inconclusive the problem set is and the solution has to be. that's about the best answer i can give you on that one, major. >> thank you. >> general, very much for comin and your kind remarks. your advice to with your usual tactical unsubtleties is welcome and anticipato anticipatory, to decide on what the problem is, while there are a lot of problems out there, it's necessary to prepare for a wide spectrum. in preparing for everything you prepare for nothing. can you give us an idea of where you would concentrate your

approach to the near and middle future, perhaps, what you see centcom doing now, your first concern and first interests are? >> it's a very difficult question. this is what friends do for each other, we make time for each other. and as you can understand, in response to pakistan -- military to military with pakistan, afghanistan, i can go on, you get the idea, i get busy. it's worth it for me to come up and defend it in an open setting like this, i will just tell you that i think if i would define my job right now is, how i keep the peace in the middle east for

one more year? one more month. one more week. one more day. sometimes it seems like one more hour. sir david as you know, the duke had to open fire last april with warning shots in order to keep the aircraft away, things can go wrong very, very quickly here. i would have to answer your question differently about where i would focus, because i can just about guarantee you, here's what i would do, i would consider what jennifer walt has made very clear to me earlier, this mature canadian effort to ucatthn of your ncos and officers as what you're going to have to put your money into, because, they can move into any situations and they could be problem setting before they do problem solving. and you'll be able to adapt to

the surprises that are coming. i would consider it an investment and not an overhead cost when you put your troops through the best possible training. i have very modest expectations of being able to see where things are going. that said, i will tell you that the centcom theater, if you invite my successor back or his successor, he will probably commanding a more naval theater, and we will probably not be putting large footprints of ground troops ashore except for very short periods and the effort to keep the peace will also have to take into account the -- the energies that are sweeping through these popular movements that are sweeping through the middle east and we're going to have to have troops that can move in, in more a sensitive way than more recent demonstrations have shown in afghanistan and make certain

that we're in a position of reinforcing stability and not disrupting it. and so it's a more navel theater, less templated situation and your young officers and ncos will have to be able to move out smartly when they get there. we won't be able to give them much advance notice. but in coalitions you don't get all of the authority in you, you it comes down to your personality of troops. for the coalition that will come together, sometimes with odd bed partners, i have never fought in an all-american formation, i have been in many fights, i haven't been in one that's only americans. you'll have to have officers that can adopt -- adapt to that kind of situation. >> thank you very much, sir. >> yeah, thanks.

[ applause ] general, thank you for bein visiting us in canada. my question specifically is connected to somalia.inisr in t first visit to western dignitary in 20 years. given that nato is working off the coast of somalia on the antipirsy mission, and, the british's visit specifically means that the west is ready to engage in the country once again, specifically for america, what is the stance of the u.s.

military engaging in somalia once again. >> the role of the u.s. military? anticipate snd. >> yes. does the u.s. military have a role in furthering the capacity of taking control? >> it's a great question. i must tell you that i'm very hap happy somalia is on the other side of that. i don't want to cop out of your question here. i have talked to several middle east leaders that have committed money, they have try to find ways to give young men and young women in somalia, in that unfortunate little country to see if they can give them some hope for the future. i had a very experienced and capable middle east leader, we

tried it, we gave it up. nothing pays as good as piracy. these are innocent seamen and something's got to be done about this. i think there's a military campaign of regional militaries, trying to restore the government's authority there. i saw -- i salute what the uk is orchestrating to try to get a more longterm solution, certainly the military could have a role supporting that. but i think the lead role has got to come up with some kind of political way ahead and the military would be in a supporting role and obviously, when it comes down to what's out at sea, by nato and other ships including ones from russia,

china, korea, you know, there's a number of nations out there working together on this problem, so the military has a role in the policing of the waters, i think you need to set a political condition first and the local regional mill tars are the best to provide that solution in the near term. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. thank you. >> thank you for being with us. it's a real pleasure to see you again. a question on afghanistan. you haven't talked much about afghanistan. you talked about experience in 2001. can we fast forward, 11 years, and get from you your analysis of where we are now and where we're going and what do you expect when most of our troops will be out of the country in 2014 as planned.

and also, as you know, in most of our western country, western world, nato countries, the question surfaces more and more, was it really worth it our engagement in afghanistan? you know, if you look at the situation, i have been a close supporter of the mission, but i have some offdays, can you reassure us that it was worth it. >> thank you. i'm delighted to take the question. i'm delighted to explain our strategy there. you know, war, especially wars where progress and violence co-exist, are heartbreaking, that's all there is to it. you can't looking at our troops

without feeling some sense of, is this really necessary in 2012? we can't do better than this. and you know, in an imperfect world, with irreck sibl world views, i think we have to look at this and recognize that while war is like a radar going back and forth liking for any chink in your armor, in your country's leadership and in democracies of the people themselves, i'm not in the united states marine corps. due to the world we live in today, i own an accountability to you here in ottawa, the strategy itself, is we're going to -- going to be using the nato

forces to build around, this is the largest wartime coalition in any one in this room's history. there hasn't been more nations united. there's 50. united in this effort. our job is to drive to the enemy down, and suffocate their hopes for succeeding by violence, our job is to build up the afghan security forces, so that they're able to take care of their own country and after 2014, secretary general rasmussen has said, we'll continue to have mentors there, air support, that sort of thing, we'll continue something, the details to work out according to lisbon guidance. on one hand you have our forces providing almost a wind break and mentors to the afghan forces that are coming up out there. we're going to transition to the

afghan security forces, right now, over half the country is under afghan lead at this point today. we're going to continue to talk to those elements of the enemy that aren't as committed or are losing their hope and remember, there may be only be about 3,000 enemies that come over to our side but enemies -- but adversaries don't come over to the losing side, the afghan enemy, the taliban, they know who's winning and who's losing. we know that, because we read their mail and also 3,000 young men coming over, saying that's it. how many afghan battalions have gone over to taliban side? zero. how many afghan companies have? zero. does that mean in a country that has been turned upside-down by violence that there's not young men acting out, more afghan boys

have died, afghan troop turns his weapon on the friendlies then nato troops, this is a culture that has been through trauma, so it's not a clash of cultures with their troops and we're well together. the spectacular bombing attacks and notice that sid that their parliament would not be seated without violence. they kept saying what they were going to do. remember their last spring offensive, nothing happened, the reason it didn't happen was because the nato troops and the afghan troops fighting together were able to keep them down. we'll continue talking to those that we can draw over. we want to end the war as soon as possible. secretary clinton has been very clear as far as the america position on this.

if they quit using violence, they break with al qaeda and they agree to live by the afghan constitution they're welcome in the political. you've got an afghan force that's getting better and you have a nato military that's doing, carrying out a spectacular campaign under the most difficult circumstances and maintaining its moral balance, we're not defined by the occasional, very few mistakes that we make and they are mistakes, but we're not defined by those. remember, even jesus of nazareth had 1 out of 12 go to mud on him. no one has a perfect outfit, okay? so, but i think that's the way we see this going. and, the decisions of what we'll look like post-2014, i have only

seen the secretary-general's words to give general guidance, certainly the president said that we will not abandon afghanistan after 2014, but at that point we do expect that the afghan security forces can carry out the security of the nation. they'll still need international support but they can do it. i hope that answers your question. >> thank you. >> yes, sir. >> my question is about cultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence, in terms of leadership, you mentioned the need to train people to think and deal with the real issues on the ground. at least two of the three block wars, dealing with operations amongst the people, you have learned a lot through your different fights, working with different kinds of cultures and people.

how should we take that cultural knowledge and intelligence and instill it in our people? >> it's a great question. and thanks for your service there, like i said, i'm still in therapy after my years there, i admire any of you who can come through it, actually i'm a great admirer of nato. let me tell you what i think we need to do in the ground forces zwe need to look at what the air force did -- air forces did probably back in the '50s and '60s and increasingly in the 70s and '80s. the bottom line is, in my ways we have taken advantage of simulators, if you simulated the ethical and tactical dlem. mas that show you where you can

make culture mistakes, you can make those mistakes in well-constructed simulators back here. the u.s. military won't buy a new airplane without simulators. it's part of the program. yet in many cases, the forces in closest contact day-to-day, face to face, looking at each other in the eye, contact with the foreign cultures, are the least simulated. you wouldn't put the pilot in the airplane overhead without putting him through similar uls. so, i think that's the way to do it. we know what the cultures are like, we can put that into simulation, at least for a great degree and some of it virtual and some of it simulated and

some of it actually live, you can have countries with big immigrant populations, probably nowhere in the world where we couldn't find citizenry to put in the examples and make all of our ethical and cultural mistakes there, at least most of them before they ever go into the fight and that's the way i would go after this. we have one more lad here. yeah. >> captain lloyd, i work at centcom. the world bank estimates that 97% of afghan's gdp comes from foreign aid as well as in-country spending on foreign troops, when you consider 2014, a reduction to 230, when you consider the western budgetary constraints that are on the

horizon that keeps me up at night, should it? >> yes, actually. but i look so young i got carded to get a beer somewhere, young man. frankly, i'm happy that you're being kept awake at night. before you were born, in my day, the america hippies wanted to discover themselves. so they went wandering the world, leaving debris behind them wherever they want. both physical and moral. but, they -- one of the great spots along the hippie trail, frankly was afghanistan, it was a place of orchids and friendly people. a place where you could move from town to town and always find people that were willing to take you in.

a generosity of spirit that has been badly shaken under this crushing combat that they have be under generations, ever since soviet union went in and turned the society upside-down. this is not a country that has been able to sustain itself. there are possibilities there that can help. they'll need international help for some years. i think nsf, the security forces will need robust help for a while. country gets back on its feet, i have faith that we do this if we wrk i believe that we can get an economy going again in kabul to try to marry this current inflat inflated economy they have to a

sustainable future. this is a human problem. there are pastimes that we can go back to see what the agricultural society and the education can provide as far as young people who can start making modern industries work there. further more, you got what we call the silk road initiative, where in order to open from the indian ocean, up into asia and the emerging markets there, it has to go on the ring road, something that you lads know well from there in kandahar, i think it's doable, it's going to be a challenge and we're going to have to recognize the problem and i think you summed it up, i expect you to have a paper to me tomorrow night. >> thank you. [ applause ]

>> ladies and gentlemen, if you want to check your watches, we have just gone through an hour and 15 minutes, hard to believe actually, it's gone by so very quickly and for the obvious reason, that general's presentation has been extraordinary interesting, fascinating in every possible way. general, thank you so much for gracing our podium yet again and this time, as commander centcom, i wonder if you'll accept this small token of our appreciation it's the oxford companion to canadian military history. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. [ applause ] president obama is in prince george, virginia, talking about the economy. speaking at a rolls-royce manufacturing plant. see that live on our companion

network on c-span at 12:30 eastern. yesterday the president's re-election campaign released a two-minute trailer for a campaign documentary called "the road we traveled." >> how do we understand this president and his time in office? do we look at the day's headlines? or do we remember what we as a country have been through? >> the president elect here is in chicago. he named the members of the economic team and they all fly in for the first big briefing on the economy. >> what was described in that meeting was an economic crisis beyond anything, anybody had imagined. >> our time of standing pat, of protecting interests and putting off on unpleasant decisions,

that has surely passed. >> his advisers would ask, where to begin? what urgent need would he put forward? >> where do you start? >> if we don't do this now, there will be a generation before 30 million people have health insurance. >> if the auto industry goes down, what happens to america's manufacturing base? what happens to jobs in america? what happens to the whole midwest? >> entire national security apparatus was in that room and we had to make a decision, go or not go? >> as he walked out the room, he's all alone. this is his decision, nobody is standing there with him.

quick update from capitol hill the senate yesterday rejected a measure that would have required the government to approve the keystone oil phone line. republica they're seeking to include it in the final version of the highway bill that's currently under consideration in the house. fire j. edgar hoover? i don't think the president could have gotten away with it. >> tim weiner details the fbi's 100-year hidden history. >> hoover stands alone. like he's like the washington monument, he stands alone like a

statue encased in grime. as one of the most powerful men who ever served in washington in the 20th century, 11 presidents, 48 years, from woodrow wilson to richard nixon, there's no one like him. and a great deal of what we know or we think we know about j.edgar is myth and legend. >> tim weiner, a history of the fbi on c-span. the governors association met here recently in washington. this is about 50 minutes.

ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. please take your seats. here's the hard part. if i could have audience members please take your seats. governors, please take your seats. hey, mike. i had a delegation of your elite members on the flight coming in -- yeah, they did.emenplease take your seats. i call this meeting to order. as the chair i would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the 2012 winter meeting. may i have a motion to adopt the

rules of the meeting? thank you. let me explain one thing first before we vote, part of the rules requires that any governor who wants to submit a new policy or resolution for adoption at this meeting will need 3/4 votes to suspend the rule. please submit any proposal in writing to the nga staff by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow february 25th. all in favor of the motion, please say aye. all opposed. the motion is adopted. governors, our and monday session is dedicated to review policies. to closely align our policies statements with governors' priorities. and i want to say i appreciate the hard work of every one invol involved. the governors, the staff, the nga staff, as we change the

direction on how we're establishing our policies. i want to acknowledge some distinguished guests here with us today. i want to first recognize our guest from the white house office of interim government affairs. we also are joined today by delegations from canada and the head of the mexican nga, if both of these delegations would stand so that we can recognize you, please? [ applause ] thank you very much for being here. for all of the tough issues, states and territories, face today, economic growth is one of the most important issues for us to address. economic growth is key to our success as governors, that's why i chose growing state economies