[applause] i would also like to welcome frances townsend. she will be interviewing general mcchrystal. she chaired the homeland security council from may 2004 until january 2008. before that, she was a senior intelligence officer for the united states coast guard. over to you guys. >> thank you. i would like to start. there was a wonderful details introduction and i should tell our friends in the audience that we had the privilege of being colleagues together. i consider them to be friends. the greatest compliment i can give you is the teddy roosevelt " about the man in the arena, where it is better to be marred by blood, sweat and tears than those timid souls that no needed to -- victory or defeat. i am going to start by thanking you for your service commission. -- donation. [applause] you have moved on. we are going to talk about what you know best. that is leadership. tell us what you are doing now. >> thank you. i appreciate you being here today. i am trying to take what i have learned and, to be frank, i am still adjusting what i have s

france and germany. the u.s. state department urges americans to use "common sense precautions." but some say the advisory are way too vague and hold little value. tom fuentes and francis townsend say it would have been better to say nothing at all. >> i'm a real believer. if these warnings -- these public warnings and alerts that get put out don't tell people specifics about either locations, timing, or what they can do to protect themselves, then we shouldn't bother. we shouldn't scare them about something that they can't protect themselves from. >> i agree with fran. maybe even a little stronger than fran that issuing a warning like this is on the verge of being completely ridiculous. there are thousands and thousands americans in europe. everybody's going to look different to them. everybody is going to be carrying a backpack and looking strange if they were walking down the street in peoria, illinois, for example. >> they're saying the travel alerts were issued because of growing concerns that terrorists may be planning a commando-style attack in europe like the one that happened in mumbai, india in 2008. that incident lasted three days, 166 people were killed. cnn's senio