the intelligence that sent this country to war in iraq. >> the chemical weapons presence, the nuclear program and the biological program was wrong. that's the summation of it. it was wrong. >> colin powell for the hour. this is "piers morgan tonight." >> for many americans colin powell is still the face of the modern military, retired four-star general, the first and only african-american to serve on the join chiefs of staff and to secretary of state to george w. bush. he's here to talk about a cause close to his heart, the state of america's military veterans. general colin powell joins me now. general, welcome. >> thank you very much, piers. >> thank you for welcoming me to this extraordinary building. we're in the national war college. you were here 35 years ago. >> i graduated 35 years ago. that's hard to believe. we just had our 35th anniversary. this place has a great deal of meaning for all of us who have been students over the years. >> when you were here as a young, fresh-faced colin powell, what was the big dream for you? >> i was a lieutenant colonel, and i was doing fairly well in the army. but i had no idea what the army had in store for me. i was here with a group of army officers, navy officers, marine officers, state department employees as well as air force officers. surprisingly all of us had a great time. we had a lot of fun, and we learned a lot. then some 15 years later a number of us came back together to fight the first gulf war. about five of my classmates were now three and four-star generals, and i knew them. i'd known them for 16 years. so we were able to put a team together that was able to fight that war rather well. >> that's extraordinary. >> yeah, yeah. and i learned a lot here. it was a point in my career where i had been a successful battalion commander in korea, and now the military was trying to expand our horizons, learn more about politics, learn more about economics, about international relations, about your allies, so that we can use you at a higher level within the organization. quite a few of my classmates made general or admiral. >> the world has changed dramatically even since you were here and it's changing super fast even this year. it's remarkable what's going on. i'll come to some of that later. you as we sit here on veterans day in particular, what do you feel about the view of the modern american military? >> it's a great military. it's an all-volunteer force. it represents a relatively small percentage of our population, of course. but i'm so proud of them. tom brokaw and i talk all the time about military service, and tom wrote that great book, "the greatest generation," talking about the world war ii generation. but he and i have chatted about this and america has been blessed to have that kind of greatness in every generation. there is no generation that is any greater than the current generation of gis we have serving in iraq and afghanistan and so many other places around the world, willing to give their lives in the cause of freedom, in the cause of giving people a better opportunity for a better life for their selves, their country and their children. and we should be so proud of them. that's why we celebrate veterans day. i think you know the origin of veterans day, 11-11-11. it comes from world war i. it used to be called armistice day. >> we still have armistice day in britain. >> i know you do. this place means a lot to me. we talk about the fact that everybody says we have all these difficulties now, all these troubled times. when i came here as a student in 1975 to graduate in the bicentennial class, our 200th anniversary in 1976, think what the world was like then. there was still a soviet union. china was emerging from the culture revolution. america passed through a difficult time. the vice president resigned in disgrace. and we had a post-vietnam period and we had the counterculture going on. martin luther king had been killed just a few years earlier. bobby kennedy had been killed just a few years earlier. people thought america was down and out. then we recaptured our spirit and the values that made this country great. i'd like to give credit to president gerald ford who came in and sort of stabilized us again, reminded us of who we were. a few years later the soviet union was gone. we were still here. >> do you see parallels between that period and what's happening now with america? do you feel you need another gerald ford intervention? >> somebody will show up. i mean, america has always gone through these periods of difficulty and introspection when our economy is not doing well and we're in a recession and we're a little unsure of who we are and what we are. what i'm absolutely convinced of because of my reading of history and my living through this kind of history is that we will find our way. we've always had problems. most of my time period is spent out in the countryside giving speeches and talking to people. and the kind of sort of black thinking and talking that you see on television or you hear here in washington in our congress, the american people understand we have these challenges. but i see such continuing confidence and optimism out with the public. they just want to see the political system in washington start to reflect their concerns and start to fix itself. and as i say to my audiences, don't wait for superman. if you don't like the way they're doing things here, go and vote them out. >> there's a fascinating charge over there, colin powell's rules. which of these -- i read a few earlier to myself. get mad. then get over it. share credit. remain calm. be kind. have a vision. be demanding. very positive. very realistic, i felt. it wasn't saccharin at all. it was acknowledging there would be difficult times, but encouraging people to, i think, think in a positive way to get out of it rather than dwell on negative. very much for the time we're in now. if you were president and many wish you had run for the highest office, what needs to be done now? what advice -- let's not be too patronizing of barack obama. what advice would you give him to get america back on its feet right now in the modern world? >> well, you know, you can't put it all on one individual. i think our system needs to take a deep breath and start correcting itself. one of the things that troubles me the most and i've been in the town on and off for the last 30-odd years. what troubles me the most is i've never seen such polarization in our political process. i've never seen a situation where you have people on the far left, on the far right, who focus on their own extreme positions and hold these as theological positions that can't be moved away from and changed and everybody has measured against these extremes. you know, our founding fathers also had strong beliefs and believed in extremes. and they were able in philadelphia in writing our constitution to make some great compromises. they had to compromise on slavery. i don't like the compromise they made at the time because we kept slavery. but they said, we're here to form a nation. we can't solve that right now. >> why has it not moved forward? >> it's not happening now because it's been made too difficult. the extremes have been able to capture a lot of the politicians who might be more toward the middle by signing agreements that i won't raise taxes that pledge themselves to positions that don't ledge themselves to compromise. i have to say, piers, under the current media environment that didn't exist 35 years ago or 40 years ago, it is constant, nonstop commentary all day long, all evening long. now, you are no exception to this, i might add. >> don't blame me. >> i'm not blaming you. i'm just saying it's changed the environment. if you say anything that seems to drift off the orthodoxy of your party's position, you hear about it immediately either on a cable talk show or on the bloggers or on the internet. and you're going to have to deal with it. the two sides, the two parties, don't have the same opportunity to work quietly with each other. >> you're a military man, one of the finest generals this country has ever produced. you've been in many a war stone. if i said this is going to be relentless, the bombardment. they're going to keep coming at you. everything you do is blown up. exactly the argument you used to me about the media. you would just dust yourself down, call your men together and say they want a war, let's go to war, boys. and you would work out a way to win. the argument people have with barack obama who you supported is that he hasn't done enough of that. he hasn't fought back against the modern weapon, which is multimedia, the internet, all these things. he hasn't beaten his chest and behaved like you would in a battlefield. >> i think that's a fair criticism of the president. he is somebody who was used to getting people to compromise and seeing if we could not quietly find a way in almost a lawyerly manner. but he still has that spark. he still has that enthusiasm about the country and about his job that got him elected in the first place. i think in recent weeks we have seen him to start showing that kind of spark more publicly. and i've had conversations with the president over time. sometimes with congress you simply have to let them have it between the eyes and drag them in your direction and not think you can talk them into your direction. >> i wouldn't have him on a golf course with john boehner after what he did. i'd have him in a boxing ring. come on, then, mr. speaker, you want to fight about this, you're going to be this way, your people are just not going to do anything to get any bill passed here at all, let's have it out properly. >> well, that's an approach that can be taken. >> would you take that approach? >> i don't play golf, so i wouldn't have got on the golf course. at some point you have to say, okay, look, we've talked enough about this. this is very military. it's now time to go out and as we say in all of our mafia movies "godfather," go to the mattresses. we will fight on this line and we will fight all summer long. >> i love that. go to the mattresses. >> you never heard that before? >> can you clarify that? it means hide in your bunker so people can't get to you, and then come out and fight in the streets. essentially, go to the mattresses. you put mattresses on a floor and sleep in a protected area and come out and fight it out. >> fantastic. let's take a short break. when we come back i want to know more about this mattress attack that you have now orchestrated and mapped out for the president. 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. i think he's a transformational figure. he's a new generation coming on to the world stage, on to the american stage. for that reason i'll be voting for senator barack obama. >> back with my special guest, general colin powell. general, we left it with the go to your mattresses and prepare for war, which i loved. and you endorsed as we just heard there president obama in october 2008. it was a controversial decision. it wasn't expected at all. you're a republican, and you come out for obama. remind me of your thinking in that moment. >> yeah. before i do that, let me say that with going to the mattresses, that's with both parties. do it with your own party. do your party to do what you think they should do, and then you can take on the other party and have your forces in alignment. in 2008 i looked very carefully at the situation that the country was in, on the verge of an economic collapse, frankly, which pretty much occurred later that year. i looked at what i thought the country needed, and after listening carefully to both senator mccain who i've known for close to 30 years and also president obama, then senator obama, i came to the conclusion that he was better able to deal with the challenges they were facing economically and with respect to rejuvenating the spirit of the country and with respect to making a generational change. >> obviously, it carried a lot of weight and barack obama got elected. many think your intervention with several other very prominent people was very, i think, helpful to him at the very least. when you look at him now, what do you think has happened to barack obama after three years of presidency? what do you think you should be advising him as someone that supported him about how to go back into the election fray? >> well, the advice i give to the president, which i still do on occasion. i keep private. i don't share a lot of my conversations with him or his conversations with me. i think he is still the same person that we saw in 2008. he is a deliberate individual. he studies the issues before him. and then he makes decisions. and many of his decisions, i think, have been quite sound. the financial system put back in a stable basis. some are now complaining too stable. they're going back to what they were doing before that caused this trouble. i think he is following through a correct way with respect to iraq and afghanistan and essentially implementing some of the policies of president bush, former president bush. in some of the controversial things where people thought he would simply move away from some of the bush positions, he's adopted them. so he's demonstrated a degree of adaptability. but at the same time, the economy has not improved for the benefit of many americans who are on the unemployment roms. and there is a malaise within the country about when is the economy going to start creating all the jobs that we need. there is also, i think, a problem that the president has with the business community. this one is a little harder to explain, because the business community, especially at the high end, is doing rather well. but he has not succeeded in convincing them that he has all the right solutions. and as i go around, i find that the business community is still quite upset with his policies. they feel that the regulations that are coming down, whether it's on financial services or consumers or environmental protection agency or the obamacare, as it's called, they are uncertain as to what all these regulations are going to do to them and they're hesitant to make investments because they're not quite sure how to plan ahead. and so i think he has to work on that. above all, he has to work hard and do everything he can, and i think he's pursuing this very aggressively now, to create jobs for the people who don't have jobs. >> on the tick box of his score sheet, some stunning successes in terms of foreign policy many would argue. getting bin laden. for you personally, you were at the start of that mission. where were you when you heard that bin laden had been killed? >> i was in my home, and i heard the news. i was absolutely delighted. this terrible person, and it was a marvelous military operation with the possibility of something going really bad. >> very audacious. >> it's very bold. but those are the kinds of young men and women we have. these folks are good. they are really, really good. >> did you admire the president for the sheer audacity of the decision making? >> you have to. he could have decided to go about it a different way but he told the bold action. but that was fine then. a week later everyone wanted to talk about the unemployment problem again. and so we've seen a lot of these evil people sent off to the hereafter in recent weeks, and that's good. the president should get credit for it. not just because he's the commander in chief, but, you know, which is part of it, but we also have to give credit to the intelligence and military and other agencies of our government that created the conditions that allow you to go after these people. >> as somebody who was seen to be one of the more skeptic members of george bush's inner team when it came to decision-making in iraq in particular, when you see what happened in libya, when you see the backseat that america took, particularly with troops on the ground, nonexistent, when you see that there was no loss of life for american servicemen compared to the 4,500 or so that lost that i have lives in iraq, what do you feel about the overall picture, the strategy that was adopted to get rid of saddam in contrast to the strategy adopted to get rid of gadhafi? the huge difference in cost not just in human life but financially to america? >> i don't think the two can be that easily compared. we had a government in iraq that was every bit as bad as the government in libya. i remember so many western leaders and the united states were working with mr. gadhafi. and libya did not have the kind of army and military force that saddam hussein had access to, and you didn't have that kind of leadership coming from the europeans in iraq that we had in libya. but setting it aside, the president felt, president bush felt that we tried the u.n. we didn't get satisfaction with respect to mr. hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs. our intelligence had it wrong, and i more than anyone presented that intelligence to the united states people and the american people and to the world. but it was wrong. nevertheless, we went in and got rid of a person who would have gone back to developing these weapons of mass destruction in my humble judgment if he had been released from u.n. sanctions. i was hoping that the u.n. would work. i persuaded the president to go to the u.n., see if we can resolve it that way. because i thought if we could avoid this war and satisfy our problem with weapons of mass destruction, we should do that. but he had to make the decision, along with mr. blair and other western leaders. and so we went in. and we took out the regime. my big disappointment -- i fully supported that. my big disappointment was that i don't think we did it as officially as we could. we shouldn't have disbanded the iraqi army. we should have put more force in there so we could have taken control of the country at the very beginning, which is what i think the iraqi people expected us to do, and we didn't. an insurgency broke out. we didn't respond to it as quickly as we'd like. >> when you ever see footage of you selling that war with the intelligence, the famous footage, what do you feel? i mean, do you feel that you were in some way used? >> no. i had the same information, the same intelligence material that was given to the united states congress. the congress voted overwhelmingly to use military force if it came to that, and they did that three months before my presentation. everything that was in that presentation of mine was international intelligence estimate that the president used in the state of the union and earlier speeches that secretary rumsfeld was using, our generals were using. they were planning against this intelligence. and we thought it was solid. even though it was very inferential, we thought it was good intelligence. >> when you realized -- >> when i realized that a large part of it -- not all of it, but a considerable part of it was wrong and we should have known it was wrong, i felt terrible. i felt disappointed. it was wrong. that is the summation of it. it was wrong. >> let's take a little break and come back and talk republican field for the nomination. it gets more bizarre by the day and fascinating. i want to know what you think. [ male announcer ] butter. love the taste, but want to cut back on fat? try smart balance buttery spread. it's heart-healthier than butter. with omega-3s. 64% less saturated fat. and clinically proven to help support healthy cholesterol. ♪ put a little love in your heart ♪ to lead this effort at this unique moment in history, i picked a unique leader. many times over the past four decades, america has called on colin powell, and each time he has answered the call. >> back with colin powell. general, let's talk about the republican field, because it's been up and down, roller coaster, five people have front run and fallen away. mitt romney appears to be the stable eddie of the group, but even he isn't guaranteed to win it. what do you make of it all? >> it's a remarkable democratic system we have. and i think it is fascinating to watch all of these individuals step forward and put themselves in the spotlight, take on the risks of political competition, and some will prevail and some won't prevail. at the end of the day only one will prevail. some came on the scene quickly and dropped off. and so i'm watching it very, very closely with great interest. >> are you watching -- >> i know almost all -- i know all of the candidates. >> of course you do, yeah. are you watching it as a democrat or a republican? >> i'm watching it as an american. i am a republican, but i have a variety of views. and throughout my whole career and for most of my life, i was not in any party because i was a career military officer. only since 1995 i identified myself as a republican. and since 1995 i have voted for republicans and i have voted for a democrat. what i've always tried to do is to do the best job of analyzing the needs of the country and the candidates that are before us and trying to support the candidate who i feel will do the best for the country, whether he is a democrat or republican or whether she is a democrat or republican. >> if the election was tomorrow, and it will be in a year, would you vote for barack obama as things stand again? >> i would never make that decision now. i didn't make that decision in 2008 until it was relatively close, and i had concluded that in my judgment, anyway, he was the best choice. and i talked to both he and senator mccain. so i'm not sure we have seen the entire field of candidates at this point. >> really? you think more may pop up? >> i don't know. do you know? >> no. but you would know a lot more than i do. >> why would i know? >> what you say carries a lot more weight. could we possibly see yourself? >> of course not. >> why not? >> i rejected that 16 years ago, and i've given more than one explanation for it. >> you're relatively youthful in political termless. >> i'm not relatively youthful in any terms. i'm going to be 75. >> are you really? >> yes. my next birthday. i'm in good health, but even if i was 20 years younger, it isn't me. as i've said many, many times. >> was it your wife in the end who decided? >> it was me. >> it was you and not your wife? >> yeah. i never woke up a single morning thinking it was the right thing for me. and i served my country in other ways. secretary of state after making that announcement. i served my country for 40 years in government and trying to serve it every way i know and how now. worked in youth programs. i think one of our greatest challenges is to make sure we are educating our young people for a 21st century world and a 21st century economic system in the united states that's going to be different than the economic system that existed just 25 years ago. >> we talked about extremities in washington being unhelpful. to my mind that narrows down the republican field quite markedly, because you would be ruling out probably most of the tea party candidates, who most people perceive to be on the extremities. so i'm guessing that your natural instincts would be heading more towards a romney-style, a huntsman-style candidate. would i be -- >> you've turned into a shrink. you're reading my -- you're telling people what my natural instincts are? >> am i a good shrink or bad shrink? >> stick to being on television. >> are you more moderate by nature? >> see, here's -- yes. but here's the rub. you have to act one way politically to achieve the nomination of your party. but if you just focus on achieving the nomination of your party either on the left or right, that isn't enough to win a national election. so you then have to decide how far can you come back from the positions that you took to get that nomination, not going on the other side of the center point, but how do you get more of the people closer to the center point so that you can win an election? it's really two elections taking place here. one to win the nomination and for that you have to show appeal to the extremes or, let me say, the further extremes of your individual party or democrat or republican. but then you'd better be ready in the general election to move back to somewhere closer to the middle in order to get the moderates who are judging you not just on the basis of your party affiliation, but are judging you on the basis of what are your policies? what is this person going to do? that's why i say we will see next year. this campaign really hasn't started yet. as you say, we have a year. >> what do you make of herman cain? >> i've known mr. cain for -- i guess i've known herman for 15 or 16 years. when i started america's promise, our youth foundation that my wife now runs, herman was president of national restaurant association, and he was very helpful to us. a very dynamic individual that -- a gentleman that worked a lot with young people. now he has offered himself up for the presidency, and i thank him for his commitment to service. >> excuse the military parlance. he's getting it with full barrels. is it fair what's going on with herman cain? is it the man you recognize with all the claims? >> i don't know whether the claims are valid or not, and this is something for herman to deal with. when you enter political life, you should expect these kinds of issues to arise. and i don't know what the merit of these claims are, and we will see in the days and weeks ahead. >> if they turn out to be credible -- >> i don't know if they're going to turn out to be credible. therefore, i'm not going to speculate on what might be the result. coming up, 49 years. and you met on a blind date. >> yes. when i walked in, she was very attractive. and she apparently did not reject me outright. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. hello, everyone. i'm don lemon live at cnn world headquarters in atlanta. we are coming to you at an earlier time this evening because we're awaiting a news conference by the president of the united states, president barack obama. he is hosting the asia pacific economic corporation summit in honolulu right now. let's get you live pictures now of the podium where the president is going to speak in just a few moments. the president is on a nine-day tour, really, around the world. he's going to visit -- of course, he's in honolulu. he's visiting australia, indonesia before returning to the white house on november 20th. america's sluggish economy is at and she apparently did not reject me outright. and she took that risk. and i never forget the fact that she didn't marry a general. she didn't marry a secretary of state. she married a young first lieutenant, and she sacrificed a lot. and i owe her a lot. and it's been 49 years. >> what's the secret of a happy marriage? >> getting along. love. which you would expect. >> what are the key values to you? that you think most people should really have as priorities? >> service to others. service to something greater than yourself. service to country. serving a purpose in life. why are you here, what are you doing? secondly, being kind to people. third, raising a good family. and i get asked all the time, what do you want on your gravestone? i said, i don't need much. good guy, he served well, he raised a good family, loved his country. that really has driven my wife, driven me, and my family, and driven most of our friends. service to country, service to others. i'm very proud now that i have a center named after me, my alma mater, the city college here in new york. we just rejiggered the name. it's going to be the colin powell center for policy studies. we changed it. we made it the colin powell center for leadership and service. and we are bringing up a new generation of immigrant kids out of new york city. they are from all over the world. they are minorities. they are not that wealthy. and this wonderful school has been educating kids like that for 160 years. that's where i got my free education and so i think that i am serving and meeting the value system that i got from my parents and i try to develop all of my life by giving back to my alma mater and helping a new generation of youngsters. learn all leadership and service. >> what would your parents have made of your career? >> well, they were proud of me. i was raised in an extended immigrant family. west indian family, jamaicans, british background. they were british subjects when they came here, and what they cared about was meeting the expectations they had for us to get an education, get out of the house and get a job. that was it. you could become a doctor, a lawyer, a streetcar conductor. i had cousins of mine who were subway conductors in london. >> do you really? >> yes. it didn't make any difference what you actually became. it was important that you became something. and that you never embarrassed the family. and that you met the expectations and the expectations are you will do better than we did, you will get a job and you will maybe us proud in your job. my dad died before i became a general. my relatives were not happy with my staying in the army. particularly my aunts. nobody stays in the army. until you're drafted and then you get out. they were never satisfied with the answer until i tell one of my aunts, you get a 50% pension after you retire at 41, and she said, oh, good. but the army was very good to me. it was my profession. i'm called a statesman, a politician, no, i'm a soldier. it was what i wanted to do when i finished my education and i did to the best of my ability for 35 years. >> let's take a break and talk about your upbringing in harlem and how that can be relevant now to the occupy wall street protesters. where you see where they're coming from. the lessons you've learned on those hard streets all those years ago. what they should be doing. back with general colin powell. you were raised in harlem. in the bronx. >> yeah. >> i mean, tough places to be brought up and money was not prevalent much in your early life at all. when you see the occupy wall street protesters and see them spinning out around america, kind of reflecting the overall feeling of dissatisfaction with american's economy and so on, when you remember how poor you were and how hard you had to fight for life, what do you think of these protesters? are they well intentionaled, do you support them? do you think they're misguided? >> well, i was born in harlem to immigrant parents and my parents always had a job. we moved to the south bronx, i don't think ever one of them ever made more than $50 or $60 a week. but we were able to get along back then on $50 or $60 a week. my parents always worked and they always had work. so people are conearn issed now that -- concerned now that there is not that source of an income. there isn't that work source that i remember. and so what you're seeing with occupy wall street and the others are people who are unhappy. and they're directing their unhappiness right now toward wall street and toward those they think are doing too well in our society. i don't begrudge anybody who has earned a good salary. it's part of our capitalist system, and so demonstrating like this is as american as apple pie. i get a little concerned when demonstrations turn into violence or when some of the demonstrators demonstrate absolutely any whilism and are demonstrating at tearing down the system. >> do you understand the anger particularly towards wall street i think? i have said this many times on my show recently because i picked it up from the protesters. what really gets their goat is that a lot of these banks and bankers got bailed out by the taxpayers and the first chance they got back on their feet, they gave themselves huge bonuses and put themselves back in the trough. >> i don't know how to be too critical of that. it has always been the case that there are certain feels in our economic system where you take big risk and you get big rewards. one of the things that's of concern to us is there's an increasing gap between those who are doing very, very well and those who are not doing very well. and those who are not doing well are not seeing their lives improving so there's frustration and angriness there. so i think that's something our wall street friends and business friends need to think about and our political leaders need to think about. it isn't enough to just scream at the occupy wall streeters, we need to reflect the anger back into how do we fix it, how do we get the any going again? how do we get businesses that have a lot of money stacked up, how do we get them to invest that money and create jobs? >> you said before that particularly with foreign policy that america should avoid saying we're going to instill our democracy on everybody, that it should be more reform. when you look inwardly at america now, is that what america really needs? rather than some dramatic overall, some reform, to rethink the thinking? >> i think we need to take a hard look at the political system as i said and see if we cannot get our leaders, particularly in congress, to start finding ways to reform themselves. to close some of the tax loopholes that exist, to take a hard look at what our expenses are and cut those expenses and then see whether or not we have the revenue base for the expenses that are left. i have a lot of business people sit down with me, you know, if i try to run my business the way the federal government runs its business, i wouldn't have a business. how can we continue to run a budget of $3 trillion of which we borrow $1.3 trillion from outside sources, either printing the money or borrowing it from the chinese? so china and eastern and central europe, lots of latin american countries they're focusing on wealth creation and fixing their economies and educating their youngsters for the 21st century world and that's what we have to get on with. especially educating the youngsters. 50% of them don't finish schools. let's pay our teachers more, let's give them more incentive, but at the same time, let's not put it all on the educational system, the family and the home system has a greater obligation to help us get these kids started properly. >> general, you have had this extraordinary life. when you look back on it, excluding the obvious, of children's births and marriage and so on, what's been the single greatest moment of your life? >> i never answer single greatest or single worst questions. when i say to young people, and as i go around to schools, you're a product of all your experiences, you can't single out any one thing. >> good and bad. >> good and bad, exactly. i learned as much from the bad as from the good. i have fun tilling students, you know, i graduated with a c-average and now i have a whole center named after me and i'm called a founder and distinguished visiting professors. my professors of 50 years ago would roll over in their graves if they heard that. but the fact is it doesn't matter where you start in life, but where you end up. it's a message i give to them, believe in yourself, listen to the people who care about you in life and keep doing your best and be your own role model. >> i want to come back after the break and close with final thoughts about veterans day and current men and women who serve in the military. general, it is veterans day and many veterans watching this interview are quite interested and also many current serving service men and women. what message would you give them on this particular day? >> i'm so enormously proud of all of those who are serving now and all those who served in the past. we have been so blessed that people are willing to put their lives on the line for this country. i was at a hospital in california, a veterans hospital just last week. and i got to walter reed to see wounded soldiers. i had seen soldiers who had lost arms and legs and if they know they can get back in shape, what do they say? i'm going to rejoin my buddies, i want to be with my buddies. so on this veterans day, i would like to offer once again my profound thanks and speaking for all of my colleagues in the military who served a special thanks to those who are serving now. iraq and afghanistan has probably been one of the most demanding set of conflicts we ever had, because it's a daily war. it's not just waiting for d-day or waiting for the battle of the bulge. it's every day, and we have a lot of youngsters now who are suffering as a result. they have been wounded, they have had traumatic amputations, brain injuries, we have a lot of veterans who are homeless. we have a lot of veterans who found it unbearable. they've committed suicide. so we have got a lot of work to do. on this veterans day, one of the things we should emphasize is that it can't just be veterans day on november 11. it has to be veterans day every day and we have to do everything we can, through the governmental services to help our youngsters and we especially we have to in their communities help them. there's just so much the veterans department can do. if your community, if you see a veteran who's in need, somebody who needs their kid watched or needs a job, or needs some kind of help, don't wait for some veterans organization to come do it. you do it. look around your community.