the role of a bigger power and neighbor taking advantage of afghanistan. >> quick comment and a final word. comment on what he was talking about. it's not necessarily -- my view on this is not that iran does not want the u.s. in afghanistan. in 2001, iran helped u.s. go to afghanistan. not that the u.s. uses afghanistan to attack its soil. it wants that it recognizes the cooperation that they can give. it wants u.s. to give it recognition of regional leadership. ponder on that. and also it would like it to separate the nuclear from afghanistan. these are the demands on that side. >> yeah. i agree with you, i just don't think the united states and iran can come to terms on those dilemmas. those are not things that we can give iran. >> okay. just my final word is it's -- even though i have been a realist on this, i actually do

believe diplomacy can save the day and should stave day. i think that obviously let us consider that it may not be about afghanistan and the solution to your problem of how can we get the countries not to interfere in afghanistan is actually -- understand that each of these countries or groups of countries have their own security problems. the kashmir problem, the iran problem, the gulf problem, et cetera, et cetera. you need diplomacy to go around and at least hear out what are the concerns that is not about afghanistan. even if you can not give them guarantees, at least separate the problem of afghanistan from the problem of kashmir, from the problem of india, from the problem of china, from the problem of russia, from the problem of the sunnis, et cetera, et cetera. give afghans breathing space. they may have their own conflict and problem, but it is separate from the regional problem. that's where you get your neutrality. >> i just have two observation. one is that if -- i mean, we are

basically run out of time until resolving the conflict. and there are a million other conflicts waiting for us. the whole iran versus pakistan primarily, but there is the whole population dynamic, the energy issues. and the other thing, one thing for afghanistan and pakistan, particularly, is there is need for encouraging internal debate within islamists. islamists in the world are changing. we have in turkey. people are following him in egypt and tunisia. something like that needs to happen, particularly in pakistan. thank you. >> thank you. thanks a lot to the panel and the audience. i just want to remind you again that april 10th we have the event on process for peace in afghanistan.

i want to stress this point more than most places you have usib having brought genuine voices of all sides of opinion from pakistan and afghanistan to speak, and we'll keep filling your inboxes with other invites. just to end -- i think one thing that one has found during trips to the region and talking to the people, which seems to be a very obvious commonality is that no country in the region wants civil war in afghanistan. i think everybody feels that if civil war comes about they're going to lose more than gain. whether we can find policies that can get to a point where you can avoid that situation and countries to help, because this seems to be a very clear thing, is is the question. but, you know, can you back nuclear afghanistan when talking

to iran? can we get u.s. and russia to talk about afghanistan while the other problems may continue? you've seen the pakistani foreign minister recently go and meet the leaders of some of the northern factions. now, you know, this is not common. so there may be some ground for hope here where countries are realizing that if a linear path is drawn forward you may end up with a civil war that could damage each of these countries and of course most of all afghanistan. on that hopeful note, i want to thank everybody who's put this event together. stephanie, jeremy, asia, all our team at usib. thank all of you for coming. please join me in thanking the panel.

tonight, beginning at 8:00 from our american artifacts series, we travel to orange county, virginia, and james

madison's montpelier. at 8:30 p.m. in old sturbridge villa village, massachusetts, an early history museum depicting early new england life from 1790 to 1840. about 9:00, we'll show a collection of inaugural gowns and white house china and learn more about the influential role of first ladies in presidential administrations. >> this weekend marks the anniversary of the bloodiest battle to be fought during the civil war. up to that point, the battle of shiloh with almost 24,000 casualties and we'll tour the battlefield with chief park ranger stacy allen saturday at 6:00 p.m. eastern. and sunday night at 7:00, the angel of the battlefield and founder of the red cross clara barton operated the missing soldiers office in a washington, d.c., boardinghouse until 1868. join us as we rediscover the third-floor office as it's prepared for renovations. this weekend on american history

tv on c-span3. >> earlier this year, the reserve officers association gathered leaders in the national security arena for symposium on the current challenges and what the u.s. can do about them going forward. cia director david petraeus and charles bolton talked about the need for prioritizing in a tight budget environment. the reserve officers association is an advocacy group that works on behalf of reserve and guard members and their families. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. that was a great good morning. you're in for a real treat to start off this national security symposium to play a patriotic interlude, i give you the united states marine band. [ applause ]

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>> how about the president's song? ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the presentation of the colors and remain standing for the national anthem. march on the colors.

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>> retire the colors. ♪

♪ >> please remain standing for our invocation led by roa's

national chaplain, major vince cummings. >> thank you, general. good morning. general petraeus, thank you for coming. would you all please join with me as we now go to our lord in prayer to open our opening session of the national security symposium. shall we pray. o, mighty god, we are here, and as we gather as a family, a fraternity of citizen warriors, our body stands united in

blessed creator, pour out your holy unction upon this gathering, renew the selfless relationships that continuously bind us together, and most importantly, allow us to hear and discern the wisdom from our distinguished keynote speakers here today. we finally ask your inner session in comforting the families of our colleagues who have lost loved ones that have served our great country. also strengthen those citizen warriors who serve in harm's way around the globe and never allow us to forget those sacrifices. and finally, motivate all of us to continuously grow in you as we strive continuously to be the leaders you desire us to be, as servants of our great republic.

we now uplift these requests to you, for it's in your holy name we pray. amen. please be seated. welcome to washington, d.c. for the next three days, you're in for an exciting national security symposium and reserve officer association convention. so fasten your seat belts and please direct your attention to the monitors on the side.

>> we have the power to -- but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning. >> tomorrow the work begins and i do not mistrust the future. i do not fear what is ahead, for our problems are large, but our heart is larger. our challenges are great, but our will is greater. >> i do not shrink from this responsibility. no matter how long it may take us. >> there is no way we can go

forward except together. >> it does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds. >> if we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are. >> i will show you how great i am.

[ applause ] does that get your heart pumping? as a reminder, please silence your cell phones and any other electronic devices you might

have, and also because we are a forward-looking electronically capable organization, for those of you who are tweeting this conference, please use the hash tag roa. to kick things off, i would like to introduce to you our national president, air force reserve colonel walker williams. [ applause ] >> thank you, general davis, and good morning again. throughout this national security symposium, roa's convention body will also convene. 90 years ago on october the 2nd, 1922, brigadier general henry j. riley led roa's first gathering where our founding fathers established this great association. it is now both my privilege and honor to preside over our 86th

national convention. now is our first item of business, the roa minuteman hall of fame welcomes another inductee. a great citizen patriot who has conspicuously contributed to the advancement of our roa programs and objectives. it is an exceptional honor for me to introduce our first speaker and induct this year's newest addition to the minuteman hall of fame. our speaker has been referred to as the premiere military man of our age. he has distinguished himself with his leadership, valor, creativity and diplomacy. in the area of scholarship, his masters and doctorate degrees from the woodrow wilson school of public and international affairs at princeton university and his leadership of the combined arms center where he led the development of our current counterinsurgency manual

reflect the marvelous intelligence and insight he brings to bear on any issue. his integrity is unimpeachable. through his over 37 years of military service, remarkably director petraeus has held six general officer commands, five as combat commands. he did this in bosnia, he did it in the -- with the 101st air assault division in iraq, he served as commander of the multi-national iraq in iraq leading the surge. he serve ed as centcom commande and the commander of u.s. forces in afghanistan. our guest speaker's name is often mentioned in the same sentence with most of our revered leaders of the past, generals washington, grant, persian, macarthur and eisenhower. for the contributions he has made in the development of doctrine, development of leaders

and his leadership in the battlefield. most recently president obama has called upon him to serve as the director of the central intelligence agency. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to induct a long-time supporter of roa and the reserve forces into the minuteman hall of fame. please join me in welcoming director david petraeus. thank you, sir. [ applause ] >> thank you.

>> well, thanks very, very much. good morning to you all. thanks for a warm welcome. it is great to be with you all this morning, it's great to be part of your 2012 national security symposium, the 86th, i note. and it's great to be with so many with whom i've been privileged to serve in the past decade in particular. just out of curiosity, in fact, how many here have been deployed since 9/11 if i could just see a show of hands? how many have been deployed more than once since 9/11? how many more than twice? since 9/11? do any have three years or more of deployment just out of curiosity? right here? where's my guys back there. how many coins do you have,