Receiving an award this afternoon and will be unable to participate in the Panel Discussion during the afternoon session. Therefore, it is important to get your questions in early because she is going off to receive the womens history award from the Northern Virginia District Of Columbia maryland affiliate of the National Association of negro business and professional women. [applause] i came to know dr. Medford through a predecessor of hers at howard, lorraine williams, who wrote a book about wrote an article about intellectuals who campaigned for lincoln. Among the people she mentioned was my great uncle, general thomas osborne. Through searching that out, i got to know dr. Mitford medford. And she has been a friend and admired person. She is the chair of the department of history at howard university. She teaches 19th century history. She has lectured widely and has been actively involved in many activities. I have read her book and i strongly urge that all of you do, too. She has b
Discussion during the afternoon session. Therefore, it is important to get your questions in early because she is going off to receive the womens history award from the Northern Virginia District Of Columbia maryland affiliate of the National Association of negro business and professional women. [applause] i came to know dr. Medford through a predecessor of hers at howard, lorraine williams, who wrote a book about wrote an article about intellectuals who campaigned for lincoln. Among the people she mentioned was my great uncle, general thomas osborne. Through searching that out, i got to know dr. Mitford medford. And she has been a friend and admired person. She is the chair of the department of history at howard university. She teaches 19th century history. She has lectured widely and has been actively involved in many activities. I have read her book and i strongly urge that all of you do, too. She has brought to the fore the story of those who had the most pressing interest and who
Thank you, guys. At this point, ill turn it over to q a from the audience. As you ask your question, a gentle reminder, please ask, if you have a panelist, please let us know who it is and please ask a question. Thank you. Okay, my question will be about database sets. My names peter gisele, i work in a hospital laboratory, im not a computer geek. As a military veteran, i was interested in a bill that was in the congress a long time ago. My frustration is that 99 of the people i contact i never get feedback from. What i want to create is a website, a viewer easily available database that has database sets in it of like the members of congress, people in the executive branch, but also governors and that. But also academic professors so that i could, over my retirement years, contact these people and try to get feedback, but at least document on this website that contact has been attempted and no response has been given. Database sets are very expensive and i just dont understand why the
Feel free to come forward if you would like. Good afternoon. Im peter bergen and peter bergen and i run into National Security foundation and its my great pleasure to introduce my colleague and friend Michael Waltz who has this wonderful new book out warrior diplomat a green berets battles from washington to afghanistan which really outlines mikes unusual career both being someone who is creating policy in the white house and the south asia adviser to Vice President cheney and carrying out the policies and the field as a special forces officer. Mike is also running a successful business. Hes a fellow here at the new America Foundation so he is going to outline the big ideas and some of the interesting stories in the book and then we will open up to question after session. Thank you. Mike. Thank you peter and thanks everyone for coming out today. I will just take a brief moment and talk about some of the broader Strategic Issues that i have tried to address in the book and really underl
Predator drones, kind of a flip of the switch. There is an 11 process with lawyers at every level standing right at the commander shoulder with a series of criteria of whether we can take that shot or whether we can go on that raid, to the point that i argued in the book to our detriment. Our hands are too tight. The pendulum has swung too far and it really, you know as i said our in actions often have greater consequences than our actions. Does that answer sure. I had all the time in afghanistan and i spent part of sort of the grill insurgency along with your community and a few others for a few decades now that has tried to fight the going battle inside the policy of rome in the beltway here, and then combatant commands. What would you offer as advice . When we woke up in this alternative universe this one where weve got representatives from the joint staff, dod advertising that the Afghan National Security Forces and police are going to be able to take care of this problem but at th