Were almost out of time. I see a young lady eager. Im going to get this little girl here and then well have to move on. You talk too much. Y first, mr. Aldrin, i would like to say thank you for your service to the country, your continuing influence. I was reading a book and im wondering where are you going to scuba dive with crocodiles . Where do you want to . Well, he is not going to scuba dive with crocodiles anymore. Why would you scuba dive with crocodiles . With a tank on my back and slippers on my feet, when i got out of the water at crocodile runs much faster. He was going to, but he changed his mind probably wisely. He said i didnt want to lose a hand. Lets take this young lady here. What is the one thing he would have done differently in your careers yet, would you have done differently. I can think of all kinds of things youre going to say. I told nasa dog canceled out maneuvering that back. Just because you dont want a little failure of success. I want to fly that that pack, just like George Clooney did. [laughter] [applause] lets get to this young man and then we are going to end. Im a for kids. Im a mom. What advice would you give a 10yearold who wants to go to. Mars . [applause] did you hear that . What advice would you give a 10yearold who once to go to mars . A doctorate degree at age 25, joined the Astronaut Corps and then they will send you to the moon, where you will assemble things on the moon that will make the moon base. Youll assembled vans. And then you will go land the moon for a while and then youll come back. Will training. That is where you go to deal put together a base that looks justo like the one. I know that sounds old, but he was so common as though appropriate. We have a spacecraft that will cycle, swing by the earth, and pick up two or three commanders and tran what does that look like . You will have one just like it in low earth orbit. Youll assembled things and then we will build the master one that takes people. That is why my program is called cycling pathways to mars. You can find out more at buzz aldrin. Com. Ys if you want to mars tshirts, you can get to it through buzz aldrin. Com. They are a fundraiser for the foundation. Every single penny goes to they foundation. We had the space institutes of florida back. Weve got to stop now. I know you think you are going to ask recyclers, but youre not. [applause] going to explain site colors now you are not. [laughter] [cheers and applause] we are very pleased to have with us this evening, transfixed. Kael was a diplomat to join the state department shortly after september 11th attacks and initially he was in with u. S. Efforts at the u. N. Security council to freeze and block assets linked to al qaeda. After the invasion of iraq in 2003, he ended up in bad dad among the First American diplomat said to the iraqi capital. And then, he went on to spend seven years in either iraq or afghanistan so i think u. S. Forces in working with them, local authorities and others, the service for which he received the secretary is a model for heroism was uncommon not only for the amount of time he was in iraq or afghanistan, but also the range of his contacts in the death of his involvement with the american troops and local civilians. His new book the mirror test recounts his personal journey and provide an emotional portrait of the wars america has been engaged in for well over a decade. Kael is very critical and highlights the tremendous human cost of the conflict of the dad and wounded troops and the many civilian casualties. Hes wanted in particular by one u. S. Military mission over the amber desert in iraq in early 2005 that ended in the remains. This is indias largest casualty in either the iraq or afghanistan war. He reminds us to the last page is how import it is for all of us as citizens to reflect on what being involved in this extended wars has been. The work serves as its own kind of mirror test for american, compelling us to look and come to terms as much as a wounded soldier with a disfigured face fears the damage returning for more. Babies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming transfixed. [applause] thank you, politics prose and all of you who came out on a tuesday evening. It has been a while since ive been in washington and i think you put me to the humidity tests. The focus is on a more serious thought to it, which is outlined. A task that we talk about is a medical term and i sometimes entrench a great part of my book that goes in to more detail about what a marine named aaron menken came to terms with after he was badly wounded by an ied in iraq, but rather than leave his words, i would urge you in the private to spend a minute i hope you have bought the boat. He is as dallas won on what it means to look at how war has changed you personally and the point of the book is to expand it a bit to our nation and many nations that have been affected by decisions in tune. I want to thank the veterans can i recognize many faces here. You more than anyone in a more visceral way than i have and i could have addressed her mother were. They were all veterans but by service came in the form of the state department. I would like to do thank you all. This book is a citizenship type test as well. Its not an easy book, not a quick book. As many people tell me, it is a heavy boat and i dont think were books necessarily should be anything more than all of those hatchet days. I booked tonight is not good for lots of open by telling you more about myself. The buyer was appreciated. I worked also cleaning toilets at one point, so i say if you want to join the state Department Come you could be at dairy queen guy and represent the united dates of america. Probably the best jobs i had were before working for a government. The book itself i will go into a brief overview, high book actually gets sold. I can talk to some of you after. But matters of time for people to continue to write about these wars. I dont think were fatigue is a notion that anyone other than iraqis and afghans and veterans fully vitiate. For all the naysayers and literary world, i still think the best were books have yet to be written. To the cspan not the cspan not in its comment if youre a veteran and ohio, utah, colorado, i tell my others theres a lot more good writing out there and i think they are prepared to all read it. The test is a medical term. We heard a good overview. I wont repeat that. Cover to cover and presented to the reader. Some are easier to read than others, but the whole journey through both wars raises questions that are veterans and the iraqi people deserve us to think hard about is we are not just any country. Word overstretch superpower, but we are affecting millions and millions of lives. I am not antiwar, but i try not to preach along the way. I try to be an honest guy through the pages. Whether i succeed or fail, i will lead up to you. The curtains that i pulled back. In a capital like ours, i believe it was an honest obligation for me to do. I was a meeting in rooms that a lot of our veterans were nodded and again i tried to be fair. I tried not to do any cheap shots. By the end of it, we did. Finally one point before you get into the structure of the book, and overview, while you i hope are the book, i need to tip my hat to veterans that underwriters have produced a lot of good already. The carpenter, elliott ackerman. There will be more that follow. Someone who doesnt get shot as a fiction book called flashes of war. I spent a lot of time with iraqis and afghans and she does a very good job for someone who hasnt actually been to war, writing about war. Thats all that said, i make it into the structure of the book. [inaudible] not that my editor and i were counted. 100 customers to the credit of my publisher they let me go wrong. The first section was the wrong war. The second section is the right war, afghanistan and the third section is home. My favorite favorite question is the additional part, which is after war. I was interviewed this week on radio and terry gross was an incredible interviewer asked me why i meant the book with not my words basically, the walt whitman quote. I will come back to that at the end of the 20 or so minutes that ive got. The last 40 minutes i would rather have a q a and i laughed and veterans to come and share their stories with me. Quick question. When i say United States of america today, what words you associate with our nation . Our mother taught me the value of other pop quiz. I hope you think about some words that come to mind. Nouns, ajit case, not theirs to use adverbs. And then i would ask a second part of the question, which is what words do you think iraq is, afghans are nonamericans associate with us today . How does for its changed are they the same . No right or wrong answer, but i will ask some of you to tell me about birds to associate with us. And then i would be negligent if i did math the third question given where a day out for memorial day. I think its time for our literature and for our nation, more importantly, to think about how these wars got started, how they were fought, the fact that theyre still ongoing and what issues we have succeeded at. This is not a book thats just an indictment on the wars. I actually write about some things, particularly in afghanistan, that we can feel good about. But its also a very frank look into the mirror and where the mere or record is cracked mirror is racked, i try and show that we need to recognize that. U. S. Power is not the same thing as u. S. Influence. I think the state department, if anything, taught me you can be powerful but not influential, and thats another question, i think, for our veterans, alex and baylin and dave probably in uniform saw as well, that just because you carry a rifle does not mean youre going to always get your way. A big theme of my book is accountability. I think that these wars have not led to enough personal or, more importantly, national accountability. Ill leave that up to you about your politics or who you choose to vote for. But at a time of ongoing warfare, i would put that out there as the role of all of us as citizens, to think about are we doing our job Holding People accountable for the decisions that we empower them to make. Its about reflection and reckoning, personal as well. You know, of course, its my story, my journey t a be, but of other stories in there. And then the big e for education. I think sometimes the value of nonfiction is you let other voices speak, and you do your best to sort of step to the side. So if im fortunate enough to have you end the book, by the end have you read the book, i hope by the end youve actually learned something. A big part of the audience i wrote for was for students. Not because i think it should be assigned to every student across america, but i really did try and write a book for the student who on 9 11 was a teenager or younger or who had a cousin who was in the military or in the state department for that matter. Because thats probably all theyve known, is that in the background theres iraq and afghanistan and another explosion and baghdad even becoming more red. Final theme ill point out among all the others is this is not an us versus them book. Our inherent instinct is to tell our story as americans, and there have been some very good books that have predominantly focused on the american story at war. My book is trying to widen the lens. So you will meet iraqis, afghans, and you will meet marines and soldiers. And together i think thats the most accurate mirror that were going to have on these or wars. Its also not an us versus them book in terms of the political side of the th the issue and the military side of the issue. The fact that ive got some military friends here hopefully attest to the fact that we did our best in places like fallujah and helmand. And i think the tribal warfare that sometimes goes on in washington in Conference Rooms really undercut us over there on the ground. And some of these stories probably highlight that. And it definitely was not an us versus them frame with regard to the iraqi and Afghan People. These are the people whose home front continue to be our war front. And i think as we read books and engage in discussions about these wars, we should keep a that in mind. Keep that in mind. And i want to switch to the photos in the book. Its not a picture book, but the pictures are, i think, a very important part of the reading experience. Why do i say that in my editor, tim oconnell and andrew rate ger and the great team up in new york helped me go through about 500 of my photos, and we boiled that down to 95. 90 of mine got in, and we used three or four department of defense photos. Because like all of you i always looked at the photos first, hopefully some of those photos will stay with you. A few. Theres a photo of fallujah, and today fallujah is being declared as you probably have heard again, this time by the Iraqi Government with our air power. If you look at the photos of fallujah, theyre pretty devastating as far as destruction and a city that we didnt level all of it, but i think during the battle we probably leveled about half of it. Dave, you may want to speak to that as a marine. Theres a photo of iraqis named walid, again, these are real people with real stories and real pain that has gone on since, you know, 2003. The potato factory. Terry gross, to her credit, asked me some hard questions about what went on there. Lets just say thats kind of the hardest part of war which is what happens when you have a humanitarian situation and a Health Situation all at once with bodies on the street and how do our marine corps and we deal with that. The photo that is a department of defense photo, i wanted to put a face to the the issue of whether you call it enhanced interrogation or photo. In fact, that probably mote slated the whole motivated the whole fiveyear project. He was tortured to death before abu ghraib. Lots of marine photos. Im biased, my dad and uncles were all in the army, but the tribe i spent most of my time with was the United States marine corps, so youll get to know, i think, the marine stories. Theres a lot of photos of the Afghan People. At a time when the longest war in American History is going on and on and on, we lose sight, i think, that these were people that we have partnered with and that were still partnering with. The last photos ill quickly mention before wrapping up and having a q and a is i went to the george w. Bush president ial museum and library. I did not know what i would see there, and i again hopefully as an honest, trustworthy guy walk you through how a president memorializes or remembers his own role as commander in chief. Topaz, i went there after i left fallujah. Why . I needed a big, long road trip, but i also think, unfortunately, the subject of how fear in a time of war sometimes brings out the worst aspect of the american character, and i think today thats particularly relevant. And then finally, ground zero in new york city. I once lived in new york city for four years, and as a former new yorker, i felt like i owned a little bit of that story. And i always believed this book needed to end in new york. Start in america and end in america, and the wars were in between. Jason was a friend in both wars, and he and i i think were looking for closure that no one ever get in these wars, but we went to the 9 11 memorials together. If theres one part of my book that allowed me to put things in perspective, i think its that part ive opted not to read part of my book because you did a great job talking about the mirror test, and besides, theres 22 hours of unabridged me. If you want more of me, the team in l. A. Were incredible working me through i the audio. I was in very good hands. But ill finally end with those questions i had. What words do you associate with the United States . Be you can just raise your hand if you can just raise your hand, ill repeat what those words are, just a few. And then well go to the second one. [inaudible] well meaning. Good contracted word with, i guess. Yes . Freedom. Freedom. Good one. I heard that in the wars. Powerful. Powerful. Any other words that you associate with the United States . Naive. Naive. Selfserving. Guilty. I was naive for sure. Selfserving. Yep . Unsuccessful. Unsuccessful. These are all good words. Now im going to shift quickly to what words do you think the iraqi and Afghan People associate with us . Or for that matter, the japanese people, the daness, you know, the brazilians. [inaudible] okay, dangerous. Maam . Crusader. Ah, crusader. Thats a loaded word, but im glad you said it. Anyone else want to offer some words that nonamericans you think associate with us . Arrogant. Arrogant, and its a good friend who grew up in norway. Good word. Anyone else . [inaudible] disappointing and leader. Sorry . Leader. Wrong. Wrong. [laughter] tim in new york has been, its been a really good back and forth. No right or wrong answer. I heard great words, and i heard notsogreat words. I heard a lot about drones, about freedom, i heard election, i heard abu ghraib. So the book talks about what that balance was in terms of how we view oust in that mirror ourself in that mirror. I like to avoid mirrors because im getting older, but when it comes to war, we shouldnt. I think if the book succeeds, youll see i try and do a pretty good balance between, yes, what failed, but also some of the things that worked. Iraq, obviously, the worst battle of the war, so my lens is very red. But in afghanistan there are still some stores and some some stories and some to experiences that resulted in some positive things. So the indictment book, i think, would have been an easier book to write. I tried to, again, be pretty balanced on that. Memorial day x then im going to open it up to q a as i think ive got about 35, 40 minutes. What does memorial day mean to you . I was impressed with the citizens underneath it all. That it somehow doesnt seem right, what we do on memorial day. Were not fair with people who were there. Okay. The e gentleman to my right talked about the cynicism of memorial day, that were not fair to the veterans, to the people who were in the wars. Yep. Millions of people who have served over hundreds of years. Good. Millions of people who served over hundreds of years, right . Its not just these wars, its wars all the way back to the first club. Good. What else . My father was in the battle of the bulge. He was in combat as a private. So for you, its a very personal family member. My great uncle i wrote about the other day survived the battle of the bulge but did not survive the afterwar. Anyone else want to take a shot at what memorial day means . The cemetery if more manty in normandy. Very good. Yeah, im glad you raised that. Ive got a chapter in my book that i end by signaling there are very few nations in the world who still bury yo