up that would be helpful. are there any questions in the room? operator, we will go to the questions on the phone. can you facilitate, please? >> if you would like to ask a question, please press star and 1 and say your first and last names. one moment for the first question, please. first question -- you may ask her depression. >> this question is for kathryn sullivan. when you say it is a near normalcy, can you characterize

why it is not a normalcy? what aspect of it is not quite normal? ms. sullivan: i will invite jerry bell to answer your question. you are talking about a range of probabilities, and this is potentially reinforcing factors which make this year more uncertain than others. but, jerry, do want to answer that? seasonl: we have three classifications, near-normal refers to a range of activity defined by the overall season strength, as well as the numbers of hurricanes and tropical storms. we used near normal instead of oftentimesple think as the mathematical average, and we are not talking about the mathematical average here, we are talking about the middle third of the seasons with a

certain level of activity. ms. sullivan: each one of the season designations is a range of prospects, not a distinct number. either the lower range, the near-normal range, or the higher range. there are uncertainties, like .ou said bell: yes. >> if somebody could address, talk more about the signals we might be activating -- entering the low -- activity area. how can you say that will happen, and what could that mean in terms of storm numbers? those are good questions. it is hard to say.

when we are looking at these ocean temperatures patterns, we are looking at month to month or year to year changes, we are looking at patterns that are at multiple decades at a time. we do not have the pattern lasting in exactly the same strength for decades at a time. there is some variability. while we are seeing the warm phase of the amo possibly switching to the cold phase, this couple of year transition we are seeing in the normal year-to-year signal not really a multi--decadal pattern. we are looking for a adal pattern. we are not seem very much in the summer and into the hurricane season. we expect this pattern to develop more through the years, the next couple of years. it may take a few years before

we know if we are in old phase of the amo or not. it is hard to say. the last time we had a transition to the cold amo was in the early 1970's, and we did not have the ocean data, the satellite data. we did not have any of the capabilities we have now to really monitor this. we are looking at this from a try to predict this change. the earliest we can, that we do not want to predict and say it is a multi-decade event is only a short-term signal. ms. sullivan: david, this is kathy sullivan. -- this islooking at the first time we have watched a potential transition between with sophisticated scientific instruments, so it is not about a new slant. we are watching it for the first time with very

eyes. seeing first-time we are signals that might portend a phase shift, so we are watching with all the alertness that jerry indicated. are there other questions on the phone? >> next question, you may ask your question. >> thank you very much. was wondering if you could comment on the factors that have prevented a major hurricane andfall since it was 2005 whether any of those factors are still in place or whether there is any way of knowing the likelihood of this unusual landfall major hurricanes being broken? dr. bell: we have been fortunate

we have not had major hurricane landfall's in the number of years you have said, but you can have tremendous damage. irene and also sandy, those were not merge -- major hurricanes, but caused tremendous damage and flooding. there's a lot more to the impact of a hurricane and its strength. there is it seismic motion, your flooding,the inland your preparedness so you are ready for the damage and can act accordingly. to get off the major hurricane heme, there is many more issues. there is a set of patterns that tend to favor more hurricane landfall. the heart of that weather pattern is if you have a higher pressure over the eastern u.s., what that tends to do is take hurricanes from the tropical more westward toward

the caribbean and those storms can either move up to the gulf of mexico and strike or swerve up to the bahamas and strike. without high pressure pattern, whenw in 2003, 2004, 2005, we had a lot of hurricane striking, that was the main pattern. in the last several years of year that no pressure over the andern united states -- that causes a southwesterly flow, and that turns these hurricanes into the atlantic, oftentimes before they are threatening the coast. fortunate,n very that there is no way to predict that it will be in place for the bulk of this hurricane season. if that pattern is in place, it a break in that pattern and you can have tremendous damage. the outlook is not for hurricane landfall because we cannot predict these local weather patterns.

they are only predictable about a week in advance, and at the time the hurricane is approaching. we cannot predict where or how many storms will strike this far in advance because those hurricanes are controlled by the local weather patterns. --i think i understand the my question was whether any of the prevailing patterns from previous years are in place this year. i understand you cannot say with certainty whether you will have a major hurricane, sure, but i aboutst wondering prevailing patterns that might have some influence in the past 11 years. ms. sullivan: the prevailing patterns, the ones that endure long enough are the ones we talked about on the outlook, and they let us give an outlook for level of activity. when you refer to the prevailing patterns that have affected storm track and landfall, those do not prevail over long times.

those are in days and weeks, and we can only predict them that far out. we do not know what to the prevailing patterns will become june, july, august, through october. our protection tell you to expect a fair number of storms likely to form, and you will have to be ready and watch the weather patterns at the time the storm is coming in. >> thanks very much. >> next question. you may ask your question. >> thank you, dr. sullivan. you mentioned that it is like el niño, it will start phasing out, and possibly there is a 70% chance that la nina will increase hurricane activity. i am in texas on the gulf coast, and we have been hit by hurricanes before. what are the chances of a la nin

a delivering before the end of the season? ll: there is a 70% chance that la nina will be here during the hurricane season, and that is when the ball of the hurricanes occur. occur during these months, and there is a high likelihood nina will be present. the counter is we do not know if we are in this background claimant signal that would further enhance the activity or perhaps a change in that signal that might help to suppress la nina's impacts, and that is what we expect a near-normal season. that is still a lot of activity. you need to be start getting prepared with your preparedness

plan because we know it only takes one, and the sooner you prepare, the better, the more ready you will be in case a storm threatened us. lathe last time we saw a nina -- we only had it here for a while, so when was the last time we actually saw one? sorry?l: i am >> when was the last time la nina had an impact on the season? 2010, and it produced a very active hurricane season. >> thank you. >> next question. you may ask your question. >> if the amo is headed in the direction that you think it is, what will be the overall result on hurricanes over the next two decades?

bell: at this time we do not is switching to its cold phase. if it does, that is associated with a weaker west african monsoon and also weaker hurricane season. the last time we had a cold ande of the amo was 1971 1994. that was called a low activity era or atlantic hurricanes. during that period, we only had two above normal seasons. that is how strong this amo signal is. it is a powerhouse as far as controlling the strength of the hurricane season for decades at a time. >> next question. you may ask your question. did a lowow-up, if we

era, what would that mean in terms of storm numbers and intensity? bell: it would mean fewer storms, fewer hurricanes, and fewer major hurricanes. >> is there a range? getting tooat is speculative. we have been getting about 50 named storms here, four major hurricanes. in the low activity era, we might get two major hurricanes, two major hurricanes, hurricanes, around the 1971, 1994 period. that is an idea of what the difference in the numbers means. ms. sullivan: statistically, the

norms of storm -- the number of period --the onlycane andrew was the storm that formed in that year. it really devastated that place in south florida. do not base your course of action on whether you are high.g low, medium, or hurricanes happen annually. one can hit the coast or brush the coast near you, and in any event where we live on this planet, this is the season to be sure you are ready for hurricanes. we are showing no further questions at this time. ms. sullivan: thank you,

operator. i think we have one in the room. >> the question is what is considered now a normal season as far as what are the actual numbers go for a normal season, both in the atlantic and the eastern pacific? ? what numbers do you use? 12 named storms. those average effect a boundary between the middle ground between these high activity eras with a lot of activity and low activity eras with quite a bit less activity. i am not sure if i answered that question. the eastern pacific is overall a more active basin. namedrages 15 to 16 storms and about five major hurricanes. while the atlantic has been very active since 1995, the way the have a seesawthey

effect. the central and eastern pacific hurricane seasons have been below normal since 1995. during the last couple years, with these changes, this mo, thes in the a atlantic has gone to press, but the eastern pacific has gone enhanced. we are seeing a little of that seesaw effect right now. any further: questions in the room? >> thank you. have a question. when i am watching the local news and hurricanes come in and green pathedicting a and a redpath in a blue path and a yellow path, are those all

coming from your guys' numbercrunching from this center, or are we getting numbers from other people's out rhythms that are using the same numbers? with everyn: significant weather system, the modern-day technique is to use an ensemble of forecasts. effort models produced by different entities. each model has its strengths and weaknesses. it is with all those variations in the models and the data, the results of a forecast converge. that tells you that kind of outcome, that situation, is robust. greater you some confidence that that is a more likely outcome. it depends on what your tv guy is showing you. sometimes in hurricane seasons they will show you different colored paths, and those are

historical tracts. sometimes they show you the different output of different models, several of which are aa, some of which are from europe. competent forecasters are using all those models. popularitys not contests. it is actually a scientific judgment about the strength and weaknesses of each of them that lead them to give you their forecast guidance. i would like to thank you for joining us today. if you have follow-up questions, or find us in us, the room. with that, i would like to conclude the press conference. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

trumper today, donald campaign holds a rally in san diego. according to the associated wass, yesterday mr. trump afforded enough delegates to win the nomination. you can see that at 5:00 p.m. eastern on season. earlier today, president obama became the first u.s. president hiroshima, japan. you can watch that event tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span.

in addition to the classes all over this planet, i wish you would be graduating into a world of peace, light, and love, but that is not the case. but ie in a fairytale, guess the 1% does. speechescommencement in their entirety, offering encouragement to the graduating class of 2016, from business oracle, the founder of and the administrator of a small business administration at whittier college. >> you can count on yourself, what makes you special, what distinguishes you from others in business? we call it your unique value proposition. figuring out is key. politicians, senator jeff

sessions at the university of alabama, senator harper boxer at the university -- barbara boxer at the university of california at berkeley. >> to be strong and courageous and learn to stand for who you are and what you believe is the way that you have changed here. and white house officials. vice president joe biden at the university of notre dame, loretta lynch at spellman college, and president barack obama at rutgers university. president obama: is it any wonder that i optimistic? a new generation has reached us of history inrc the direction of more justice, and, class of 2016, it is your turn now to shape our nation's destiny as well as her own, so get to work. commencement speeches, this

memorial at noon eastern on c-span. few minutes, we will bring you a pentagon briefing on the ongoing military generations against isis. we will hear from colonel steve warren. that will be live at 12:30 easy. right now, a discussion from "washington journal" on the american criminal justice system. host: todd cox is the director of the criminal justice policy group at the center for american progress. mr. cox, how many americans have criminal records? guest: nearly one in three americans. the barriers associated with this are lifelong. barriers to employment, education, housing. we have a new report that shows those barriers and those

consequences extend to the children and families of those with criminal records. nearly one in two american children have parents with a criminal record. the lifelong consequences for children are almost the same. income, savings, and the like. host: how did we get to the point where 100 million americans or so have criminal records. what type are included in these? guest: america has 4% of the world's population and 21% of its prison population. we have 2.1 million folks in prison. it goes beyond that. we are the leader of arrests in the world. and all of that associates with this notion that people have criminal records. they could be minor, they could be very serious matters. it is really be over -- overcriminalization of our criminal justice system. overpolicing and our communities. that has led us to this place.

host: how did we get to this, over policing and mandatory minimums? guest: the so-called war on drugs. four decades of trying to focus, with good intent, on trying to address and discouraged drugs. crack cocaine. unfortunately, some of the policies that were adopted -- the crime bill of 1994, the disparities between crack and powder cocaine exacerbated the problem. we saw an increase of incarcerations in the federal system after the crime bill. the crime bill also became an example for states to follow and they also increase the number of folks they incarcerated. you can't also associate that with what prosecutors do, the discussion they have to prosecute folks, sometimes low level folks, to get to more serious offenders. all this got us to where we are today.

host: let's put the numbers up your we will be talking about criminal justice reform todd cox from the center of the american progress. host: in an op-ed on "the hill," you say the federal prisons budget is $7.5 billion, seven times what it was in the early 1980's and now takes up one quarter of the department of justice's budget. guest: it is a cost we cannot afford to bear anymore. the article is something we produce with one of our coalition partners, heart of the

coalition of public safety, a right-left coalition. this has fiscal costs, the overincarceration, but also has cost to individuals and entire families. we agreed we need to try to fix this system, to direct our punishment to those who really deserve it. host: there is legislation moving through congress now. what is it and are you supportive? guest: we are. there is a bill called the sentencing reform act of 2015 that is in the senate. that is a bipartisan piece of legislation. it has a provision that focuses on sentencing reform, redirecting our mandatory overincarceration, but also has

redirecting our mandatory minimums, reducing them, in many cases, redirecting them towards people who need to be kept in prison, reducing them for nonviolent drug offenders. most importantly or equally important is prison reform. offering opportunities for folks who participate in regional edition programs a chance to be released early on during supervision and get reintroduced into society and get training. there is a companion sentencing bill in the house, a companion prison reform bill that mirrors closely the senate version. there is another bill pending in both houses called the fair chance act. that offers an opportunity to get at these barriers with regard to criminal records. that would "ban the box," david federal employers and contractors to ask about criminal backgrounds until sometime later in the employment process, so you get a chance to actually qualify for the job am a without the bias of having a criminal record. after that point, they can ask and take that into consideration.

host: you talked about the war on drugs and mandatory minimums of previous generations. is the pendulum swinging all the other way now? guest: in the sense that we are seeing bipartisan interest in correcting the overswing, where we have wrapped up people into the system that really should not be there. i think a lot of us agree that judges should have some discretion. they should not be handcuffed, so to speak, in terms of how they sentence folks. an example -- one person who received a commutation recently had two probation sentences in the state, but then was taken on a federal charge. because of the prior probation sentences, received life in prison. the judge was regretful. a lot of us think that the judge should have more choice.

to allow people to take a program to get off drugs or have a chance, other than being incarcerated, to get on with your life. a lot of us has come around to agree that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction. we at trying to swing it back to the point where we can protect and keep the public safe and in so doing reduce prison costs. host: let's take calls. brian is in marlborough, massachusetts. caller: i want to talk about a solution to a criminal justice system. i think ending the drug war, legalizing drugs, and releasing every nonviolent drug offenders. since richard nixon proposed the drug war in the 1970's, it was proven to be a fraud,. because a richard nixon aide admitted that they were lying about the drugs. i was wondering about that. host: legalization of drugs.

guest: my organization does not have a position on that, but i want to touch on one point which was that there was a recent accounting or discussing of a former aide of president nixon, saying the war on drugs was trumped up or done under the understanding of impact this would have on people of color. but we did not need that admission to know that impact. we know that a disproportionate people of prison, 60% in prison, are people of color. african-americans are 30% of the population, a significant more amount in the prison population. the solution we are talking about is designed to ameliorate a lot of the problems we have identified. to your point, we know also the war on drugs has this impact someone has admitted.

host: michael is in columbia, maryland. what is your experience with the criminal justice system? caller: i was a prosecutor for ideas and was a public defender. so i had experience on both sides of this issue. my philosophy is when there are laws, people need to abide by them. my personal philosophy -- i am libertarian when it comes to drug use. if they were legal, i would not personally care. but when you know they are illegal and are taking part in it, there needs to be some punishment. the issue is that people want to not take personal responsibility. and now focusing on the offenders, we are not focusing on the victims. a lot of the crimes assisted with drug use our people who have to deal with cars being broken into, neighborhoods being unsafe.

if someone is addicted, they prey in the area they are involved in. you focus on the people addicted to drugs and drug dealers, just because they are nonviolent, is doing a disservice to victims. guest: no proposal is focusing exclusively on the offenders, so to speak, or the folks who are incarcerated. all of these proposals are designed to increase public safety. >> we are going live to the pentagon for a briefing on ongoing operations. >> thank you for coming to us -- latery to allow for today to allow for the naval academy commencement to take place. dinnertime,to your

but we appreciate being flexible in your schedule. i will turn it over to you for opening comments. colonel warren: thanks a lot, and good afternoon, pentagon press corps. it is a three-day weekend, and i am the only thing between you and a barbecue, so we will try to keep this snappy. i have a few prepared remarks, so i will write to them. operations deliberate fallujah have begun. a town located 10 miles northeast of the city is clear. isf are moving along multiple axes, but have not yet entered the city. we estimate there to be up to 50,000 citizens remaining in fallujah, and that the iraqi government has been clear that protecting these civilians is their priority.

leaflets toped inform the population to avoid isil. interact those people who have not left to put white sheets on their vacations. we are working hard to establish evacuation routes, and the local anbar government has set up camps for displaced civilians. for the case in ramadi and other places, this is a combined operation made up of thousands of forces and the iraqi army, the federal police, sunni tribal and cps., other forces are participating, and they have said they will remain outside the city. the coalition has been supporting this effort with airstrikes and with some artillery or fire. over the last four days, the 20

engagementsling 57 have destroyed fighting positions, emplacements, and killed more than 70 enemy fighters for including a person who is the commander of isil forces in fallujah. across the entire battlefield in the same timeframe, the coalition conducted 102 total airstrikes that killed 231 total enemy fighters. the fallujahn five, so it is unclear how long this battle will last. there seem to flavors of isil in the last few months, and in reminding the encountered an enemy that chose to stand to fight. in other places, isil it behind beforen the children running way. in both cases, they lost, but one was quicker than the other.

there were local newspaper reports that some of the fighters who fled one city were arrested by their leadership and then executed by being placed in bakery ovens and cooked to death. bar -- successfully reclaimed an outpost, a former u.s. military base, that we used in the old case called camp lage.n vil in the tigris valley, units continue clearance and security uk.rations in kubr the focus today may be on social, but mosul remains in crosshairs. in the last three days we conducted 12 strikes totaling 32 engagements that destroyed multiple headquarters, multiple

tactical units, a tedious center, and eight, system. syria, the syrian democratic forces announced they had begun this weekend regular operations deliberate countryside north of -- we have been focused on kicking daesh out of the city, and we fill continue to support the sd as they conduct ground operations to further isolate the city. there are more than 200 american advisers in syria working with the syrian air coalition as they continue to pressure isil across a broad front, stretching from -- recently there were images of wearing service members ypg patches. i want to make it very clear,

and this coming from the focusder of -- that our is to provide advice and assistance to the syrian democratic forces, particularly the syrian arab component of that force. i just want to make that clear up front. finally, as we move into memorial day weekend, let's not forget the three americans who have lost their lives supporting this operation. army master sergeant joshua wheeler, marine staff sergeant maybe chief, and petty officer charles keating. these men are american heroes and will not be forgotten. every warrior knows that when we speak the names of the fallen, they live on. with that, i will take your questions and hopefully a.p. is

there, so let's start with you. >> hi, steve. congratulations on your final briefing from iraq, and on behalf of all of us, we appreciate all the effort you have put into these and hope that they will continue as such even after you leave. my question, you talk a little bit about the syria photographs. two questions. laodged or made known their unhappiness with the u.s. forces wearing the patch is great do you know if the commanders there were anyone anyresponded to turkey with either explanation or anything on that? us aecondly, can you give better sense of what the u.s.

special operations forces are doing in syria? we understand they are not on the front lines, but are they getting closer to the front lines as the syrian rebel forces move closer to -- and we understand they are helping to call in airstrikes. is that not the case? colonel warren: thank you. i think the first thing to make ypgr is wearing those patches was unauthorized and inappropriate, and corrective action has been taken. we have communicated as much to our military partners and our military allies in the area. as far as what our forces are

doing, they are there to provide advice and assistance to the syrian-arab coalition, the syrian arabs were working to pressure -- and ultimately defeat isil. what does that mean, advise and assist? we have seen what it means in iraq, and it is the same type of mission. it is providing advice to these forces on how best to fight. a couple of important points to note. number one, the american forces, their guidance, their direction is to position themselves on the battlefield in areas where in -- where enemyon contact is unlikely. they conduct analysis, go through a series of steps to analyze where they are about to go, and before they go somewhere, they ensure that wherever it is they go, enemy

contact is not likely or in fact is unlikely. i think that is number one. and as they are moving around the areas where they are providing advice and assistance, types of things they are working on our everything from how these units can better coordinate the logistical piece of their fight we will take a look at some of their tactical battle plans and refine this. they will help them with integration. we do have air power providing support to the syrian-arab forces, and one of the things that our advisors are really capable of doing is helping to integrate the air and the ground movement, the integration. that the airring power is in the right place at the right time. so it is understanding the ground maneuver plan, and then relaying the details of that plan to the air planners so that

they can appropriately ensure that the right aircraft, the aircraftf's, the right with the right places at the right hand. this is the type of -- at the lower end, these are some of the best soldiers in the world, the american advisers. and while there, there is going to be day-to-day this is how to be a soldier advice and assistance that gets passed on. that is in a nutshell what we do. it is important to notice -- or the advisors are required to stay in areas where any contact is not likely. so -- >> thanks. a quick follow up. , you said

corrective actions were taken. does that mean they were told to remove the patch is, was anyone recommend a anything on this? and i thought in the past u.s. retained morether worn patches or insignias of troops there with it isn't this appropriate location that they or are youpriate, saying all forces anywhere are not allowed to do this ever? there are two: parts that answer. wearing those patches is not authorized. regulations say -- army regulations say do not wear those patches. that said, the special forces community has a long and proud

history of wearing such patches when they are partnering with forces around the world, and you will see examples of that in afghanistan, in iraq, in latin america, and all over the world where these special forces personnel train and conduct foreign internal defense type operations. this is something that they often do, and it is an effort to they areith those training. but the fact of the matter is, they are not authorized. were directed to remove the patches. as far as any additional reprimands or anything like that, i am not aware. but the bottom line and the important thing is that the situation has been corrected, and that we have commuted to our allies that wearing such things are

inappropriate and it was on authorized -- unauthorized. >> first, very important question for you. what is the first thing you will home?l when you get colonel warren: hopefully it will have stopped raining in virginia and i will be able to get my grill sparked up. we will have to wait and see. give us a sense when troops are behind the forward lines, on average, what is the distance? could you walk us through what we could expect that this is to be for their rent protection -- for their own protection? colonel warren: it is impossible to put a number on that because it depends on the terrain and .he enemy situation in constricted terrain, they will be a little bit closer.

in wide-open terrain, they will be a little bit further. there is no answer. it will very anywhere from miles is the closest i can get. when we conducted operations to weerate the city of sinjar, talked about the fact that there were advisers on the very top of the mountain that overlooked the city. straight-line distance was under a thousand meters. in other cases, they will be much further back. and other cases they could be closer i suppose. i do not think that would be very common, but we mentioned , pettythe opening officer charles keating, who at that time that there was an advisor this is mission being conducted, -- mission -- advise and assist mission being conducted, the distance

close rapidly. there is no answer, everything to almostopen plains surface of the moon desert to rolling hills, in some cases mountains. there really is no single answer. it is all about analyzing the mission beforehand, understanding where we expect the enemy is located, what we expect the enemy will do, and then how the terrain factors into that. >> thank you. >> next, to tom. >> hi, steve. could you give us an update or an estimate of the types of numbers of strikes, coalition strikes, in and around -- since this push began? you put out a statement that whichhad been about 150,

tallies with the updates we have been getting. and also in iraq, has there been an uptick in coalition strikes in terms of total numbers? thank you. i saw that 150 number. it is incorrect. i did not bring the numbers with ual so we release the act numbers every day. i ask you to check out the website. anyone in the world, it is a public website. if you can pull up those daily strike releases, you can look through. it is usually only one page long. right next to the name of the you will see the exact

number of strikes conducted that day. matter to go check it out and figure out that the total numbers are. it has been averaging two to three strikes, anywhere from three to four individual engagements. i did not bring all that with me, but it is easy to do. >> why the huge discrepancy? what would you attribute that to?? can you say that again? >> to what can you attribute that discrepancy to? colonel warren: i have no idea what they are talking about. hundred 50 is completely off the scale. -- 150 is completely off his guilt. it is not with reality. i wish you a good time for

your life here in the united states. i have a couple of questions. one is related to one of your remarks that you said. our focus in syria is to provide support to the sdf, particularly the arab components, but we have not ever seen any americans special forces pictured alongside the arab forces, and while the main focus is on -- air forces, why do we not the armed forces patches? you are going to have to get the microphone out. i'm catching only about every 10th word.

you said our focus in syria is to support the syrian democratic forces, particularly the air component of this syrian to force. but we have not seen -- several forcess of his special service on the internet, and rather thanof them -- any eric comported of the sdf forces. and if the particular focus is with this error component of alliance, then why have we not seen any american special forces wearing arab coalition forces patches r? rather, we see them wearing ypg patches.

colonel warren: thank you for that. there has been one situation where we have confirmed that re there were legitimate pictures of american service members in syria, only one, and that was yesterday. , it was difficult to tell exactly who they were with, frankly. presumably, they were with that israbs, because who they are there to drink. it was really difficult, at least from the photos, to even tell who they were. there is the internet that is full of pictures, but the majority of them are either fake or wrong, but in this case these were the only pictures that we are tracking as being legitimate. so i think that is the answer. >> do you have anything on the

corridor that is under the pressure of isis where they are -- from each other, and why did the air support delay it so much? why did theen: coalition do what today so much? cutting off isis is and otherosition opposition posts from each other because they are infiltrating into the line, and it has been for days that the fight has been going on over there, but we have seen few coalition airstrikes. the question is, why did the correlation delay to support -- why did the coalition delay to support this group? colonel warren: we are going to have to do something about this

time. i cannot answer. we will have to cut off the video. i cannot hear a word you're saying. steve --hear me ok, see?ou hear me ok, colonel warren: stand by one second. we will reconnect. colonel warren: you are coming .n really garbled, >> are we doing a reconnect? why don't you: give me a count down from 10. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

colonel warren: got a 50% improvement. we will try that. >> i cannot see you anymore, but that should be ok. colonel warren: hopefully third time will be a charm. >> the recourse of the route connecting -- is about to fall to isis, and there has been fight over that for a few days -- colonel warren: hold on. hey, we are going to hang up and reconnect. this is ridiculous. i cannot hear a word you are saying. we will disconnect and call back. >> all right, we see you.

can you hear us? colonel warren: i can hear you a little bit better. let's try for the fourth time. me.aybe it is because of so, steve, there are reports that the route connecting marra -- is he saying something? >> can you hear it ok? >> ok to go ahead? colonel warren: loud and clear. marr toaute connecting the army having fighti butnst isisng four days, they're complaining that the get airn delay to

support. is there a particular reason for the delay in the coalition air support for the free syrian army and others? no, there is no particular reason for any delay. we always try to rush airpower to where it is needed, when it is needed. you got to understand, their craft have to travel through space and that takes time. availableot aircraft instantly all the time. so we tried to predict where we are going to have the aircraft on any given day. we do not always know exactly where the enemy is going to be, where he is going to pop off, jews to fight. in some cases aircraft will be heiress best health record every case, when we have forces that are partnered within

contact, that request air support, we do everything we can to get air support them that is possible. thing downsame south to visit where the forces under their were under fire, they requested air support. we sent her support, but by the time the air got there, it was too late. and several friendly forces were killed, but the battle essentially was over by the time the air got there. airpower, it cannot be everywhere all the time. hi. what --anted to second said nab thank you for have done,you working hard to answer our questions. thank you for that. i want to follow up on the command of abuja forces that was killed.

that waslujah courses killed. can you give us more information, how long was he a commander? and spell his name, please, if you have got it. colonel warren: stand by. let me find him. 's middle name is -- his middle name is al. there is a-. bravo india lima alpha. he was the commander of the

enemy forces at falluja. i don't know how long he had been a commander there. we killed him two days ago .uring a strike this was the result of intelligence we gathered on the headquarters at his location. we had an opportunity to take a strike. this won't completely cause the enemy to stop fighting, but it's a blow. it creates confusion and it causes the second-in-command to move up. it causes other leadership to have to move around. this continuously chipping away leaders, strategically when we go for their more high-value individuals, or tactically. this is some intelligence developed locally. we took an effective strike and scored one for the good guys. we know who and what he was. we don't really know his bio.

>> this in your last briefing from baghdad, i'm going to ask you to reflect a little bit. no had to sell a war that is -- not always been marked by youtacular victories trade have gone mano a mano with the russian food and propaganda machine, and you've had to make arguments -- putin propaganda machine, and you had to make arguments to a news media that is skeptical. how difficult has that been, how do you think you have done? have you been able to maintain your credibility and integrity in this job as the chief military spokesman in baghdad? colonel warren: that's a deep question, and very personal. i will tell you what i tell a

lot of the folks around me. -- therehere in iraq are a number of subordinate public affairs officials and practitioners and professional communicators. what i've tried to tell them over the last year is that i'm not here to sell this war. i have no desire to sell this war. i see my role as to try to explain it. is for other people, not for us. that's not for soldiers. our job is to win the war while we are doing it to explain what we are doing. we have a real duty to america, who entrusts us with blood and treasure. the sons and daughters, fathers and sons of america are put in our care as leaders in the

military. millions upon millions, billions of dollars are entrusted to us efend our way of life. i think i have a duty to hold this institution at least somewhat accountable, to explain how we are spending that money, how we areain bringing that blood, though sons and daughters, into this fight. and how we are doing it. i guess it's your job to hold us accountable, but it's my job to answer for what we have done and what we are doing. that's what i try to do. i had one goal my mentor taught me when he became the press secretary for the department of defense. in that jobgoal which he knew would be nuanced and tricky and difficult was to

depart from his personal -- depart with his personal integrity intact. i work for a commander who is probably one of the best commanders we've seen in a generation, general sean mcfarland. he's made it easy for me to keep my integrity intact, to keep my credibility intact. he's never asked me or even suggested i do anything otherwise. that has been easy. there's a lot of information out there. the russians are out there, as you mentioned. the iranians are out there. the shia militia are out there and we know bush are all assad is messaging. we know our enemy, isis, isil, or daesh. we know they are out there, actively messaging. they use the same medium to both recruit and to terrorize great it is a duty to fight that.

fought on abeing lot of levels, as is every war in history. it's being fought with american and coalition bombs, iraqi and syrian bullets. i tried to take it as seriously as i can. -- bring in ang game when i'm interacting with you, who really are part of this war whether you want to be or not. it is through you that my words and our actions are transmitted. it's also through you that the enemy's words and actions are transmitted. i know you all work very hard to ensure that you strike a good balance and you don't allow yourselves to get suckered by enemy propaganda, and you don't confused bylf to be our sometimes dense military language great good on you, and keep that up. that really is your duty

forever, and that's to watch what happens here, to ask smart questions about what happens here, to keep yourself informed about what happens here, and not to be suckered by anyone's words. check for yourself. i see a lot of folks doing that. i'm slowly but surely starting to see more reporters start to trickle out here. that's as it should be. we can't help you like we used to. back in the old days, we had these programs. tens and 20's in of reporters at a time and bend them into units, provide those protections they require, and show them what's going on. those days are no longer here. we just don't have that capacity. a lot of this war is being fought by warriors who not want to be in the limelight, who do not want their directions to be seen because of the security

environment straight that makes it harder for you, and i know that. depending on press corps is the most dependable press corps in washington. question, jamie. >> thanks for all your briefings. it will be good to have you back stateside. , where the leaflets are being dropped, are there any arecations that civilians actually taking that advice and putting up the weight chief on group talks, and how feasible is that as a way to protect civilians? colonel warren: we have seen civilians standing on their rooftops. we have seen some of that, we

have seen civilians standing on their roofs with white cloth of some sort. more than that, we have seen some civilians try to get out of the city, which is really the first thing that these leaflets -- leaflets dropped -- designed and dropped by the iraqis, so we did not have a part in it. it doesn't want the civilian population to leave. they want to hide behind the civilian population. it's going to be a hard challenge to find a way to liberate this city and still keep the civilian population as safe as possible. they have astand challenge on their hands, and we are working closely with them. and other nations humanitarian organizations -- everyone here is working

together to try to solve this problem of liberating falluja, while at the same time protecting the civilians we are trying to liberate. it's a hard problem. there are no easy solutions to it. we will keep trying. we are going to get the city liberated. units, can they move forward? are they expected to move forward to falluja? colonel warren: falluja is well and range of those guns. they have no need to move. you saido the patches, they were unauthorized and inappropriate. what is inappropriate about that, especially given the long history of special forces? cooker this week peter

said they were to blend in with the local population. also, to show support. what is inappropriate about wearing those patches? colonel warren: there's political sensitivities around the organization that patch represents. that makes it inappropriate. the sensitivities are with the nato ally. these guys on the ground do what they are going to do. they have their customs and courtesies they have been following for years. it's important to understand the larger strategic context, and that is the inappropriate-ness of it, that they did not understand or appreciate it as they should have. the correction has been made. we have communicated with our allies. we felt those badges were inappropriate and we acknowledge they are unauthorized, because

they are unauthorized. we've made the correction. everyone is moving on. >> are any of them ypj patches? i looked at them and it was hard to tell. the resolution on those pictures wasn't the best. you would have to take a close look. i only scanned them on our internet, which you can tell from our connection is not the best. can you tell us if any of these u.s. special operation forces in syria have engaged in contact? have they been attacked? have they fired their weapons? colonel warren: to my knowledge, no. at this point none of them have been engaged in syria.

we know there's been cases of it happening in iraq. to my knowledge, no. i will say that with a caveat. they are deep behind enemy lines, aren't they? i don't know what doesn't get reported. i do want to caveat that. at the level, headquarters level, we may not have perfect fidelity on what happens every minute of every day out there in the wilds of syria. knowledge, there have been no reports of firefights, if you will, involving our forces there. >> you said back on the rules of engagement for the special thattion forces in syria

they could only be in areas where contact is not likely. earlier we had been given a much more specific definition, which was one terrain feature between them and the enemy so that they would not be exposed to direct fire. is it both those? one soundsspecific, much more open to interpretations of judgment. colonel warren: it's kind of both. the requirement is where enemy contact is not likely. the general application of that is a terrain feature back. the terrain feature piece is more of a rule of thumb.

enemy contact not likely, that's the standard. that is kind of the rule of thumb. often i will be the case. thiscularly in this case, isn't mechanized warfare on a grand scale where you have large portions able to cover a lot of ground in a short period of tim e. this is a little more constrained because of the types of portions we are fighting, because of m-1's. the one terrain feature -- to answer your question, it's kind of a rule of thumb. times as a lot of shorthand, to be able to rapidly communicate the rough idea which is not where the enemy is.

>> can you hear me? steve? he asked you if there were any other rules of thumb. colonel warren: none come to mind. the thing about rules is you don't notice them until they come up. piece, iarticular don't know whether rules of thumb come to mind. the united states army -- we have plenty of rules of thumb out there. we could talk about those later.

>> just a quick question on this. just a quick question on the current security situation in baghdad. things seem to have quieted down. i want to see what the feedback has been for your iraqi counterparts. is there still discussion about possibly moving some forces back to the city and reinforce security? how much do you think this falluja offensive has improved security? colonel warren: it's too soon to tell whether the falluja operations will have an impact on the security in baghdad. when fallujah is finally liberated and cleared, we believe it will have an impact on baghdad security.

the prime minister was referred to falluja of the night, knife,g -- as the pointing to the throat of baghdad. i have not seen or heard any additional discussion about the iraqis repositioning forces. this is always their prerogative. right now as you observe, there does appear to be less demonstration activity. we've seen a lot of the iraqi political and religious leadership make for a public conductts to not demonstrations or more protests, particularly while the falluja operation is being conducted. we were encouraged to see that. so far, so good. >> ryan brown.

colonel, thank you for doing this and thank you for all the briefs you've done. first, some of the reporting accompanying the photos of those soft forces talked about them having missiles and firing them. with that kind of action be within the advise and assist description, or is this reporting inaccurate? the reporting is completely inaccurate. on, the syrian observatory for human rights has reported that coalition airstrikes killed a french national isis leader. do you have any information on that? i've certainly seen those press reports. we don't have any announcements to make right now. >> on this white sheet for

civilian protection in falluja, this information was communicated via leaflet. is there a reason to believe that isis will not simply put white sheets on some of their facilities? colonel warren: there's no reason to believe that at all. they most likely will. this is part of the complexity of urban warfare. and like to go back to the airstrikes in and around rocca. the u.s. coalition airstrikes, are they striking targets inside the city, and does this complicate the d confliction with the russians? --the russians voluntarily did the russians voluntarily halt their airstrikes? was this an agreement between the u.s. and russia to de-conflict the airspace?

colonel warren: we don't de-conflict the airspace, per se, with the russians. we conduct daily phone calls to make sure we have safe operating conditions. the russians only struck rocca on a handful of times. most of the russian flights are concentrated to the west of syria. we are striking both in the center of rocket itself and of course the countryside. there is no area where we are not able to strike with extraordinary precision. we will take our strike wherever we deem necessary. russians, there hasn't been a problem there. they have taken a few strikes and rocca, but it's been a wild. -- while. we have these weekly calls with the russians to work out how to

make sure our planes don't bump into each other or come into inadvertent contact. that has worked generally fairly well, as general brown described on thursday. we will continue that. >> hi. ditto all the thanks for your work. we are looking forward to meeting and working with your successor. to follow up on falluja, you had said a few weeks ago that you did not see any military reason to liberate falluja now. i realize a lot has happened since then. i'd be interesting to get your assessment on whether you still feel that way, what may have changed in that time, and how the coalition understands baghdad's rationale for choosing this time to liberate falluja. colonel warren: thank you for that. specifically or

contextually -- we were talking about falluja that relates to most all -- mosul. mosul is our ultimate objective in iraq, a least our ultimate geographical objective. unlike sinjar -- you have to take sinjar before you go to mosul. you would be stupid to try to go to mosul without taking sinjar f irst. that's an example of a place you have to go before you go to mosul. you don't need falluja to get to mosul. the two are de-linked. no military reason to take falluja in order to get to mosu l. every city in iraq has to get

cleared. it's a question of sequencing. right, havingit established that falluja is not necessary for mosul, the sequencing becomes a political .ecision all of this is part of politics. we understand as warriors, professional soldiers, we understand the political components. we understand the leader of the country has to make decisions based on more than your military necessity. we understand that perfectly well. baghdad,ent unrest in rash of bombings in baghdad,

surely that changes the political calculus for the civilian leadership of iraq. we are providing devastating airpower in support of a decision that the prime minister of iraq made to liberate falluja. >> can you clarify whether or not it is political intention or military deployments, especially for the c.t.s., how focusing on falluja now does not take away from the mosul campaign? the forcesren: involved in falluja are different from the forces that will be involved inmosul. mosul forces are continuing their preparations while the anbar operations connect operations in anbar.

if this operation goes rapidly, we will see falluja liberated, which will have great benefits. that will take some of the pressure off the political leadership in baghdad. it will cause the iraqi population to rest easier, particularly the baghdad .opulation everything's got a balance. we can do a graduate school seminar on this. it's all about balance. the benefits will be potentially heighten security in baghdad. there will certainly be heightened sense of comfort in baghdad which will take political pressure off of the leadership and allow them to down thee on mosul

road. it's kind of like an investment, i guess. all of these things have to table and turn. from militaryhing necessity to political reality. >> one less technical question, you talked about how ctf would be involved in clearing falluja. is the plan to be similar to their involvement in ramadi, where the rest of the forces are providing -- circling the town and ctf are the ones who go in and clear it? colonel warren: how about let's let that be a surprise to the enemy? forces tose are u.s. rocca right now?

colonel warren: it depends. american forces are not fixed. we had some forces that john hotel visited. in other places, they are relatively close to the front ines, probably the tissue dam when they were there. so, there isn't a single number, but i'd say probably in the -- 15, 20 miles at the closest at any given moment. at other times they are significantly further away. >> how close to u.s. forces -- h ow close are u.s. forces to an invasion? colonel warren: we want to keep the enemy guessing.

a stateently declared of emergency in rocca because of the pressure being put on them. i choose to allow the enemy to continue to believe that and not know when their last days are coming. >> does the u.s. military always know where the front line is? since world war i, i'm not sure anyone has always known with the front line is. if there's h french, that tells you where the line is. but the line isn't painted on the ground. the strangest is distance between two places where there are forces. it's fluid. we have a general idea. we know where bad guy country is

and where good guy country is. in the case of syria, our forces stay good by country. warren, thanks for doing this again. can you characterize how isolated fallujah is? are they able to move isil fi ghters in and out of the city? it is largely: isolated, i guess is the modifier i would use. it's always possible for individuals to move in and out. there are route lines the enemy .an use it's almost impossible to completely seal off the city.

falluja is largely isolated. no high-speed avenues of approach. >> have you guys seen isil fighters fleeing from falluja? did they see this attack coming? colonel warren: we haven't seen much of that yet. we are still early. we are three days into this so far. i mentioned garment. we still have a ways to go. we have to what decisions the enemy makes. it's impossible to know what exactly the enemy is thinking.

maybe they plan on waiting until a certain time in the battle that will trigger them to go. >> we are about out of time. before we turn it back over to you for some closing words, i want to tell for everybody, the last summer colonel steve warren raised his hand and volunteered to serve in what is arguably one of the most complex and intellectually challenging jobs in the military. recognizing the need that we had to have somebody on the ground in baghdad to be able to speak authoritatively and quickly, to serve the press and by extension withmerican people, accurate and timely information about this operation and recognizing that this was not an easy job, it's one that he was uniquely equipped to do better than anybody else out there. steve made the personal

sacrifice, setting aside his education, setting aside his family at the pointy end of the spear. steve, you have -- done this job with style, class, passion, and integrity. i think you on behalf of osd public affairs and the entire public affairs community. you are a legend. you've made a difference, and you will be missed. godspeed and we look forward to seeing you back here on this side of the camera soon. thank you.ren: thank you all for the kinds of words you shared with me. jamie asked a great question. i do want to talk about the press corps and how capable you are and how important it is that you do what you are doing. i want to talk about chris garver, who arrives here tomorrow.

he has been in kuwait for the last almost year, been there .ince september he is in my view the best public affairs option. he is truly a professional communicator par excellence. it will be a pleasure for you to work with him great he is sophisticated, he is smart. he understands this fight as well as anybody else does. he will do far better than i have done. any success i've had this year is due largely to him and his effort. he has a whole team in kuwait. he provides information to me. if there's any success out there , i'm only the mouthpiece. there is an entire team of people in baghdad.

my hat really is tipped to all of them for the tremendous work they have done. when chris garver gets here, he .ill not miss a single beat there's always nervousness when there is change. completely understandable and acceptable. i'm here to tell you that will be more more than impressed when chris garver stands right here thanknt of this camera you for your patience with me -- camera. thank you for your patience with me. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

>> later today we have more road to the white house coverage. republican presidential candidate donald trump holds a rally in san diego, california. the state has its presidential primary coming up on tuesday, june 7. according to the associated press, yesterday trump was accorded with enough delegates to clinch the gop nomination. see donald trump's remarks live at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> madam secretary, we proudly votes tof our delegate the next president of the united .tates ♪

>> this memorial day weekend on american history tv on c-span3, saturday evening at 6:00 eastern on the civil war. >> sherman could not have a great more. by the time he captured atlanta in 1864, his thoughts on the matter had fully matured. once again, the rebel army had been defeated and another major city had fallen and still the confederates would not give up. rather than continue the futile war against people, he would now wage war against property. historical society president todd gross on union general william tecumseh sherman, arguing that sherman's march to the sea campaign was hard war rather than total war, and his targets were carefully

collected to diminished southern resolve. sunday evening at 6:00 on american artifacts. take a tour with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i had the good fortune to actually be here on august 20 8, 1963, when martin luther king made the "i have a dream" speech. i could not hear a word because i was down at this and of the mall and he was at lincoln memorial, looking out at wrongs, literally thousands of people. but you knew you were in the presence of something really significant. lyndoner aides to johnson and richard nixon talk about the role of the presidents during the vietnam era. about that ward every single day. that is not an overstatement. the daily body counts, the calls either to or from the situation

room often at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning to see if the carrier pilots had returned. >> a historian is joined by a former lbj aide, tom johnson, and a former nixon aide, alexander butterfield. monday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ourern on "reel america," five-part series on the church committee hearings convened to investigate the intelligence activities of the cia, fbi, and nsa. >> we are here to review the major findings of our full investigation of f b i domestic intelligence," -- including the co-intel program and other programs aimed at domestic targets. political abuses of fbi

severalence, and specific cases of unjustified intelligence operation. >> for the complete american history tv weekend schedule, go to www.c-span.org. earlier today president obama became the first u.s. president to visit hiroshima, japan. during his visit he met for talks with the japanese prime minister. the president also made remarks and took part in a wreath laying ceremony in hiroshima. this is about 40 minutes.

president obama: 71 years ago on a bright, cloudless morning death fell from the sky and world was changed -- the world was changed. a flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city and demonstrated that mankind possess the means to destroy itself. why do we come to this place? -- place, to hiroshima?

we come to ponder a terrible force unleashed in a not so distant past. deaths,to mourn the including over 100,000 japanese men, women, and children. of koreans, a dozen .mericans their souls speak to us. they ask us to look inward. -- inward, take stock of who we are and what we might become. fact of war that sets hiroshima apart. artifacts tell us that violent

conflict appeared with the very first man. had been ancestors learning to make blades from flint and spears from wood, use these tools not just for hunting, but against their own kind. , the historyinent of civilization is filled with war, whether driven by scarcity of grain or hunger for gold, compelled by nationalist fervor or religious zeal. empires have risen and fallen. peoples have been subjugated and and at each junction, innocents have suffered. a countless toll, their names

forgotten by time. war that reached its brutal and in hiroshima and nagasaki was among the wealthiest and most powerful of nations. their civilizations have given the world great cities and magnificent arts. they are thinkers with advanced ideas of justice and harmony and truth. yet, the war grew out of the same base instinct for domination, for conquest that had caused conflicts among the simplest tribes. pattern, amplified by new without new and constraints.

years, someof a few 60 million people would die. men, women, children. no different than us. shot, beaten, marched, bombed, jailed, starved, gassed to death. there are many sites around the world that chronicle this war, memorials that tell stories of , empty campseroism that echo unspeakable depravity. yet in the image of a mushroom guys,that rosen to these

skies, we arehese most starkly reminded of humanities core contradiction, how the very spark that marks us thoughts, ourour imagination, our language, our toolmaking, our ability to set ourselves apart from nature and bend it to our will. those very things also give us the capacity for unmatched destruction. how often does material advancement or social innovation blind us to this truth? how easily we learn to justify violence in the name of some higher cause. every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness, and yet no religion has been spared from

believers who have claimed their fate -- faith is a license to kill. telling us stories that bind people together in sacrifice and cooperation, allowing for remarkable feats, but those same stories have so andn been used to oppress dehumanize those who are different. science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above andclouds, cure disease, understand the cosmos, but those same discoveries can be turned into ever more efficient killing machines. the wars of the modern age teach us this truth. hiroshima teaches this truth.

technological process without an equivalent progress in human institutions can doom us. the scientific revolution that led to the splitting of an atom requires a moral revolution as well. that is why we come to this place. here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. we forced ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. cry.stened to a silent we remember all the innocence

killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came to four. and the wars that would follow. mere words cannot give voice to such suffering. but we have a shared responsibility to look directly into the eyes of history and asked what we must do differently to curb such suffering again. someday the voices will no longer be with us to bear witness. but the memory of the morning of august 6, 1945 must never fade. that moment allows us to fight

complacency. .t fuels our moral imagination it allows us to change. since that fateful day, we have .ade choices that give us hope the united states and japan forged not only an alliance, but that has won far more for our people than we could ever claim through war. the nations of europe build a union that replaced battlefields with bonds of commerce and democracy. oppressed peoples and nations liberation. an international community established institutions and treaties that worked to avoid war, and aspire to restrict and

rollback, and ultimately eliminate the existence of .uclear weapons russian --y act of a nationson between that we see around the world .hows our work is never done we may not be able to eliminate man's capacity to do evil. some nations and the alliances we form must possess the means .o defend ourselves among those nations like my own that hold nuclear stockpiles, we must have the courage to escape illogical fear and pursue a world without it.

we may not realize this goal in my lifetime. a persistent effort can roll back the possibility of catastrophe. we can chart a course that leads to the destruction of these stockpiles. we can stop the spread to new nations and secure deadly fanatics.from and yet that is not enough. what we see around the world today how even the crudest rifles and barrel bombs can serve up violence on a terrible scale. we must change our mindset about conflicts to prevent through deployments, and strive to end conflicts after they have

begun. to see our growing interdependence as a cause for peaceful cooperation and competition. to define our nations not by our capacity to destroy, but by what we built. perhaps above all, we must reimagine our connection to one another as members of one human race. this too is what makes our species unique. genetic codeund by to repeat the mistakes of the past. we can learn. we can choose. we can tell our children a different story, one that describes a common humanity, something that makes war less

easily and cruelty less accepted. of thethese stories woman who forgave a pilot who flew a plane that job the atomic bomb because she recognized what we -- what she really hated was war itself. familiesho sought out of americans killed here because he believes their loss was equal to his own. my own nation's story began with simple words. equal, and created endowed by our creator with certain unalienable -- in alienable rights, including

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. realizing that ideal has never been easy, even within our own borders, even among our own citizens. staying true to that story is worth the effort. it is my deal -- an ideal to be strived for, an ideal that spans across continents and oceans. the irreducible work of every person, the insistence that .very life is precious the radical unnecessary notion that we are part of a single human family. that is the story that we all must tell.

tot is why we come hiroshima. love, the first smile from our children in the morning , the gentle touch of a spouse , thethe kitchen table ,omforting embrace of apparent we can think of those things and know that those same pressures comments took place here -- precious moments took place here 71 years ago. usse who died, they are like , ordinary people understand