[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> welcome to defense news. a look at china's 100 year strategy toisplace the united states as the world's leading po look at the best war movies ever. but first, president obama has asked congress to approve military force against isis. the move has prompted a debate about presidenti power and america's role in the conflict. administration officials say that the prolonged nature of t the opereration demands new legislation. congress will start hearings asd week. here to explain why the so-called a u umf is necessary are sthanie from the center f strategic and international ststudies and bill carter from the center for a new american security. welcome to the program, welcome ba. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> what is good about this request and what isn't? >> this comes on a heels of dozens of bills dropped in the last congress. it appears that congress is raring at the bit to talk about isis strategy and what the u.s. n do in thahat region. >> philip, you are a lyer. talk about the ratnale for this. is it necessary and does it open a pox of worms for the administration? le it catalyzes -- >> what is goois that it catalyzes the debate in ngress about t what our ends and means are. what is bad is that the bill is incredibly vague. it has a number of areas that leave wide room r interpretation about the nature of operations, who we are going after, where we are doing it, and for how long. >> does the president fundamentally need an aumf to do anything? we had one after 9/11. we had another one for iraq. is it absolutely necessary? >> the 2002 aumf specifically talked about iraq. the 2001 aumf was fairly vague. >> stephanie is right. the 2001 aumf has covered everything we have done to date. it's very existence suggests that the president doesn't need a new one. that said, there is a lawyerly argument that you u want additional authority whenever you can get it. if additional disputes,, it could matter. particularly when -- if additional disputes come up, it could matter, particularly when youalk about people we uld capture down the road. >> is it possibility that making a play to get the authority to do something could end up backfiring on you and hampering your ability to start an operation? >> that is what the conventional dete so far has been about in the public domain. do you want to lit things? the aumf as drafted says no in ground operations. no one can agree on what that means. there is ahree year time limit. will that stick? therare those in congress who say this enemy may not be gone in three years. this could realllly limit folks on the ground. >> to build on that point aumf is kind of like an iceberg. the are our -- - there are pieces above the waterline and then there is a lot below the waterline in terms of legislativauthorization that will matter a great deal. congress may authorize a certain amount of activity, but with a appropriate money for in supplemental request is going to matter a great deal as well as what they signal on e intelligence notificion side. ththere could be a very broad conflict, but the budget and troop request only turn out to authorize a strategy o of limited contnment. >> speaking g of the straty of limitedd containment, there are folks who arere friendly to the administration even within the administration, who say this is kicking the can down the road. it is a containment strategy. there are those who are more blunt and say this isn't even strategy. it is the appearance of doing mething so that you can afford to not do anything. is that a fair characterization? >> i think it is fair. as phil mentioned, this could be a redundant authority. everything they have unundertaken today -- and let's be honest, we have been combating is for six months, and that has all beeeen under the 2001 authorization of the use of military force. this new piece of legislatition if it goes anywhere, could be very well saying we are doing something without actually doing anything. >> we need to clarify what we want to do. is it counterterrorism is it rebuilding iraq? is a going after a sod. we have a fundamamental disagreement on what we want -- is it going after assad? we have a fundamental disagreement on what we want to do. >> the kurds are actively engaged. the sunnis are semi-warm toward isis because they are afraid theyey are sending malicious to kill sunnis every time they make progress. if iraq is fundamentally broken and you cannot intify any syrian moderates whoho are visible to the naked eye, don't you have a fundamental problem with this strategy? it is a strategy that relies on ththe abilility of the iraqis to take care of t this isissue in their own country. that is funny mentally flawed. i think they are going to need a lot of help. partially, whwhat the administration and the plug on need to take a look at is what kind of support will be needed in the campaign against -- and the pentagon need to take a look ats what kind of support will be needed in the campaign against isis. >> the countries have to be engaged in a more d direct way alongside u.s. forces. indirect action only goes as far as your partners. we need to take a more direct goal if we w want to achieve our goals. -- direct role if we wa to achieve our gogoals. >> there is no mention of a geographic limit. i would also argue that depending on the iraqis to battle what isis going on in iraq is one thing, but isis, as we have seenn recent months, really is appealing to a broader crowd. people in france. people in australia. undertaking things because they have seen what isis is capable of doing. i would encourage you not to limiyour thinking to iraq. >> doeoesn't that mark a fundamental shift in the structure of this conflict? you never would have thought that coptic christians weree going to get killed in libya but that is what happened. >> it also suggest that the milita lens -- suggests that the military lenis not to be lens to use exclusively. this i is a much more comprehensive fig.. >> but the fundamental problem is that a lot of the natio we are supposedlyy aligned with, the saudi's, the uae there are a lot of pro-extremist elements in those countries. >> absolutely,nd getting those allies to clearly oppose isis or silence those parts of their society that support isis is a crucial part of the strategy. >> the addministration has, for years, been adamant that a ssad cannot survive. is that a strategic mistake for the united states? is thahat akin to a red line that is not so much a red line ananymore? >> i am not sure it has ever been a red line. it was something put out therere to see how much traction it would get. this is something thateeds to be debated. i know thornberry is thihinking of asking thehe administration what the strategy not just for isis but for friends and allies in the region. assad is just one exampmple of that. >> we may be seeing that near term, we have to deal with isis and assad we haveo deal with later.r. it's also that the devil you >> for decades america's china specialists have debated beijing's strategies. skeptics have long maintained that beijing was pursuing a deceptive strategy to in u.s. technology and health a eventually gain access to power. in his new book, he relies on for decades of experience as a leading chinese analyst. he reveals beijing's true strategy. joining us to discuss chinese strategy, mike pillsbury, now the director of the china program at the hudson institute a think tank. you're also on the washington post and l.a. times bestseller list. >> number one oboth lists. >> which is great. what is china trying to achieve anand why? >> china has natural ambitions that any country would have. but it's history gives it an ambition other countries don't have a that is to restore itself to be the dinant power in the world as it was for a couple of years. they call this strategy the road to rejuvenation, and they see it as a return to their natural role. >> one of the things you quote which is a great quote from confucius, "there cannot be two sons in the skor two emperors on earth." that iselling. >> and their view of america is that we did not earn, over 2000 years, the right to be a world leader. they call us a hegemon -- they call us a bah, which they told us means a hegemon or world leader, but which actually means a tire it -- tyrant. their economy is three or four b times bigger than our economy. if you tell them they want to become like the americans, they get angry at that. >> we want the south china sea for example, and everyone must yield to us. isn't that a taste of how a chinese centric world might look? >> they say we were not around to write the rules. these were 1945 charters. china wasn't rely there. they don't really feel obligated to agree to all the rules. they are not recognizing the jurisdiction, for example, of the world court and the law of the sea in the south china sea. >> hence problematic territorial spes or resolving territorial disputes. or you build an air base it becomes years. you have used a lot of resources to research the book. you make the point that nixon did t so much go to china as china a very cleverly went to next and. explain that and some of the other fascinating ththings you found in your research the folks at to know about. >> what i am trying to do isis let the chinese speak for themselves in this book. for examplple, no and in kissinger -- nixon and kissinger opening chchina is a story all americans agree on. i show that both documents o our side and the chinese side show that it was not only a chinese initiatives, iwas by four chinese generals in a series of memomos to chairman mao -- >> hard-line generals. >> hard-line generals who ha the idea to bring richard nixon to china. kissinger shows how he and richard nixon refused the first chinese invitations. one came in writing. i found this in the nixon library in china. kissinger explplains in his book that he thought it wasoo risky to accept the invitation. the chinese story is que different. chinese initiative and strategy at work, and the american side being hesitant to accept. ultimately it does happen. i can use that as one example of chinese strategic thinking that i really admire. i am not criticizing them as being demonic or malevolent. they are quite smart. they may well be outsmarting us for a long time to come. >> you make the case that it is a bit of a tom sawyer strategy. they just don't want to papaint the fence. how does this manifest, because the united states, in its dedesire in the china opening, to win an ally against the soviet union, was driven by the realization thathina was weak against the soviet union. how is this tom sawyer strategy playing out? >> i tell the story in the book about secretary in 1979 who explained that chinese strategy was to surpass the soviet union and then america would be next. nobody believed that at the time. china had 10% of our gdp. nobody believed they had a prayer of pulling it off. looking back, the documents the viets gave us of secret beaches chairman mao had made to his colleagues, the chinese destiny was to cacatch up to and surpass america. nobody bieved thosose documents. now we see from955 the chinese had this goaoal. they are very patient. this is not a short-term thing. >> hence the 100 year marathon. you won a service award for uncovering this in your long career at the cia and elsewhere. >> someone claims i wothe cia performance award. this book had to go through security clearance at the cia and they removed references like that. >> one of your reasons for doing this book is to foster debate. what strategy es the u.s. need to execute to sort -- thwart china surpassing us? >> this should be balance of competition and cooperation, but i think the balance is all ron now. it's about 95% cooperation and telling our -- is all wrong now. it's about % cooperatioion and telling ourselves that china is a third world country living in poverty that we need to help. i am talking aboutut investment, trade, treaties, st t the way we think about china, we should not he them as not -- not see t them as not a contender. they are a i stood outside, assessing the situation. i knew it could rough in there but how rough? there was no way to know for sure. hey guys.... daddy, it's pink! but hey. a new house it's a blank canvas. and we got a great one thanks to a really low mortgage rate from navy federal credit union. pink so she's a princess. you got a problem with that? oorah oorah open to the armed forces and their families for over 80 years. navy federal credit union. >> in march, our military publicatioion will launch their first evever movie brackets in competitionith march madness. they will pit some of the great movies ever madede against each other until they crown a champion. the list will include apocalypse now, patton a and ner films like zero dark 30 as well as comedies like stripes and tropic thunder, which i am ad to see on the list. a committee of film buffs and active-duty service members will pick the winners. they want readers to submit to their own favorites. you can send all of your angry letters to the same address after the choices are made and you don't find your favorites in there. here to tell us about the competition is tony lombardo, editor of "army times," who is helping to oveversee this. where didid this idea come from and how is the process going to work? >> the way the process is working and the way it began is "american sniper." everyone loves the movie -- at least, a lot of our readers love the movie. it got us thinking about what is the best military movie ever made? we have march madness coming up. why not create a bracket? we have 64 films. the list is still being generated. we have a committee of film buffs as well as actctive-duty servicemembers to come in and argue movies for about four hours. a nati loves lawrence of arabia. it has to be on the list. >> excellent movie. >> a female staff sergeant for the marine corps loves movies like "fear he," very violent movie. -- herefury a very violent movie. that'on the list. >> it something we always talk about in the newsroom anyway. what are some of the films that have already caused some controversy in their selection? >> there have been a number of them. one was "forest gump." everybody loves "forest gump." it was a best picture winner. but is it really a military movie? a lo him runni. but some of it is him in vietnam. >> some of the best combat scenes coming from that movie. >> and lieutenant dan is an incredibly memorable character. gary sinise, the actor who played him has a legacy now is helping servicemembers. we thought about that, and that all factored in. yeyes, forest gump is a military movie. >> why is aliens on the list? >> not alien, but the sequel. the james cameron film. i was skeptical at first, but our movie critics said it's got to be on the list. he sent me the trailer. you watch the trailer, and you have all of these colonial marines. there is some unit cohesion. they band together against all odds against nasty aliens. >> exactly. and the comedies also. how do you justify stripes? >> good question. >> as much as i love "stripes." >> it's all about variety. we don't want it to just be gritty films. we were thinking about match ups. let "stripes" goes up against " saving private ryan" or "top gun." we tri to focus on non-foreign films. we have "crimson tide"nd "hunt for red october." >> after you put up the list, a lot of peoeople will be disappointed. they are free to write their letters to you. >> the actuaual brackets will coincide with march madness. people will look and inevitably say why is the still not on there. they can write and complain directly to me. >> complain directly to tony. >> that part of the fun of having a bracket is the arguing. so we will relish it. >> best of luck on the project. happy to help if necessary. jeanette mack telllls us about the defense department's annual initiative to encourage savings known as military saves week. >> military saves weweek allows military personnel across the globe to take a savings pledge. makeke a goal. take a plan. save automatically. senior military leaders have the opportunity to start budgeting and set financial goals. yoyounger servicemembers can mak some minor adjustments to improve their financial situations sounds good, right? but going from spending too saving can be like climbing mot everest. to make it more doable, we set base camps along the way. short-term goals, like a weekend trip, are faster to reach and help give a feeling of accomplishment. that sustains the habit toch reach long-term goals. a mple budget workset is a great pce to start. after you figure out how much and how often you need to save, that of automatic spurs from your checking account. it fast, and easy to do online. once you set it up, you let the money do all the work. it won't bebe long before you are a full-fledged saver. >> thank you very much, jeanette. we will see you next week. if>> too often in washington strategies are short-term and shift with the political wind. but not in china. as we heard today from m mike pipillsbury, beieijing has a long-term strategy to does lays the united states as -- long-term strategy to displace the united states as a world power. it is tailored specifically to counr u.s. power and forces.. conventional wisdom holds that president richard non went to ina to g gain an ally againsnst the viet union. instead, china leeward richard nixon to get the help it needed to beat first the soviets and then the united states. america was kept in ththe dark until it was too late. it nearly worked. america has been hoping the communist nation would grow more democratic as it prospered. that view is canging. hardliners a seeking economic and military power with little interest in democracy or mobile rule of law, referring or world wheree chinese might makes right. the book is worth reading. the united statemust develop a strategy to remain the world's leading economicic and military and moral power. thank you for watching. coming up next week, russia's campaign to snatch a lucrative fighter pilot contract from france andnd america's new policy to make it easier for allies to acquire armed drones. if you have any suggestions about this show or ideas for future coverage, feel free to e-mail me. i will be back thiss week -- next week at this time. have a great week. 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