A civic, civil unrest terrorism and terrorist groups active so its not a positive situation and so to the extent that we can continue to support the Afghan Military and again its the stomach for the longhaul and having an involvement that provides some sort of possibility for stability in the future. When we just decide well this is hopeless lets leave then you can get back to the situation that caused you to get there in the first place. Posted this book makes me assume youre running again because it lays out a view whether you agree or disagree. That suggests to me that you are reentering public life. Are you running again . Guest entering public life doesnt necessarily mean you are running but im out there in the public. I mean running for office again. I have been very clear that thats something im actively considering trying to gauge both the level of support thats out there but also trying to figure out being the father of seven kids for them still at home and having gone through
And explain to me and vernacular what it was not to be able to ride the school bus and explain that i should not ever be a so i said when you are running for office it seems to me you would do well to understand that the people you are asking to vote for you. [applause] i think a lot of people get carried away with running for office and see it as tv commercials and that kind of stuff. That is not what being a public server servant is all about to me. It is about respecting peoples backgrounds, reconciling differences and doing what you can to move an agenda that everybody can buy into. So a lot of times it may require that you suppress your own feelings in order to really get an agenda done. I would say to everybody running for office, as i say in the epilogue to this book, the epilogue to this book is a letter to my children, my grandchildren and all other children similarly challenged. And it says to him how i feel they need to conduct themselves if you are going to have a business,
Assad then were looking at a war in the middle east that is going to cross borders and potentially threaten the larger region and beyond. The latest figures ive seen is that there are more than a thousand fighters on behalf of extremist groups in syria comment from just europe. And with open borders, no visa restrictions, somebody wrote in france or germany or britain or the netherlands were ever will be able to come home and will be able to travel. So this has been vocations far beyond what if anything we think we can and should do to try to stave off a total collapse of the maliki government. I would just add one other note. If you look at where we are in the region, the conflict in syria, which right now is still a stalemate, but i thought this control in large parts of the country. But there is many hundreds of thousands of refugees in jordan, lebanon, turkey erratic and you have the tensions that are pervasive throughout the region be really fat on fire in iraq right now. It could
Jordan . If they do become democratic countries like egypt did briefly would that be better for us . Guest the question is not whether this is better for us or not. The ideal and the goal is a good one. The question is how do you get there and how long do you take it or what measures do you take . You mentioned egypt. Egypt was ready. Look at the United States. Were rewriting for an an election when the United States was formed to have everybody in the United States boat . Our founders didnt think so. They limited the people who could vote in an election. You say its horrible and terrible. Maybe it was maybe it wasnt that it was a decision that was made to make sure there was continuity and stability within government that was consistent with the values the government was founded upon. We cant go out and say the objective is a free election. I shouldve never been the objective. We have to work with individual situations to ultimately even though may take 100 years to get there but the