nagata: thank you very much. i would be remiss if i didn't express gratitude to matt and the members of the washington institute for extending me the and meditation -- the invitation to be here today to make brief remarks, and in gauge and a conversation about what i came here to talk about. as you have already heard, i have been in my position as the senior strategist for counterterrorism at the national counterterrorism center for about two years. what i am about to try to convey to you is a melding both of my own practical operational experience, some of which has been successful, some of which has not, but you know, whether you call it experience or scar tissue, i have a lot of both. also, what i have been forced to inrn in the last two years considering how the united states government in its totality, not just the u.s. military, addresses the problem of terrorism around the world. so what i intend to do today is discussed those counterterrorism efforts, give my perspective, particularly with an eye towards

without further ado, general nagata. please do turn off your cell phones so we don't interrupt the program. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. before i start, i'd be remiss if i didn't express my gratitude both to matt and all of the members for extending me the invitation to be here today to make a few brief remarks but more importantly, engage you in a conversation about what i came here to talk about. the -- as you've already heard, i've been in my position as the senior strategist for counterterrorism at the national counterterrorism center for about two years. what i'm about to try to convey to you is a melding both of my own practical operational experience, some of which has been successful and some of which has not, but, you know, whether you call it experience or scar tissue i have a lot of both, but experience or scar tissue, i have a lot of both. not just in united states military addresses the problem of terrorism around the world. what i intend to do today is to discuss those counter terrorism efforts. giv

. >> now to the washington institute to hear from lieutenant general michael nagata. he directs strategic planning at the national counterterrorism center. sincecusses strategy 2001. >> good afternoon, everybody. i am matt. i have the pleasure of directin

. >>> and now we'll take you to the washington institute to hear from lieutenant general michael nagata. he directs international planning. he'll talk about the effectiveness of u.s. counterterrorism strategy since 2001.

nagata: well, terrorism obviously -- you're obviously well versed in this arena -- terrorism in that part of the world -- it's actually true everywhere -- terrorism is a symptom of a problem, the violence that too many african societies and too many africans are suffering from, whether it's in the lake chad basin area, it's in nigeria, it's in somalia, on the other side of the continent. it's all a result of political, societal, cultural underpinning that all african nations are struggling to address and in too many cases not successfully. successfully. there is no but there's no prospect of the united states being willing to mount the kind of large scale counterterrorism effort that we have been willing to mount so far in places like afghanistan or iraq. that's not on the table. nobody's proposing it. even if you were to propose it, i think it would get shot down pretty quickly. we've got other problems including the rise of pure state competition that we have to deal with. so we're going to have to find other solutions, we and our african allies, partners and colleagues. we'll have