What it is once a year when you file taxes if you make very little money diarist pays you some money. I would like to see it extended to childless dads or dads not living with their children so that they can have an incentive to work, employers can have an incentive to hire them. Beacon have more Child Support paid and more families working together. These are the things we can do to try to help this population in the middle but its very difficult because the factory jobs we saw here in baltimore are not coming back. Host labors lost love is a the name of the book arise and call of the working class rise and fall of the working class in america. Andrew cherlin is the author. Coming up next on booktv, scott taylor and former navy s. E. A. L. Sniper and a walk war veteran argues that president obama and his administration are hurting our National Security and should be held accountable. [applause] thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. Good afternoon. That was pretty weak and unacceptable. Lets try again. Good afternoon. Thats a little bit better. I appreciate that introduction that i was going to go into a little bit of that but i think i will shift gears a little bit. I had the pleasure of going to the ranch today and it was as humble as it was beautiful. I really enjoyed it and its certainly an honor and a pleasure to be with you here today and the Young Americans as well. Look, i was walking upstairs and one of the things even at the ranch i saw reagans books and i was looking at it like mandy is a lot of different topics. My own insatiable curiosity, i was drawn to it and i liked it. When i was walking with andrew upstairs there was this one book that stood out and it was louis lamour was the author. How many of you guys know who louis lamour is . Well as a young man i was 13 years old reading comic books and how many of you know what big brothers and big sisters is . So im a little brother and my big brother is now 75. He is more like a father of course but when i was 13 he caught me reading the comics book and he said why are you reading the comic books . But make give you some real books to read. I was getting in trouble in school and i was getting my work done early and i was getting in trouble and spitting spitballs that kids do. He said why dont you read real books and thatll help you not get into trouble . He gives me this bag of louis lamour books like 25 of them and i was completely addicted to louis for more books. I read every one of them and i read everyone in the county library. I think i read 65 louis lamour books. If you have read him you know they are the same story. They just have different characters. What is really important about datamart louis lamour change the trajectory of my life because after i got done with s. E. A. L. Training and at the time the s. E. A. L. Team had a different responsibility of the area of operation in the world. We were completing our training and instructors came from the different teams and they were describing those areas of operation. When s. E. A. L. Team four when it was his time to come up he said south america is like the wild wild west. Thats where im going. Because of louis lamour. So i want to open the speech with a very simple declaration. I love this country and i would do anything humanly possible to defend her from enemies foreign or domestic. I know thats not complicated and its certainly not that flashy but i guarantee everyone in this room agrees with that sentiment. I also believe that now more than ever it needs to be said out loud. Men and women like all of us by men and women all around the nation. I spent a decent part of my life serving in defense of the country and those experiences taught me a lot. The challenge me greatly and is certainly scared me more than enough. For that is what has motivated me to stand up at this pivotal time in history to say that we need to change the way we look at ourselves the way we interact within the world and how we lead our fellow freedombased democratic nations in the decades ahead. I think that speaking out is just the next step in my own personal journey and it is a journey that has taken me from freezing in the surf of the Pacific Ocean and s. E. A. L. Training to buildings deeper behind iraqi lines into now mr. Jeffersons capital and western virginia as a state delegate. That journey ended on marylands quiet eastern shore. I was raised by a single mother and i didnt have much focus on academics. My families lack of money and my mediocre grades made the military the best chance to get out of that small town. I know it sounds quite trite but i really wanted to see the world and in fact in my book i write the fact is i do not have a strong opinion of the Service Aspect of joining the military. That would come later. For me it was all about the challenge and i just wanted to tackle the hardest thing that anyone can throw at me. Im pretty sure there are probably a lot of s. E. A. L. S do is say the same thing. I found myself at 18 years old the youngest guy in s. E. A. L. Training and i was a long long way from maryland. As you heard i spent two years training marksmanship recognizance from our fellow s. E. A. L. S and preparing them for war and then i would go to war myself that i was a sniper in iraq. I learned more there than i have ever before and since. I have probably learned the most on a very dark night in ramadi iraq. From what i remember we were a group of navy s. E. A. L. Sniper simply recited in this house on the corner of the base along the euphrates river. Next was was a house full of army rangers. Next to them a house full of Delta Force Operators and finally a house full of cia officers so not bad neighbors to have if you found yourself in that part of the world. We were given a mission one night to go into the city. We would be inserted in the mouth than i did and make her way to the stake in building where they were supposed to be insurgents who were launching attacks on coalition forces. We would stay there for a few days and observed that intersection. Before we would leave we would go to the roof of our makeshift house where we have a small shooting range and we would make sure our sniper rifles were dialed in. You couldnt stand straight up on the roof because because guys have been shot out across a river. After he got a rifle style than we joined the marines who drove us in and dropped us off in the middle of the city. It was probably two or three night vision goggles head on the swivel because you never know where the bullets might come from and we wait made her way to this building. We entered very quietly because we didnt want anyone to know we were there of course. We cleared it room by room, floor by floor and mummy got to the second level i turned to hold security on the stairway leading up in my foot hit air. I fell through 20 to 25 p. To the concrete below. I was instantly unconscious. I had a torn acl tendon. I had a pneumothorax, a bruised lung and six broken ribs down my spine. But the team continued to clear the building because that is what you are supposed to do. You have to win the fight first before you tend to the wounded. But our medic petty officer stout rushed over to me and realized he could hardly hear me breathing. He would tell me years later when i first saw him that he stabilize my back. He inserted a jade tube into my throat, cleared my airway and probably saved my life. He did not stop there. He called in the marines come up to medevaced me out in a helicopter in the road with the marines to take me to the helicopter. This was not an ordinary road like we have in front of us here. It was filled with improvised explosive devices. In fact from what i remember i believe they lost 11 marines that year alone on that stretch. Staut did not care. He was going to make sure i arrived safely and then he would rejoin the team in the mission. Staut put his life on the line to save my life. Folks i am only here today because i stand upon the shoulders of those brave men that i had the pleasure and honor of serving with. Better men than me then mike petty officer stout. I learned so much from my fellow s. E. A. L. S, bravery, courage dedication character. I learned that a nation that produces these noble humane warriors is an indispensable one in the life of the world. This is the greatest nation this world has ever known and that truth is reflected in the actions of the men and women of all armed services. We cannot let them down. We cannot let this nation down. That is why today im here to speak out about some policies in our country that i believe are unfortunately taking us the wrong direction in a Pivotal Moment in our history. When you are a soldier you take your orders and you serve. You do your duty but now as a citizen i want to use what i have seen and learned to speak out in defense of liberty and freedoms given to us by god and defend it by the government and the military. I refuse to be part of the generation that went abroad to feed the evils of terrorism to come home to see washington lose that fight through misguided National Security and foreign policies. I cannot remain silent as our leaders fail to speak openly and truthfully about the spreading cancer of islamic extremism. I will not simply sit back and watch as we turn our backs on our allies and appease those who were not our friends. Too much of both our foreign and National Security policies in recent years have been made for the desire to produce shortterm Political Goals to gain political territory and in forms by unrealistic views of the world. Wishing the world to be something other than it is does nothing for American Security or american interests. Now book we can all learn a lot about Foreign Policy and Crisis Management in International Relations from academics but you can also learn quite a bit from realworld experience. In this dangerous, changing seemingly chaotic world in which we live and i would argue that we need more folks in positions of leadership who have experience in the more dangerous than sensitive regions of this globe. In making National Security decisions, local culture matters matters. After my time in the navy guy went on to serve in a private capacity as a Security Consultant and manager for u. S. Oil company in yemen and ultimately i would deploy approximately 10 times there are over four years. Nothing that i could have been taught on these shores would have prepared me for what i learned in those stands. One day i got a call in the Arabian Desert that the labor had stopped on a project we were working on. There was a guy threatening to shoot anyone in the field to continue to work. And yemen that sorted thing is kind of ordinary. So i didnt think too much of it at first but then i went to my tribal guards and none of them would go with me outside the wire. So i went down to their barracks trying to find out what the hell was going on and they said to me look, we cant go out there. That is not g. Out there. But now she has hired guns in one of his guy guys shot his own brother in the head. I am like, really . You guys are supposed to be tough. These guys were armed but they were not hard men like i had served with. So i called in the army and called the nareg yemeni detachment out there to figure out what was going on. I could always tell how strong the tribal sheikhs were based on the armys reaction to them or lack thereof. So they go out there and nothing is happening and im frustrated because we are losing money. I get a call on the radio. Its my interpreter and he says to me they are all out there but a sort of this stalemate going on right now. So i had to do something that i grab an ak47, convinced an old better one to go with me and interpreter. We go out there to meet the army and the not g. And the scene was fascinating. We get up there and there are 15 bedouin tribal guys who are all in firing positions. They have automatic weapons not just ak47s and they are on one side of the road. On the other side of the road where the yemeni army contingent who were also in firing positions. And we have a gun truck in the middle of the road there were a few guys in and out including this dodgy character. So we pull up and its on the top of a sand dune. I remember getting out in thinking this who in the world right now is doing this . Probably nobody. So i get out there and sit down with a group in the middle grade i was surprisingly calm but i knew i would have to take a hard stance. Najih was high. In yemen they chew this night narcotic leaf. He was nervous and he gets up and walks away. And a wrong move by the army were the better ones could result in a disaster. You cannot call 911 in the Arabian Desert. Thats something that might be a little foreign to modern americans but thats one of the reasons local culture is as it is there. So then the guy that was the most reasonable was the guy that shot his brother in the head. He was dressed a little bit different. He had all black on and i could tell he was a dangerous guy. He relayed the demand of najih through an interpreter. What they wanted was the fuel contract to deliver fuel between facilities. Unfortunately we had given a contract to one of his peers in the tribe that there could probably be something worked out that didnt hurt us financially were contractually. Happens all the time over there within themselves. So i looked him right in the eyes very competently and i said listen i dont care if you stay here with your guys and threaten our folks for three weeks in this desert. I will not help you. In fact and i was completely bluffing here, i will make sure that you never work in this field again. But if you take your guys and you take your guns guys and you take your guns and you leave and you allow the work to continuing to come to my office in three days with najih with no guns we will work something out and i will help you. So he stops. He is completely surprised in the pauses and looks at me and he says hands me his ak47 which is a cultural gesture to say i mean you no harm. He says we respect the fact that you came up here. We did not expect it. Najih will come to your offices. In three days as u. S. I interrupted him. I wanted to make sure that i was setting the conditions. I said you come in two days. And he agreed. They left and they allow the work to continue. A couple of days later they came and najih ended up getting part of his contract. His spirit never complained at all. [laughter] i would totally use najih and other negotiations later on, totally. Some guys were holding stuff up one time and they are stopping work. I said do you know who najih is . If you continue to stop work you are making him lose money so you can call him. Problem solved. So i share this experience with you to make a simple point. In arabia power is the one thing, the only thing that brings true respect. It got najih what he wanted and helped me avoid what i wanted to avoid. Strength is what is respected in that part of the world and in the tribal world its practically suicidal to make in a lateral concessions to appear weak or weaken your allies position. The only way to establish peace or command any respect or retain any implements is to demonstrate ones power. Now is a nation confronting threats emanating from that part of the world from russia or north korea we need leaders who have strength, leaders like Ronald Reagan who understood the world is not a classroom on a college campus. The world is dangerous and full of people who respect strength and power. If we want to expand our cherished values of liberty and freedom and personal responsibility and freemarket tolerance that can only successfully happen for a projection of strength and confidence. Today we are increasingly risky and our leadership position and we are paying a price. No more so than the men and women in uniform in harms way. Brat senseless cuts to the military sequestration, social experiments on the body that has to remain disciplined and sending folks overseas to fight with one arm behind their backs are grave mistakes and they are leading to grave consequences. Ladies and gentlemen there is no greater friend to free men and women than the United States military and theres no greater enemy to terrorists and oppressors than the United States military. Our military is an overwhelming force for good in this world. What the u. S. Has done over the past century as few counterparts in World History we are not empire building, we are now seeking to expand our footprint or takeover nations. We seek to keep the peace protect innocent people and make the world safer for our fellow man. Former secretary of state colin powell once noted we have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last 100 years and put an wonderful young men and women many of whom have lost their lives and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in. That work are preserving and expanding liberty and freedom is only growing more important. To successfully continue that work we need leaders whose policies aimed at the cause and not just addressing symptoms as they appear. And ever expanding kill list of unaccountable drone strikes may kill terrorists here and there and thats a good thing but they also serve as better recruitment than Guantanamo Bay ever did. We cannot win a war on terror with tactics alone but we have to have a strategy of overpowering and strength physically mentally and virtually. What America Needs is leadership with the courage to call islamic tears and what is, pure evil. [applause] leadership matters. We must be clear, principled and consistent. This will embolden our allies to do the same including our islamic allies who have been burned by the flames of terrorism. They are looking to us for guidance and leadership and that only comes through strength. We need leaders who understand that our interests align with other common minded nations and not those who seek to Fund Terrorism or seek to create regional unrest or seek nuclear weapons. We need leaders who understand what it means to become a team leaders who truly believe in america and our greatness in what they can achieve in tandem with their international partners, international partners. Of course we havent had that kind of leadership in the past six or seven years. And that fact has helped to remind americans we are or where in war wary as we may be that these qualities do matter. We cannot turn our back on the world and hope these problems simply go away. The world is too small. The geographic boundaries of old are not relevant in this modern age. We have to confront the world as it is. These are challenging times. The thing about america is we are never out of the fight. We fall down but we always rise up again in the dust ourselves off and we press ahead. This is who we are. This is how we started and this is how we will be moving forward. Now its time to demand the leadership that we deserve, optimistic leadership that no matter what the challenge we will stand shouldertoshoulder with you and i and everyone as americans advancing our interests and proving to our allies that they have no better friend and condensing all others that they can have no worse enemy. We can use soft power and hard power to achieve this in a push pull policy with robust leadership. We give foreign aid to many countries and that its forms part of our soft power and all the money we give around the world we are not taking advantage of what we give. I find this fact amazing. The u. S. Is home to some of the best marketers the world has ever known. Why people wear Michael Jordan tshirts in the congo. They drink pepsi and paraguay. They dance hiphop like andrew in haiti. [laughter] yet none of these professionals efforts, none of them have been demonstrating to the people how we are helping them around the world than it seems absurd to me we would give all these foreign aid packages without making them away whom to thank. Lets use those talents that are arguably the most american of industries to help do that as well as combat isis brand. That is probably a better strategy for winning the hearts and minds and broadcasting through selfaggrandizing leaks in the New York Times that are president is personally approving every drone strike in their country. When it comes to our power we should immediately resent sequestration the draconian and untargeted cuts made to our military in 2013 congress that failed to reach an agreement in cutting the budget in a more rational and responsible and sustainable way. If you are a runner and i know you are coming you know its easier to keep up and catch up. Its the same way with military spending. We can definitely find savings but the sequestration cuts are indiscriminate and we need leaders to roll up their sleeves and not take the easy way out and put more of a burden on the already loaded backs of our men and women in uniform. Our way of life and are currently reluctant role in the world ultimately rests upon them. Thats the reality and we owe them the best. Now speaking of hard power when and if we decide that people will fight and we have folks that will engage your enemies we must do so wholeheartedly and wipe them out. Unbelievably small is not a phrase that any American Leadership ever utter about a military operation. That is a sign that we are not serious. It all starts with having the resources in place prior to any operation so if we decide to go when and we go all in. Ladies and gentlemen ive served on the battlefield and in Elective Office and ive learned a lot from both places but what i have finally learned is this it is time again for america to see the world as it truly is. It can be no intentional confusing of the nature of these direct threats to our world being and our way of life. There are evil people in the world that wants to erase the advances of the last centuries and subjugate men and women to the ignorance of their misguided and wrong believes and they present us with the greatest challenges of our lifetimes. That challenge calls for an america that knows its place as the ultimate defender of liberty and freedom for all and backs away from no threat that is prepared cleareyed and always vigilant. And thats like my old friend petty officer stout from ramadi leaves no friend behind on the field of battle. Thank you all so much and god bless you. [applause] thank you, thank you. [applause] thank you. I would like to open it up for question and answers. I like long walks on the beach seinfeld and hirsi kisses. We will take questions. Please wait for the microphone to get to them please say your name before your question. My name is kim shows. The question i have for you just recently i read where senator tom cotton has said that with obamas telling the plans the military plans for mosul giving the timeline, how many are going in the hoping he has come out and said its aiding and abetting the enemy. Lieutenant general mcinerney retired has said the same thing. So im just wondering what do we as a nation what we do with a president that is aiding and abetting the enemy . What i first want to say is wheres my military table back there . What do you guys think . Should we never say what we are never bringing to bear, ever . It makes no sense in this administration has a history. They probably would argue differently that they are not updating the enemy. They are doing things that give them attention to show they are doing something about the problem, even if it is pinprick airstrikes in my military table help me out again do you think we can ever win a war with airstrikes alone . You need intelligence and boots on the ground. I think number one first and foremost the thing that everyone in this room should be doing is working for 2016 and switching the direction and switching the path that this administration has taken which i personally believe is completely wrong for our position in the world, our american interests and our folks that go overseas to fight for us so i would just say that. I wont go as far as to say that he is abated the enemy but indirectly at least, of course it is. [applause] faq for coming to santa barbara. Since we live in such a different america us now what are the consequences you had for speaking out to write your book positive or negative . The. So in 2012 with in london you who they were or what they found with actionable intelligence would use the end let you found . No. I speak about this with the intelligence kennedys are upset because it hinders operations. So we were critical of the of president to get reelected. Three did speak out if we did criticize the president himself. So it comes out on monday. It is overwhelmingly positive. [laughter] listening at the jimmy carter center. [laughter] beirut there is the few that you think what about bush . With their critical about something. My name is harry it i have seen a lot. We do have some ideas that somebody that designed the escalator. Anion the one that got the idea that stopped the war in iraq. I didnt have any trading but is there anywhere in the service of this country i pray every night. One morning i said oh my god. Did i dream this . I said that is a way to stop the war in iraq. And what it was i called it into the pentagon in ice said this has to be called in to the president as soon as i hate siepi likes to know when i have a new idea. [laughter] it was president george bush. , i want somebody like a colonel with a couple of army people on either side of him. To get as many together as you can and at that meeting meeting, wouldnt you know, i have a senior moment . [laughter] but the fact is i would talk about leaflets from world war ii. And general franklin to the early but they dropped leaflets for three days. What they win through with the army not one bullet was shot. From the enemy. I warned them thats what it was. I warned them that if they would start to worry about themselves because iraq iraq, iran would come to iraq in the first monday will look for is the mullah because they have 100 soldiers under them with the head on the right the body on the left no question they will walk out. Thats it. In the wall street journal spinner it really a . You can never get enough fears. Prayers. What is your take on secretary of state . John kerry . [laughter] i am just kidding. It is that same sort of world you he will go to the middle east to negotiate israel to accommodate our enemies and the goal is to get through some kinda deal just to say they have bid deal but if you listen because they live in that part of the world it contradicts policies and how they approach. Kerry, i know they keep canadians anything in a think he is Strong Enough for the administration is serious enough to allow him to be strong. To prevent iran from getting a bomb. I am just looking forward to do 2016. [laughter] [applause] banks for being here. I am curious there has been a number of books out with the americans sabre and it seems Cecile Community comes out against them after the books are written and had you had any feedback . It is an excellent question. Let me take us back a couple of years. Leadership matters. So with the of london there is a lot of books except for lowes survivor that had nothing to do with osama bin lot and it is a historic story thatll lot of people that should know that. In fact, when i was injured in iraq three days before that they were sending females mate the fun of me. [laughter] and then unfortunately that happened. But we have the highest flood flows of government to the our complicity with releasing secrets to a the New York Times to collaborate with hollywood with topsecret information and let me say just because you have topsecret clearance doesnt mean you have information in. In 100 million is made. But then it was supposed to come out it was to help the reelection campaign. It is hard to tell peoplehood unlike there they cannot say anything. Klay should also goes to the highest levels as well but that being said i dont agree with a couple of my brothers but at the same time they were there. I dont agree exactly the look at the leadership it is hard to tell somebody the rightfully so now you have the Upper Echelon that would not involve with the other higherups to get the discipline back. They have to. And an unfortunate situation and that cave about first because of leadership. First of all, my question is based on your s. E. A. L. Team experienced you have any insight to policy developing to cuba . I dont have specific policies. I would be disingenuous. But it isnt talked about until recently. , then they open deprivations tear cuba who will provide them with everything . America. A the end of that castro regime. So no i did not get any personal experience. One more. You got it. Thanks for being here. What is your view on benghazi . [laughter] i talk about it all lot in the book but there were failures and mistakes of leadership before, during coming in after. Because the ambassador was asking for more security in a very volatile ill area, libya is a disaster. The jury nobody was going in and they could have initiated something. And then i got my dives bag so as soon as to give word to be back at the compound within an hour. Every red blooded american and military soldier would be chomping at the bit to get in there to save americas. Those who have had friends to do that it goes against everything. We still get information to pull out through subpoena. We have no idea what henry was doing. Then of course, there is a coverup for personal political gain to show libya was pacified because that was their baby under the guise to stop from killing his people and i would submit many more were killed with the genocide of questions there is a tv station in libya right now it is a disaster. Before during and after there are tens of failures of Hillary Clinton decides to run i hope the American People really seeks the truth. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. People dont think of texas from the civil war their more familiar with the struggles tajo in the eastern United States late into the more gettysburg. In late 80s and 64 1864 talking about the campaign from tennessee and mississippi there were not a lot of Major Military actions that would take place though that could not get the attention it probably should. Galvestons role was important it was the largest city in texas with the largest population went into commercial centers and the primary seaport there were no real connection is between texas and the western United States. Canso texas to the rest of the confederacy that was the better harbor but so with that blockade running went through galveston for the of the most part. Listed was primary. Even before the confederates fired april 1861 in charleston, s. Secession becomes a shooting war. The idea of a plot by a blockade is an old traditional technique used warfare to keep shut ships and vessels to get support from outside. Declared a blockade that was two days after Jefferson Davis had authorized privateers to go after union ships which itself is an act of war. But the Union Blockade was declared april 1861 proposed the idea was to the federalist with position and borg ships around the airports to prevent vessels from coming in and out. Running the blockade was illegal but not in the forces but of the confederacy because they did not recognize federal authority in the seceded states. It was mostly done as a private venture. Anybody could be a blockade runner if you have of vessel for business interest. Those involved in other aspects of business because that was a way