>> unlike iraq, this was a case where most people agreed some help was needed from outside. this is a popular uprising that would happen one way or the other. it would be crushed by muammar qaddafi who does not have political support. there's not some huge bases of support but he has a large military presence. he has been able to crush and kill people. the question is whether to go in with a full military campaign and i think the united states was fairly wise in not taking the front seat role and leaving it to nato and the un to do that. you do not want to create perceptions in the arab world that this is the american military coming in with its oil investments and that sort of thing. that is not what is going on. you do not want to create the perception. there is a strange moment of goodwill where people are willing to say this time could you help us out but that could fade quickly. >> what is the degree of success of this mission without that u.s.'s involvement. >> it is possible. this is not a huge war we're talking about. if it turns into one, something has gone wrong. t

know that he was going to search every home and find people in their closets so you know unlike for example iraq and this false claim of weapons of mass destruction here you have a leader who is actually saying you know by the way i am going to come out and drag people out of their homes and kill them and i know that you know this is something that obama pointed to in his speech in terms of why we got involved in libya let me play a little bit of what president obama said in there how do you respond. we knew that if we wanted if we waited one more day benghazi a city nearly the size of charlotte would suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and. the conscience of the work so again you know president obama pointing to this threat made by gadhafi himself do you think you the u.s. and france and great britain do you think that they should have just ignored to gadhafi as a madman. well i mean i think if you actually listen to a kid off he said he said that he would show no mercy to rebels but he said that he would show mercy if the rebels gave up the thigh gave up their weap

unlike iraq, iran has had a very powerful experiment with rationalism and that is good news for the iranianrnment. they don't need to worry much about it. i don't know if that answers your question but i just kind of try to shake up the premise of the question you brought up. >> if i could follow up slightly on that. one way when i release sort of compare i say when you look at iraq to look at the country put together a list than 100 years ago. you look at the iranian committee like mechem have persian, do i ever consider the two different components? no and it's a reflection of these people live 2.5 million years and for the u.s. policy-making whenever there is a sign that foreigners are trying to put one group iranians against the other it backfires. human-rights, there's a very receptive audience. they want to hear about the methods at the hands of the islamic republic. they don't want to hear about, you know, some by creating a new map of the middle east all divided into various countries, but i also say there is an element right now that is very timely to bear in mind. what was one of

unlike iraq, iran has had a very powerful experiment with nationalism, and that's really good news for the iranian government. they don't need to worry too much about it. i don't know if that answers your question, but i just try to kind of shake up the premise of the questions you brought up. >> if i could just follow up slightly on that. one way when i was sort of comparing, i say when you look at iraq, it's a country put together, you know, less than 100 years ago. look at the iranian -- look at somebody like me, half persian, do i consider these two components? no. it's a perception they lived there for 2500 years. when there's a sign foreigners put one group of iranians against the other, it backfires. human rights, there's a very receptive audience in iran, they want to hear about repressive methods at the hand of the islamic republic. they don't want to hear about a guy somewhere creating a new map of the middle east all divided into various countries, but i also say this. there is an element right now that's very timely to bear in mind. .. . iran is not quite see that region go

unlike iraq, iran had a powerful experiment with nationalism, and that is really good news for the iranianvernment. they don't need to worry too much about it. i don't know if that answers your question, but i just try to shake up the premise of the questions you brought up. >> if i could follow up slightly. one way when i compare is when you look at iraq you look at a country put together less than 100 years ago. you look at the iranian, somebody like me, half persian, do i ever consider this two components? no. the fact they lived 2500 years, and whenever there is a sign when they put one group of iranians against the other, it backfires. human rights, there's an accepting audience in iran. they want to hear about repressive methods. they don't want to hear about, you know, some guy somewhere crediting a new map of the middle east all divided into various countries, but i also say this, there's an element right now that's timely to bear in mind. what was one of the charges? if you all remember, recently kuwait expelled diplomats for spying and the american military in kuwait. emotions we

garment longer than iraq has actually have a voice because this means that politics of people that's not absolutely true because we have a government we have a caretaker government and unlike situation so in other countries where our through the actions there is no government to do the former government was in place before the elections still thinks the responsibility in a caretaker capacity it is a government that still has the majority in the bills and parliament and it's a government that is capable of deciding on things like the budget we have a deficit which is quite the rest of the european union countries we have had a very good experience in presiding the european union during the last six months of two thousand and ten and also when it comes to our international obligations. taking part in the situation think of libya for example we are capable of a mobilizing support from our parliament to the right decisions so this means that even with a caretaker government the belgian economy continues to be productive and to work and of course it would be better to have a full fledged government the soonest possible but there's no question of not having a government what is.

but he was trouble and i guess unlike a lot of you, i am a big supporter of the war on iraq even more than george bush apparently has found through dick cheney and name, huge fans of that were. i think it was important for 8 billion different reasons. i think we need and israel, an air of israel. we need a democracy of arab someplace over there. and you do have that in iraq. we accomplish that. [inaudible] >> you had that in lebanon. >> you have had. yes. perhaps that would be. that and iran, i would be more interested in regime change in than libya, egypt him and whatever we're doing in afghanistan. >> right here at the front. >> thank you. a couple questions very quick. if the taliban had given up bin laden as we demanded before we went in, do you think we would now be in afghanistan and? >> ask a question. no, i don't. >> if we had succeeded in killing bin laden, which was our original purpose, what i consider the first afghan war which had a purpose, would we still be in afghanistan and? and then finally come is a world where exactly the way it is today, except for our presence in

iraq in 2004. they were retreating certain behaviors to him based on the incident reports. this court unlikee have prosecuted before, any time you leave an operating basis and have some sort of contact with the na or civilians, you have to do the equivalent of a police incident report. all of those are classified to protect civilians and soldiers. thousands of those were put on wikileaks. they did not have a lot of intelligence value to an outsider. here was this individual. because they're able to figure out who he was because there was a favorable story about him in "washington post," there were able to combine the two and make certain assumptions which may or may not have been correct. they made assumptions about this soldier who had served his country honorably and had to make quick, ethical decisions in an adverse environment. now they were trying to make him a public figure as a result of that. the calculus, the tension between the collective good and the individual good has not caught up with technology. there is still too much of a focus on individual self- interest. the collective g

iraq. and before that, also in kosovo. he has had a highly successful 36-year career and in the marines. he has had a long experience with situations not unlike the one he has faced in afghanistan. so, we are going to hear his assessment after his last tour of duty there, where we stand in terms of kosovo and combat operations and of the challenges are ahead. then we will have a chance to ask questions. i will think you for coming to share your sussman with us and we very much look forward to hearing from you. >> thank you. i want to start off by thinking ms. matthews and the endowment for this opportunity to speak. i hope i live up to all of your expectations and i look forward to the questions i will get at the end of the brief. let me just qualify my presentation just a bit so you understand where i am coming from. i am going to talk about the southwest corner of afghanistan, helmand province and a small slice of kandahar. that is where i was for the last 12 months. that is my area of operations. i am happy to answer questions about afghanistan, but that would be my opinion, and probably not forged by personal observations. i spent most of

iraq and, before that, in kosovo. he has had a long and highly successful 36 year career in the marines. he has had a long experience with situations of insurgency, not unlike the ones he has faced in afghanistan. we are going to hear his assessment after his last tour of duty in their of where we stand in terms of civil and combat operations and what the challenges are ahead. then we will have a chance to ask questions. we would like to thank you for coming to share your assessment with us and we look forward to hearing from you. >> thank you very much. >> i want to start off by thanking you for this opportunity to speak. i hope that i live up to all of your expectations. i look forward to the questions i would get at the end of the brief. let me qualify my presentation just a bit so you understand where i am coming from. i am going to talk about the southwest corner of afghanistan. that was mike world the past 12 months. that made up my area of operations where i concentrated and was focused. i will be happy to answer any other questions on afghanistan as a whole, but it would be my opinion and not forced by personal observation. i spent most of my time i

iraq and before that also in kosovo. in the course of a very successful 36-year career in the marines, he has had long experience with situations of, not unlike the ones he has faced in afghanistan. we will hear his assessment after his last tour of duty there, of where we stand in both civil and combat operations and what to the challenges are ahead. we will have a chance for questions after he is finished. we want to thank you for coming to share your assessment with us. we look forward to hearing from you. >> thank you very much. i want to start of first alonofl i thinking this daniels and the endowment. i look forward to the questions at the end of the break. but we qualify my presentation a little bit so that you understand where i'm coming from. i will talk about the southwest corner of afghanistan. that was my world for the past 12 months. that is where i made up my area of operations, where i concentrated on, and where i was focused. i would be happy to answer any of the questions about afghanistan. again, that would be my opinion and is not forged by personal observations most of my time, i stayed in the capital. i was commander of t