you worry about that being a big part of the discussion right now. santorum, as much as his views align, they worry that he is less electable. you worry about that being a big part of the discussion right now. >> what is the essence of what is going on behind the scenes to make sure there is a conservative vice-presidential candidate if romney does rise to the top of the contenders? we saw john mccain get more support after sarah palin was added to the ticket. are discussions going on like this? will that help those like jordan say they can support this guy? >> the only candidate you hear being talked about are those being seen as more conservative than romney. they are not seeing anyone who is a moderate. there is no talk of a joe lieberman or something like that this year, which is what we heard four years ago with senator mccain. you hear people be more willing to say, "i think marco rubio, i think chris christie."

which is something you do not usually here. -- hear. space to make that decision, but wanting to see this person or that person in the consideration. >> for that reason, i think you will see mitt romney leading toward a popular conservative candidate to shore up conservative. santorum and gingrich are running in the south, but the view is that in the general election, they will rally behind romney and vote for him anyway, even in the southern states. you want them to come out and vote. you do not want them to stay home. by choosing a conservative vice- to rally their base and bring more people out.

>> i think we're definitely seeing a shift in the republican party where they are fearful of romney being the nominee, but now they are just wary. >> russell berman and susan, thank you for being on "newsmakers" this week. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> i am appearing here today as one spokesperson for the hundreds of thousands of marines, sailors, their families, and loyal civilian employees who are on knowingly exposed to toxins, through their drinking water at camp lejeune, north carolina. >> the documentary "semper fi" looks at the efforts of jerry

ensminger, and he is joined by rachel libert tonight. >> they have of ski faded -- they have aussie faded -- change this, so now if they were to sit down with me face to face, i could assure them with their own documents and counter what they have been saying, and they do not want to do that. >> more withry ensminger and "q&a."libert on c-span's >> we asked students what part of the constitution was the most important to them. today, we are speaking to an eighth grader. good morning, wilson ekern.

you were looking at the right to bear arms. how did you choose this >> it was very controversial, and many people were talking about it. he thought it would make a good documentary and apply to a lot of people. >> concealed weapons on college campuses? >> hopefully, we will be going to college, and whether we wanted to or not -- >> you spoke to people. how did you understand both sides? >> we were hoping to gain enough information that we could form our own opinions about the controversy and get to the root of the matter. >> did your research affect your position? >> without really having that much of an opinion, and even now, there are pro's and con's to each side. it is not really clear. it is up to the viewer to

understand what philosophy they think is correct. >> and what was your favorite part of making this video? >> there is something we never would have gone to in any other instance. >> hard work and dedication can get you anywhere. >> and what about the other things you learned after watching the video? >> whether jobs or school are getting into a good college, whatever you do, hard work and dedication will be rewarded. >> congratulations on your win. >> thank you. >> this has been a very controversial topic since the virginia tech shootings in the situation where 25 were wounded and 26 killed. >> something like the virginia

tech shootings, there was nobody there with a gun to confront the guy who was shooting. >> there was an incident that happened at virginia tech. i would be able to protect myself and my classmates, and even if i did not have a gun on me, standing up and doing something. >> those people can help protect against bad people on campus, and while that sounds good in theory, first of all, not everybody wants to carry guns. second of all, most people are not trained with firearms. >> you can watch this video in its entirety and look at all the other winning entries on our website, studentcam.org, and you can follow on facebook and twitter.

>> this year's competition asked students across the country what part of the constitution was important to them and why. today's third prize winner chose the second amendment. >> movies, television shows, and video games, but what if we saw or did not see a whole new kind of proof with upcoming with deflation, concealed weapons could be carried on a college campus. >> one of the arguments i have heard about it in favor of that is faculty members, for example, have guns, and a student goes crazy, and you have a weapon to fight them off. presently, i do not the most people are trained well enough to use weapons and a combat situation. >> i would have no way of knowing who has a gun, if they are well trained or not with that gun, and how often they

are. >> on the one hand, you have a right to defend yourself. on the other hand, there is a huge safety issue for those. >> they are stored in their rooms, sometimes floated. >> you have to be 21 in the state of tennessee. you have to be 21 to actually carry concealed. >> the 21-year-olds with weapons on their persons merely to go from class to class in the parts of their university experience. >> i think they have the potential to make a bad situation worse. >> the right to bear arms. >> a piece of legislation came up this past year, which was to

allowed to carry. however, that sort of legislation obviously would be a little bit more impactful. they do not have a criminal history, so they would be able to have a gun carry permit should they elect to. >> just last year, at the end of last june, the supreme court reaffirmed that possessing a gun is a fundamental right. >> the supreme court ruling is that the right to bear arms will not be infringed upon in any way again. >> the right to bear arms is the second amendment because without it, we would not be able to protect the first amendment. >> it is a steadfast protector of the freedoms of speech and the freedom of religion. >> to carry a gun on campus, i

think that that is just another place i should be able to carry a gun if i have a carrying permit. >> whether on the campus or not. >> people who obey these laws are good, law-abiding citizens that turn in their guns when these bands go into effect. these are the ones to register their guns. >> law-abiding people. they are no more likely to commit a crime, actually less likely to actually shoot somebody than police officers are, says safety. >> campus as a temple of a church. they do not like it being defiled by anyone carrying guns. i think that is really what it is about. i think it is a culture war more than anything. >> this has been a very controversial topics and state virginia tech shootings, where 32 students were killed and 25 were wounded. >> when you look at where mass

shootings occurred, to carry a gun, something like the virginia tech shootings on campus, there was nobody there with a gun. >> if there was a guy -- and instance, like virginia tech, i will be able to protect myself and my fellow classmates. number one, even if i did not have a gun on me that day, maybe somebody else took the carrying class. >> people could help protect against bad people who are trying to prey on our campus, and while that sounds good in theory, practically speaking, it does not work that way. first of all, not everybody wants to carry a gun. second of all, most people are not trained adequately with firearms, and that is the big part. >> of the ceo and executive vice president of the national rifle

association felt very strongly about this issue. >> you know, when the authorities cannot protect you, may have got no business and no authority trying to predict -- keep you from trying to protect yourself. it is not a right. >> well, it is late at night, and we have an 18-year-old girl walking home alone where something occurred. >> there is very little defense, especially in democracy that is driven by the rule of law, with little defense against crazy people. >> people not caring about having a permit or anything. if i needed to defend myself or someone, i could. >> this topic is tightly invested, and i believe it will be that way for many years to come until clear and concise legislation is decided upon. >> you can watch all of the

videos and continue the conversation at our facebook and twitter conversations. >> ronald reagan was delivering a speech and left this hotel. >> six shots. the first one hit press secretary jim brady and the head, and he falls down. the second hits a d.c. police of and you had turned around look at the president. now, the path to the president is clear. john hinckley has a range. he has done target practice. >> 1931 -- 1991. one author on the race to save the president today at 7:00 at 10:00 p.m. eastern on american history television, this weekend, on c-span3.

host: at the table now is marc lynch. topic, syria. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you. host: a big meeting in turkey. including this from "associated press." what you make of this headline? guest: they are trying to walk the line between a direct intervention with syria which they fear will be disastrous while also trying to get him to agree to the united nations plan. it is extremely difficult because i think he is wrong, but he thinks he is a winning right now. he is beating the opposition military.

he is retaking control and there is a lot of bloodshed. he does not seem interested in a diplomatic offer. at the same time, we look at control for much of the country. there are still peaceful protests happening everywhere. you are seeing them really try to target the kinds of leverage that might get him to agree. host: this comes a couple days after what we read was eight un brokered deal. explain to us what the secretary-general said. a split was with the secretary- general said he came up with. guest: the former secretary general which is the former un mediator for syria is that he came up with a plan that would call for a cease-fire, opening up the country to journalists

and moving towards a political transition. neither side, neither the opposition or assad seems happy with it. clinton said very directly, but so far, his deeds are noti think they are trying to up convince him that this is not an open- ended process. he will have to come to the table. is hillary clinton speaking directly to members of the government and the army saying, do not carry out orders to shoot civilians. there is going to be accountability. there will be international justice. this, i think, is an extremely important message. even if there is no going back, she is telling the lower-level people in the regime that they might still have a chance to avoid prosecution. host: any sense on whether they guest: it is really hard to say. we in the west tend to narrative

inside of syria. they believe this is an existential fight to the death for themselves and they're facing an international conspiracy. the worst type wrote that the u.s. is walking here is that whenever it does things like offering to pay the salaries, it is a conspiracy. trying to get international support that it needs. host: the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guests, marc lynch, who is a senior at the center for a new american security. we have separate lines for democrats, republicans, and the independence -- independents.

we will get to your calls in just one moment. compared syria to libya and other places we have read and heard about in recent months and years. how and why is this different? guest: syria is so much more difficult than libya was. we forget that libya was difficult. in libya, this was happening at the beginning of the arab spring. you had this really powerful momentum towards peaceful change in the region. all of a sudden places like to nietzsche -- tunisia and egypt that when in a peaceful with things like a helicopter. it went out to the arab world as well as the international community. in libya, what you had was the opposition came together. the controlled territory. there was basically a very clean front line that could be policed by air power. you had the arab league on board.

you have the u.s. security council authorizing a strong resolution. and yet united states and its allies able to intervene without putting boots on the ground. -- and you had the united states and its allies able to intervene without putting boots on the ground. the kind of fighting that is taking place inside of cities in this incredibly complex urban terrain, we do not know very much about what is happening on the ground. people talk about air strikes, strikes in the middle of a city where you do not know who the good guys and bad guys are? there is no clean front lines. it is basically a nightmare when it gets to questions of actual military intervention. the military planners of this, especially looking at the need to get rid of the robust air defense capability and neighbors who are not really on board with it yet. terms of intervention, but it

is seeing hundreds of people being killed every day and watching the international community being helpless in the face of this ongoing slaughter is really quite a tremendously difficult situation. independent in arlington, virginia. caller: i want to ask the professor a question about the christian minority which is about 2.5 million people there in syria. in i iraq, for example, the christian minority has been decimated since we invaded iraq. i am wondering why is the state department's indifferent to the christian minority, given that exceptional for the muslim- majority countries. thank you. guest: i do not think they have

neglected that appeared the problem is, as you say, a number of other minority communities are genuinely terrified about what is happening. again, i think you are right to set a look at iraq and the decimation of minority communities, not just the cushions, but also a number of other religious communities which have been wiped out by the carnage that followed. one of the things you have seen is to find ways to reassure those minority communities that they will be protected in a post assad . -- assad period. so far, i think those guaranteeschristians and others are just genuinely terrified and unless they believe they can be protected in a post-assad situation, it is unlikely there will take the risk of abandoning the regime.

host: what are you writing about here? guest: in terms of the book? host: mm-hmm. guest: it is an attempt to take everything that happened and step back to look at the entire region in perspective to explain where it came from and where it is going. i would say that two things i was really trying to do is say that it did not come out of nowhere. we have seen signs of this developing for one decade. growing social unrest, protest movements, and in a place like

egypt, it is not like on january 24 at all of a sudden billions of people were protesting whereas before it had been silent. it was not like east germany or something like that in 1989. there had been ongoing protests for a long time and suddenly they broke through. secondly, to show how tightly, interconnected everything was across the region. it is amazing, if you think about it, that you had people in yemen were being, in real time, inspired to go out into the streets in protest. if you look at the maps, tunisia and yemen are really far apart. you saw this tightly-connected public. they looked at this and said, that could be us. why do they get to get rid of their dictator and we do not

get rid of hours? you saw this really tightly, interconnected -- here is where when i reject what i try to emphasize is that. only lasted from -- that period only lasted from march of last year. then you saw this counter attack. the libya intervention. the beginning of the syria uprising turning violent. you saw the conservative regime starting to push back. everything fragmented and slow down. i always think of it as a wrestling match or a boxing match where the counter comes out and catch the heavyweight by surprise. the push him back on the ropes and then he starts crushing and grabbing and a dirty clothes. pretty soon you're down into this street fight and a stronger force starts winning. good morning. kevin, i am sorry. we are not able to hear you very why do you not hang up?

well. try to call again. we will try to get you in if we can work it out. let's try with a republican from springfield, missouri. jeremy, are you there? caller: a lot of sanctions are going to hit this summer. how is that going to stop with syria is doing? iran has the sanctions that start this summer in june or july. is that going to make a difference? it is what is going on right now, or are they paying attention? host: connect syria to iran. guest: it is a very good question. the problem with sanctions for syria and iran is that they are imposing quite a bit of pain. the syrian economy is in freefall weather because of sanctions or the effects of civil war. it is the same thing in iran. you can see how the sanctions are affecting the iranian

economy. it has become a major issue inin both cases, the regimes are able to focus resources that remain on things they care about. in syria, assad and his people can make sure they are protected even if their people are increasingly struggling. in iran, the nuclear program will continue to get resources even if the rest of the country is struggling. sanctions are useful over the they isolate the regime. they put pressure. they raise costs. they will not deliver short- termthe oil sanctions on iran might be the kind of trigger, the banking sanctions will cut deeper. then the earlier sanctions. at the end of the day, these are long-term things. in terms of relationship between syria and iran, syria can say as long as iran has our

backs and we have russia and china and the security council, we can hold out against the impressive international consensus. you have overwhelming votes in the general assembly, very strong statements in the security council. but they have these remaining this matters for iran. this is the only serious arab ally. it is the land connection to lebanon. at a certain point, russia and china will conclude they are backing the wrong force. they care about their interests. for russia, that means having access to the courts and having good relationships with whoever

host: what fills the vacuum? guest: that is the singlethe real fear of the minorities and people who currently supports the assad is one of the few things keeping him in power. the syrian opposition is fragmented. they have not been able to put together a compelling alternative. the opposition is exiled or these armed groups on the ground are not able to say that we can guarantee any kind of post-assad stability. that is frightening if you are currently a businessman or a member of the minority. we're outraged his killing these people, but do we want to risk another iraq?

the united states under experience hangs over syrians. they hosted millions of iraqi they saw the entire communities many of them believe they're facing an international conspiracy. they look at this and say another iraq experience is our worst nightmare. i think that hangs over their heads. host: this is a headline from fox news. calling this international conference a conspiracy. they have blasted the conference on the crisis before it started calling it an international conspiracy to kill syrians and weaken the country. guest: we say that is the typical language of an arab dictator denying reality. it is barely delusional and out -- it is fairly delusional and out of touch. i agree this is not a compelling description of what is happening. but we underestimate at our own peril to the extent to which

that might resonate with syrians access to our media. they are watching state tv, a steady diet of propaganda in support of the regime and against israel and the united states. there is this strong group in syria that has abandoned the opposition. there is another strong band of diehard regime supporters. the most important group is in the middle. they are sitting on the fence looking at the experience of iraq on one hand, the possibility of more democracy on the other hand. which way to jump. host: lots more calls coming in. kellogg, minnesota. chester is up next. caller: i would like to thank renee from mississippi for tipping us off to the arab league report.

it said we have been shipping terrorists in through turkey and slipping across the border into syria. i have a strong nose for propaganda. the propaganda i am hearing out of our news media and government is a terrific stench. this is more of our geopolitical oil along with their secondis it not true that our ned and iri have been going over to syria with suitcases of money? is it true m-16 and our cia and

special ops are already in syria providing communications equipment? we are trying to destabilize theit is strange assad was not a people over there to be tortured by assad. just answer those questions. host: there is a lot of questions there. guest: assad is a dictator and always was. right now, it would be factually wrong to dismiss the reality of the bloodshed in

syria. this is happening. we do not know the exact numbers. dozens of civilians are killed every day. this is not being fabricated. this is real. we have too much evidence of this. in terms of what you asked about whether this is a way to get to iran, there is something tothe international response to the crisis in syria brings together multiple objectives. a lot of people want to protect civilians and end the carnage. that is legitimate and correct. there is another trend in this that does see it as a geopolitical strategy to weaken iran. having instability there is

enough. the third group sees the assad regime as the core of the protect syrian civilians without getting rid of the regime that is fundamentally to blame for the carnage. there are three different approaches. they are not necessarily compatible. i do not believe it is true we have been sending suitcases of on the ground. anything is possible, but i havethe syrian opposition complains they need. i think it is really important to look at this and always be skeptical. keep the sharp nose for propaganda, but be careful not to dismiss the reality of the human tragedy happening in syria right now. people are not making this up. host: there was a headline on cnn.com about serious cracking down on journalists. what can you tell us?

targeted. it is important to acknowledge our sources of information out of syria are limited. piercing the fog of war. much of what we have been able to know has come from citizen- great journalists who manage to get into the country and report the syrian government clearly believes controlling the information is part of its survival strategy. it is one of the reasons why the u.s. plan includes free access and visas for journalists. the international community believes the truth is on our side and that revealing that will tend to undermine the regime's scenario to prove to people what he is doing. that is not propaganda. that is reality.

host: how is the situation in syria similar or different from other uprisings? guest: syrian activists were less well-known than in a place like egypt. many of the bloggers and on- line activists were known in person, real names, a real experience in activism. in cairo, there were thousands of international journalists on the ground observing things with tv cameras. syria has been more difficult to get accurate information out. people have gone to the heroic news and information. this is not a case where people are blindly accepted whatever

activists are pushing out. lengths to try to verify information, confirmed timing of events. it has been extraordinarily journalists on the grounds. host: patrick is on the line, a democrat. caller: hello. host: thank you, sir. caller: my friend is a consul general with the nation involved in the crisis across the arab spring. when she came back to the united states, she went to the u.s. state department where the she was overwhelmed by the fact that she went from office to office, almost a virtually all of the offices were occupied by israelis. the outraged the american people should have is that civilian people are being

represented by an occupying force in ourthis is an occupation of america. the american people are beginning to wake up to the massive manipulation, the co- opting of our entire a military industrial complex to accommodate the country the size of new jersey. united states government is providing relating to general dempsey conveying the military campaign against iran would be disastrous, which it will be. the secretary of state turning around and saying time is running out for the iranian government, basically because israel as the puppet masters of america are choreographing us into another manipulated war of lies. the american people need to wake up and stop this. host: marc lynch. guest: this is no denying that

the relations between the united states and israel are closed. they have deep military and intelligence relationships. there is a strong social bond between american society and israel. israel is a friend of the united states. it is sometimes a turbulent relationship. all you have to do is look at the tense relationship between president obama and the current israeli government to see that there are disagreements, conflicts of interest, and problems there. in my experience in the state department and defense department, these are hard working professionals who believe in the american national interest and work extremely hard. i do not think it is right to describe the state department of defense department as israeli-occupied territories.

i do not think it is true. expertise, compassion, and the hard-working civilians in a i do not think you can sustain that. it is always important to consider all aspects. it is very important to look in your own example of the fact that the pentagon and state department are pushing back and public discussion about what in the right track on iran would syria. that is a sign that you have real professionals, dedicated citizens, trying to protect american national interests. i think there is no conflict between that and also recognizing israel is a valued friend of the united states. host: next republican from maryland. good morning. i am tired of hearing that they

protect american interests. the whole situation is this. the groups cannot get along. we went in there and have done this and that. in the end, it is insanity. the definition of insanity is the same results. i appreciate what you study and we talk about american security and american interests. energy policy. decades not having an energy policy. we dictate to the world. you talk sanctions.

i agree with you. the bottom line is sanctions do not hurt the tyrants. it hurts the people. them on the news organizations. people on the ground end up guest: on one level, you are right. it can be profoundly depressing to look at the meager record of success we have had in terms of solving problems. theher we're talking about ongoing israel-palestinianit is a difficult part of the world. it is more than just energy or oil. the world we live in today is so tightly interconnected. the things that bind american interests to the middle east or other parts of the world are

profound and if we cannot turn away and ignore it as someone else's problem. all you have to do is go back to 9/11 and look at the evolution of islamic extremism in response to things happening around the arab world that in that forcing itself in a tragic way on the united states. we cannot ignore this even if it seems hopeless and depressing. we need to have effective intervention there. i truly believe as tempting as it might be to walk away and focus only on the home front that we cannot do that in the world as it is developing today. host: just under 10 minutes leftwhere do you get your information these days on syria? guest: it is interesting. for most of the war in iraq and much of the arab spring, i relied heavily on arab mass media, al jazeera, the arabic stations.

i find them to be unreliable in this conflict. they have become partisan. of online sources, publications, personal contacts, and the like. you have to triangulate and figure out what every piece of information means. it can be exhausting. it is much more difficult than any of the conflict i have studied or been involved with. host: how much trouble have you done in that part of the world? guest: i have been going there since 1991. i have traveled frequently. i have spent a lot of time in egypt, jordan, lebanon, all around. you get a feel for things on the ground, talking to people, speaking the language helps a lot. i direct the middle east program. we place a premium on getting students over there. language instruction is just as good at an american university,

but there is no substitute for being on the ground and developing personal relationships. host: kevin, a democrat, did morning. are you there? caller: how you doing? i have a question for mr. lynch. military-wise? do you think the opposition is strong enough to overthrow the assad regime? host: you can take them in either order. guest: on russia, i do not see any situation where they are going to be using their own escalate to that kind of global war.

it is more that they can offer a financial support, and military aid, equipment, and diplomatic protection for assad. i do not see russia intervening directly with its own military arsenal. as for the syrian opposition, they are not strong enough to overthrow the saudi regime through force, the opposition. and it is hard for me to imagine, even if the outside world provides weapons and financial support, they still will not be strong enough. syria has a strong army that has of fragmented and local military leadership. at the same time, i do not think assad is strong enough to reestablish control over syria. where there are pockets, he is able to crush pockets of resistance. he is not able to control the

country. sand disappears between your fingers. there's a strong sense we're heading towards a long stalemate where you could have all kinds ongoing violence and insurgency side is strong enough to tip the balance. host: 1 viewer wants more details from you on the case you may we cannot leave the rest of the world to its own devices. guest: the world has a way of imposing itself. we have multiple interestsif you want to focus on the middle east, is obviously oil. keeping the price low is vital for the american economy. that has been true for every american president.

the long battle we have been attempts to bring about democracy and meaningful change to that region -- there is a tremendous amount of potential in that region economically, human potential, and deep relationships with the peoples of the region. it is not just about oil or israel. this is historically the crossroad of civilization. there is no walking away from it. host: joe is on the line, an independent. from albany. welcome, joe. caller: i wanted to ask him a question. he was talking about syria and the body count. have you watched the news in atlanta, georgia, the body count here? we need troops here and in florida. it is terrible. the news comes on in the morning. are in the street in which way you need to go around. all of them in florida would

make martin luther king world roll over in his grave. kids are getting killed here every day. around georgia tech or martin luther king boulevard, the killings at home are worse than a tour of duty in afghanistan. why are we going to syria when we have bodies here? i guarantee you, in a week's time in atlanta, you afghanistan. guest: i do not think you have to choose between them. president obama has been eloquent and passionate about this arguing that being strong go together. you need to -- we need to develop the american economy, restore american society, and

fix american institutions. but that cannot come at the expense of trying to maintain our proper place in the world. i believe this is not a trade- off. a more stable and prosperous world is a better place for america to exist. host: a couple more minutes left with marc lynch, the author of "the arab uprising." we have sandy on the line. sandy is an independent from charlotte, north carolina. caller: it is my understanding the u.s., the cia with israel has set up operations in tel aviv to set up the arab spring for citizens to protest against their own government. it comes down to a natural resource war with the agenda of

gaining control of gainingthe bush family has owned private oil field in iraq. the whole thing is shameful. you are nothing but a mouthpiece for the pentagon and the defense department. i get sick of deceiving propaganda coming out of this whole deal. host: propaganda. guest: the pentagon does not feel that way, i can tell you that. the arab uprising began because people of those countries were frustrated with decades of oppression and absence of opportunities. if the united states and israel wanted to best protect their

interests, they would have kept the status quo. they were doing fine with arab dictators happy to sell them oil and protecting the peace treaty with israel and protect american interests. there is no angle for a conspiracy to destabilize and overthrow regimes who had been entirely happy to work with american and israeli interests. actually, the conspiracy theory also, it does not make any sense. host: the next caller is an independent. caller: i would like the united this is a war between two muslim factions. the arab faction is sunnis. the persian muslims are the

other branch or whatever. we should stay out of these things. these idiots that are so anti- jewish, we ought to kick them out of the country and send them to saudi arabia. host: final thoughts? between muslim factions, but these are human beings being slaughtered. their kids cannot go to school because things are being blown they are being taken to secret prisons and torture. it is important as american citizens and human beings to have been buffeted -- to have empathy with the struggles of people around world. it is hard to know the right thing to do, but sometimes we're able to see right and wrong. we can tell the regime's torture and people and killing children are probably the bad guys. to do good things at home but also try to be a force for good in the world. i know it is part and -- it is

hard and complicated, but i genuinely believe that is what we as a people should be. host: marc lynch is the director of middle east studies at george washington university. thank you for your time and inside this morning. >> the friends and syria to they pledged to several millions of dollars for activists. speaking at the conference in istanbul, turkey, secretary of state hillary clinton talked about communications equipment to opposition forces to help them organize and evade government to tax. the uprising has claimed more than 9000 lives, according to the united nations. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," and washington post correspondent has the latest on tuesday's primaries in wisconsin, md., in washington, d.c.

and professor outlines arguments for and against employers, information allowing them access to personal social media websites, and a chief operating officer for the government accounting office talks about reporting several programs. "washington journal" live on c- span. >> i am appearing here today as one spokesperson for the families and others who are unknowingly exposed to run this baubles of toxins through their drinking water at camp lejeune, north carolina. >> the documentary chronicles a retired marine and his efforts to expose the truth of toxic drinking water at camp lejeune. he is joined by the film producer tonight. >> one thing that they have done over the years is that they have

obfuscated the facts so much, they have told so many have trips and to mobilize, they have committed a lot of information to the media, and now, if they were to sit down with me face- to-face, i could show them with their own documents and counter them. and they do not want to do that. >> more tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> the joint chiefs of staff spoke with military leaders and psychological health care experts at a conference on the physical and mental well-being of service members and their families. his remarks were part of the fourth annual resilience program for warriors here in washington, d.c. there is the defense department base budget.

>> >> i am delighted to be here with you this morning. having cruised in from the amazon for this purpose. some of you look like you could live there. i am just kidding. i'm sure you know that. thanks for the opportunity to speak with you this morning briefly. i will speak for a few minutes and share some thoughts with you. i intend to leave a few minutes for questions and answers. i hope you have some good ones. some of you know when i get a chance to speak, whether we are talking about the strategy or the budget -- in any venue, i always like to make notes of

what other things that happened on this day in history. i think we have to remember we are a continuation of civilization. we are not confronting any part -- there are very few problems where i think we are confronting them for the first time. there may be a message there for resilience. we have been through this before. i will leave you to make that connection. on march 30, 1880, just for the record up front i was not around -- [laughter] -- but a famous irish poet was born. if any of you have heard of him, i will be extraordinarily impressed. we have won air man who says he knows of him. he was kind of a rogue irish playwright of the 19th century.

he was a passionate writer. apparently a strikingly handsome man. why is the chairman talking to this group? about a dashingly handsome rebel irish poet? and a deceased irish poet at that. the answer is i want to make the point that old irish guys are usually very good looking. [laughter] i actually had to reach for that one. today was a boring day in history. [laughter] my aspiration for you all is that you keep it that way. you do your part and i will do mind. put up the slide for me and i will make a few points pertinent

to this gathering. i tell people the reason i traveled by the way it is to get out of washington, d.c., and put the oxygen back in my lungs. that is not an indictment on the quality of the air. it is something that you might be able to figure out. you have to get out and feel what is going on in the world in order to really appreciate it. you can read about it and learn about it and understand the processes that drive it whether it is nato or united nations or coalitions. until you get out there and touched it and feel it, i do not think you can appreciate it. for that reason, i carry images in my head around. not powerpoint/it. i like to have an image to capture my thinking during any particular time. not a bunch of words garbled on a page with 12 colors. this is the image that i carry

around most often. i have four or five that i carry around. this one in bodies of our profession. it embodies our profession because at its most fundamental, what holds our profession apart, is that we are trust on the slide there in the relationship that exists between men and women of uniform, their families, and the site. the squad leader there -- this image is army joint. i have other images of paratroopers and so forth hanging down. incredible stuff really. this one is an army squad leader in afghanistan. there are a handful of uniform violations. sleeves rolled up.

scarf, the whole thing. you can see in his eyes the complexity of the motions that exists in our profession, uniquely in our profession. fear encourage all wrapped up in the same head at that moment of time. certainty and uncertainty right there in that picture. right in his eyes. the other thing you notice is he is not worried about what is on his right or left. he is not worried because there is a young man or woman off to his right flank protecting him so that he can do his job. of course, it is clear that the squad leader has taken care of that by taking the actions he is supposed to take.

you also see there that he has a hand microphone in his hand and he is calling for something. i do not know what it is. it could be a medevac or air support. based on the way you can see his face contorted, you know he is asking for something that he really needs and he needs a pretty quickly. the other remarkable thing about our profession and our country is whenever he asks for, he is going to get it. he is going to get it whether it is kinetic ordinance, supplies, or whether it is what you are here to talk about the day. we are going to get these young men and women because we have to as a matter of trust. we are going to get them the life skills, the confidence, the hope which i think = the resilience that you are all here talking about after 10 years at war. you will also notice that the squad leader has his left hand in the air and a ring on his left finger indicating of course that he is married.

when you think about this bond of trust, it does not stop at the battle area. it has to run all the way back to hometown, usa, where he has a family. this bond of trust which defines us as a profession and to which we have to commit ourselves every day -- 24/7, 365. you do it while they are on active duty and while they are off. here is the point. we have to commit ourselves to this bond of trust every day. you have to earn it every day in the way you develop yourself so you can live up to the trust of the men or women on your left or right. you just have to earn it every day. you wake up in the morning, you put on a uniform or a suit

because you are a member of the team working on behalf of these young men or women, and you go to work and say is this an opportunity where i can earned this bond of trust that marks us as a profession? if we do that, if we do that one thing -- think about our profession as united with a common bond of trust and then commit yourself to earning it every day -- i do not care what happens to our budget or other countries in the world, we will be fine. but if we lose that, it does not matter how much money we throw at ourselves. that is this notion of the human dimension of the profession. let me like that idea to my four focus areas. the first one of course we have to achieve the objectives in our current conflict. what you are here doing is exactly that.

you are helping us achieve our objectives by seeking a deeper, richer, and understanding of what has happened to us as a force over the last 10 years of conflict. then, importantly, what are we going to do about it? what we going to do about the fact that 10 years of war has put an enormous pressure on the force? not solving the problem but addressing the issue. secondly, develop a joint force for 2020. only a handful of us in the room were in the army -- in the in the army during the vietnam war? a handful. great. i came in right after it. only a handful have experienced what that conflicts did to the human dimension of our force. we also added the complexity of switching to an all-volunteer

force in those years and put enormous pressure on that force. we did not have anything like this, and the appreciation for how you build the lifestyle, the commitment, the hope and therefore the resilience. we assumed that it would all work out fine. and it did because most of the force was able to absorb it but i do not think we did ourselves any favors. i do not think anyone wants to repeat those years where we took this marvelous fighting force of the united states army and marine corps and the other services as well, pulled them back from vietnam, and changed the entire equation for them. there are other pressures. joint force 2020 -- that force coming out of vietnam really did not recover. i would say they did not recover until the early or mid 1980's. i mean recover a sense of pride. its clarity of who it was and what it had to do, its commitment to education, real hard training. we did not recover until the

early 1980's. it was not because we sat around not interested in recovering, but it took that long. we do not have that kind of time today. maybe that is my point. the world is changing so fast around us. if we wait until 2020 to build in at the kind of strength you are working to build into our formation, it will be too late. i fear if we do not address this now, not only will we not be doing ourselves any favors, but we will not be doing the nation any favors. if you had to think of one word to describe our profession, unique among all others on the face of the planet, it is trust.

what you hear doing is getting together and sharing best practices to wring out the problems and decide how to do what we need to do, determine how to do it efficiently in an environment of challenged resources, and to keep that human dimension and keep reminding ourselves this is about people. this is about people. somebody said to me once in four years from now if i am the chairmanfor years from now, if i am still chairman -- as you know, i am always one speech away from and in my career. today is a boring day in history. but if i am the chairman for

four years, somebody said to me, "what we want people to look back and say about you 10 years from now?" i said, "that is a good question." off the cuff, i want them to say, "that is the chairman that got the people right." i have 37 years. brian reminded me of that painfully. every day when i get out of bed, i remind myself. everytime i crawl out of an airplane, i remind myself. every day, i remember. you can to compartmentalize the things you do not want to remember. every day i remember has been an absolute blessing. and i want everybody to feel like that. everybody cannot be the chairman. everybody should not really want to be the chairman. some inside information, there. i have achieved the status as the senior military officer in the finest military the world has ever seen. that is really not it. i would have felt the same way

at any rank at any time. it is one of those professions we really ought to feel good about. it has to hold together on the basis of trust. what you are here doing today is addressing that. the last -- if i have to make a case for keeping faith with ourselves, our families, our communities, and the american people, you probably do not need to be here, and neither do i. that is almost redundant, keeping faith and trust. that is kind of my message today.

what you are doing here has absolutely direct correlation to who we are today, but, more important, has an even greater correlation to who we are going to be in the future. other than that and the pressure i hope you feel now that i have told you that, i am ready to take your questions. >> we have microphones along the way. we have to make sure we get all our and co -- nco's up, our junior enlisted. >> i am a proud 10-year army wife. i am pretty tired after 10 years of war. i really appreciate your last statement, keeping faith with the families. one of the, i think, challenges we are facing as we develop a lot of great programs around resiliency is getting real time information from the ground, particularly as we are dealing with reintegration. the mental health advisory teams that we have deployed in theater -- i wonder if it is feasible to use something like that while we are going through reintegration.

what we are seeing with the families as the guys come back, particularly these buses and the children -- if we were able to have a mechanism to get that grass-roots real-time information up to inform policy, which those mental health advisory teams have done so well, that could be something we could really leverage to affect the policies we have so little money for now. >> i think that is a great idea. what many of you in this room, particularly in the medical profession, will now is we have been on the edge of arguing for greater and greater transparency and portability of medical and permission, impeded in part by well-minute information -- legislation that protects privacy above other competing goods. that seems to be reasonable. i do not know enough about it to stand here and say i approve. the chairman does not have that kind of power anyway, unfortunately.

i have to do everything through the services, which is actually the right way to do it. i would certainly expect that out of this conference there would be a handful of initiatives you want to advocate. i will eventually have the opportunity to take a look at those. it would be helpful if i knew in what priority these initiatives would be most useful to you all. the ones that have the most enthusiasm and appear to be on a path to produce the best benefit, i will champion. i promise you that. to reinforce that, i want to mention earlier -- i forgot. the other thing about resiliency -- this is dempsey's personal opinion.

resiliency is a team sport. i know we have to build individual resiliency, but you also have to see it in the context of a team. many of you know i am a cancer survivor about a year and a half ago. it was throat cancer. as i was going through this throat cancer, what i learned for the first time of my life -- i had been a fortunate guy. i had not really failed at anything. in some way, my body had failed me, you know? but i had a medical team at portsmouth. i had my family, my colleagues. and i realized, maybe for the first time in my life, i cannot do this alone. i cannot treat my own cancer. it was a real eye opener for me. i want you to know that. it took cancer for me to figure that out. we cannot let our young men and women figure it out the hard way. >> as it relates to resistance and resilience and psychological first aid, all the services have their own unique version. given the increased joint nature of our work, what you think about unifying under one conceptual model?

>> i think we may get there some day. let me go from 30,000 feet down to 5 foot 9 inches. at 30,000 feet, medicine seems to be one of those places that probably, over time, will be increasingly joint. maybe at some point in the future joint at birth. but service chiefs are not there yet. i was not either. i was the army chief. i guarded very jealously my authorities to credential, of privilege, train, educate, and mold programs to meet the needs. i think that is a pretty healthy thing right now.

at this point in time, i am interested in where we can do things collaboratively that make us a little more interdependent, but not to the point of advocating joint medicine as a foundation. things like electronic medical records and some of the things that relate to what that young lady said a minute ago. information sharing. prescription drugs. it does not make sense that we all do our own thing in that regard. down to this issue, i do not know the answer, actually. i know what the land component goes through. i have not ruled in on a target in an f-16 or f-18 and understood the experience. i have not lived beneath the surface of the ocean for six months at a time. there are a lot of things i have not done. a lot of things i have done, but a lot of things i have not done.

what i would ask you to do is help us, the senior leaders of our military and our civilian leaders, understand what is the same and what is different, and find, to use a baseball analogy, the sweet spot. resources are a factor. let us face it. to the extent we can have a common operating pictor, we will be better off. i think what these forms were intended to do -- forums were intended to do was march us toward that by exposing best practices and challenges. but i am not at the point where i think it needs to be all one program. i think we will get there, but we are not there yet. i hope i did not ruin your entire conference with that answer. who is in charge? me. ok. good. [laughter] >> i am a brigade level mrt.

i guess the question is more army-directed. i deal with teaching my soldiers and injuring battalions are teaching their soldiers, all the way down to the team level, the mrt basics. what steps are we taking to ensure that us teachers are having the opportunity to properly teach these soldiers? not only am i a brigade mrt, but i am an xo. i have all these other hats. i feel my time teaching these soldiers is severely limit to, as well as my battalion mrt's. >> you sound pretty stressed. somebody get this kids and help over here. [laughter] long before -- this is when the earth was still warm, when i was a lieutenant. no matter what you do as a lieutenant, if you ever feel you have enough time to do what you need to do, give me a call, because i have to change something at that point.

it is the right question. at some point -- one of the things we always do as a military, because we can -- we are the most organized institution on the face of the planet. it is both what makes us great -- you cannot give us a problem that we cannot shift around the deck chairs a little bit, and get after. it is just impossible. we are that good. it is also one of our faults. we tend to throw institutional or organizational design at problems as a first instinct. what i mean that -- mean by that -- some of you know when i was a chief i wanted to get after the profession as a study. unbeknownst to me, some well- meaning subordinates had taken my guidance about really getting after the profession. they had set up a school at west point and began to train a group of individuals to be professional -- i forget.

there was an acronym, naturally. but it was guys like you, and dells, who would come to us for three weeks of instruction on the profession. the would go back into formations and would be the master gunners, the mrt's, of the profession. that is not what i really wanted. i wanted this to be a leadership issue. i wanted this to be a command issue. i wanted the professions to be embraced by our noncommissioned officers, so when they coached or trained it was there. it was always there. it was the one thing that was always present. that is where we need to get, eventually, in what your talking

about. i personally -- i am not in any particular service anymore, although i wear the uniform of the army. this is the conversation i have to have with the service chiefs. the mrt program was the first step. what is the next? we knew exactly what we were doing to you when we did this. we did. you cannot give another duty to someone and say, "now i do not worry about the multiple." i know we have done to you. i would ask you to think about it as a step toward institutionalizing this so at some point i do not get that question, and instead we are having conversations with first sergeants and company commanders, and whatever the equivalent is, about how they are getting after this as part of the development of the subordinates, not turning to you and saying, "you are in charge of resilience." does that help? [laughter]

>> we have time for one last question. >> i am a medical director of the air force and as a fellow cancer survivor i commend you in that experience. mine is a more global question. in terms of preparing our soldiers, airmen, marines, and coast guard for their role in the world, i know we see a changing environment. and an evolution of our roles. we have come from the soldier and the state to the soldiers' statement. how you see our evolution in terms of our role at the state department and how we can better prepare our soldiers statesmen of the future to deal with that? that is part of resiliency overall, to know what their role is -- at one time to be the soldier and at one time to be the statement. >> every time i have been to places i have never been before, like brazil, it does occur to me we have taken -- some of them, they have been in that environment consecutively for a decade. we trained them and made them

for an area officers, in our terminology. but to answer your question, as i think about what we are trying to develop in our leaders for the future -- a joint force 2020, we kind of had a pretty clear view of what we needed to be in terms of our attributes today. if you are in the army, you take out your dog attacks. on the back, it will have the seven army values. you look at your efficiency evaluation report. you will see some attributes. i am not sure those attributes are the same as the ones we need in 2020. each of the services is doing its own internal look, if you will, to determine whether we have the attributes right. i am going to link it to what you said in a very clever way. i appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to do that. i think one of the attributes that has become -- that i have begun to value most, at least in senior officers, but i would

say that you have to begin to develop this attribute early on, is adaptability. it just seems to me to be clear that no matter how well we think we are organized in force and training equipment, it is almost, in a way that was not true 30 years ago -- the way we are going to use the force will probably not be the way that young man or woman in it thought they were going to be used. we most often failed to predict the future. we take the organizations we have and equipment we have, and we apply them to a situation. what makes it work is not the organization or the equipment. it is the leader. the leader then has to take an organization and equipment that are ill designed for the purpose we have intended, and

they adapt them and accomplish the mission. if adaptability, which might be a kissing cousin of resilience, really -- if adaptability is an important leader attribute, the question becomes how you do that. how do you build this thing called adaptability? i have started to think about that. i will use two words that you might say, "he is in the army 38 years, and has probably suffered some of the ill effects of that." i think that one of the ways that we build adaptability in our subordinates is confronting them with change, failure, and chaos. i have had this conversation with the service chiefs. they say to me, "you are telling us should introduce change, failure, and chaos in our training and education? we got plenty of that already. we do not need to be doing more of that."

but think about it. when i looked back at myself and confront myself and say, "how did i become adaptable," the answer is being placed in an friendly circumstances, being pushed to the point -- young men and women to date -- this is not an indictment. it is just what it is. it is the youth soccer model of everybody gets a trophy. i am not against that. what i am against is everybody gets a trophy all the time, and everybody grows up thinking they are the best soccer player on the field. you get to high school and failed to mature soccer team and said, "that is not possible. look at all the streaking trophies i have on my shelf over here -- these freaking trophies i have on my shelf over here." [laughter]

we have to figure out the in during attributes -- integrity and honor and courage. those are in during. we are never going to -- are enduring. we are never going to change that as part of the purpose of our program. but there are others. adaptability is one. you have to map to it your training and education. i suggest the way we meant to adaptability is throughout the three challenges i have described. we make sure in our training and education that we push people a little further than we need to go. it is about building the life skills to have been talking about as part of this conference on resilience. i think these phrases are kissing cousins of each other. ok. they have given me the hook. let me thank you for being here and for taking on this topic.

i think this is the third year now. i look forward to finding out what you have learned here, and what you are recommending to us. i promise you that i will be an advocate for it, because i am committed to maintaining the bond of trust i described to you earlier. i wish you all a very quiet and restful weekend. thanks very much. [applause] >> attention. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> coming up tonight on c-span, "q&a," and the authors of the book "semper fi." book "semper fi."