Will violate and they will violate any will violate, and we will just live with it. You were talking about how the Administration Figures seem to be hopeful that the regime will moderate. One of the things that concerns me and i think there is some evidence that the administration is happy to work with the hardliners we had some indication that a nuclear deal, since it is the irgc that controls the nuclear file, that will lock in the hardliners. There was a story in Foreign Policy a couple months ago after the officials went to meet with the president at camp david and john hannah did a piece for Foreign Policy where the officials were describing the president seems to admire certain things like president salah money. Like president sulamani. One of the things i wanted to ask you is who is we know who he is, but what is in his head, first of all, and is he winning in the region . If you can answer that the state apparatus, their institutions are effective and they are very good. And they have got a tremendous amount of intellectual capital that is brilliant and sophisticated, not just for the Nuclear Program but the other areas of the economy. They are an industrious people, and they have very good culture, literature, art, movies, film. This is a rich, textured, complex, sophisticated society. All of those things make it culturally more dangerous, because it has the institutional capacity, the ability to align its resources and to get the most out of them. That is one thing that impresses the administration. You talk about the real regime rational, contrasting it in some ways to our gulf arab allies. Mike definitely. This admiration for sloou lamani the them 211 million and they put out a piece saying that he is a pretty nice guy. Im sure a lot of people think dick cheney is a nice guy, or that Osama Bin Laden was a pretty nice guy. Not to make any comparisons. [laughter] wow. Just trying to be on both sides here. I reject you mentioning the Vice President in that context. Soulamani is hek to winning . Iraq now doing selfies and after victory parades, and he led the forces into crete. Away wasbefore the jcp even vote the jcpoa was even voted on. He is able to provide air support to forces you cant controls he was put in charge of the tikrit operation, using to designated terrorist organizations to expel. Unnis from the area that thehe ought fight against sunnis is a bigger deal than isis. This was a clear and whole strategy. Blanket is simply because. Here is no Iraqi Security he has not built a forced to take back ramadi and falluja. He has made baghdad more dependent on tehran and they were a year ago. , working in the open with designated terrorists, and the bank that funded his organization was delisted. So he is winning and now we just gave him more money, and now we just gave him the ability to buy advanced weapons. He cant help but smile. This may, in fact, prolong the syrian campaign. Coffersinto the arabian because they have provided tremendous financial support. The captain has directed and coordinated across the region, orchestrating involvement from hezbollah and syria, sponsoring iraqi shia militias. He is directly behind the aerial bombings of centers, the destruction of bakeries and food centers in syria in order to impact the population. Human conducted numerous Rights Violations under his organization and direction and tutelage. This is occurring in iraq. He has ethnic cleansing, assassinations, torture, all this at the behest and guys of s soulaimani. In some americans think we will be able to work with him. The president of iran and the military, the conventional military overran, is not iran, is not involved in dominating the region. That is a problem of two leaders. The rest of the leadership is not involved in any of that. That is the simple way to understand what is truly taking place. Given the scorecard that has been achieved, as i mentioned before, it is indisputable that they have had significant measures of success, and the two of them enjoy that success. General, you were speaking core thatut the moral leadership requires in the Different Things that churchill understood and that Margaret Thatcher understood as well. They could see which way things were trending. I can ask you which way do you think this is trending . Where do you think this is going . What do you think it needs for the region . What do you think it means for the United States and our allies . Well, i think American Leadership by in large has been passive and disengaged from the region, and it has endangered our interests, our allies. Ed has embolden our our adversaries. China and russia are more adventurous. Them issomeone new to our relationship the europeans havent been capable of asking that people will suffer in terms of National Security for close to 30 years. They have understood the european feckless leadership. Ishink what is new to them the degree that American Leadership has stepped back, and they are clearly taking advantage of it. Im not hopeless about this issue, because i think we have we have been here before many times. American leadership is the defining experience. We understood we started with a leader who understood what he wanted, and he was fighting that conventional military that was the best in the world. It took him seven years but we eventually beat it back. Im talking about the founder of our country. During theesident civil war that couldnt find in general to fight the war competently, and his leaders were willing to come to him and sent, look, we have to make accommodations with the Jefferson Davis government. We have got to establish some kind of accord now given the way the war ha is going you would have none of it because he knew that the structure of the United States as we knew it he finally found a guy that could do something. Roosevelt and truman during world war ii the decisions they made were extraordinary. It had nothing to do with party. Roosevelt makes the decision watching nazism, and decides in conjunction with churchill that it is not going to be sufficient with the calamity of world war ii against this ideological leader that it is not going to be sufficient to defeat their military or regime. The only way to prevent this from happening again is to defeat the german people. What a decision that was. And that resulted in millions of civilian deaths. Germany today is what . A flourishing economy, a democratic base, and war is something not even on the horizon. Decisionde a similar dealing with what he was facing in japan. He had a weapon that would bring the war to an end and he knew what the cost would be to invade japan. Have fought and the casualties were rising and he made a very difficult decision he forced the leadership to stop the war, he had to kill japanese civilians to do it. Look at those decisions those are staggering decisions, by people of character, who didnt want to make those decisions. They were good people, they knew what they were doing. But they believed that this was the humane thing to do to stop this kind of calamity that has been imposed on the world by people of evil. Thatnk that leadership will rise in this country again and will continue to rise. Why . Because my faith in the American People people give rise to that leadership. I will just ask quickly and then i want mr. Harvey to have a say. I will see if i can open it up for a question or two if we have enough time. When asked what are the sorts of decisions that the next administration might need to make, especially regarding iran. Im not just talking about the iran nuclear deal, im talking generally about 36 years of iranians not responding, will as finally rise to a level where american leaders we need to respond . I think American Leadership really matters, and we have seen the disaster of the absence of leadership in the middle east region and how it has alienated our friends and frienemies in the region. Even statements in the gulf countries, in some ways, lukewarm support reflects a calculation on their part of this is going to go through and doesnt do them any good to be out right and opposition to it publicly. I think the next leader has to rebuild confidence in the region, build bilateral and multilateral relationships in the middle east, north africa. The sinoo deal with moscow path that seems to be emerging in the world, and i dont think we want tehran to be a part of that final soviet pact, but that seems to be where we are headed. We may need to think about declaring a Nuclear Umbrella in the region, providing private assurances for that. In order to forestall a movement a tendency toward consideration of nuclear kara,feration by oan gulf countries, cairo. Confidence ding in we say what we mean and we will back it up is something we need to do, and i think we need to be clear about who our enemies are and our friends are. We have undermined it too many in that part of the region whether it is in tel aviv, the gulf, kyra. Cairo. I think theres a major challenge for the next administration because it takes a long time to repair those relationships. Mike . We are already doing that the administration is saying that this keeps the ran from a Nuclear Weapon, while we assure the region that we will provide you things to keep them from one. King you with. That doesnt make sense. You go to your goals allies and tell them we will build up your capabilities so you will be able this enough to deal with increasing threat we are getting ready for. If they dont cheat, allow them to develop a Nuclear Weapon and 1015 years. Leadership can turn this around very quickly, because you start with what is the role in the United States and the Global Security challenges and you articulate that to the American People, to the world at large. Just that alone begins to let our adversaries and friends know that American Leadership is back. That is number one. Actions will always speak louder than your rhetoric, and this is not rocket science. We have no comprehensive strategy to deal with radical islam. We have had two president s who have been dealing with this since 9 11 and we still do not have a conference a strategy. That is outrageous that we could find ourselves in 2015 with that, but that is the truth of it and i am not talking about some muscular military strategy im talking about a comprehensive strategy to use the tools to bring people together in a nato type alliance. We have never done it. The u. S. Leadership would help organize it, get the people in the region, and others who are interested involved, and we start to make progress. The same thing in the iranians. Chinaosed to dealing with and russia this doesnt have to be all about military muscle, but they have to have some conviction that you were going to use some of this military muscle. You have to believe that there is an imperative, that you will do something, and what actions do speak to that . You dont abandon libya after you take the regime down. The one thing the new president the moderate islamist takes over and you have to say i need some people to come over here and train the Security Force so i can stabilize this. I have all these radicals running around. What do we do . We stiff them. Does that send a message question mark of course it does. Does that send a message . Of course it does. You were supposed to provide us with security that was our accord, our treaty. Why arent you honoring that . We dont want your soldiers on the ground, we dont want your airplanes. They asked for weapons and we stiffed them. Those are actions that speak far louder than words. Only people asking for america to help them solve the problem may have themselves, in the same thing with the Free Syrian Army that came here in 2011 no help. Petraeus th all recommended to help them. The president s this them. Those actions just reverberate around the region and the set us with considerably more problems. Tos is an all that hard, to do if you make up your mind about what the role is america place in the world. Im not suggesting a muscular military strategy that i am suggesting it is about leadership. You were talking about people i talkthe to across government that are involved in deputies meetings and the policy development, the if you look at the president s strategy against isis for one, and i think we can counter them, you have to choose, but whatever you think about, it is insufficient to the task and it feels to identify the threats. But even with that if the president is going to have a strategy, he needs to take an interest in his strategy and make sure that it is resourced, that it is coordinated, that the right questions are asked, that it is executed effectively, that cies i doing what they are supposed to be doing, that they develop metrics instead of obfuscating. Elsewhere, the interest is high. Lets just they move on, lets just do enough. That shows a lack of leadership and real interest about achieving effective results to impact the enemy, in this case isis. It was the president s own strategy that he is not making sure it is executed effectively. It is going to rebound on us at some point, dramatically. It is already affecting the people in the region. Most of the things that have happened since the president announced is due to lack of response and lack of follow through in his own government. Lets see if there are any questions. You have the microphone, the gentleman i you could introduce yourselff. We will probably only have time for two questions. On the tractor of islam here. The question i have to ask follows mr. Harveys remark, that we are trying to understand these people as we understand ourselves, that we are making mistakes, and part of that lack of understanding is for whatof imagination the iranians may want to accomplish. You give a very frank account of what they have done and i was wondering whether you could speak to what they might do in the future. Terms, butral specific ways, specific things you might anticipate from them. Especially the issue of the missiles, which i believe he cited general dempsey as saying is a very serious issue, that has not gotten much attention. Jerry hasor me and some specific knowledge i think the strategic objective of the United States dealing with iranians desire for hegemony would be to use all the elements of power with our allies in the region to change the regime. Im not talking about military takeover. That should be the strategic objective. And you work towards countering what they are doing with our allies in the region, and it is not just about the United States, not just about military power. It is usually in all the elements of power to do that with our allies in the region. When it is necessary to i suggested and a litany of time when it certainly was necessary for 1983 through 2008 you have to do that. Its not just necessarily by yourself. But that kind of thought process just has not been there. We are down at a tactical lowlevel in dealing with the regime that has a comprehensive strategy. We lack of equivalent comprehensive strategy to cope with that reality. I think one thing the radians are going to do over the next five years if you look at where they are investing their into listing missiles, shipping capabilities both landbased and seabased, and supporting a wide member of proxies in the region. I think what they are going to do is build up the capabilities, reinvigorate their economy, reinforce these efforts. I think the path is going to inform this. They are going to use their coercive influence to try and do the three things they want. They want to limit and help end the state of israel longterm. They want to make the United States not a factor in the region. And they want to undermine the coherence of the gcc and pick off those countries and get them into their or orbit. Also empower shia majorities in bahrain. It will change the political dynamic in the gulf. That is where they are headed. They are going to focus on securing their interests in syria and lebanon, and they have already got a long ways to establish baghdad. They will solidify they continue to undermine everything we are doing in iraq, to build up an isf, and they are using all their capabilities to in buildingermine countervailing forces that are aligned and most loyal to the supreme leader, not to the government in baghdad. You mentioned cyber. My understanding that it is only recently that the iranians have gotten good at cyber. Is this accurate and how did this happen . From my perspective, looking at it from both sides of government and outside government, at least 57 years. Help from the russians . In silicon valley, you will see all kinds of formaer in firstthat came over and second generations. They have got brilliant intellectual capital, and they have taken advantage of schooling around the world and in the United States. These guys are not in that. Ot inept. You can buy the capability, an educated nation like iran certainly has the capability to grow their own in this field. People are getting more aggressive with it. The United States has hands down number one offensive capability in the world. I have been dealing with this for nine years. It will make your eyes water what we can do. But nonetheless, other countries who are also advanced technology countries are gradually acquiring greater offensive capabilities. The russians are number two. The iranians have a real capability, so does britain, and this list is going to grow. Ofis going to be a fabric the geopolitical challenges that we are using as a huge enabler intelligence, and it is a huge offensive capability, which is pretty dramatic. Thank you, general. We dont really have time for another question. I wanted to thank you all for coming. I want to thank hudson and our cspan audience. I especially want to thank the panel. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] former senator jeff merkley became the 31st senator to announce he will support the Nuclear Agreement with thi ran. Congress is expected to disapprove the agreement but the senate would need 67 votes to override a veto from president obama. With berkeleys announcement only three more votes are needed for it to survive. This morning he wrote on the website median that the agreement is quote, the best available strategy. Coming up at 6 p. M. Eastern here on cspan, the president of emilys list, a group that raises money for Democratic Women running for office who support abortion rights. She will talk about the groups endorsement of hillary clinton, the role of women voters in the next election, and republican efforts to defund planned parenthood. Theonight on q a, u. S. s counterinsurgency in state building efforts in afghanistan. The u. S. Paid improvements in security, but nonetheless it has ultimately been worse. Here is where i hesitate and where i increasingly question myself. We dont know how it will end. It is also possible that five years down the road, we will be back in afghanistan. Isis is now slowly emerging in the country. It is much worse than the taliban. The taliban is deeply entrenched. Down the up five years road in a new civil war in d you have safe havens for the taliban and isis, i would say tonight at 8 00 eastern on q a. You are watching the communicators on cspan. Marave been talking with c tayer. We have talked about the 25 Years Television has been in place, its development. We just started our conversation last week on what is next, when it comes to watching video. Let me start with a broad