it's not desirable because i think the united states should work with the e.u. as a collective entity, not with individual e.u. member states. and when we work with individual e.u. member states, that tends to come at the expense of their willingness to participate in a broader european enterprise. the british, for example, very skittish about the e.u. the polls, again, tilting towards relations with the u.s. not strengthening the e.u. in the big scheme of things, germany alone, britain alone, is not big enough to be the partner we need. so i would say let's build a special relationship with europe, not just with germany. and i don't think it's feasible, because if you look at the two cases you mentioned, britain and israel, they're unique in the sense that with the british, we've got a historic ancestral relationship that goes back several hundred years, and the british have generally lined up with the united states, generally against germany throughout the last, uh, century. and with israel, there's a very strong moral connection. uh, those conditions don't exi

russian improvement in its relations with any of its neighbors as coming against the expense of the united states. this is consistent with the history of russian-armenia relations. ah, russia's looking to improve relations with azerbaijan as well. having good relations with russia by these states is in u.s. interests. it's not in u.s. interests for georgia, armenia or azerbaijan to have tense relations with russia. >> right after the end of the cold-war, i had the opportunity to fly with the american secretary of state to all of the countries in the caucasus, in a bid at that time to, ah, establish quick and new and stronger relations between the united states and these countries that, of course, had been behind the iron curtain for a very, very long time. one of them was a stop in azerbaijan in baku, the capital of azerbaijan, which already then was an oil and gas producing, ah, supplier at the time and the u.s. saw that as an interest. let's turn to our, ah, viewers in, ah, philadelphia and see what they have to say about this issue of relations with a place like azerbaijan. >> azerbaijan is th

going to come in is going to go ahead right the united states is in trying to define what a credible democratic outcome is in egypt you've missed stated the issue what we are trying to do is. paper article that ends up being the president of the united states i am not i'm not this is not my interpretation it is the president of the united states we really don't have to go ahead i wouldn't worry about whether the obama administration or president obama is going to be too interventionist that's the wrong question in fact quite the opposite president obama went to west point two thousand and nine and he told the west point cadets he told the united states he told the world the country i'm most interested in building in building is my own so. he really would prefer not to deal with the rest of the world he really would prefer not to deal with egypt at all but the reality is as you mentioned we work very closely with the egyptian military where we work very closely with some egyptian civil society elements united states is a world leader whether we care to admit that it or not so the reali

they are a think the most dangerous to the united states.they are the most dangerous not because they are more powerful than the united states or because they are supported by all muslims, they are most dangerous goals set to america because the u.s. bipartisan governing elite has uniformly refused to accept reality. from the first bush to clinton to george w. bush, barack obama, americans have been told they are poor because america and its allies are motivated by hatred for liberty, way of life and democratic institutions. this is a palpable, lethal lie. we are being attacked because of our elite half-century we let us intervention the muslim world. it is accumulative impact from the 50 years of interventionism that we find the main motivation of america's islamist enemies as well as the print both organizational glue that provide the monica of unity to the movement always fragile cohesion. the islamist motivation is to be found in their perception of u.s. foreign policy is an attack on the islamic religion and its followers. this is a vie

the united states, similar nation. the president is the end product of that, that at times can lead but he leaves that's what is going to the place where we are going anyway. and obama is perhaps -- >> host: are certainly the limits of rhetoric. there's no question about that. >> guest: he turns rhetoric into many, many volumes of position papers and policy papers. is a central assumption i think at the beginning was that u.s. german relations could have been whether were 20 years ago, had it not been for the unilateralism of george w. bush. the difference in perception was like this. obama's position was i will be a much more pleasant person, and, therefore, the germans will do much more to help me. the german position was thank god we find have a president who will not ask us to do things we don't want to do. they had this tremendous love affair, the nobel peace prize and everything else and suddenly you realize my goodness barack obama is an american president. and angela merkel is the german chancellor. >> host: i

russia is not the united states and is never going to resemble the united states for geographic and other reasons. the russian empire in the soviet union were not accidental. they balanced regions with a mutual dependence. the vision of the liberals in russia and in the united states was that falling the soviet union was reorienting themselves towards europe and the united states. they failed to understand that these countries could not compete in any reasonable timeframe in europe. the more dependent they were on europe, the weaker they became, and also forgot that russia is a geopolitical entity. it experienced some terrible wars in its history, and it's extremely cautious about the expansion of things like nato. they regard nato as a military alliance, and we regard it as a club of nice people. it's a mismatch of what it is, and as the united states moved into the baltics and the revolution of ukraine took off and the united states became influ enissue in asia. if containment won after world war ii, pudin from the kgb saw a second engagement. they stopped trying to do what stalin did t

democracy isn't a marsh it's not recognized at least by the united states and its allies and then the united states has been a huge impediment to democracy in the arab world since its inception since independence so what is its track record. its track record is very negative as many serious american historians admit to themselves throughout the cold war period when the big enemy was communism the united states not just in the middle east but also in south america it was prepared to tolerate tyrants dictators butchers of their people because it's there in cross with the end of the cold war. humanitarianism became one of the ideological pillars except in those countries where it wasn't convenient so we've seen in the middle east in particular. the dictatorship in egypt which appears to be collapsing as we speak which has been there for the last twenty five to thirty years we have seen regimes over twenty years long in the matter of b.m. countries to miss morocco algeria we've seen the toleration of a completely authoritarian brutal monarchy in saudi arabia jordan itself has been reduced

when the united states and when the united states fights the war in afghanistan and iraq, it does the same thing. it borrows money to fuel this, this contest. there is an economic stimulus that comes from spending on the wars in iraq and afghanistan. now, it's not as direct and great as it was in the 1940s because much of it is spent in other countries and doesn't find it way back to the united states. but there is another element that is probably more central, and that is when the united states borrows money today, instead of borrowing money from future american generations, it borrows money from foreign countries. and if you're simply borrowing from future generations, it's a debt, as was often said, we owe ourselves. yeah, one generation owes another, but it gives no foreign country any particular leverage, or to put it another way, by and large the interest of the creditors and the interest of the debtors align if they're all american. but if creditors are the bank of japan and the bank of china and other sovereign wealth funds, then it's unclear that the interest of the creditors

the united states has not embarked on a deliberate policy of designing a socialist state. it's not going to look like what you see in germany where there is a very deliberate society which has been designed to be socialist, in other words where the government takes the primary role as an arbiter of labor and capital and often in terms of creating capital for the economy. what you will see in the united states, the socialists with a small s will emerge by accident and it is much more detrimental and risky. and we are seeing many of those in the united states. for example, if you look at public sector compensation in the united states, for -- since 1980, it has been much higher than the average private sector compensation. this is quite surprising to people like me who looks to the united states as sort of a home to entrepreneurs in the private sector. but beyond that, already 45% of americans don't pay federal taxes. a lot of the issues we are hearing around things like health care and entitlements, which has been a big issue, in wisconsin, pension reform and pension liabil

it's not desirable because i think the united states should work with the e.u. as a collective entity, not with individual e.u. member states. and when we work with individual e.u. member states, that tends to come at the expense of their willingness to participate in a broader european enterprise. the british, for example, very skittish about the e.u. the polls, again, tilting towards relations with the u.s. not strengthening the e.u. in the big scheme of things, germany alone, britain alone, is not big enough to be the partner we need. so i would say let's build a special relationship with europe, not just with germany. and i don't think it's feasible, because if you look at the two cases you mentioned, britain and israel, they're unique in e sense that with the british, we've got a historic ancestral relationship that goes back several hundred years, and the british have generally lined up with the united states, generally against germany throughout the last, uh, century. and with israel, there's a very strong moral connection. uh, those conditions don't exist

the arms are bought in the united states. the consumers are in the united states. once the drugs cross the boarder where do they go? who consumes them who are the north american capitalists? we don't know about that. we nomex can criminals. we don't know anything about u.s. laundering of money. >> rose: what do you mean by "u.s. laundering of money"? >> things are laundered in this country. once we cross the border what happens? we don't know where the drugs go how they... the money is laundered. drug money is laundered, the consumption,s where it? >> rose: so what are you suggesting? >> i'm suggesting mexico and the united states come together and decide on a common policy to fight this this is a problem that is not unilateral or bilateral. it has become a global problem. i'm part of a group headed by the former presidents of colombia and mexico in which we propose starting to think about a world of legalized drugs. >> rose: legalized drugs or legalized... >> yeah. the consumption of drugs can be legalized, not penalized. for example drug takers should not be sent

before the crisis household savings rate in the united states. was zero some quarters make it it is obviously not sustainable. since the crisis is coming up. but still not enough i'm also savings have gone up. five percent. publics a big sysco handout national deficit better risk a deficit of around ten percent so in terms of the overall savings rate of the economy we haven't improved we just shifted from one side to the other is there a risk that we will see a double dip i don't think in the united states there's mill much of a risk of a double dip but only a certain. of a decline in growth rate winnable said innocent player. and we've gotten a little bit of a boost because of the payroll tax cut that was just a nap so that payroll tax cut is and. makes a artificial support good thing to do but it was on from one year and that means that in didn't you hear that it's not renewed. that they go to force these constraints on states and localities the continuing. problems over leveraged. the house will just continue financing state governments the ne

the gnf did an international survey and asked people in the united states what portion of the united states population is foreign-born. they said about one third. that is double the actual percentage and the set what proportion of >> they said about half. i said, boy, they don't know what they're talking about; right? you know? then the commentator at national press club made a very interesting point. he said they may not be knowledgeable, but maybe they are wise, but a third of the u.s. population is foreign-born and their children. what do you mean by immigrant? at least half of those who arrived in the last decade are unauthorized. there's a number of unauthorized migrants exceed legal migration for a good part of the last decade. how much more do we need to educate in what way? i think from my presentation what i'd like the public to understand is that there's a tradeoff between numbers and quality and setting incentive structures is a very difficult thing. possibly, and there may be a few here who agree with me, congress should be less involved in doing things but have a model li

supported mubarak the united states supported benelli in tunisia the united states in recent years supported in many ways moammar gadhafi and i think you know one of the problems now is that the governments the people who come to power as we've seen i mean in tunisia where the french ambassador just heckled out of. it was just heckled first for statements that he made because people remember who was on their side i mean one of the reasons actually that moammar gadhafi retains for instance the friendship of south africa is that he supported the south african freedom struggle where many people in the west did not and i think it's always better in the long run to be on the right side of history to be on the people side mark go ahead go ahead finish up go ahead just in terms of the war on terror i mean the way the war on terror was fought has actually you know created many more terrorists then than there were to begin with i mean throughout the middle east kuantan imo abu ghraib are symbols that are recruiting tools for terrorism and it's clear that in the words of donald rumsfeld they

the united states is capable of anything it's it's a rogue state as they like to call others we've seen how they've handled people in guantanamo children we've seen this this president now is trying to get a law that will allow them legally to assassinate without. without any court. u.s. citizens anywhere in the world they do this already but now they want a law that allows them this you know the german nazis they could make laws to you can you can make any law you weren't and that doesn't make it just. i'm afraid that that they could very well assassinate this man either legally or not legally the former ambassador to denmark where i live james cain has also come out and called for his execution the two leading candidates of the republican party for the next presidential elections called for him to be shot or killed in any way you know so this is hysterical right wing atmosphere in your mind when you when you talk about that the threats to julian assange the possible threats and people calling for his execution we've heard a sauna say before that he never spends more than one night in

russia is not the united states and is never going to represent the united states for geographic and other reasons. the russian empire and soviet union more not accidental and bound together economically and politically regions that have a mutual dependence. the visions of the liberals in russia and the united states was that the soviet union was reoriented itself towards europe and the united states. if they fail to understand these countries could not compete at any reasonable time frame in europe. the more dependent they became one europe the weaker they became. and also forgot that russia is a geopolitical entry. its experience some terrible war in its history and it's extremely cautious about the expansion of things like nato. re nato as a military alliance. we regard it as a club of nice people. fairly mismatched about what it is and it is the united states moved into the baltics and nato has the orange revolution of ukraine to cough and the united states became very influential to central asia they saw the second the encirclement taking place, so if the containment one it was

is a world leader whether we care to admit that it or not so the reality is the united states is going to have influence we do have influence and in egypt the question is how can we exercise that influence to help the egyptian people themselves make the transition to democracy the military is the key institution here we've had egyptian generals egyptian officers train in the u.s. attend some of our military academies for at least the past two decades we're very close relations with them one reason this crisis didn't turn out badly and didn't become a bloodbath in all candor was because of those close relationships with it that we have with the u.s. military they're in control right now we need to work very closely with them to develop the sort of institutions and processes that will allow the egyptian people to move toward liberal democracy if i go to you in seattle here i mean we you know i am sure i am sure peter that if you. if you ask most egyptians they would say to john and to such and such discourses thanks but no thanks you have done enough damage for thirty years and

indeed, the united states today may stand in a historical unique position. no other great power in my memory has faced the situation in which it is likely to be attacked at home in a manner of the stems and probably more severe than 9/11 and have no means with which to respond to the enemy in a militarily telling manner. having already destroyed the known infrastructure of al qaeda and taliban we are the meaningful military targets and left with only the most likely default response to attack iran the matter who attacks us or attack symbolic targets such as population centers in afghanistan and pakistan or holy places such as mica or medina. thus after a second attack in the united states, the choice for washington would be one of two. to either standing motionless in a bloody rage or launching attacks the would like the late professor huntington warning of the clash of civilizations all to proceed. in america today as i think you'll agree the foregoing analysis isn't mainstream. india i've often heard it dismissed as pathological. yet more than 14 years aft

is deterring democracy and the fact that the united states is actually pushing so hard for you know so-called regime change in iran is one reason why the green movement has no longer any popularity in the country the fact that the state department is behind it supporting it the fact that they are funded the fact that they have aligned themselves with terrorist organizations and organizations backed by the united states it doesn't make them more popular and that is one reason why just the other day a couple of days ago the spoke to the representative of the reformist faction in parliament he made a statement in parliament condemning mr mousavi and mr carroll b. and so on and that shows how isolated these two gentlemen are the point though the really significant point is that the balance of power in the region is shifting away from the united states and the united states because it's bound its foreign policy to israel it's desperately trying to kape keep the status quo and it sees iran as a major problem it sees that in the future will have more difficulty confronting iran becaus

activists to the united states sometimes for a seat in the state department sometimes at the national endowment for democracy or freedom house and these are all quote unquote private and shields that specialize in routine training for washington and. what's going on is really a major not enough destabilization of the u.s. ally mobile iraq has been opposed to most of us policy views of iran we should be partially golf nation and resume eleven. over the last several years so he's become in effect a thorn in the side of washington's greater agenda since two thousand and one well political unrest is sweeping further through the region as thousands of algerians took to the streets of their capital to demand the resignation of president with different police detained more than four hundred demonstrators in clashes across the city area has officially been a state of emergency for the night years allows authorities to battle public demonstrations protestors ignored the ruling follow up risings in tunisia and egypt forcing algerian authorities to reconsider the declaration. and coming up next

in the united states and so forth. how does this all play into julian assange and the sax and spy programs and the push alternately for his extradition it's a hot potato as you can understand for the government here and now that they have been exposed through various wiki the leaks. as having you know. colluded with the united states the ways that they had never before admitted over it was often suspected. it's an especially delicate time for them to go out and openly cooperate with an extradition process and reinfeld as i understand the prime minister has apparently declared that this is not a political issue we haven't completely through the judiciary and so on and so forth i think he is not entirely candid there. whatever happens as a result of the trial the united states will probably request that he be extradited for these crimes that they're trying to invent you know just in the united states and that would be a separate process the next version process usually is first processed by the immigration department. an

you're dealing with two regimes that are enemies of the united states, state son and supports of torque exports of terror and the peoples in those two countries are crying out for some sort of moral support. nobody is asking for the 10th division to walk through tehran or the streets of tripoli. but the president of the united states absolutely in this case should have come out with a much more morally clarifying statement and much earlier than he has. and as for the 6,000 americans, what he ended up doing was treating them as if they were already hostages, by backing of off and not doing anything immediately. remember, president reagan called give the mad dog of the middle east. compared to this, president obama is the chihuahua of the west. where is the leadership? >> you think that president speech was measured and appropriate? >> i think the president's speech was measured, appropriate. i agree with both pat and eleanor. i think this might be a first, that totally the president has gotten it right. but i also think that the united states and president obama is mindful of this, canno

documented and undocumented, presence in the united states. their earnings were enhanced by about 2.7%. why? it's complicated and i'll send a link to the commission so you can look at the exciting charts and graphs and do that to your heart's desire. it comes down to a simple idea which is intuitive and you know it. the economy is not a fixed pie. when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist before. you have innovation and entrepreneurialism that increases the actual size of small and medium-sized businesses. they consume and that expands the demand curve. you have a dynamic economy for 90% of u.s. born workers that enhances their wages. the other 9% got whacked up side the head with globalization and immigration and everything you can list and they need help. getting rid of immigrants doesn't really

the united states is off balance. it didn't expect to be and this is the unintended empire, it didn't expect to be in this is enormously powerful position. it doesn't really know how to manage it, and this is the decade -- this is the third decade we are in that it must come to terms with the incredible strains of the international system but also the domestic system. >> host: in a way i'm struck by how your argument about the need for the new diplomacy and new institutions to go along with it that would be the agent of the sort of rebalancing. there isn't the sense that we are two decades into the problem of building the post cold war. if anything that project is put on hold or perhaps to have gone in a wrong direction by the retraining of the american foreign policy as a global war and terror over the last decade. >> guest: the british as they served on their entire would devastate the counter insurgency and north america where they were defeated the germans to cut their heads handed to them by the germans. it's not

do the errands of the united states over many years from. questions of. making asylum seekers in sweden. both to the cia buddies is particularly strong now with a raid leaning government in sweden and with the u.s. wanting him for spying in sweden wanting him for sex crimes julian a son is wanted by quite a team and the songe wiki leaks case seems to be just the next continuation of this very old intelligence relationship here's some other relationships we dug up julian assange just ticks off the us with fierce reaction from one of the country's most notorious neo cons is not a particularly credible source and mobile and he is a hero to millions my mind as it is a criminal only ought to be out of delta grabbed him and put on trial for what he used earlier these words from karl rove who claims he's part swedish and just happens to be advising the country's pm while the former swedish minister of justice is a partner in the firm who filed charges against a songe for sex crimes with another link to the us thomas von stroheim is claimed to have handed the cia

as the united states economy struggles in the wake of the current downturn many states are strapped for cash debt ridden city authorities are cutting back on police officers lauren lyster explores how budget cuts seem to repeal the american dream further and further away from reality. it's the reality america cannot escape with the city's roughly two hundred eighty million dollars debt more and more people are talking about bankruptcy news of debt like that hitting cash strapped cities and states all over the country all together it could amount to two trillion dollars and a bill many may not be able to pay the problem of the state and local debt is more serious than the real estate bubble serious because with millions of americans still unemployed and losing their homes there isn't enough taxpayer money to pay creditors local governments which aren't allowed to operate in the red must come up with the cash this means some may be choosing between default or devastation in many cases it will be fairly simple for cities to cut services before they actually default on their debt cities and

he was a client of the united states and that's probably the difference here. and. now unfriendly that's how russia's foreign ministry has described arlen's expulsion of a russian diplomat dublin claims the stolen identities of six irish citizens were used by russian agents uncovered last year in the us are. reports from moscow. the russian foreign ministry has called iowa's decision to deport its diplomats an unfriendly move which will have serious consequences these are the only common suit for after accused the russian intelligence service of stealing real existing irish identities you know to forge passports to cover up its secret operations in the united states irish authorities say that this is a result of an investigation which started right after last summer a spy scandal between moscow and washington a group of people arrested in the united states and found guilty of being secret russian agents all the more deep rooted and it was largely covered by international media that's the name on that shop one turned up successful young businesswoman who was quickly

mcclure served in the united states navy during world war ii and whereas james a. mcclure served in the state of idaho as a prosecuting attorney, a city attorney, a member of the idaho state senate and as a member of the united states house of representatives, whereas james a. mcclure served the people of the state of idaho with distinction for 18 years in the united states senate, whereas james a. mcclure served the senate as chairman of the committee on energy and natural resources in the 97th through the 99th congresses and chairman of the senate republican conference in the 97th and 98th congresses, whereas james a. mcclure served his caucus as a founder member and chairman of the senate steering committee in the 94th through the 96th and the 99th through the 100th congresses, now therefore be it resolved that the united states has heard with profound sorrow that the senate has heard with profound sorrow and deep regret the announcement of the death of the honorable james albertus mcclure, former member of the united states senate. resolved that the secretary of

host: this opens a rift between the united states and arab allies. they write this morning that obama is the tend to push aside hosni mubarak sparked a rift with key allies, saudi arabia and united arab emirates, who. the united states is open the door for the islamic groups to gain influence and destabilize the region. they have sent private messages of solidarity -- the message is about to support for the president and mr. omar suleiman to oversee the transition and ensure islamists can fill any possible power vacuum. next telephone call comes from tampa. abraham, a democrat. caller: good morning. can you hear me? yes, my -- host: you have your tv volume of and that is giving you feedback. caller: i am going to turn it down. yes. my concern about what is going on over in egypt. what is happening over there in egypt -- will have enough problems of our own. this is nothing but something to get us talked into a potential motherwort and i don't see my country going into another war or if any of of these countries. we need to mind our own business and ge

i cannot believe that the united states would choose to go to war, welcome as the united states did with spain in 1894. without a lot of people saying wait a minute, we can't afford it. do you know what that's going to do to the deficit? so the united states may have reverted now, recently sent a financial meltdown of 2008, to the way the country was before the very that i talk about. it wasn't that rich, and war like any other kind of national activity, something that cost money. and when the money gets tight, some people think strong second thoughts about were. i will stop there. i have spoken longer than i intended to but now we can do questions, right? [applause] >> fascinating. my question is regarding the spanish-american war. i can see why with my desire to take cuba and puerto rico from strategic and even economic interests, but what was the interest in the philippines other than perhaps competing with the french and the germans and the british in terms of some sort of worldwide manifest destiny? >> as a matter fact that was the principal reason for considering the philippines fa

so-called color revolutions in georgia ukraine and so forth bringing young egyptian activists to the united states sometimes receiving them at the state department sometimes at the national endowment for democracy or freedom house and these are all the quote unquote private and she also specialized in routine training for washington. and. what's going on is really a major not enough destabilization of the u.s. ally mobarak has been opposed to most of us policies of iraq we should be personally gulf nations and these are many levanon over the last several years so he's become in effect a thorn in the side of washington's greater agenda since two thousand and one now political unrest is sweeping further through the region thousands of algerians took to the streets of their capital to demand the resignation of president abdelaziz bouteflika police detained more than four hundred demonstrators in clashes across the city area has officially been in a state of emergency for nineteen years allowing north already east of banned public demonstrations protestors ignore the ruling following uprisings in tuni

here in the united states we move from a stronger federal government back to the states and from the states to the federal government, but it is always within a certain band. europe has not made it past the point of no return. it is not yet a union that is deep enough to withstand a serious reversal. so i would simply say that the jury is out as to whether this pause in the european project is just yet another. the second-guessing soon to be replaced by the next step toward deeper union or whether we are actually witnessing the high watermark of europe. the years ahead, we will see europe resected -- began to recycle and reversed. we will be a problem. it desperately needs a collective europe as partners. unfortunately the united states has very little ability to affect this process every nationalization that is taking place in europe. >> we are going to see two more questions, first from tom and then the gentleman in the center. >> the process that you have been talking about typically takes a good deal of time and a lot of hard work. we seem to be faced right now with some very ser

in the end of the day to ron is scared of the united states. kang yong is scared of the net states. and so if there is going to be a deal on the nuclear issue in either country that ultimately requires an understanding between the united states and the government of iran and north korea that deals with their security issues. that can come only from washington and not from brussels or from moscow or anyone else. that is why i think you need the multilateral and unilateral to be working hand-in-hand. >> you mentioned the number, i think four or five sectors that are very important to break out. i was wondering whether you would -- whether you would comment on what is happening in europe, which of those factors you mentioned have been in your view especially responsible for peace to break out in europe and where did you see the weaknesses, in other words, what to you expect of europe in the future in terms of immigration? >> well, i think the story of european integration and peace deepening its roots after world war ii was a product of that same kind of story at told. fundamental unde

launch a major report into it -- entitled pakistan 2020 with scholars from pakistan as well as the united states. we've worked with your colleagues in the state department on many of these projects, and we are delighted that we can continue to do this with your support. i'm pleased to announce that this season of afghanistan and pakistan this spring will be dedicated to the legacy of ambassador richard holbrooke. i personally am deeply grateful that you so readily agreed to give this memorial lecture in honor of our friend and partner, late ambassador richard holbrooke. we are also thrilled that you will inaugurate the season of programs at the asia society. so, ladies and gentlemen, please, welcome the 67th secretary of state, the honorable hillary rodham clinton. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. [applause] well, it is wonderful to be back here at the asia society, and i thank vishakha for that introduction and for her strong leadership. i also want to thank jack wadsworth and all the board members and supporters who are here doing what i think is very important work, continuing to build tie