the wrong direction and that is certainly could jeopardize opportunities of participating in the negotiation. there is little with that intent of that with canada as well. the canadians, carla keeps saying it would be a wonderful thing if we were invited to join this negotiation and everything is on the table, but you know, we've got to kind of find a way to take care of things. that doesn't go over too big with countries like australia and new zealand that have an interest in their case in particular and gary come in the u.s. in both dairy and poultry. so canadians have to be really serious could happen.

now if you have to add -- carla, just those three, that becomes a very meaningful negotiation for agriculture and everything else. i'm not sure anything else gets added in the first tranche of negotiations. but boy do i agree with you that the real payoff for tpp cons of a number of other countries come in at a later time. just indicating the ones for u.s. agriculture would have a tremendous interest in the second tranche would be countries like taiwan, philippines, thailand and indonesia. and there you really have some potential growth in market access and agriculture. a couple of quick points on agriculture. one, bush is entering into the debbie's tia is mighty important. we can do more discussion later, but the fact is u.s. agriculture has had pretty good access and russia from time to time through the years in beef, pork and

poetry and they would like to do more and processed food products as well. but that has really been a roller coaster and wto disciplines on russia would certainly be welcome. it is not going to happen unless the kid pnt are taken care of and u.s. congress. that is the jackson van eck amendment as you well know and that is competitive aspects to it because we know competitors in brazil and argentina are taking full advantage to the wto and we may not be there. we can tackle a bit more about farm bill later. i don't need to spend more time right now because we don't know what is going to happen in the farm bill. it's a searing expires and said under and about all i would say at this point and i can embellish on questions and answers if you will is that there is no consensus among u.s.

side or organizations. will there be a safety net notwithstanding the fact that farm incomes are at record levels? yes, just because farm organizations will insist on it in the volatile environment that exists in the world today and a lot of people would share that view. so there will be a safety net. there will probably be several safety nets this time. i doubt it will be a one-size-fits-all and commodities as it has been in the past. it is probably going to be three or four different safety net, organized in their respective manners and all that has trade implications. will the cost of the farm program go up or down? they will go down in the short term and in the long term nobody knows. i can remember the roller coaster of the 70s and 80s, when everything was rosy in the 70s and everything collapsed in the 80s and they bankrupted

thousands of u.s. farms we don't want to go through that again. in addition to costs, what will be the trade implication? with the new programs being more or less trade? i don't know. i can't tell because it is too early. there is some indication that direct connect programs are likely to be eliminated. this is the least distorting a farm programs, not the most distorted. so an average sense, trade distortions will probably go web rather than down if that occurs. just a word on u.s. european union. i have long been an advocate of arduin of free trade agreement the european union and i am delighted that finally people are picking up on that and paying some attention to it. first question is can

agriculture be handled in that context? the answer is yes and i see that notwithstanding the fact that i spend half my life criticizing the common agricultural policy in vivid terms. the fact is over the last 20 years or to agricultural policies from a commodity standpoint has grown closer and closer together. agriculture is not the issue that would include the european -- preclude the doha round from coming to a satisfactory conclusion. that challenges the non-agriculture market access to a much greater degree. we can solve agriculture in the context of the doha around and we can solve agriculture in the context of the u.s. european union free trade agreement bill. >> okay. you're going to hear a lot of repetition in terms of attitudes

here. i should probably say on behalf of most of us, they are going to stay out of ustr cabinet over our dead bodies. [laughter] [applause] second, i think we've got to keep in mind the united states is really needed sneak, not just a little. we are the only company that has the capacity to truly lead and affirmative action. we can only be by example. not by force, not by pushing. we have to admit and recognize that her strength is not in our military, but in the economic capability. and if we use that particular strengths, we can avoid a whole lot of other adverse situations.

lastly and the larger sense we desperately needed trade policy. we don't have one. we need something that sets the parameters, and the goals of our basic approach is that we focused entirely on the multilateral system that gives us rules by which we can adjudicate, or doing something much more fundamental that were trying to achieve? i'm going to shift you around to the other half of the world. meredith asked the talk about the middle east and north africa. i am not sure that i can say anything more than the stakes in this area are incredibly high. we have problems that are just not going to go away. the arab spring, the phrase that is used to describe something that is enormously complicated

and fast changing. the questions would we do, how do we do it and when do we we do with? and each of those has an effect on the others. understanding the political situation here and here as a whole range of additional fact receive got to play or work with. so let me just quickly to different aspects of our approach. one, we have a part of the world that is terribly poor. in most cases almost totally dependent upon one export resource. in most cases, very inadequate or almost nonexistent to sun manufacturing errors resurface at others. huge amount of bureaucratic interference, government that is

set these intrusive if not give. there are perceived that take too much corruption. the problems are endless and lee chin. if you look at it though, the region does have something of a common identity and they have to be treated at least in one fashion. in that particular context. so one of the things i would hope to begin to think about more directly and immediately is a regional reason white approach. there's a number of ways you can do it. back in 2003, president bush made a free-trade agreement. president obama has been clear and economic development as a priority of u.s. policy.

there is an understanding i think, both in the congress and in the administration, but if you begin to create a more coherent approach to give some sense of hope to the people of that region, you begin to change the political dynamic that would advance our cause than that of our allies. there are ways to do it. we've had the example of an africa and the caribbean feast on preferential agreements on a multinational basis. that is one way to begin. we could expand the gps program and make it more effect this, more comprehensive. there's too many areas not covered both nationally and in terms of the product. those are the sorts of things that i think could begin to

compose a more rational and effective regional approach and create a sense that we do know we have a stake in the region and we are willing to stick our neck out again by example, by lead to begin to address the political and security issues we have there, not just on the basis of political and security, but on economic strength. let me go to the specific nations. there's a number of countries between iran and morocco. there is one that we have dealt with over the last several decades the is and has been for several thousand decades the lead and that is egypt. egypt is more risk than anytime any time in my lifetime. when i first took this job i was negotiating a free-trade agreement with israel and i went

to egypt and offered a free-trade agreement with that country. they are not ready. they are not ready now. but having said that, i don't think we can in order the opportunity and responsibility we have in that country. we've got to put a lot of eggs in that basket. we have a really dangerous situation over there. not just because of the advent of the muslim brotherhood. it goes beyond that. if you look at the riots in the streets, they were not only a bunch of college kids who are unemployed looking for freedom. most of the people in the streets were hungry. they couldn't afford the price of bread. you've got a country that has relied on subsidized fuel and subsidized wheat, bread to keep

the country stable. that is an unsustainable model. they're running out of resources, reserves. they're going to have to devalue currency that will raise the price of all imported goods. we have a very serious problem. i would love to see us begin to work towards a free-trade agreement. not that it's going to solve a problem. but as a long-term solution. but i don't think it makes sense even though we are treating people to think in terms of trade you an answer without a whole lot of other fat grease. we've got to think about how to effectively support them in terms of the quality of governance. we've got to get more involved in bringing assurance to u.s. investment. 1% goes into the entire region. 1%. i mean that's crazy.

we have to raise the level of assurance that american and european does is can invest there. so the sm of may statement i guess is we have a deeply rooted, really serious about very complicated problem that will not be solved by trade. but if you don't start by using trade is your entry vehicle, as the example by which we approach a whole range of other problems, you're not going to get there without facing the prospect of a very, very different egypt in a very different middle east that will be more of a hazard than a help. the last point i would like to make is we have to raise their efforts and all of these areas and reduce their expectations. it is really important not to overpromise either there or here. if we do that now, we've got a

chance. >> thank you. so how many pharmacy list ers does it take to screw in a light will? >> sticks of fire. i was going to say none. will persuade you you don't need a label. >> let me say that i agree with mickey that without presidential leadership there is no effect of trade agenda. second was carla on the strategic underpinnings of trade and trade agreements, the five underpinnings that she pointed out have really been the consistent rationale for trade, really since the end of world war ii when both roosevelt and truman recognized that without trade a fragile peace would never take hold and without

trade, countries would have no real commercial interest in each other's stability. and so carla pointed out was i think extremely important and that is to remind us of why we are all here on good friday, but the importance of trade. third, we are over aligned on the big initiatives that need to be seriously considered, especially sympathetic to build products view on the middle east for many, many years advocated a broad holistic approach uneconomic treatment of the larger muslim world, which is 37 nations, many of whom are the poorest on the earth. they think forth, with respect to particularly set through agreements, which proved very effect in the 90s, nikki is

right. the global telecom and financial services agreements need to be a dated. the world has changed very much since then even though the agreements are pretty forward leaning. the information technology agreement is going to be renegotiated if you will an extended and expanded, which is important. i do think on the site or a site as a number of other areas that need to be considered hosting services area as well as in what we would end up in newer areas with its environmental goods and services that should make us proagreement our fisheries are to be another good sectoral agreement or agreements in areas that are newer to the global economy in which there are far fewer vested interests. biotech may be one on that. i think it's very important, however, that is we talk about the trade agenda would not lose

sight of the single most important thing the united states could do and that pertains to its own domestic policy measures. there is no reason we cannot fix the problems in this country, particularly with respect to fiscal and macro situation and without that come in many broader trade initiatives will fall flat. we won't have the leverage that we need and we won't have the sympathy of the public we need in doing these kinds of agreements. so it's extremely important that the u.s. domestic policy agenda be set in motion and six. looking at the external challenges that we face, there are of course many when you think about global trade. one that i want to focus on that meredith had asked me to focus on really has been on the front page now for some time and that

is china and treatment of u.s. intellectual property and elegy in china. this is an absolutely pivotal issue for the united states because it speaks to the potential hollering out other intellectual capital, which is extremely serious. let me just say -- let me start at least with just two minutes on china's technology of policy because to understand where the policy comes from this to appreciate how difficult it is for the u.s. position. so china's goal is to become an innovative, an innovative economy. it is a great goal, absolutely a great goal.

the problem is the implementation of the gold. and so you have a number of underlying decrees in documents that has been around for a long time. the thing about china is if you read what they put out, you learn quite a bit. it is ironically reasonably transparent. so i'll just pick two. one was their medium term blueprints for science and tech elegy. where china is determined to reverse the ratio of foreign tech elegy conformant ip from what they calculated 6032 to reverse, 34 and 60 and indigenous in china. it laid out a series of projects. it laid out china's technical orientation and a series of megaprojects all in the

technology area, laden with sophisticated intellectual property. as i got the notion that it would become the world's largest filer of patent. almost 30 years. but it would be in the top five of countries whose patents are routinely cited major scientific publications. it is a very long way from that. and the rapid commercialization of its own labs. so it wants technology and ready made for applied science, to say for manipulating and to commercialize both projects. second it planned as the plane to 2050. china points out that admits the first industrial revolution. this great economy, a third of the world's wealth until early in the last century and missed

entirely the industrial revolution and it is still catching up ever since. the goal of the second plane is to not miss the second industrial revolution in which we are all in, but in fact to be the second. again, i have no core with all aspiration here. in a parade of industries again singled out for special attention from the government and a variety of a focus on tech elegy, intellectual property and importance to china and its indigenous nation in china. and then you have the 12th five-year plan put out last march. seven strategic industries, almost all the same industries over of the series. you just have to read this staff. and indicates the strong to elegy orientation of the chinese economy. so, all of this is great.

i mean, it is laudable, impressive and all the rest. the problem is the enormous gap in china between aspiration and the ability to actually execute. there is an enormous innovation and ip gap in china. but the reasons for why the world's most inventive economy for 4000 years became one of the world's least inventive economies. but such as it is, that is the case of distillate heavy pack observer, not a technology creator. so who fills the gap? between aspiration and current ability to execute? u.s. companies coming european companies, multinational companies who are in china and who because of a series of interventionist policies are increasingly under pressure to transfer technology, to transfer

intellectual property. i don't know of any major come nice to have felt this pressure and a series of policies that try and force the indigenous nation of tech elegy. patents have to be first out in china or r&d facilities need to be set up in china but the condition of future market access. for special encryption algorithms or unique national standards to which cut in his have to conform and to show conformists you have to expose all of your ip. there is a range of programs here that are involved. they'll interlink an intern -- some intentionally, but they work in a very powerful way. so, there are lots of responses to this. they're pure commercial responses, what to do about

registration so on and so forth. shadow government relation responses, how you work with the chinese government. the peer mentor protection you built around your own if you are located in china and the u.s. government and the u.s. government has 68 ongoing dialogues with china. i would suggest we're way over dialect, even though you can see it like to talk. in the u.s. of course use of the pto and other mechanisms than all of their design. but it is missing a fundamental mechanism for helping to navigate this area and that is the bilateral investment with china. it started talking. there's a very long hiatus. on the u.s. side for various reasons. the use in a bilateral investment treaty could allow u.s. european other companies

the protection of intellectual property they can't quite get and the wto because all of these measures were talking about diminished the value of your investment in china. they diminish your joint venture and diminish the value of the fti and that means it's a treaty violation if you have such a treaty. and that means not chinese courts, but international arbitration. it's a whole different playing field. so i would add to the list of policy prescriptions for the next administration getting on the time and negotiating an extremely broad including iep and focused investment treaty with china.

>> i suggest bilateral investment treaties that the whole bunch of new people. arsenic in a wide zester marquart should not be picked up or microphones. [laughter] okay, we're at the point where everything has been said, but not everyone has said it. i'm going to -- i am delighted and honored to be here with my colleagues, the farmers and echoes of point do we do need to question all of us for being here in this beautiful day, the banks to see a spurious for hosting this event. i think we do need to get this audience credit and i give my colleagues credit. part of the reason we're here is we do actually care about this stuff. we do genuinely care about these issues. and what kind of wonky.

my assignment was to cover what my colleagues hadn't covered, which is not a whole lot. and it had the most posts doha trade agenda. i am to your right, carla and your surrogates sandwiched by folks who do agree that doha is dead and we don't need to get into the theological debate. i think we would all agree that we need to get beyond doha and that is sort of my core premise here and whatever we want to call it. bush is declared the jury and move on. so that is what i am going to talk about. i think the key in terms of what is going on in geneva today, sadly is that we have a number of them particular couple of the

larger emerging economies looking at what is or what was on the table in the doha round and realize even though this one is not going anywhere and believe me it's not going anywhere, the next iteration they realized it's not going to be a sweet and whenever the next is going to be, particularly on industrial goods that there will be a differentiation between developing countries and developing countries and that the larger developing countries are going to be treated the same way as the smaller, poorer developing countries and there will be more of a continuum and they're probably hanging on to what was on the table, even if it means nothing actually ultimately happens. but it is in everyone's interest to move on for many of the reasons that i didn't carla so ably articulated. i mean, who is hurt the most by

the fact that there is this proliferation of bilateral, regional deals. and the answer is to smaller players out there, the poorer players out there. if you look at the 300 i. love of free trade agreements out there, they tend to be of the mom the larger countries. so my focus today is going to be really on what all roads, whether we talk about bilateral regional deals, set toils, laterals, i will touch on all of those, why all this should really get ultimately to the reinvigoration of the multilateral system, making sure that we are ultimately reinforcing the multilateral system over time and in the near term recognizing that we are

kind of stalled out in geneva, but while we engage and have a proactive agenda on the bilateral front, set girlfriend, the desert committees should not preclude taking actions will strengthen the wto in the multilateral system. and i do agree that at the end of the day, the folks in geneva of really should be focused right now on moving beyond doha and that should be what pascal lamy is focused on. that should be the number one, 23, five and 10 agenda is. it should be the number one, two, three, five, agenda summit chi 20 leadership as far as i'm concerned and linda g six, seven, eight, 11, whatever

figuration of ambassadors get together in geneva, that's what they had to talk about, how to remove him for the health of the system. a number if you have heard me say the biggest threat to the debut chios today is the doha round. so while we wait for the next multilateral ground to show up, what kind of bilateral agreements should we be talking about? is talked about some today, the tpp. i would just stress some of the points that have been made here. that is how we make sure these can be evolving systems, call a plug-and-play, color design such that they can be concentric circles and they can grow, such that we can open them up for countries willing to take on the responsibilities to take on the

new issues built into them. because after all and some of you a thing or here at csis for the discussion we had earlier this year on the transpacific partnership, one of the single most significant insight into both the tpp negotiation is that the next john, the next generation of trade negotiators, they are, regardless of what they negotiate and who they negotiate with, the precedents are being set in the tpp negotiations, whether it's about state-owned enterprises and state-supported enterprises, whether it is labor and environment, these are things that ultimately will get reverse integrated into the multilateral system at some stage will be alliterative through other bilateral, regional, set drilled deals. so, you know, watch this case.

so if you can build that concentric circles, what are these precedents going to look like and how will, for example, rules of origin be designed so they designed so they are not closed systems that ultimately a concentric circle and reverse integrate and these can become debbie eto plus structures and ultimately wto supported structures rather than exclusionary structures to work against the multilateral system so they can contribute positively to the wto system. we talked about the information to elegy agreement. that is exhibit a and surely deserves a huge amount of credit. 1996. and today would commend any of you who haven't read it, i tif a couple weeks ago put out a study on the ita. 97% of all trade in these products is covered.

now this isn't msn agreement that definitely needs out dating. the u.s. doesn't need any authority. we've residual u.s. government -- has authority. the agreement was before gps were invented. there is to semiconductor technologies that could be put into this new expanded coverage. it is the absolute perfect example for the countries that are signatories, brazil for example have so obviously shot themselves in the foot when you look at the data. the free rider is on the slowest car on the highway. but the benefits that accrue to both producers and consumers have accrued not just to producers and consumers of ict

equipment of the producers, but to consumers, the upstream consumers, users of the equipment to make any number of other things than any other number of sectors and it is really a compelling example of how several trade is an amazing multiplier effect. suspect drove agreements with ridges in the sector or we've talked about i know in this room we've talked about medical equipment. at grasser and others and talked about radical equipment, pharmaceuticals, a variety of goods and services. pleura lateral services being front and center peer services is a great example where should we be doing this unilaterally. we shouldn't wait around for other countries to agree. as it happens there's a group in geneva called the really good friends of services liberalization.

there are 16. i don't really good friends means. is it a group that showers together? >> tmi. >> it is a new world. >> but this is a no-brainer. whether it is financial services, express delivery, transportation services, e-commerce, get things we should be doing unilaterally. but if you can't teach her a legislature coming in executive branch to do it unilaterally, to leverage somebody else then let's do it. let's all hold hands compassing kuba yacht yacht into a together because it will make our, like the ita, it will make our own domestic economies grow. we've talked about a variety of these kinds of things. do you get where i'm going with

it. trade facilitation, custom facilitation again i like terrorists. by that thinks it at the border? we're all trying to get rid of corruption. what better way than to build transparent these single windows. aipac members have been doing this. we should be doing this together in geneva. carla mentioned again great examples of that. let me close with just echoing one saying. russia pnt are. i would just mention the following insert after that we through should comprehensive trade policy. russia is going to be a member of the wto this summer, june july. whether congress moves russia pnt are or not. i mean, whether there are

provisions are not and therefore it is not about russia's joining the wto. it is about whether the united states is going to benefit from russia being a member of the wto. pm tr is not leveraged. so the sooner we go about the better because it is in our interest. it has nothing to do with russia. so that requires leadership. the words came up several times at this table and it requires the administration, the white house come department of state, foreign-policy establishment because the debate and discussion is largely a foreign-policy human rights debate and discussion and are in fact legitimate foreign-policy human rights issues associated with russia, not having to do with the wto pmt are. but the sooner the better.

the administration stepped up. it's a bipartisan issue to congress on a bipartisan basis should use this. i should argenta have in fact argued in writing that it is in our interest commodious interest for foreign policy reasons. it's in russia's interests, referring reasons. it is an economic and commercial interests of both countries and i leave it at that and i think we've got plenty to talk about with this group. so thank you all for inviting us and for being here today. [applause] >> can i get some help appears so we can move this back to so we don't unplug it. good, thanks. [laughter] [inaudible conversations]

>> all right. who wants to respond to what someone else said? i want you to respond to each other. no burning comments? chris. >> the mic is not on. [inaudible] >> naïve thought it. [inaudible]

>> -- what is the most important soundbites you do that leaves listeners to fox and msnbc? [laughter] >> what a good question. >> all give you one bad enough it's a good one. 95% of the consumers of the world live outside of our borders. we are now 20% of the world's economy. we're going to be a last% of the world's economy of the next 10, 20 years. if we grow economically, per jobs, grow income. be able to finance what we want

to do in this country. we will have two globalized world and you can only do that economically through trade and said that with the, chris, nice sound bite. >> festive bingo. that's a keeper. >> what he said. >> i would only add to that just a simple word jobs. people don't seem to realize that the global trade creates jobs everywhere for the importer, the exporter, producer, manufacturer, transporter, millions of jobs that are related to trade for nomar trade to more jobs. we need to get off of this thing, the export goods, import bad and all the jobs of its exports and there's no jobs of

importers. >> if you want a bumper sticker, trade makes u.s. prosper in an good to the hill and personally and saw that idea, call people and the white house and explained to them 5% of the world's population. it's a little less. 20% of the world's output. where we cannot put it in with the opportunities are in terms of our security, national interest in reducing poverty. and so trade really makes the u.s. slide our national interest is all about. >> i would like to add something, too, which is if you look at polling data and you look at longitudinal data, you discover that when presidents are out there talking positively about trade -- when candidate

are saying negative things about trade, you see a more negative attitudes among the population about trade. and so when presidents, how does -- presidential campaigns have been taught down trade, having trash talk trade, surprise, surprise, their negative public attitudes about trade than they have to deal with it when they become leaders of the free world. to the extent that they are saying positive things about trade, and there is in fact a positive impact, they get a positive dividend in terms of public opinion. so leadership on the rhetorical side, particularly during campaign cycles. so that is the noting. candidates pay for negative rhetoric about trade. >> of the presidency worked for, who's the best in articulating

and leading? >> george h. dubya bush. >> read again. [laughter] >> can actually respond to that? >> e-mail, though clinton was always very frustrated in the sense that he never fully felt he found his public voice on trade. ..

so on and so forth or a general laugh rise in living standards. but it's very hard to put that in as powerful a context rhetorically and we used to joke about this quite a bit because he was a huge believe in open trade but always found that it's very difficult to bring the issues at a public level and as powerful a manner as one pitcher who closed. >> let me clarify that just quickly to give you a fact. i hate to deal with effect. as you will remember and i will

remember in july of 1993, nafta of the key to it was about 33% of the public interest had no opinion. by the time we got to november when they passed the contras over half of the public supported nafta and 40 something%, so you can move the needle as has been suggested, and that isn't just -- i hesitate to say anything because from bill clinton again, well, yeah ibm. [laughter] but the fact is it's just a nexium poll. all the presidents have done it as well. it was my point. i try to start it. >> somebody has to say i would love to hear the president say what are we afraid of? we are the strongest most productive people in the history of the world. what are we afraid of? the opportunity is there. let's go get some jobs he says -

and you will see a new president [laughter] >> university of maryland and peterson institute. our so-called experts raise questions we think we know the answer to. i ron to ask a question i have the foggiest answer. a number of people were energy experts have recently been arguing that there is under way a fundamental revolution in terms of u.s. positions of energy markets which are driven by velo cost of natural gas which has implications for the manufacturing competitiveness as well as our trade balance like a lot of things that affect trade policy this isn't in the trade policy this year when the veto

this year but does this change in the impact when you think we should be doing, what our priorities should be doing in the trade negotiations assuming that it's part of this so-called good news about the relative position and managing markets becomes true. >> i will take a quick shot at that and others can have i don't claim to be an energy expert are all, but i think we've got to be careful about over promising in that area. this is another area where the unrealistic expectations can get us in a great deal of difficulty. i think it is great that we are working on all of these alternative sources of energy and agriculture is heavily involved in that through ethanol and maybe the next generation beyond ethanol and so long but

the fact is we are going to be heavily dependent upon fossil fuels for a long time to come so we need to figure out a way to generate greater productive fossil fuels' from areas other than countries that don't like us very much. >> with of the blue tie in the front. >> my name is matt from inside u.s. trade. i have two questions i was hoping could draw on all of your experienced negotiators and working in congress. the first question comes about negotiation you have the competing priorities to finish as far as we can shift before we

bring the new players in mexico and canada and many of you seem to think that is important to bringing the new folks in the economic value of the deal. but how do you deal with these priorities? do you think they should just say let's slow down the negotiations and bring in the important players or you try to finish it this year the second question as dealing with congress some of you talked about. do you think that is doable this year and an election year working with congress and how politics can come into play in an election? >> first one, ttp membership on the broadening and the -- bet

let me say that if you have open architecture and have your agreement tied to the wto the way that charlene did with the government security agreement ready intellectual -- or the ip agreement, then it would be an open door for all of those able to meet the commitment. you don't have to slow down you just have cured door open. as you might let me just add that even if you assume the existing conditions, the question also assumes one could finish it this year that is not guinn to have been even if the existing nine. so the issue is whether it will slow things down an ardent plea by adding other countries to slowdown some and by judgment it is worth it. >> absolutely. let me say you've got to learn to walk and chew gum at the same

time and you can do that. this is not rocket science, folks, to be able to move this forward, to do what we did come and you are right, carla come and at the same time bring in japan, canada, mexico. it is difficult politically i think you said. we've got to do that, and we've got countries in asia and this is going to hurt them and divert trade, and i think we ought to move on both at the same time. i think we can do it and it's something we need to do and then leads to what we have referred to as a bigger agreement in the future and i hope the future finally involving china. that is a critical element and we've got to do it and so we've got to take the steps toward this and this is the way to start and we shouldn't wait. it doesn't matter, we can do this now.

election year doesn't start on the negotiation, so to start now, and i hope we do. >> i don't know the volume of agreeing or disagreeing with my colleagues. i think you have to -- negotiating a bilateral and with eight other countries is very different from and negotiating with eight versus 12 is orders of magnitude different. and when the offers include japan or can up with supply management in barry for a simple, just to pull a hypothetical example -- [laughter] or japan but as clayton mentioned, japan pos and some sensitivity and agriculture i

agree absolutely as i mentioned that ttp, when we launched it and envisioned it originally it was the path to take it from p5 which was the p4 plus the u.s. through to the free trade area of the asia pacific, or wto plus meaning to get outside the region that if the e.u. or brazil or china or, anyway, anybody else was willing to take on very robust hide our commitments and ultimately reverse, integrate into the wto and that was fine. however, the first requirement is the precedent setting and the precedent-setting has to be the high bar. i'm not sure you can achieve that high bar if japan is

sitting there in the first negotiating exercise. and i see that as an open question. but when we are as far along as they are coming and i am not sure how far that is because i'm not privy to the negotiation, getting down that high bar and having the plug and play opportunity for others to come in, recognizing that if you think of the ttp as the one point go and perhaps ttp 12 as opposed to the 2.0 that's probably what we are talking about here. when you have a big player coming in there are things are going to change perhaps fundamentally to read your provisions might change if

you're talking about china coming in at some point. maybe not. ideally you will write provisions that are the ones that you would like to see china signing up to. and i making sense? but negotiating with the original nine as opposed to negotiating it with the 12th is a very different proposition. so, i'm not sure you're not adding three, five or seven years on to the exercise the you wouldn't want to add on. >> i'm not disagreeing with of the additional complexity. but in terms of the approach, we have an opportunity in japan that doesn't come very often. you've got a significant portion

of which would like to do this. is committed to the japanese want to do this? >> it depends who you're talking to. but, there are a lot of people scoff in leadership roles the would give a lot to be able to do this and would help them deal with some domestic issues that at the same time they have to deal with. you may not have to bring them in. - to have to say we want them in. that think there's a difference. we haven't said enough about how we would feel. we've been dancing on this thing. >> i would love to have the japanese in ttp. >> under the right circumstances. ischemic if we have got a tough agreement with open architecture picking up on carless bea 5. coming and we say that this is it and we want and welcome and

encourage -- >> other countries. >> i would be clear and say japan because i think that the country has got to -- we really need that country and we are not playing any right cards at the moment and i am discouraged about that. >> can i just had a point? through the negotiated the trade agreement with the country you have to understand what their intentions are or you are taking on a huge amount of work for absolutely no payback. i agree with mickey. it's split the way that it set up, but the fact is indonesia has no particular desire to be and on that basis i would say move ahead with those that will. don't wait.

similarly, japan. it's like a very interesting discussion with a number of high-level japanese who assured me they were very interested in the ttp, and i said i'm delighted. i am, too. i read it in the newspaper. what are you going to do to show your interest? we are going to reemphasize how good we are. and i said no, no, what are you going to show that you would be capable of doing by the end of the year? so until japan has its own internal situation of course we don't know if we will have the same primm minister, then the u.s. should move forward with those that can. having said that, there is no

question that this agreement needs to be an economic consequence and therefore a strategic consequence in asia and there is no question we have to indicate to those countries that are not a part of this negotiation, number one, we want them in but then go a step further and number two, what what each one of them as we are proceeding on this negotiation to find out informally where they have heard from and begin thinking now how that is going to get resolved. as said, walk and chew gum at the same time and at some point as and indonesia were japan can make the leap they are ready to make it and you are ready to agree that it is significant. islamic i suspect she's fought through these issues already.

move on whacks >> i want to go back to china and is certainly takes the prize for the business immigration policy that india has done a lot in the last year in the same space and brazil is starting to do the same to compete with china. my question is what is the solution for the increasingly complex localization requirements, some of the more traditional measures and some of them are more complex. they have a few provisions that are called for in that the commerce, encryption but by the time it's negotiated and will be out of date even though u.s. t.r. is trying to make an agreement. what are some other ideas in this space? because we are one of the industries that is targeted and

the strategic sector for the institution and i don't think that this is going to go away anytime soon. thank you. islamic i think it is a 64,000-dollar question. and by that, i mean i don't have any particular simple answer and there is no silver bullet. india, brazil, korea, china, a number of other countries are following this example of indigenous innovation of phill localization and forced local content focusing on the one element they don't have enough of and that is intellectual property. as of this is an extremely serious problem. the u.s. could suggest to those countries where this is a problem that we had better sit down and come to some understanding on the rules of

the road beyond the wto or it will affect affirmatively the investment environment in those countries as well as the investment environment here for their investment. the difficulty here frankly are the companies that complain. so if you were china and you received $70 billion of n-word investment trust year, what would you change? nothing. and that is one of the difficulties. these countries have to feel the sting of investment flowing elsewhere. and in that regard i often fought that it's missing a very big bet here and that is for it to declare itself an ip protected from the zone i think you'd see an extraordinary

amount of investment going an instant if other countries, so i think the u.s. as a policy matter and i would put this on the agenda, it is going to have to think through some form of agreement or understanding among the other major players in this case the the issue is only going to get worse. >> i agree with what she said but let me remind us that we have been contemplating the new bilateral investment treaty for two and a half years. china has asked repeatedly to join with us in a bilateral investment treaty. such a treaty would go a long way to prevent discrimination against and more investment and help the domestics are treated. we need one yesterday and still not have decided as a policy matter what our bilateral

investment treaty is going to cover. second, it is true china has $70 billion worth of investment, but it also has the largest number of new patent holders. the best way to get a country to move forward on intellectual property is when the pressure comes from home and we are already beginning to see that at the last meeting of the gcc t. there was a commitment by china that there would be an audit, central provincial and local of the property protection. and since that kind, he's been made to the standing committee' correct person to get complaints to. this isn't a perfect answer put least china is putting it on the agenda so the bilateral a investment treaty, pressure from homeland continuing talking about this is what we need to do

>> thank you congenital tecum jennifer. a couple of you comment on the importance of the rules based system and bhatia mckeown the issue of enforcement. i was wondering if you could comment on what i see as a trend you have a number of significant agreements, 400 some of which have their own who dispute settlement mechanism and yet when you look at what has happened very few of the dispute settlements in the regional trade agreements have been very well useless or proven to be very effective. in other words many disputes between the united states and mexico, and united states and canada which could easily have gone to the panel and had instead gone to the wto. many of the disputes and stiff going to the tribunal's have

gone to the wto. what happened when we had the agreement or of years where there isn't the wto law on the issues of the dispute cannot really go to the wto it has to do interregional. how do you see this getting a result with a trade enforcement viewed as strong and i would argue week among the regional trade agreements. >> having negotiated the last four to and gone through the canadian lumber dealers and so on what is one of the frustrations with of the deal and makes me optimistic felt ultimately we are going to cycle back to the system because there is no comparison. what is done as you are starting to write in to the bilateral deals arbitration panels that is

a very blunt instrument. and for those of us in the trade policy arena, the wto process where you have the panel and the opportunity to try to work out something that makes sense because as you know, the date that you win the case or retaliate you really lost it's a better process and the outcome and in much better means of enforcement. so why put the end of the day the reason we will cycle back to the multilateral framework but for now of the bilateral purchased enforceable and satisfactory enforcement outcome or mechanism. >> the other element here is

there are 400 agreements and someone most fight the terror of agreements and deal with the agriculture, very few deal with the services and the rules are loose and also discretionary in any event. in my own view because the u.s. is far in the race the important agreement would be getting out the terrorists. he would completely disarm almost all of the 400 as a discriminatory mechanism and to take away the tariffs globally with the point of the agreement on the dispute settlement, and its economic studies like to lower the tariffs, the greater the gross. that's all this, on your own input which is ironic so the u.s. ought to be looking for as

many options as it can possibly find on a broad basis. islamic i would agree with that statement because we have some on the poorest countries of the world. bangladesh for example pays 16% tax on on a very small quantity of experts to the united states. great britain, less than 1%, and i can go through all the poor countries. indonesia pays six times more. pakistan, we are trying to make friends, it pays ten times more and it makes no sense at all but to answer your specific question under the wto rules under article 24 if you have substantially all trade being covered, you can put the agreement in the wto. the service agreement, similar to article 4 and if you have the agreement with then the wto then

you have the dispute settlement mechanism that everyone understands and doesn't have this complexity of rules. >> jeff with the peterson institute. let me go back a little further than your time in office to the tokyo round. in the tokyo round, one of the things the united states wanted most to get out of that agreement is a change in the u.s. countervailing wall and in injury test to our own so that it would be more efficient and benefit the u.s. economy. up until the last few minutes there hasn't been a lot said about what the u.s. should want

to change all of u.s. practice in any of these trade initiatives to strengthen our own economy. though towns has been said to increasing the imports is an important reason why we participate in these agreements. so what are a few of the highlights the you would recommend to be the top of the priority list that we should seek to change in an agreement we get adequate compensation from our trading partners? >> that's a really good question as a matter of fact. since then the only one here i think that was alive at the tokyo round -- i can start off because i can remember those discussions that you're talking about and we added a provision into the law at that time as you

recall the tikrit insistence of the european economic community as a was called then and we got the zeros and returns it was probably the worst deal with a was made in the round, but specifically in response to your question, it seems to me that the anti-dumping laws would be a great place to start if we are going to make changes and our own system. we've said in my view a terrible system for the world the way that we run that and i dumping and the rest of the world is now copying us. so, we are getting a kick in their rear for what we've been doing to the rest of the world for a good many years. the anti-dumping law is basically everywhere now. we are rigged in such a way as to what could define the anti-dumping in the 90 plus% of the cases, and that's not the

way they should function. what we ought to do is shake up the anti-dumping laws and as bill said the u.s. needs to set an example in front of these areas and exercise some leadership and that is one example where we have fallen down. >> washington trade daily. i want to thank everyone here for their presentations it makes me feel ten years younger naturally. one thing that was not addressed and there's a lot of momentum the trade going down the line through the decade it seems to have dropped off what happened the day that you left office and why?

after you left office. that's why do we have this policy now in this administration, essentially no trade policy which i think you all have in played someone once told me it was on hokies street that's been around at the president just doesn't get picked. >> i will take a shot. i think for most presidents the first couple of years are spent on domestic policy. for bill clinton is a little bit different because sitting there was nafta of and the end of the of year when negotiations, said there was a kind of momentum and an imperative to make an

administration decision to go forward with naphtha and of the labor environment or do we go forward with brown to. but that is a typical. so i think for this administration with the president coming into the situation he did, which is to say massive deficits, salon and so forth, and then the war potentially, i think that his attention was probably occupied elsewhere frankly, and one could argue appropriately so. it seems to me under those circumstances it would have been wise for the administration to better in power its cabinet which i think was a surprise to many of us who watched but i

think with this embrace especially and the passage of the fta in particular i think the administration is beginning to see this could be an area of important advance for the president especially in light of his goal of doubling exports in five years. so my hope would be if it's president obama in the next four years or a new president might help would be the momentum that began just recently and with a continuation of ttp that a little more momentum is now put her behind these efforts but i do think they are right to see that all of us agree in one form or another that there has been a that of a slowness of the block in terms of trade.

>> i didn't imply anything. you said it outright. >> you can understand the first year or two because you come out of a campaign, made promises to your constituencies and an ever-present case to labor more precisely and you do have other priorities to deal with. but at some point you have to make a decision about what you're policy is. >> we have yet to see that decision and it's not ttp. we don't have a trade policy, propelled. easter the president or his opponent has to say we have an economic problem in this country that's not just its fiscal

deficit, we've got a trade problem. the opportunities out there for us to grow up. we are not seizing it because we are not taking the initiative and we are the only people that can. somehow the country has to start talking about trade as an issue of political consequence. we don't do that. we treat it as an issue for the textile industry or at ethanol and it does bother me now we seem to sort of sit back and let them take control over that the date and i think it is. >> one other of the net here is too many people including the highest levels of government and both administrations don't see

trade as a big deal. they see domestic policy as a big deal and kind of ignore trade as important to the united states. the fact is it's incredibly important and more important than it was 20 or 40 or 40 years ago and somehow people have to get that through their head. >> that's why you should continue riding and make it very clear the strategic issues are not only on the economic bilateral transaction but how it affects foreign policy, security policy and our economic growth and prosperity. >> we've got time for one more question. >> in that regard towards the end of a career to study the

future of the foreign-aid program that quickly developed into a study of all u.s. programs for the developing world within the account up 26 at the time among the conclusions the trade was infinitely more important than by bilateral assistance but another point was the u.s. program is not very well coordinated. there are all kinds around this town, there's an element in the developing world and of agriculture in the salon. my question is how to get trade to have a bigger voice in the broader council of government because it does affect global poverty and security and everything else and is there a way we can coordinate without having to reorganize the

government cracks thanks. >> i was going to say i think it was well coordinated in the clinton administration which is why he created a national economic council which is why there was kump lead coordination on of the economic side as well as on the security diplomatic side to the nsc and the joint meetings that were held all the time. >> i was going to say that and she says it a lot better than i can. under barbara bin and president clinton when we signed the pilat was unsure deputy. president clinton insisted bob rubin was there but lloyd bentsen was there warren christopher was there, and i was

there. it forced the discussion about issues and decisions made in a way that was coordinated. it needs to be done better. there is no doubt about that. we tend to think of these things as silos and we don't share across the government it ought to be done better but it isn't going to go down frankly and that's the only comment i will make on that. the fact is that we have an imperative now come an opportunity to defend the of the world that is changing for the better and we need to provide leadership and trade is

critical, not just an element but we do know how to do this. >> i will tell you from my experience we had a kunkel process, we had every cabinet person involved in the state to treasury commerce and we've shared it. but we know how to do it. we have done it and we've proven that it works, certainly. all i can say is why not now. >> we used to have a weekly deputies' meeting on the most contentious issues of trade, bring in agriculture, commerce, treasury, state and when you articulate the issue the parties intend to will rule towards a consensus in the middle, and it's a very good to do that regularly and at the deputy

level because then you prepare your cabinet officer for the issues the you got to the middle. suddenly you need a president as would meet with george h. w. bush had lunch with danny who chaired the ways and means said he knew it was on the mind and if we gave him a note of something we wanted to raise he raised it but it was important to him, trade was important and i think we have to elevate because trade ret large is absolutely vital to u.s. prosperity. >> does anybody at this table think that you accomplish these objectives of better coordination, how your priority for trade by folding into the commerce department?

[laughter] >> we don't want that. anyone at this table support? no. of course not. >> thank you. [laughter] [applause] >> the initiative will cut german camp on april 26 to talk about the agenda so we would like you to put that on your schedule and appreciate your attendance to date. have a good holiday. [applause]

after losing both his eyes and a suicide bombing attack captain scott d. smiley became the army's first blind active officer and the army times soldier of the year. he talked about his autobiography hope and seen at this year's savanna but festival. this is just under an hour.

[applause] [applause] >> thank you, linda. thank you for making this happen and please, again, i'll thank your wife later this evening. i'm honored to be able to speak to you this afternoon. i wrote my autobiography, and i'll cover that in the end, but just to motivate and inspire people and give them a glimpse into my life, the awesome experiences i've had and also the hard times. a glimpse of my life is a short way and then definitely love to open up to questions afterwards. so i'm standing on mount rainier at about 10,000 feet at camp mere. there's no trees, it's a beautiful, sunny day out.

i'm sweating, have sun block on my face, apparently, a few thousand feet makes the sun a lot hotter. but it was warm, it was nice. a day earlier we had climbed to mount paradise, 4-6,000 feet up. chicaned our way up through the ice sheet, but again, it was a very easy climb. and this day up at camp muir, we were practicing being tied in together on a four-man team because the next day we were going to attempt to make the summit. again, very relaxing. and as the day was coming to a close, we were all sitting around a campfire where the camp guides were warming snow to make water for us the next day, and as the lead climb guy after he was finishing the route that we were going to take said, you know, we're going to wake up about 11 and get climbing at 12. so as i'm going back to my tent

with my buddies i thought, this is awesome, we're going to get 12 hours of sleep. he said, sorry, scotty, it's called alpine sleep, and you're going to get less than two. i did get less than two. we could not have asked for a better night to climb. the moon was out, the stars were shining, we all had little lamps on our foreheads to see where we were going and in case for safety reasons guides or safety rangers could come and find us if anything happened. but again, it was a beautiful, beautiful evening to climb. and we'd stop about every hour and a half to two hours to rest sitting on our backpacks, drinking water, gatorade, getting some type of energy. and after we had summited through disappointment lever, this huge rock face on mount rainier, my legs were done. my quads, my core, my arms, my

body was dead tired. and as i sat on my backpack just thinking you still have thousands of feet to go, tens of thousands of steps, the lack of oxygen, it's getting to you. i looked up at the lead climb guy and said i don't think i can make it. i don't think i can make it to the top. i rewind several years earlier, raising a large family, three brothers, three sisters. we were definitely a team, and we definitely fought together, but that competition that i had with my two older brothers and, you know, always trying to be tougher than my younger sisters who probably beat me in everything, it pushed -- i pushed myself. academically, physically and spiritually. because i knew inherently that in order to be someone and to do something i had to get a job, i had to do something with my life. and it had to start now. so that meant i had to study, do homework even though i never liked it, never wanted to do it. but i knew inherently i had to push myself to be someone in the

future. and as i came close to the end of graduating, i chose to attend one of the best schools in the world, united states military academy, in west point, new york. you know, we telling my mom and dad, my mom crying like why don't you go to the air force academy be, it's only a few states away. [laughter] you know, we're from washington state, and new york and washington, that's two sides of america. and inherently i kind of knew my mom would probably visit me just as much in new york as she would in colorado, but having an older brother at west point kind of meant something to me, and that was one of the deciding factors. me dating my girlfriend, it was difficult to say good-bye because we all know how important high school girlfriends are. so as i'm heading on my one-way ticket by myself, yeah, one way. like, i knew i only had one ticket, and it was going to drop me off in new york. the first half an hour of that flight i just spent crying,

tears were coming down. and i know the men and women sitting next to me were like what's wrong with this guy, he'sback coe. but i was leaving my comfort zone, i was leaving my girlfriend. that same day i got from the military academy, they shaved my head, put a gray t-shirt on me, very high black shorts, black socks up to my knees, black loafers on. yes, i did look like a dork, but i was comforted because everyone else looked the same. everyone was on the same team, so there was a comfort. it's funny to say this, but they gave us rank. it was new cadet. no, not cadet, new cadet. they didn't even call us cadet until we became a cadet.

but new cadet we were told how we ranked. it was right below the commandant's dog -- [laughter] yes, dog. but luckily, we had a little self-worth because we were ranked right above be naval goat -- the naval goat. but we also had to do duties every day. as new cadets you delivered upper classmen's round ri, clean the toilets, do odd-end jobs. we thought they were worthless, but it was important. just household chores. and i remember going down the hall 120 paces per minute, that's moving out without running, carrying this big pile of laundry, didn't know who it was, didn't know where they lived, i didn't know anything. and this upper classman stops right in front of me, this female. and i'm 210 pounds of twisted teal and sex appeal. i'm a big dude. [laughter] and when she stops me, i'm like yes, ma'am. and she's like, i'm not a ma'am, i'm a sergeant.

where are you going? no, sergeant, no, ma'am -- [laughter] and i just start balling. and -- bawling, and, i mean, it's embarrassing to say, and it's sad to say, but after she pulled her jaw off the ground in shock, this big, burly dude is crying in front of her, she looked at me and said, hey, you need to understand that we're training you here for a reason. and in 47 short months, you're going to be leading men and women in the united states army. and if delivering a piece of laundry is this difficult for you -- [laughter] you may need to reconsider what you're doing here. and she said, go back to your room, get yourself together because i was probably still sniffling, and think about why you're here. and so i did. i went back to my room. and like i said earlier, everything that i had, none of it was the same. my whole life was stripped from me.

but they did allows to keep one knickknack. apparently, everything that is yours is called a knickknack. i don't know the definition of knickknack other than something that you own, but the one knickknack that i was able to carry with me was my bible. and so i open it up. and specifically to philippians where paul is talking about he's been beaten, he's tired, he's hungry, but he says, you know, through christ i can do all things. i'm thinking to myself, okay, a guy who's been beaten, a guy who's hungry and tired, he doesn't mention delivering a piece of laundry, like i'm pretty pathetic. but it really got me thinking that if god wants me here for a reason, my family, i think i have a purpose. i need to gather myself together and pick it up and understand the values that i'm being taught, the selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage, the values we're being taught on a daily basis and do my job to the best of my ability. so i did. i made a decision to stay at the military academy. i made a decision to make a

difference. and as i went through the military academy, i gained great friends; edward, dave, adam, just amazing christian men i could hang out with. they said i always studied, well, i was there for a reason, to get good grades. and i was coming up a little short many times. [laughter] so i knew the importance of life. but i also attended biblical, christ events, officer christian fellowship. i was able to teach sunday school my junior and senior year with my friends. and we taught second grade and, granted, if any of you do drop your kids off at daycare or sunday school, make sure they don't run the operations like i did. we would line the desks up, and these students would be running on the desk. i was always afraid someone was going to break their arm and it would have been my fault. we remember this andrew harris, cute, darling little boy, chubby. i've got two boys, they're kind

of chunky. but he was darling. what's up, drew? my name's andrew, and i said, but yeah, drew's a cool name, right? yeah, i guess. it was awesome to see how i was trying to positively influence him because i know in my life the way i was positively influenced by sunday school and men and women that i looked up to, it was just awesome to see the positive impact that i was able to make and just a small difference i was able to make in people around me. and luckily, i was able to graduate in 47 months with my class, and i think we were all very happy and never thought i'd see that beautiful place, west point, again. and was finally able to move out to fort lewis. i happened to date the girlfriend that i'd left four years earlier, five years later tiffany became my bride, still with me now. and i was finally able to receive a 45-man platoon. i mean, given i was 23 years old, i now was in charge of four stryker vehicles.

if you don't know what a stryker is, it's a big metal vehicle with eight wheels, four on each side, the first four turn. you can, i think the driver can push a button, do you want to use four-wheel drive or eight-wheel drive? and i'm like, how is eight-wheel drive a choice? but it was awesome. shoot .50 caliber machine guns, throw grenades, it was awesome just to see the leadership opportunities that i was given. that female that had stopped me in the hallway four, five years earlier was right: the challenges in the army were a lot more, were a lot more severe. the values that i was taught -- integrity, personal courage -- were huge. i remember counseling soldiers on a daily basis, why are you late? why didn't you show up? you know, great job. that was awesome on pt, that was great leadership. it was just amazing to see the awesome opportunities that i had. and after a few short months of being at fort hue bit -- lewis, we received orders to deploy to

iraq. and again, it's hard to go home, tell your wife sorry, honey, i know we've only been married for five months, and i didn't tell you this, but two of those months i was at ranger school. i was only able to talk to her for five minutes over those two months, so she luckily still loved me and still stayed married with me, so i was still in the good. but now telling my wife that, sorry, i've got to go for a year, it was hard. it was difficult. again, the stress, the anxiety began to, began to come down. but again, i knew that god had me there for a reason, and i knew i was still serving my country, protecting our constitution. so we pushed out. six months after being a platoon leader, training my men, making sure they're in physical fitness, mentally straight, physically right, we deployed to iraq. and i was able to keep a journal on a daily basis, and it's funny, the first thing i wrote was i feel at home. i'm at pascal, washington, and

in the summertime it's 95 degrees, no trees as far as the eye can see. hit down in iraq, same thing. it was creepy, but i felt at home. it was awesome to see the work that we americans and international forces were doing over there. we were helping rebuild their government, helping rebuild iraq. my platoon was in charge of the mayor's government center protecting it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. we helped rebuild schools. i remember going into schools, and they had softball-sized holes in the ceilings. the blackboards were curled away from the wall, unusable. two to three children were sitting in one chair. two to three children in one chair. if i was the third, i'd love to be in the middle. but it was sad. none of them had books. just the poverty, it was so sad to see. but we helped build those schools.

we helped rebuild parks. we handed out soccer balls to the students and the kids. it was awesome to see the amazing impact that we were having. we helped redistrict electricity, gas lean. it was just the amazing impact that we continually made was awesome. however, we were attacked on a daily basis by insurgents. attacked with improvised explosive devices, bombs in the road, bombs in cars, suicide car bombs, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades. any number of weapon they were using against us. i lost my company commander, captain bill jacobson jr., on december 2 21st of 2004, the day after my first anniversary. he lost his life in the mess hall bombing with 21 other men and women in the united states. 60 or so other men and women were injured. it was devastating to see. i ended up losing six of my

soldiers being wounded and being sent back to the united states. the loss of life was hard. it was hard to take. it was hard to comprehend. but in the end i knew we were still there for a reason, we were still there for a purpose. one of goals that i had was to read through my bible in a year, and i continually did it. whether it was out in the city, in my little hutch, my men would ask me, sir, what bible -- what book is that? oh, it's the bible. i was able to pray behind my stryker just taking it in. it was awesome to see the positive impocket in that i was able to make. but in 2000 my life -- 2005 my life was forever changed. i was actually first a little ticked off because we had the same information as the day daore and,ortunaok .. top of the page, and it said, no, april 6th. as i was -- my platoon and i

were heading out the gate, i was joking with one of my squad leaders. you know, it's funny, i'll have been married to my wife a year and a half after this deployment, and i'll only be with her five months. i don't know, it was just something funny that i said. after getting a description over the radio on a possible location of the suicide car bomb, it may have been spotted, we headed north into the city. going over some rough terrain in sketchy places of town, talked with my company commander, an amazing man. and he told me, hey, go search up in this area. that may be in the location. as i was coming north, i spotted the suspicious vehicle. he was on the northern side of the road facing west as this road intersected with one to have main highways. and as i'm coming from the south, i turned to cordon him

off because i knew that was the best decision i could make. if this man was bad, which no one knew, i had to protect the iraqi people. i had to protect international/american forces. so i was parked just 25 yards to his south. 25 yards away from his vehicle. he was parked about 10-15 yards to the south of the market. the markets were where everyone bought/sold groceries, fish, food, anything and everything. honestly, i looked for six months for a store, and i never found one. apparently, they were all markets. but as i looked into the car, it was only a single driver. head was cleanly shaven, face was cleanly shaven, looked like an innocent, nice guy. had a gray shirt on, long-sleeved shirt that came down to his wrists. he was in a silver opal, opal were apparently cars that everyone in iraq drives and no one in america knows about.

but again, the suspicion was raised when i realized the back of the car was a little lower to the ground than the front. and given the rules of engagement, you can't just shoot someone because they looked suspicious. well, sir, scott, why did you shoot him? well, i got scared. you got scared? so you killed a man? well, yeah, sir. like, i have a gun. like, you can't do that. and given the rules of engagement, you can't just shoot someone unless you know they have the weapon, you know they're aiming, or you know that they've been -- they've killed someone or they're in, i should say, they're in the action. so given the rules of engagement, i couldn't just shoot someone that looked suspicious. so i knew the best thing to do was to yell at him to get out of his car. so as i did, i was looking over my left shoulder kind of facing him. i was in the lead stryker

vehicle, had metal basically up to my neck, i was inside the stryker standing up. i still had my m-4, my oakley m frames on, i was looking cool. had my kevlar on. doing everything that i was supposed to do. looked at him and said, hey, get out of your vehicle. and i knew he heard me because he looked over his shoulder straight at me and raised his hands off the steering wheel and then put 'em back down. nothing happened. i was like, okay, well, maybe he understood or maybe he's saying i don't know where i am, i'm lost. i didn't know. so i yelled at him again. he raised his hands up again off the steering wheel and shook his hands no and let his foot off the brake. i then had to make a decision. so i shot two rounds in front of his vehicle with my m4 and, boom, my world went black. i woke up a week or so laettner

walter reed army medical center, my life forever changed. my world went black not only physically, being blind the rest of my life, the shrapnel had cut my left eye in half, entered the frontal lobe on the left side of my brain and metal went through my cornea and taking out my optic nerve. i saw nothing but blackness and was told by the ophthalmologist that you would never be able to see again. so my life went physically black. that day. but it also went spiritually black. i no longer believed in god. everything that i'd done, everything that i believed in now no longer meant anything to me. i remember one of my best friends, edward, coming into the room. i think it was before one of my surgeries and said, hey, scotty, why don't you say a prayer? i said, no.

i don't know how to pray, and i don't know god. and i think it, the room went dead silent. like if there were cockroaches in the room, you would have heard 'em. my wife went back to her room realizing, you know, i'd been married to an awesome man, and i still am, and i'd be fine married to a blind guy, but being married to someone who didn't believe in what he believed in before, that was something different. so she began to pray. friends began to pray all around the world. and for me it was a choice that i had to make. it was a personal choice that i had to make. i knew i had support. friends would come into my room on a daily basis singing christian songs. i know doctors thought our room was creepy because balloons would be coming out, i thought the room was huge. apparently, it was like a little match boxcar. but it was that support. but again, it still came back to me. i was the one that had to make a

choice. i was the one that had to choose to make a difference. my company commander called me every other day to see how i was doing. we were awesome friends. my brigade commander would call me every week to see how i was doing. something that doesn't normally happen in an organization, to have the top leadership call you to see how you're doing? the support that i had was amazing, was awesome. and people like toby keith, country singer, gary sinise, the actor, generals, three-star, four-star would come in and try to see me and i'd say, no, no thank you. and one day my wife said, scotty, andrew wants to see you. she didn't say who it was, but something hit me. it was andrew harris, the boy who i had taught sunday school with three years earlier had driven down from west point, new york, with his dad to come and see me.

and i don't know if i knew that day or in the days to come that the impact that i had made on that young child had done a 380 -- 180, and now this child was positively impacting me in an amazing way. i knew if a little boy who was seeing this torn apart man crying on his bed, if he still looked up to me, i still had a purpose. i still had things to give back. i still had so much to do. and i, again, it was a choice that i had to make. i could have been someone like gary sinise in forest gump, i don't know if you remember lieutenant dan living a pretty lascivious lifestyle, or continue to fight, continue to serve and live by the army values of selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage. and luckily, i chose the latter.

i still wanted to serve. i still wanted to give back. so i made a decision that day that i was going to get out of bed, you know? granted, the injuries to my brain, i was still partially paralyzed, and as i pulled the iv, like, little stand over to me i'm not sure if i was going to ride that into the bathroom to take a shower or what, but i was getting out of bed. please, scotty, stay seated. the nurses came in, put me into a wheelchair and took me to the shower. and that day i took the worst but best shower of my entire life. it was the worst shower because i had no energy. the only thing that i could do was to hold on to the ada shower rail in the shower as my knees were quivering. the water felt like needles and knives pricking me, my neck, my back. it was burning. the nurses, i could have swore they had steel brillo pads as they're scraping my back,

scraping my shoulders. it was terrible, and that's why it was the worst shower of my entire life. but it was the best shower of my entire life because i had made a decision. i had made a decision to make a difference, to accept the life that i had been given, to accept that i was going to be blind the rest of my life, but i was still going to live. i was still going to make and be someone. i wasn't sure who, but i was still going to stand and be someone. and that verse that i had looked up back in west point, philippians 4:13, came back to me. i can still do all things through christ who strengthens me. i just had to make a choice. and that's what i did. and as i continued my recovery, walking every day step by step, building off of what i had dope the next day and -- done the next day, and sometimes it'd be two steps forward, one step back. i know my wife, i'm sorry, those one step back were definitely hard days.

i was able to move on, attend the blind rehabilitation center in palo alto, california, where i was able to learn how to use a computer, learn a little bit of braille -- it got tough. but again, i still wanted to be who i was before, and it's funny, we all here want to be independent somehow, some way. i'm married and, you know, sometimes i don't like my wife nagging on me, and i know she's not, and i know she doesn't like me nagging on her. but that independence was still, like, just hovering over me. i want to do things on my own. i want to go to the gym on my own. i remember, you know, asking to go to the gym at the blind blind center, and they kind of looked at me like, huh? what that's that? i was like, i want to work out. 210 pounds of twisted steel and i think you kind of know the rest, i wanted to work out. but they wouldn't ever let me go by myself because they were too

scared i was going to get lost. .. learning how to, learning how to do all the necessities of life. you know, it was about 4:45 when i went about 5:15 when i finish.

it's unfortunately hadn't drink and wonder that day.d i i know the importance of drinking water now.i was i was dehydrated. as i'm heading out in the 95-degree palo alto sun. i knew i needed to do was meet the first-rate right, take the first left across the ottawa to come for them 1520 arts come air-conditioner water, awesome. it's going to be great. across the alley i don't feel the mass is so blind people come you increase the art of your stick just in case you missed something here so increase a little more i walk about 10 to 15 more yards than realized, i'm lost. i know many of this year and back track is common sense here proportionally a buying guide backtracking is a blind eye back tracking. [laughter] i still didn't know where it was. and a half an hour later i am

still lost. trust me, i'm a very open person as you can tell unalaska 2-year-old if they can talk, what's true to my aunt. how do i get here? that there was no one. no one was around. it stopped sweating about 20 minutes earlier. dehydrated, angry at life, not understanding why i was put in this position. i threw my stick down in anger and just sat down started crying kamas guide, whiny me, why this? unfortunately, it never should've been the question i asked. i don't think it came to me that day, but in weeks and months to come, it should've been how, how can me? what are you going to use me for? but also, trust in other people. you don't have to be this independent study does every day and yourself.

on top of the world. no, working as a team and relying on others. i made a decision. not only copy, but in the months to come i had to depend on other people and i had to make a difference. and if i want to make a difference it couldn't be on my own. one of the other decisions i had to make in a few months was that i want to stay inactive duty in the united states army? know in the united states army has ever been blind. they have been blind, but there quickly moved. no one had actually ever been blind and that's okay, i'd like to stay on active duty and how do you say okay. the last part is the hard part because i think there've been a lot of people who are combined and stay on in the army says thank you for your service. would really appreciate it. we the paycheck for you somewhere else. for me, that was the decision i wanted to make because i still wanted to make a positive

change, knowing the enemy, but in the community. after praying with my wife and friend boat commanders, it was a decision i made to stay on active duty. as i push forward and went through the struggles of having generals e-mail you and call you and seek it out at the army, i don't think you know what you're doing, you're really messing up the situation in the army's anders, trust me, iran alone ship. but again, having amazing leaders like the chief of the army corps of engineers, general casey, general haig and, general shoemaker, general petraeus, general aggregate command called me and said we support you, want you to stay in. leaders like that i continue to want to be like. leaders like that i wanted to make a difference just as they had. and so i did. i was able to stay inactive

duty. that brings me back to not renew your period just before a 10 duke university, i am on narnia, blind. every step i was taking us to the young punk independent guy who wanted to do everything himself, did need help, didn't need assistance. so again, breaking down and i know my friends make fun of me. i don't think i can make it. man i was worse. i'm probably going to die on this mountain. avalanche is going to come. i'm too tired. but again, i came to that choice. i have to do it with other people's decisions in god's decisions. so i oscillate guy, a medic in the right steps quirks of course the answer was no, you're not your tenacious little small things like that i was able to start pushing forward. and again making change to finally something i'm not really

that day come a beautiful sunny day out. it was awesome and i felt like i was on top of the mountain. but it is funny that it wasn't these little problems or i could say actually big problems that were the end of minister problems in my life. i was blind. and the issues that have, whether he can in lost the palo alto sidewalks, not wanting to move out of my bag, getting tired on the rainier, they went into my pelvis, just as we all know here with issues every day and i know is they quickly to introduce from the nba, my problems were not over. imagine statistics class. as you can see here been in business today not to do you get this. the students i cannot. unlike now, what are you talking about? financial accounting.

hundreds of thousands of excel blocks with numbers that work off each other. i just did a small glimpse, one block at a time. unlike a paperless or thousand 455. look on your sheet. okay, where is the? i mean, it was amazing the issues that i had come of it all came to teamwork. it all came back to the army values that i had to trust another people. the platoon i'd know, men and women that supported me was the same support i still needed. having friends like eli here today be a partner that would help describe instantly and understand where things went and how things went allowed me to finally graduate and it was awesome. again, i felt like i was on top of the world, graduated with an mba. there was a small step to better myself and making a positive change because quickly after graduating from duke was back to

my alma mater at the united states military academy. like i said earlier, something i never thought i would have to do again is to see that place and luckily i never had to see it. last night that i was now instruct her. as teaching military leadership to students. 18 students per class. teaching and leadership, transformation leadership, been an extreme environments. was awesome. it is funny because the first time i went to class no one knew i was fine. i say hey how are you guys doing. i'm scotty. though, jodi. hate you doing. as i started the class, segmenting scotty smiley. i'm a military leadership instructor. awesome to have you all. looking around the tip of a gas,

do do do. something important to know i'm blind. if you want to raise your hand from your arm is going to get tired. [laughter] hollis half of them laughed because they literally thought i was joking. the other half is like, is he serious clerics they quickly found out guess i was, but it was awesome and amazing at it since i had throughout my short life that gave me an amazing ability to teach them, and amazing ability to begin a positive change i had wanted to make that change, to counsel soldiers and council cadets to lead them to do physical fitness in the morning with them and then in the afternoon, to get educated more and more each day to make a positive change. after one semester teaching my class asked me, scotty, do you want to commend the company.

commanding a company has been in charge of 200 soldiers. you manage, lead them from six in the morning when you do physical fitness to whenever you are done at night. and when he asked me, i was in shock. because i was registering, but fair. i didn't say this, but sir, i am blind. how am i going to do that? but i think he could see the positive nature and the positive impact as making a statement that i couldn't do anything but make a positive change in the company there at west point. and so i did. i went home, tactile life and she was in shock. are you sure? i serious? was like yeah. i think he knows i'm blind. [laughter] but if he does that, let's go for it anyway. but again it was awesome to see the change as able to make in

the way of transitioning unit at west point. wounded soldiers who'd been injured in combat who had cancer hard issues, nest their knees or shoulders that they have to be somewhere. and he gave me the ability to the time in the positive difference in their lives. and it was awesome to make a change and as i had gone through struggles and trials have been able to resolve some and continue to move on, and opportunity came to tell my story, to write not a biography casino military after action reviews, how to sack o, how do you do, what are some good sustains and improves and that is what i wanted to do was to continue to make a positive interest, write a book about change, hope, write a book about

how my life has been positively influenced by not only god, but my family and friends in the united states army. so that's what they did was write a short story about the positive changes on it positive basis. or this ability to attempt to make a change. we still go through trial. it's all about getting out and continuing to make a change in a daily basis. thank you so much for having me here. [applause] we have about 15 minutes for

questions and we have a routing might. if you have a question for mike is over here. raise your hand and shall come over to you. >> remember i can't see hands. but they are raised, red that? >> thank you. i'm here with my wife today and it is her birthday. i do not hobble chios, but she's had a lot of birth dates. during that time she's done a lot of great presents, that's your talk today was the greatest of all. [applause]

captain smiley, how long do you expect to stay in the serious clerics >> right now, and still active duty in the united states army. my family and i moved from west point new york about five to go in the ac in georgia right now. i'm attending the captains career course, mandatory course for army officers and after this i am going to attend a university merkin a rotc program, which is in washington state close to home. and for me, but factor in how long you to stay in the army is how long i can take me to love the positive impact in the positive change i'm able to make. i think each and every day as i see the soldiers of nice and the men and women unable to serve it, i still think it's going to be some years before my wife either forces out of the army or we make a deciding area that god has a bigger and better place for me. so right now, i can't say i'm

enjoying what i'm doing. >> thank you for your commitment. >> thank you. >> hi scott, jennifer griffin. i want to ask you, what is the last image that you have the sheer number? >> the last image that i remember your, physical image is the man who blew himself up. that is the last thing that i remember seeing. now on top of that, while given that, that's not a very good image to have in my memory bank. so i sent to cover it with the last time i saw my beautiful wife. the last time i saw her.

i use my company commanders computer to skype her and my company commanders talking to his wife and my wife was over at her house and it's kind of a funny little story, that she had a change action on and let absolutely gorgeous, beautiful. and you can imagine, and freshly married in six months away from my wife. i think you may know what i'm talking about. it was hard. but her beauty was just amazing. the funny story to that as i saw her look over her left shoulder and i knew someone was talking to her. and a few seconds after she takes her jacket off and she has this little tank top on and i think what happened i later heard months later was the company commanders wife said to think he really wants to see bundled up in a jacket? so i haven't actually think my company commanders wife for letting me see my wife shoulder,

but again, those are the views that i try to think of than just my wife's beauty. i.t. beautiful little boys, just imagining what their faces look like. it is hard to say that i'll never appealed to see my boys in space, but they are cared for, personality, the motion they draw, their happiness is all fun and it so amazing that with a very plain the park or upside down of something, jumping off picnic tables, i think i still train my children like i do this sunday schoolers, but it's just asked them to how those boys look and just remember or to try to think of what they are view, what they look like. but again unfortunately the last thing i remember seeing is the man who blew himself up. the question was how old are my

boys. i have two amazing beautiful boys. the first is greedy. he's a little over four and a half and the second is grand, a little over two and a half. brady was named after we thought it was a cool name and they are not twins. they are two years apart. graham was named after one of my best friends, edward korean, again a friend who stood by my side through thick and thin and was thereby my bad praying for me, supporting me and children's names, to name aspirin office i wanted it to be someone as impactful and amazingness and. so today my son graham was up but an honor. >> good afternoon. q. forgive the suicide bomber and the feeling he been some

bizarre way a feeling of his own clinic >> idea. i was part of the healing process as each and every one of us go through trials and struggles. it is coping. if the coping mechanism. for me, denying being blind is hey open your eyes. the caseinate, buddy. it was hard not to deny it. but at the same time, part of not denying it except dean. and part of accepting the forgiveness process and for me being a christian, forgiving was the toughest thing i had to do was forget the man who blew himself a period it was hard. he had a mission. he had a purpose in just a greater purpose here, those two missions were conflicting with each other. uninsured -- i hope i did something onto a family over there they would forgive me. but that is difficult for me to forgive and i was able to finally forgive him. but on top of that i had to forgive myself because i was the

one that placed myself there. i was the one, canada short story short story told aitchison from the military academy to go infantry chose to be in the unit i was then. i chose to be in a place that was at that time. i know all of this year, things happen to have a guess, they are not our choice. people do things to us and forcing upon us. people confront us and they are not our fault. but in my situation, i had to forgive myself. but most importantly, in the healing process, i had to ask god to forgive me. you know, we all say it is very difficult to forgive someone and trust me, i know it is. but to deny god, the person i have loved my whole life and the person i vote doubt torrents and then the person i say goodnight to live and good morning to first, to deny him was the

hardest thing that i did and to ask for his forgiveness was difficult. but once i did that, i was able to start moving forward and start making mall steps and recovering. like i said a little earlier, it is not like the light just turned on. at meal time again i'm blind, let's go move on. no, it's difficult. the healing process takes time. it takes time to know that you're blind, to know that this is the life you're going to live, but to take small steps in getting out of bed, taking a shower, learning how to brush her teeth again come eat again. all these things take time. but in the end, i would never change a thing in my life. being blind, everything that has happened to me i would not change a thing because i know god has opened up the door for me to speak my beliefs come to share my beliefs on who he is and what i believe and i just

don't think i would've ever had that opportunity if i was on arbakai and not had my eyesight taken. so i would never change anything that it happened. but again come it started with me and it started with forgiveness. >> hello. i wanted to laugh, was anyone else injured during the attack quiet >> is actually other people that were injured. my squad leader who is in the right back hatch, he passed out because of the concussion blast and the gunner and the left rear hatch. so the striker has four hatches. the driver has won in the very

front as the fifth hatch. but if he ever opens up, he would get beat down because it uses the driver to your vehicle, your 12 soldiers unable to know. so i was in the front left hatch. my vehicle commander was to make writing in heat until the 50 caliber machine gun, which is right above and outside the vehicle in the right were hatch was my squad leader who had the headphones on, do i contact you, who i mention i was talking to earlier. he passed out in the left who are hatch with the 240 gunner, which he too 40s a big 7.60 machine gun that can definitely cause some distraction. he actually received some shrapnel in his face, but was returned to duty that same day. and those were the only other two soldiers that were injured. and i asked others because that day is a bit fuzzy in my mind, just because of the concussion i received an injury that occurred, there were several iraqis civilians that were very seriously injured and i unfortunately don't know what

happened to them and unfortunately, when a bomb goes off like that, there are no real known remedies to who will get hurt and who will not end that is again one of the scariest of having a car bomb go off is you have to have a nonchalant attitude if i hit civilians, i'm fine with it. if they hate americans or international forces or iraqi forces, their consideration is better. but those were the only people i believe were injured that day. >> thank you so much. >> thank you so

>> if you think of your stuff that family and yourself as a team. she said when not i get a raise at work he so proud of me. it's like i got a raise and we got a raise. she had a lot of respect for what her husband was doing. whi

the tent behind the museum in trinity church. jennifer griffin and greg myre have been covering international affairs since they met in 1989 at an overflowing stadium in south africa where nelson

mandela's prison colleagues received a thunderous greeting on their release from decades in jail. in 1993 they moved to pakistan and traveled to war-torn afghanistan where they were among the first to interview members of an obscure group called the taliban. they landed in jerusalem in 1999 racing two dollars while covering the worst fighting ever between israel and the palestinians. reporting on every major event from peace talks from palestine uprising of a witness frequent palestinian suicide bombings and the israeli military incursion. the israeli-palestinian conflict is the basis of their new book "this burning land". miss griffin and mr. myre have been sponsored to the 2012 savannah book festival. [applause]

>> thank you for their wonderful introduction and thank you to dick and judy for sponsoring a said to my sister caitlin who is a proud graduate and -- mike and enormous powers posted some events for a while we have been here in town. is true that greg and i -- i worked for fox news and he worked for the new york times and work for national public radio and we like to say it is possible to have peace in the middle east. some people here wanted to call us the mary matalin and james carville of the middle east. greg has more hair. and a little more charm. alisha explain to you how we got to jerusalem. it was 1989 and it was the end

of apartheid and nelson mandela was in prison. i was a sophomore at harvard university and decided to take a year off. i went down and met gregg. i didn't know i would meet him. and the baseball cap -- he stood out and came in to use our phone in a booth where nelson mandela's colleagues were getting out of prison. and it was the first legal rally for the african national congress. i saw greg and we met and started dating and i was back to harvard finishing up my schooling. for two years we dated from afar and finally i moved down after graduating and for graduation my father had given me $1,000. it was a check that was supposed to last the entire year.

it was going to help me launch my career as a freelance journalist. i arrived in south africa and i didn't know what it was to be dating or married to a foreign correspondent. he said to me as i arrived on friday, glad you are here but i am going to somalia because there's a famine and i don't know when i will be back. so i was a hot headed young 22-year-old and i stewed about it for a week and took the money my dad had given me and gregg had already left and there was no communication at the time. was in flight it is today where there are e-mails and cellphone is. wasn't easy to talk. there were $30 a minute satellite phones that i did know his number and he didn't know that i was going to track him down. so i bought a ticket to kenya

because there weren't any flights, there was so much gunfire in the streets that planes weren't landing. there weren't any commercial flights so i flew into kenya and went to the little airport that if you have ever been on a safari there is a little airport they use for small planes and they had unicef light on one side of the airport and on the other side there were some planes that the drug dealers were using to take the drug are conic that they shoot in somalia and so i asked the unicef folks for a place on their flights and they said you are not an accredited journalists so i tried to show my harvard id but it didn't get me very far and they said you can go down to the other end, if you pay your weight in cuts they will fly u.n.. so i was starting to do that and

one of the unicef workers felt sorry for me and got me on the flight and i landed and we did a corkscrew landing with the plane because they were trying to avoid gunfire from the street. i found great at the unicef house and surprised him. >> she is not lying. i was surprised. as soon as i got over my shock a very profound truth settled upon the which was -- i share this particularly with the guys in the audience. if a woman stocks you all the way to mogadishu, a place with no commercial flights telephones or electricity or running water, you are out of options. if she can find you there she confined you anywhere.

i quickly embraced my faith and mary jenifer and took her to afghanistan for our honeymoon. >> which i have not forgiven him. we spent our honeymoon in kabul. >> we got lodged as foreign correspondents travelling around partly by choice and partly by serendipity. we enjoyed going places. we saw the final years of apartheid. we were there when nelson mandela walked out of prison. we saw some terrible wars in africa and somalia and mozambique and angola and we went to pakistan and spend a lot of time and afghanistan. we moved to cyprus and traveled through the arab world. we went to moscow for three years and got to jerusalem. there had been a pattern

covering conflict. we got to jerusalem thinking that might continue on. is important to remember in 1999 it was different in jerusalem. it was quiet. for three years there had been no major violence. after the cold war ended in 91 the israelis and palestinians began talking to each other. they were meeting on a daily basis. as we walked around one of the first day as i was there i went to the temple mount. the place where the ancient jewish temples were and where the golden dome of the rockabilly dismal the iconic dome of the rock has been built on top of the ancient temples. the church where jesus was crucified and buried is half a mile -- all within yards of each other. this muslim -- palestinian muslims at prayer. mostly older people older --

reading from the koran but what jumped out at me was 20 israeli soldiers, they left their guns out side but there pad around in their socks and getting a guided tour. sort of cultural sensitivity, the root -- holiest site in judaism but at a muslim holy site that has been there for 1300 years and this is part of the atmosphere. it was one of coexistence. learning to live together after decades of conflict. every day in, every morning 150,000 palestinians from the west bank and gaza strip would commute to israel. they would work there doing all sorts of jobs. construction in restaurants and gardens, manufacturing. at an end of the day they would go back. , weekend israelis would leave israel and go into palestinian towns and have a chicken lunch. they would go to get their car

repaired, drive all away across the west bank to jericho where there was a casino and they gambled day and night seven days we can drive home at midnight on a very isolated road in palestinian territory without fear of anything bad happening. where is this great conflict everyone is talking about? >> before we knew that the conflict found this. as greg mentioned we decided to start a family because this is the most peaceful capital we have lived in for a long time and i was pregnant with our first daughter and it was early and i was still having morning sickness and i got a call from the bureau. it was september 28th, 2000. the day that aerial around took the fateful walk on to the temple mount. i got a call from my bureau chief who said you need to go to the western wall. sharon is going to the temple

mount. i have morning sickness. the feeling going. he said you need to go and he was right. we started broadcasting live. between -- no sooner had sharon taken those steps that rocks started flying over the wall on to the jewish worshipers who were praying at the western wall. if you haven't been to jerusalem is hard to visualize how built on top of each other these holy sites really are. the rocks started flying. the next day the gunfire started and before we knew it we were covering the palestinian uprising. a.k.a. the intifada. as it evolved we covered numerous suicide bombings. probably 150 suicide bombings. we were at the scene of a hundred of them. there were days when one of our participants reminded me i would go to work literally with a flat

jacket that would raise -- that was the reality. and amelia was born in jerusalem. in an israeli hospital the atmosphere, muslims and jews side by side lying in blood. and unbelievable atmosphere. it was a very surreal time in jerusalem much like the feeling in tel aviv and jerusalem. the winds of war were felt impalpable and people were required to carry around gas masks so every israeli was assigned a gas mask.

we would go to work with our gas masks. when i went to the hospital to give birth to amelia when you check out of a hospital you are given a certificate -- not a certificate but you are given pampers or formula for the baby. we were given a certificate for a gas mask for the baby's crib. and we right in the book and it is no exaggeration to say it is no exaggeration to say that on the day they're born israelis begin preparing for war. you could say the same about the palestinians. >> during this time, this is part of our daily reality of you wake up in the morning and what made it different from the other conflicts we had covered is you often do when you were in a war zone you might be going to the place for limited period of time, very conscious of your safety and security and everywhere you went but here in

israel and the palestinian areas you would wake up every morning and things would seem normal. everyone would get up and go to work and take the kids to school and you felt you were in a normal -- especially on the israeli side westernized society right to the nanosecond something blew up. this horrible feeling of starting a normal day knowing bad things were going to happen. everybody had to make their own calculations about what was safe and what wasn't. you have the endwest debate. can you go to that restaurant? is that restaurant save? sit outside in a cafe because it is safer when the bomb goes off outside. it is not -- the energy dissipates in open air as opposed to close space where it is magnified if you sit inside. lease it away from the window

because the glass can be as dangerous as the shrapnel from the bomb. you have these odd conversations going around. we might for example go to gaza when heavy fighting would be going on and staying in the palestinian areas, we would be down there for a week and very much war correspondent mode and on a weekend might come back to jerusalem and israeli friends would call us and say that is crazy. what you doing in gaza at a time like this? let's go have coffee at our favorite coffee shop. we say are you crazy? that is a dangerous place. there is a place to get blown up. everyone has their calculation of what was safe and what wasn't. you would see these surreal experiences everywhere you went and going around jerusalem on a day off trying to clear your mind of everything that is happening you could get 10 or 12 or 50 security checks just like going to the airport. my favorite was going to a bank

because israeli soldiers off-duty usually stolen uniforms carrying around automatic rifle and a good number of israeli civilians also carry around automatic rifles. if you go to a bank and see a security guard. delivery place of business has a security guard outside and you had this conversation that the only take place in israel. an israeli civilian would walk up with automatic rifle slung over his shoulder. security guard would look at him and with a straight face he would say you have a weapon? and the guy with the gun would dance with a straight face no. and they both knew they were having this conversation which is i'm not asking about the automatic rifle on your shoulder. do you have a bomb underneath your jacket? so after they have that little preamble the security guard would take this electronic wand and waving around his body and say go on in. go to the teller over there. this guy with the automatic rifle would go up to a bank

teller. thing about that. walked into the bank tomorrow, the citibank with an automatic rifle, go up to the teller and say i would like to make a large withdrawal and see what sort of reaction you would get. in israel nobody even blinks. this is life in israel at the time. >> it was a very surreal and every day was filled with these calculations of how to psych out the bombers and avoid catastrophe. everything would look normal on the surface. even if our two young daughters by the time we move to the states we had never taken them to the grocery store because the grocery store was a place people gathered, it was a target and it was too dangerous. we wouldn't do is that but it was safe enough to go to friends homes and a real enough to go to the rose garden in jerusalem but if we wanted to go to the movies there with a mall in jerusalem and we would circle three or

four times around the entire mall because there are five or six entrances and you want to see where the shortest line was a new -- you knew the bomber couldn't get into the theater because there was a strict security outside but didn't want to waste time being in a long line. so the weight of this pressure of constant stress, of living in this environment. if you had moved in after a few years of fighting you would have said these people are crazy. how can you live like this. it was like the proverbial frog in hot water. turn up the heat a little each day and make the calculations and that is what israelis and palestinians to on a daily basis and that is how you live in a war zone. one night in particular it was a saturday night and we knew on saturday night there was a

strong possibility that there could be a bomber making its way into jerusalem. the sabbath would fall on friday night and it would become dark and you knew that everything would be frozen for 24 hours because streets were empty out, people would be in their homes but 24 hours later when the sun went down and the sabbath ended the bomber would have already been in place and you knew people would be back at the cafes at the pedestrian malls. everyone would come out of their homes and we held our breath on this saturday night and stayed in, and exhausted from covering the conflict and before we knew it we put and louise to sleep. shea the 6 months old at the time and suddenly there was a large explosion and we could feel the windows in our apartment rattle. we look to each other and we knew immediately what had happened. there had been a bombing at a cafe. we lived on the same street as the prime minister's residents

and their with the cafe called the moment cafe. the baby woke up and we started passing her back and forth. started calling the police and i was on the phone with my fox team. already on the scene because that is what we did. with a fire drill and we knew, we started running from the apartment, the owner of the cafe at the apartment building, and he knew intuitively that it was his cafe. this is our life for quite some time. >> we wanted to do more than compile anecdotes. we wanted to humanize the story and tell what it was like for

israelis and palestinians. they have been living through this their entire lives. you could certainly go back to 1948. in the state of conflict -- they have never woken up and said this would be an ordinary day where nothing is going to happen. there's always that possibility. there is imminent disaster and something terrible happening. it looks like it has been another decade, one that goes back six or more decades. this conflict keeps devolving and this is important revolution. there was this special moment in the 90s until 2000 when after 50 or so years of conflict the israelis finally found a way to

talk to each other and there are differences -- they didn't close the gap but they're very close. this last decade cost not only physical damage but psychological damage. the two sides of the separated in ways they interact or had to deal with one another. we saw conventional wars 50 years ago and terrorism in recent years. israel and iran confrontation, keeps changing. it was miss a decade ago. these new and evolving issues in the region. >> we wanted to show how the landscape has physically and psychologically change in the last decade. what is notable is in washington it seems every four years you