whole affair, moral code is something he was trying to sell on to others but not something he chose to live by. host: what about political fallout, not only for the governor but for the party in general? >> i wrote last week that think the one person this helps the most is mitt romney. this is another 2012 presidential hopeful who kind of falls off the map here. a number of other 2012 hopefuls have done so as well, john ensign being another one of them a week earlier announcing an affair. i think there's some argument about how successful he would have been. but still, there have been other governors in this country that have not had a great year. i think this pushes mitt romney to the forefront. guest: more is jeb bush. he is long under the radar. i think you'd be a particularly strong can it, but he is waiting in the wings, i think. host: this is beth our independent line. caller: it took me quite a long

time to get through. i am all for personal responsibility and do more people should embrace that. i find it amazing but the congress and the reporters and anyone else thinks that people to do not need to take personal responsibility when it came to getting mortgages better to lurch are now looking to be personally responsible for themselves. i do not know how you possibly think they could do that. host: a quick, debt twitter.com -- host: good morning, republican line. hello. good morning. are you there? ok, we will go next -- let's try that again. are you there? host: caller: yes.

capt. trip is a fraud, and they know it is a fraud. -- cab and trade is a fraud. i have five books this is a fraud. and if you do not have the time to read, going over the speeches from american progress. look at american thinker, and it will show you that half of the co2 produced goes into the ocean. a budget goes into the green, the plant's two. plus, co 2 is heavier than in the air. it is not even in the air. it sinks to the ground of the bill is a one-party rule. they're going to church indiana. republicans did set to pay more. californians will not -- all the democratic states probably do not have any co2. it is corrupt and crooked.

nancy pelosi's father was pretty good, and so is she. guest: my view on this, from a political perspective, is that this is an area where republicans can either choose to lead or they can cater to the worst. there will be telling people like this caller and others to do not believe in global warming that they are just wrong. they could assert a very important role for themselves in this debate, republicans could, by telling people that if you do not believe by global warming, you are wrong, and we need to articulate this. instead, they have catered to the worst intentions. that is, tell people who believe global warming is a hoax that they are right, it is a hoax. that serves the detriment on their own party on critical issues like cap-and-trade. >> "washington journal" live

every day. we leave this to go to the program on tests in missile launches. you will hear from the u.s. pacific commander, admiral timothy keating, he will talk about this and other issues of maritime security. introductions are now under way. this event is live, hosted by the atlantic council of the united states. >> i know many of you have attended our commander series on a regular basis. let me say a couple worried about what this is about. this is been one of the most popular things we have introduced. a public platform for senior u.s. and global meant rigid military leaders to share their views and concerns. it is to should the security debate in washington and beyond. since the beginning of this

series, we have the commanders of the vice chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the chief of staff of the army, and two of the most recent commanders in afghanistan. it is the flagship program for the atlantic council. i want to thank saab, a.b., and the board member of the atlantic canceled for their support of this series. i am also delighted with the turnout today which says a lot as well about the popularity of this. admiral, i have to mention one thing. some people ask me, why is the atlantic council floating its boat in the pacific? the answer is pretty simple, it is a matter of history, michigan, and reality. before the war, there was a famous ambassador by the name of hugh alexis johnson, a legendary ambassador to japan. he was one of the founders, and

he and dean atchison were very clear that the world is round and the atlantic off the right to recognize that much earlier than most trans-atlantic organizations. so that is the history. number two, there is the mission of renewing the atlantic community for 21st century global challenges. it is what we have long had a successful asia program for many years. recently opened up a south asia center and are launching a center for partnership. this evening is under the international security program and the director, damon will sum. so there's the reality. with the situation now. nato reaching out to develop global partnerships with japan, australia, south korea. asian powers playing a key role in stabilizing afghanistan. the u.s. and eu working together to engage china and india on

global climate change. the g-20 bringing together key asian and european partners to address the global on a crisis. if north korea, i do not have to say much about that. security developments in the pacific such as the developer of a long-range ballistic missiles and backed the debate on missiles in europe. i think this link has been apparent since the u.s. entered world war ii double in europe. the council will continue to flood of boat as well in the pacific. and now want to turn the podium over to the hon. walter slocombe, vice chair of the atlantic council and former undersecretary of defense for policy. he will introduce our speaker and later a moderate the q&a session. he's now with kaplan and was a pillar of the atlantic council. he provides me into the rest of our leadership strategic advice as well as sound legal advice

and is still free walking around and have not yet been incarcerated. that is because of wall slocombe. i am grateful for your service, and we're delighted to have a distinguished former pentagon official moderate this evening's discussion. [applause] >> thank you. it is a great honor to be asked to introduce that roe keating. he has that kind of resume that mere mortals only dream of. he graduated from the naval academy in 1971. shortly thereafter, began a distinguished career as a legal aviator. the most impressive thing is not the stress on his sleeve or the stars, if he were wearing a slightly different uniform, but it is that he is carried out 1200 arrested landings on aircraft carriers. he was the did the commander in thewing during the first gulf

war, and he was the commander during visiting gulf war. in between, like all senior military officers, he has to do the additional penance, working in washington and a variety of jobs. i have had the honor and pleasure of working with him when he was the deputy j-3 during the 1990's. he then became, after his service, in connection with operation iraqi freedom. he became the director of the joint staff which is the critical position, as i am and most of the note, in making that remarkable organization work as well as it does things to his efforts and of the efforts of a lot of other people. he was then commander -- she has had two, i still call them sinks. two for combat commanders, one at norad and the northern command and as you all know, he would not be here otherwise, he is the commander of the pacific

command. it is a real pleasure to have the opportunity to hear his insights into the military and the larger american strategic role in a critical part of the world. ann rule keating. welcome to the atlantic council, and thank you for doing this. [applause] >> thank you all for this great opportunity. a couple of words by a preamble -- i had the distinction of working for then undersecretary of the sense of policy, walter slocombe, for a while. and a few officials, in my experience, have had more consequential impact on with the department of defense and does, did, and is doing then walter slocombe. he was there for a long time.

i think he did a magnificent -- magnificent job. it is my honor and privilege been standing here in front of you having been introduced by -- who would have thought back then we would be standing here today? to fred, thank you. oh, in fairness, at the point out that was great introduction, and i am grateful. but it is not the best introduction i have had. it is good, very good, and was the aggregate of the best introduction i ever had was a much smaller group at i think a rotary club in florida or the master of ceremonies was late, and they asked me if i would mind introducing myself. [laughter] that is the best. we have got -- while it is the atlantic council, we have the upper river visual aid here, and i would like to start with that if i can. it is to describe the pacific

command aor, area of responsibility. i will work hard to keep acronym's down to a minimum. we have the north pole, south pole, alaska, california, and of the east coast of africa. that is the pacific command area of responsibility. it is 50% of the surface of the earth. about 51% of the world's population. we have a number pretty large armies. china. when a responsibility for the eastern part of russia. so china's army, russia's army, north korea's army, india's army, our army, our armed forces. pretty consequential. there is significant economic initiative under way of here. about $1 trillion of our trade comes from countries in our area of responsibility. 20 of the largest ports in the world, 15 of those 20 are in

aor. nine of the largest ports and the world are now in the people's republic of china and the busiest port, shanghai, is in our area of responsibility. it is a vibrant, dynamic, living, breathing place in which we have the privilege of working and conducting our business. about a year ago we decided to rewrite our strategy. we've been in the pacific command for decades. the guns have largely been silent in our area of responsibility. for that, we're grateful. it is due to the efforts of several in the room including walter slocombe and the general. we wanted to take what got us where we are and try and catapulted five, 10, 20 years in the future. it is a dynamic aor, as we described. the economic engine is turning. their opportunities and challenges of plenty other. everything about the countries

in our area of responsibility, if you think about them and realize how much room there is for growth, how much opportunity there is for, in some cases, a adventurism in korea or in some cases, that behavior. in many more cases than not, cooperating in of collaborating to ensure more peace and stability in the region that is why we chose to undertake the process of writing a new strategy for the u.s. is a big way. based a lot on what we saw in the rearview mirror but try to look up to 20 years down the road. it is this is undertaking to be sure. we ended up coming down to three basic tenets of our new strategy. partnership, readiness, and presence. pretty simple, complex, simple to explain but not so easy to execute the partnership, we're convinced the building upon the very strong bilateral

relationships and alliances we have in our aor, we have five treaties, australia, thailand, the philippines, south korea, and japan. a majority of trees in all countries in our aor. some are decades-old and our bilateral relationships to weave the fabric that has included as its threads, multilateral engagement and not just milk to mill. increasingly, we see opportunities including elements across the dime, if you will, diplomatic and intelligence, military, and energy and environment. we're looking to cobble all this together in an increasingly tightly woven fabric that emphasizes multilateralism. i will try to cite some examples in a minute. and of the ability we have as the predominant military power in the region to provide some

guidance and in some cases leadership to all of these countries that are in response -- that are in our responsibility. india, once upon a time, prior to my work with walter, i was the flag lt. to then admiral william j. chorale in the mid- 1980s. for year and a half, i carried my bad shots, so there's hope for all of us who are younger. but those caring the admirals' bags around. we made a visit to india. he was pretty high expectations, and there were largely unfulfilled. the reception we got was a little chilly. the engagement on a policy level were not very forthcoming. the hospitality was cordial but not overflowing, and the old man left less happy than we would have liked him to be. we just went in for the second time a couple weeks ago, much

different from a much different country. we got there on the last of their elections. it is an amazing process. some of you may have had the good fortune of watching india's national elections. folks were flocking to their televisions in manner and numbers that were somewhat unusual to us, glued to the big screen televisions the other government today is more willing to talk about engagement and a partnership with the united states than they were in the mid-1980's. they are exercising with us on a much more robust bases. we just concluded a trilateral exercise, unthinkable in the 1980's, japan, u.s., india, in the sea of japan, and it was a fairly sprawled sit -- spirited, a technical exercise where we did division tactics. we were exercising weapons and techniques and procedures that are pretty high in. two years ago, india participated in a five-way it says including u.s., japan, singapore, and australia.

unthinkable in the mid-1980's, and it is now a matter of course within yet. we think this is a great example of partnership and of the benefits will derive from increased dialogue, increased cooperation, and increased understanding of what we are all about are in the aor. readiness -- does not do is any good to have all matter -- manner forces that cannot get out there and exercise, cannot respond to military operational directives come to provide assistance to countries to do not quite have all these capabilities, and to get out there and exercise it. as an example, some may have participated in an exercise in thailand held every year. this year, five countries involved. 10 countries, india and prc included send observers to large ships, soldiers, airmen,

marines, coastguardsman operating in a real-life a field exercise and a dynamic, vibrant way. and it included with shifting from more fighting, if you will, for exercising the capability of a shifting over to humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and u.n. peacekeeping operations. it started out aggressive and ended up not just peacemaking and peacekeeping. never has participation been more vigorous and the more spirited. that is the readiness. it is essential for us to be able to field forces that can move out and answer says across the full spectrum of military operational committee said you would expect for of -- from us. >the third part of our strategy is presence. the officers, a junior officers in our headquarters say it this

way. virtual presence equals actual absence. we're all used to the wonders of video teleconferences and multiple secure telephone calls and all that. you've got to get out there. if you have got to get real bird and honest to goodness and grime underneath your fingernails and work with the people in this very large area of responsibility so that they can develop and enhance understanding of what we, the united states, offer. 36 countries in our area responsibility. we have been 22829 of them. some, like japan, we have been 10 times. when we went to burma, myanmar, we do not think we would get there, but we did. when to offer humanitarian aid since its rigid insistence, and they essentially turned us down. the tragedy. we visited 27 countries. unmistakable, unrelenting been in discussions, not just with

them but with senior officials of fruit -- senior officials in the commercial partners in the commercial interests, everywhere we go, unmistakable thing. you, the u.s., are the indispensable partner. we deny necessarily want you with us every minute everyday in our country, on our soil, in our water, or in the air overhead, but we would like you nearby. we want you to be able to come when we need you. we want our young men and women to go to school with you, preferably in the united states. and we like our young men and women to go to school there. there is the indian military academy, and no one person and sets up for the great reasons of the success he enjoyed with our responsibility as a partnership, absolutely essential to their readiness, we have got to be out there. presence, you cannot could virtually. you've got to be about to deploy, like thomas steen, sell, did their however you can and operate with these people so

they develop the understanding of what we, the u.s., offer them. through all of this, in the strategy we hope builds an easy -- a simple but not easy way to ensure peace and stability in the region. we remain the indispensable partner, the reliable partner, the country upon which all of these people can depend to respond in times good and bad, without a lot of the motion so as to ensure economic stability throughout the region. thank you for your attention this evening. i would be delighted to try and answer any questions you might have. [applause] >> thank you. >> admiral, i think that is a terrific overview of what you are trying to do. and i am sure is stimulated a lot of questions and interests. so let's start. admiral.

>> from the institute of foreign policy analysis. would you comment on the china and psi, and then maybe the of the other end of the spectrum, humanitarian system vote -- assistance to china? >> thank you. a couple examples to take it in reverse order. china had a cold snap in january 2008. you may remember the pictures in the paper where there were 400,000 people stranded at a real yard. a staggering number of people. we get on the telephone to call our chinese counterparts, if you will, and said we would be happy to help, and they said we're grateful for the offer. we're loading up two c-17's. this is several tons of stuff, actually, out of an air force

base in hawaii. this is response to a cold weather disaster or challenge. two c-17's launched inside of 40 hours. there were unloading gear with the chinese two-star to stay thank you very much for the assistance. at the same time, china mobilized their army in a manner that is a little unusual for them, i think, but very helpful to the people there. this example was the year earthquake several months thereafter. same phone call comes same guy on china's in saying we're grateful for the offer and thankful for the help. two more c-17's go in. unless you've dealt with earthquakes, you do not think of what you need. chainsaws, water, food, and plastic sheeting. plastic sheeting was in short supply.

a plastic sheeting shortage -- but again, the chinese were grateful for the assistance. we landed, a bloated, and took off. those to the cases come -- we landed, unloaded, and took off. in those cases, offers for assistance were warmly received. at the same time, right now, is successor to walter has just returned from a visit to china where we have every indication she has been able to get military to military talks back on track. they were suspended in the wake of the time on arms sales announcement in october 2008. i think we're back on track. there's a schedule for the dialogue she has arranged with their japanese colleague. we hope that will lead to an increase in the dialogue and an improvement in the relationship between pacific command and our counterparts in the people's liberation army and air force

some narrowly and increased understanding of cooperation on a much larger scale. that is a long answer to a short question. we have provided disaster relief and hope for more fruitful relations with chinese military and the near future. proliferation security initiative. we are prepared when directed to respond to guidance from the secretary and the president in enforcing the u.n. security council resolutions and this is a subset of psi. so as you are aware, psi is a policy signed to buy 90 + countries in the world. we do not have direct dialogue with the people's liberation army on this topic. there are some conversations on going and the state department level including china with respect to north korea. beyond that, i am better off not

pointing of the obvious. thank you for your question. yes, ma'am? >> i'm with the liberty time in taiwan. during your tenure, i think you have been trying to help taiwan and china do dialogue or build confidence among military confidence-building measure. have you been able to accomplish anything? the uc the recent reduction of attention permanent -- do you see the recent reduction permanent? >> we certainly hope that the reduction is permanent. profound hope. as a suspect so, too, for prc and taiwan. we have contributed some instructors for taiwan's annual exercise. as you may know, we have sent

some well qualified military instructors. the fact that tension has been defused, if not eliminated, is very encouraging. the steps taken by prc and taiwan, while summer pedestrian in a way with sending exotic animals, pandas, to zoos, increased commercial traffic, making it easier to send mail back and forth across the street. each of these are not watershed decisions but all contribute to a sense of cooperation and collaboration that we find encouraging. >> i am from the world journal. not too long ago, it chinese sub hit a u.s. -- [unintelligible]

can you comment on the capabilities against conventional submarines, especially with those capabilities? >> is that all you want to know? let me take the mccain peace first. john mccain, operating international water, the way we operate around the world with our navy all the time. it was damaged. investigation is ongoing. i do not know precisely why that was damaged. we will find out perhaps in time. as for the u.s. asw policy, i've got to keep remembering that the tapes are rolling -- we would like to have more than less submarines and the pacific command area of responsibility. the u.s. navy and the department of defense have to make decisions as to how the portion those assets. we have what i th