army brigadier general unease served as both an assistant secretary of state for political military affairs and the deficit director of plans and strategy a sense of calm and joins us live from washington mark kimmitt good to get you on the program and them given your experience with some call my 1st question is about central command now saying that they will be monitoring the straits of her most can you explain the significance of that. well 1st of all they've been monitoring the straits of hormuz ever since incomes been formed but i think more significantly it sounds like they're going to be putting more patrol aircraft in the region moving more perhaps drones and satellites into the region to keep an eye on much closer scrutiny on the movement of the ships inside the region now from the start since that ship was seized off the waters of gibraltar the grace one iran has said that they will retaliate so are you surprised it's come to this. well i really am this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense unless you take a look at perhaps a split inside the government right now between the i.r.g.c.

forces withdrew from saudi arabia back in 2003 commits is the former assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush and he explains the importance of a u.s. military presence in saudi arabia. well the united states has always been very clear about when they deploy troops i don't know particularly when these troops were announced but it is clear that over the last few announcements that are located in has not been revealed likely these are troops that are manning patriot units that are providing air defense protection in case of us in case of an iranian either missile or or aircraft attack or perhaps not knowing their location i can only speculate that they may be there to protect saudi arabia from some of the missiles that they see emanating from yemen but this would appear to be a routine deployment of troops think it actually demonstrates that the united states and its coalition allies are willing to protect their troops and protect their allies. the tensions would probably increase if the iranians continue to make these threats and the countries in the region felt

one, i would have to refer to my colleague in office of resources and bureau of political military affairs which does work more closely with dod on those programs. i think they could give you a better sense of accounting on the ledger. >> who is the best person for me to talk to in the state department to get an answer on that. >> a follow-up but combination of political military affairs an foreign assistance resources. >> thank you. >> recognize gentlelady from minnesota. >> two quick follow-ups. the incentive program that you talked about earlier, is that a new initiative? >> congresswoman, whattes new about it is that we've expanded it outside of the afghanistan, iraq, pakistan war zones to make sure we have incentives in other places that are really tough for families to be in right now. >> but the incentive -- >> we've had special recognition packages. we've had them in a variety of posts. what we're trying to do is have a more standard type of incentive package available. >> would you say it's been in effect like a decade, two decades? how long has -- >> in places like somalia? >> pl

its forces from saudi arabia back in 2003 markets is the former assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush is joining us live from.

the civil war was a very narrow -- the civil war was high politics, military affairs, and diplomacy, for the most part when i was wrong -- when i was young, even when you were young. it's become incredibly richer than that. we didn't know much about common soldiers. bill riley was really it. there was incredibly rich -- i've used incredible twice now about --w a lot more it's not as if we didn't know about what sometimes called the dark side of the war. of course we always knew. but we didn't know about it like now. we didn't know nearly as much about women in the war. i think we'll have reached the best place in dealing with women in the war when it's no longer specialized studies that talk about women in the war but they're seamlessly integrated into studies of some other aspect of the war. peter: layered narratives. gary: that's right. in the process of emancipation and the african-american side of the war is -- you can't even explain, really, how much richer it is now than it was 30 years ago. peter: but also in danger of becoming this autonomous story. gary: no, none of this is

assistant secretary of state our clarke cooper is the assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs and he actually said that selling these weapons fits into a strategy of the united states for promoting human rights this is what he said. our policy is not just limited to arms transfers it is an expression a manifestation of what else we export open society human rights that is a part of our policy we do export the best of america with our arms transfer policy . now it has been overwhelmingly u.s. made weapons sold to saudi arabia by the united states that have been used by saudi arabia in its attack on yemen which is ongoing and has killed roughly 70000 people and it's important to note that in 2018 on average roughly 100 civilians died every single week now when cooper was pressed further he did admit that this has a lot to do with the bottom line and business this is a follow up after he was pressed. we do not suspend our security relationship with a partner that carries so much weight for our interests and our equity in the region but you're saying that the u.s. conventional arm

secretary of state the assistant secretary of state for military and political affairs and he argued that essentially the sale of weapons to saudi arabia fits in with an overall strategy from the united states for promoting human rights around the world this is what he said our policy is not just limited to arms transfers it is an expression a manifestation of what else we export open society human rights that is a part of our policy. we do export the best of america with our arms transfer policy however as the exchange escalated at that point he said it was more about business and basically admitted that it was about making money this is the follow up we do not suspend our security relationship with a partner that carries so much weight for our interests and our equity in the region but you're saying that the u.s. conventional arms transfer policy can be sacrificed if we have an important relationship with a country no it should not be sacrificed that's what you're doing because you're transferring weapons if you have knowledge that they followed international norms now it's importa

military adventuress. rodda's command, greene championed the establishment of civil dominance. for example, sending to georgia has personal representative, georgia clay. he absolutely made a gift for adroit maneuvering and political affairs in 1781, drugs and delegates to congress the position to the rank of general, with command of the georgia militia greene must have been appalled. what would be the reaction of militia leaders, and our dedication and leadership the kurds. colonel john erickson james jackson, how to deal with this delicate situation? greene wrote to the delegates, i am a little apprehensive that the military characters in that state will not readily subscribe to the propriety of dr. bronson's appointment. that's putting it mildly. he then wrote to georgia colonels in neatly handed the problem to them. ahead while this business necessary, this ought to be. we must determine and we can be sure they knew exactly what their feelings were. he added an ironic touch by having the letter delivered to the colonels by dr. bronson pretty wrote to joseph clay, mr. bronson is coming to georgia with an appointment of brigadier. should've been likely to produce this. i suppose it will be laid aside. it was indeed laid

military officers present stay very quiet and not react. they are determined to stay out of any partisan political debate. kate. >> and that may be a minefield. thanks barbara. outfront joan walsh national affairs correspondent for the nation and mark lotter director of communications for the trump campaign. thank you for being here. mark we heard kellyanne conway speak today saying the president will be talking abouts successes of the administration. this moment -- that by definition is political. i mean traditionally presidents don't take part in the celebration to avoid this. convince us all this isn't about politics and running for re-election. >> i tell you this is about celebrating america and also about celebrating our military. i mean, when our founding fathers at the end of the declaration of independence said that they pledged their lives, fortune and sacred honor they knew it took more than a piece of paper to get that independence. it would take men, heroes willing to take up arms and fight for it. we still have that fight today for freedom, not only of this country but around the world. i think it's right to showcase the military and the great things they are doing around the count

its forces from saudi arabia back in 2003 markets is the former assistant secretary for political military affairs under president george w. bush he is joining us live from washington d.c. thanks for speaking to us again on the news hour so as we were saying u.s. forces withdrew from saudi arabia back in 2003 and that was a joint decision between the 2 countries what's changed today what's changed in both their calculations that now there is a redeployment if you can call it that to troops to riyadh's. well i think the concern back in 2003 and earlier was that the presence of american troops was a distraction that in fact the particularly the religious clergy inside the country saw that as a violation of the tenets of islam to have infidels based inside the country of the religious establishment it's not as strong as it used to be and candidly the need for us protection is greater than it has been for quite some time. could we see a repeat of that tension. the religious clergy may complain about the presence of u.s. troops but i don't think they are in a position as they were pre the last gulf war