Weve had a full day today. Weve heard many voices. We have had several speakers. We have heard from republicans, democrats, senior retired officials. Generals. Two excia directors. So the last thing that you needed, we thought, was an exile talking to an insurgent. I dont think i need to introduce mr. Steve bannon. He is the former white house strategist and the executive chairman of breitbart news. He has interesting things to say even for those who do not agree with him and its important for us to hear his perspective. Any attempt at trying to introduce him would only get me into greater trouble than is necessary. Everybody knows who he is and i welcome him on behalf of the Hudson Institute to this conference. I would just begin by saying that mr. Bannon has identified with the identify of America First and there are those who would say that America First would be more of an isolationist idea. His agreement to come and join us today actually gives us an opening to ask him to share with us some of the ideas that he would say he has about the topic today, which we all know is countering violent extremism, iran and the Muslim Brotherhood, so four different subheadings of the title. They all fall within the rubric of the National Security requirements of the United States and Foreign Policy. Steve, why dont you start with an Opening Statement that then sets the pace for us having this conversation. Thank you very much, ambassador. Id like to give a quote just to start off. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth. That was that was donald j. Trump a few minutes after high noon on january 20th 2017, his inaugural address. We will eradicate completely from the face of the earth radical islamic terrorism. Now, theres a lot of confusion or misinformation, fake news, about who wrote that inaugural address. President trump at the time president elect trump wrote it. Steve miller and myself were honored to help him out as were Jared Kushner, hope hicks, Kellyanne Conway, jason miller, some other folks as well who maybe crafted or structured it, but he wrote it. He particularly he wrote that sentence. And i remember i think he wrote that line and that part of the speech in back in November December at maralago. The first time we talked about it and back in trump tower. Steven miller and i and general flynn at the time talked about him thats a pretty big check to write, because somebodys going to have to cash it. And he said, this is my obligation to the American People as commander in chief. If you go back in time, President Trump strongly believes that the reason that he was on the podium on january 20th and Hillary Clinton wasnt was that it came down to a decision of the American People of who would be the best commander in chief in a time of war and i think one of the things that President Trump and candidate trump at the time remembered is that, were now fighting this is the longest war in the nations history, in actual combat time its longer than the revolution, the civil war, world war i and world war ii, if you add it all up in actual time in combat, i think that this is the longest sustained military conflict weve ever had. President trump in his own candidacy from the very beginning when he came down that escalator in trump tower was a repudiation of the elites, the repudiation of the Foreign Policy establishment, a repudiation of the party at devas, a repudiation of this concept we have of this rules based International Order of which the american working class and middle class underwrite with their taxes and more importantly with the blow to their children. I had a little skin in this game back in 79, 80 i was a naval officer on a destroyer in the persian gulf during the original hostage crisis. My daughters a west point graduate served with 101st air born in iraq after she graduated. She stays in the army. Shes army captain. May eventually deploy back. Ive had many nephews and cousins and folks like that in my extended family have served in the middle east. In fact, my kid brothers a pilot in libya in 83, 84. These wars have gone on for a long time. President trump and the campaign and particularly when i was able to step in as ceo with Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager, it was just during the end of the mr. And mrs. Kahns the crisis around the khans, the gold star family and the death of that hero captain kahn. And the president one of the things we talked about was how you compare and contrast himself with Hillary Clinton. One of the strongest things she had going for her when she was running was her Foreign Policy experience. Her time on the Senate Armed Services committee, her time as secretary of state, her vast knowledge of all the ins and outs of Foreign Policy and President Trump i think really connected with the American People and he talked about a couple of things, were at war and i remember at that time when he came down in 2015, we were seeing a rise of isis that was really had caught the world by surprise. Isis had done more than anybody, even the Muslim Brotherhood historically and actually having a physical caliphate, eventually that caliphate was 7 or 8 million people. The ability to tax. The ability to have slave markets and recruit from all over the known world including asia and europe, the United States. You also had for the Obama Administration because of their focus on the nuclear deal, you had an insurgent or resurgent persia, very aggressive on its expansion of iranian expansion and you also had the continual spector of radical islamic terrorism. President trump could not have been more direct and more blunt to the American People in what he wanted to accomplish. And from the very first day that he won, i remember general flynn at the time what he wanted to do was at the National Security council give the power back to the commanders, they would take a more active and aggressive role in the destruction of isis. In addition, he was going to review the iran nuclear deal. Remember he said during the campaign he was going to try to make that deal better. If we cant i will decertify it, i will terminate it. The one thing i will do is connect their aggression and their behavior to that deal and the third weve got to figure out how to take care of radical islamic terrorism thats not isis related. Once he once we took office, one of the top things he had Jared Kushner and myself, then secretary tillerson work on was a summit, was a summit that he wanted to bring the arab world together and to really put i think beyond people that he had run as islamophobe or that America First didnt mean you wouldnt be actively engaged. I think anybody that thinks were isolationists or thats hi philosophy that were isolationists, i dont know how you look at the arab summit that took place in the Muslim Summit that took place in may of 2017 in riyadh. The three parts of that, the three Component Parts of that that were worked on from day one, was to take care of number one, the financing and support of radical islamic groups throughout the world. Number two, was to work with the arab world and the muslim world particularly with people like general cc that had that great speech at cairo on new years day and work with the arab and muslim world about the engagement of islam with madernity and the ability of islam to reform itself by muslims doing it. And the third was to really start to have a serious conversation about what type of military alliance, what had to happen to stop irans expansion, persia expansion in this arc across from iran to the sea, through the capitals of baghdad and damascus and beirut and what was happening on the yemen with this pincer move through the air rob world. Whats happened in seven or eight or nine months, weve President Trump has accomplished something that i think people would have mocked and laughed at him in the campaign. Raqqah fell the other day. The physical destruction of the isis caliphate which shocked the world on its rapid rise and i think put the world back on its heels, how can this kind of group of young people with a couple of spiritual leaders in the call to arms they had from that 900yearold mosque in mosul, how can they have an economic in mosul and a spiritual capital in raqqah. How could they have 8 million people, the whole world backed off. In 8 months of President Trumps strategy executed by general mattis and that strategy was not a war of attrition. It was very specific from day one, this will be a war of annihilation. He will physically annihilate the caliphate and thats whats been accomplished. If you look at the summit, the second part of it is that they went into the summit, we went into the summit with uae and saudi arabia and others and the number one thing was we must take care of this financing of radical islam and there can be no more President Trump says no more games. You cant have it both ways. You cant say youre a friend and ally and on the other side be funding the Muslim Brotherhood and hamas or being open to iran and particularly irans aggressive warlike posture to the United States and to the west and other islamic countries and that you can no longer have it both ways. I think that its not, you know, the summit came. I think President Trumps speech at the summit was one of the great speeches of any political leader in the United States has ever given. I think it put to bed or should have put to bed that President Trump was an islam phobia or somehow his administration or people who work for him, particularly the deplorables, the people that voted for him, did not want an active engagement with the islamic world, understanding as partners that we had to take care of we would have to go through this time together and as partners we would come out on the other side and the world would be a safer and more robust place. I dont think its by happenstance that two weeks after that summit that you saw the blockade by the United Arab Emirates in bahrain, egypt and the kingdom of saudi arabia on qatar. Ive said from day one that even with the situation in the northwest pacific with korea, i think the single most important thing thats happening right now in the world is the situation in qatar. Okay, there are three or four things that you said that need a little more elaboration. The first which i think is a positive, you made it clear that the Trump Administration and those who were instrumental in bringing President Trump to the white house are not islam phobic and they want to engage with the islamic world but they want to do it in a different way. That needs elaboration because thats quite contrary to the way things are perceived. The second thing that needs a little more clarification is you make it seem that the last ten months have represented a major clearly thought out stepbystep approach to the problem and you give credit to the Trump Administration for the success of the Iraqi Military and the kurdish militias in relation to the islamic state, and there are people who would attack that or criticize that or say that thats not true. So i would like you to kind of make the next point which is, why do you think that what has happened is actually the result of policy and not the result of developments within the region. And the third is, the qatar question. It seems that the american policy has been two steps forward and then two steps backward again. Is it really the change that you said it was or is there Something Else happening in the administration that you decided not to share with us in that initial statement . Lets take the first. I think that number one, this whole thing of America First being isolationist or us against the world, i think its total nonsense. He looks at the world in a different way. Its very Walter Russell meade would say jacksonian. I think President Trump looks at things in a jacksonian that whats in the vital National Security interest of the United States is what you should commit to. In those areas of the world where its in the vital National Security interest of the United States you will have partners that will be in their vital National Security interest also and that you work, whether its the northwest pacific or japan in south korea or the gulf with people like the uae and saudi arabia and egypt and bahrain. So i think that theres a tremendous thing of engagement. I dont think theres anything President Trump has done in this administration that makes us look isolationist at all. I think he doesnt want to get into these kind of arrangements like tpp and others where were just another person at the table, another entity at the table and not something that we know its in our vital National Security interest. As far as being islamophobic, i would talk to our allies in the region. I would talk to egypt, the uae, saudi arabia. I dont think anyones given the now crown prince more support and vision 2030 which is a complete not just reorientation but almost a restructuring of their economy and eventually their society, which i think theyve made tremendous slides. A lot of people say its a very imperfect plan but you have to understand theyre trying to do something in 10 or 20 years that spent centuries building up. I dont think anybodys been more supportive and i take that exactly from the quotes of when we had the summit, what the king said, the crown prince, what many leaders of saudi arabia said. Also at the uae, if you talk to these individuals and they talk to the media all the time, is that for many years of actually the Obama Administration being disengaged, that President Trump has leaned into this in every aspect of it. Now, about the developments or the structure of isis, thats another thing. Certainly it was done with allies. It was done with most of the troops in iraq that eventually went and took mosul, kurdish groups in raqqah. I think thats once again to what President Trumps trying to get across. Its not going to be america that has to lead here. It is our local when its in the vital National Security interest of the United States its going to be in the vital National Security interest of other people and you have to show their support and you have to show their you have to show that youre not just financial support, military support, political support. It shouldnt be lost on people that the extreme vetting, whats called the travel ban, the difference the fundamental difference between the first and the second, one of them was iraq came off and that was after further discussion, further analysis and further state department involvement. It was derived that iraq should go back on there. One was because of the fight against isis, what they were doing. It was also what they had done to make sure that people were fully vetted before they came to the United States. So thats the second question. Your third question was . The third question was about qatar. Is it a two step forward, two step backward approach . Yes. There seems to have been a step backward after riyadh. Look, there is President Trump, one of the reasons hes president of the United States, one of the reasons hes president and Hillary Clinton is not is i do believe that there was a fundamental rejection by the American People of much of what the Foreign Policy establishment of both Political Parties have stood for, kind of this we had talked before, davos man or the consensus of american Foreign Policy, how it devolved that were in the middle east and the blood and treasure that weve left and in the same situation, w