iranians. some 1987 the iranians get their start with something that came from a.q. khan. we shut him down and he went to pakistan. we shut down his black orchid operation. those are all examples where we use military or the threat of military operations to hault proliferation. the other thing that happened was in 07 -- showed up in my office of the west wing. he had photographs of israeli intelligence taken inside a nuclear reactor built by the north koreans from the syrians in eastern syria. that was 07. the israeli stick it out and imagine what would have happened but it was an incident where we were lucky that radical islamist didn't get their hands on a but it's only a matter of time. we are safer today than we would have been if we hadn't taken out saddam hussein. those who argue against it have to explain the fact that you still have saddam hussein around. but it was very important. i believed then and believe now what did the right thing in 2003 the world is less threatening now than it was but barack obama was about to turn it on its head with the operations of the deals he wants to do with the iranians. >> the rise of isis, do you think the caliphate can be detained? >> i'm not sure how you contain a caliphate if you are going to withdraw u.s. forces. you can cross your fingers, you can pray, you can try to find somebody who will go in and do it for you. but i think isis is such a deadly combination. caliphate is a significant thing where they have established a regime, governance under sharia law extraordinary radical. we have seen what they do recruiting successfully for example here in the united states. stories of young people banging courage to go to syria and sign up with isis to be part of that system. very potent and deadly force committed to the destruction of all the infidels who had a foothold in libya. the thing i worry about is some of the refugees now that are flowing out of syria into europe some of them they will be operating some members of isis that are trying to transfer their revolution to europe because there are significant presence there. i think the only option on isis i think they have to be destroyed. you'll have to do it sooner or later. the longer we wait and it's going to be especially dangerous if by the time we decide we are going to do something about it they have a nuclear weapon. one of those governments over there has fallen after they acquired that capability and then we will have grave grave difficulty, situation where you have great instability and unrest. the tears are in control and they have their hands on deadlier weapons. >> let's talk about hillary. [laughter] secretary clinton had a very adjusting approach to e-mails. [laughter] as secretary of state. i would like to get your thoughts both on her decision that she conduct oliver business including sending top-secret e-mails on a private server that resided in a bathroom in denver and what you think that says about her being commander-in-chief backs it's not a trick question. [laughter] >> i don't think she's qualified to be commander-in-chief to i think the question of the private server anybody who's been there and gone through the process whether secretary of defense or part of the cabinet dealing with highly classified information all the time there some reason why she did it and i assume we are going to find out what it is as they are now aggressively pursuing what was on the server and in the last couple of days they found there were more top-secret papers on the server. that's the highest classification there is unless you are in specialized areas. i'm not a hillary fan, okay quack/go. >> that's breaking news. [applause] i'm getting the look that says move on. [laughter] as you look at 2016, i know you mentioned to me before you came in that you wanted to take the opportunity tonight to announce your endorsement. [laughter] >> that is a fast one. not part of the program. i haven't endorsed anybody yet. i know a lot of the candidates over the years. i have consciously stayed away from endorsing anybody for a couple reasons. one because of the book. what i'm really concerned about and what lives is concerned about is our efforts we have made in the book continuing on behalf of the power. i've committed to reince priebus republican national chairman. i go out and help them raise money for the republican party rather than a candidate at this stage. but the thing that concerns me the most is to make certain that these issues the kind we have just been talking about national security issues are front and center of this campaign. about to be. it's the most important thing the president has to worry about it right -- it ought to be right at the top of the agenda when it comes time to make a choice about who i want to support simon trusted and now the various cat will respond to our suggestions. i don't expect to be able to stick a policy at all but those are the problems i see out there based on my 40 some years in the business and they think the record is there for itself that obama has taken us down a primrose path here and the next president man or woman is going to have to take on that task the day they arrived in office. i want to make sure that they are up to the task so that is my number one party. >> no endorsement tonight? >> no endorsement tonight. >> sorry. [laughter] it was the case that as we worked on the book there were days, especially when we were doing the research and writing about the obama era that it could be really disparaging and you know we have a whole section on the extent to which the president traveled the world during his first year in office literally apologizing for us and talking at every opportunity taking every opportunity to make sure he conveyed to foreign governments, foreign audiences that he believes america has been air has been arrogant, that he believed america had not listened. he listened to a diatribe i'd daniel ortega about the things the lie that ortega told about america and the presence response was to say well i'm glad he didn't blame me for things that happened when i was three months old. he them ended his apology tour we know from cables that have been leaked to news reports when he went to japan. before he got to japan the american ambassador sent a cable to washington saying that the japanese government had rejected the idea that president obama travel to hiroshima and nagasaki and apologize for the nuclear bombs he dropped showing no recognition at all, no understanding at all of the importance of ending the war when we candidate and why that was the right thing to do. so it can be dispiriting and we want to and tonight is something that's more hopeful. and that is verse i want to read to you something that charles krauthammer has written and then i'm going to end by asking my dad to read a section from the end of the prologue and the book we write that there is good news. just as one president has left a path of distraction in this way, one can restore america's strengthen our alliances renew our power and leadership defeat her and amy sing keep us safe but it will not be easy. there are difficult decisions to be made in very little time. we face great challenges as a nation before and the right leaders have brought us through. as charles krauthammer observes quote it is one of the enduring enduring -- of american history so near providence was to get the most hardened atheist pause that it should produce at every point great man who matched the moment. our railing british revolution counter gives birth to the best cohort of political thinkers ever but there were some medicine hamilton washington franklin and jay. the crisis of the 19th century the 20th fdr. we are living at another hinge point of history and we require present equal to this moment. we must choose wisely. now i want to ask my dad to read about another duty we have. >> as citizens we also have a duty to protect our ideals and our freedoms by safeguarding our history. we must ensure that our children know the truth about who we are, what we have done and why it is uniquely america's duty to be freedom's defender. our children should know about the pool -- boys at point do hawken doolittle's readers in the battles of midway and iwo jima. they should learn about the courage of the young americans who fought, excuse me, that light is bad. encourage the young americans who fought the nazis in the battle of the bulge and okinawa. they should learn why america was right to end the war by dropping bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki and the fundamental decency of a nation that established the truman doctrine and the marshall plan the berlin airlift and the north atlantic treaty organization. they need to know about the war of the holocaust and what it means to promise never again. they should know that once there was an empire so evil and the rest of truth it had to build that wall to keep its citizens and and the free world led by america defeated it. they need to know about the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, the courage of the first responders and the heroism of the passengers of flight 93. they should understand what kind of world militant islam will create if we don't defeat it. they should learn about great men like george marshall and white eisenhower and ronald reagan. we must teach them what it took to prevail over evil in the 20th century and what it will take in the 21st. we want to make sure they understand it is the brave men and women of united states armed forces to defend our freedom and secure millions of others as well. our children need to know that they are citizens of the most powerful good in honorable nation in the history of mankind , the exceptional nation. ordinary americans have done things to guarantee her survival. america's future and the future of freedom for all the world now depend on us. speaking at omaha beach on the 40th anniversary of the d-day landings president reagan put it this way. we will always remember. we will always be proud. we will always be prepared so we may always be free. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] thank you. thank you.