after his comments will you hear from "washington post" columnist jim hoagland and washington scholar, michael eisenstadt this. is an hour and a half. >> good afternoon. welcome. i'm rob satloff director of washington institute of near east policy. i would like to welcome you all to this very special event this. year, the institute is celebrating its 25th anniversary. it is especially appropriate that we can open this celebratory year by hosting our nation's highest ranking military officer. admiral michael mullen. let me take a moment to extend special greetings to members of the institute's board of trustees who are here with us today as well as to those who have gathered in new york, los angeles, south florida, san francisco participating in this session by video conference, welcome to all of you. >> admiral over our 20 years we have been very proud to establish a close working relationship with the uniformed military. sometimes we come to you just today for example, two of our senior scholars cannot be with us. they are down lecturing at the u.s. army central command of atlanta. s

jim hoagland of the "washington post", and our own mike eisenstadt director of the institute's militaryand securities studies program. that, admiral it is a pleasure to welcome to you the washington institute. >> thank you. [applause] >> i appreciate that introduction. and actually i am not sure i wouldn't like to stay for the analysis myself. [laughter] it certainly is what i say certainly is frequently analyzed. and it is a great opportunity to be with you here this afternoon and i very much look forward to your questions. i will make a few comments maybe i will start with john, the john -- jon stewart show last evening in new york. and someone add asked me, why would you do that? and the answer quite frankly is pretty simple. his audience is basically 18 to 25-year-olds and they get an awful lot of their news from him. and at a higher level, in terms of my own communications in a world where things are moving so rapidly and changing, so constantly, how i communicate, how we communicate and how we even begin to understand -- how younger generations are communicating, is really the rea

[applause] >> as admiral mullen : and jim hoagland to come up and join me. it is a special pleasure, i didn't even know when i casted jim hoagland if he would participate in today's event i >> thank you. [applause] >> rob, thank you. that splendid introduction reminds me of the old lyndon johnson story about how he wished his mother had been here to hear it because she would have believed it, and his father, because he would have laughed his head off. and admiral mullen started off actually by asking when he described his experience with jon stewart last night, asked him the question that occurred to me about trying to do this gig that rob asked me to do. why in the world would you do this? the short answer is, rob asked me to. and he promised a distinguished audience and he certainly delivered the. he promised a good and interesting speech from our speaker. and so i foolishly agreed to try to do kind of nfl instant replay. which doesn't really lend itself to this format. but i'm going to try to hit some highlights, the things i thought you said, and one par

[laughter] with two of the smartest interpreters of such things in washington, jim hoagland of the washingtonost and jim eisenstaedt. with that, it's a pleasure to welcome to the washington institute. [applause] what i say is pretty and the analyzed. >> it is a great opportunity to be with you here this afternoon and i very much look forward to your questions i will make a few comments. maybe i will start with the jon stewart show last evening in new york. someone asked me why i would do that. the answer "quite frankly is very simple, is evidence is basically a 18-25-year-old and a get an awful lot of their news from him. /yat a higher level, in terms of my own communications in a world where things are moving so rapidly and changing constantly, however communicate and how we communicate and how we begin to understand our younger generations are communicating is really the reason i did that. i worked to get on other mediums to, in fact, communicate and also try to listen. i was taken in watching the show before i went on that jon -- and many of you have not seen it -- i am assuming -- [laught