 Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? Well, welcome. My name is Tim Tolly O'Farrell. I'm on the board here at the Future Forum and I'll have you know that when we were dreaming up this Event today somebody said why don't we do it in the middle of the day like at three o'clock? I said that's crazy. No one will come But here you are so thanks for coming and proving me wrong a Little bit about the Future Forum if you don't know it's a nonpartisan group here that's affiliated with a library It's thought of as being a a group of builders and doers and there's a quote when we were When the board was sort of thinking about how we build this How we build this group to people LBJ has this great quote about come let us reason together and to me that always resonated really Powerfully come let's reason together about the issues and so that's an easy way to sum up what the Future Forum is And it's an easy way to sum up what we're gonna do today We have Two experts on national security, and I'll tell you just a little bit about them first will in Bowden He's the executive director of the Clements Center here at UT. It's kind of a policy think tank Affiliate with the university that is focused on national security national security issues Will is also an associate professor at the LBJ school, and he's affiliated with the Strauss Center He was also Served in the George W. Bush White House as senior director of the National Security Council So he knows a thing or two about this and We also have with us Chancellor William McRaven who does anybody not know who Chancellor McRaven is I don't know how you could Bill as he insists on me calling him is a retired admiral he Before he retired was commander of joint special operations command He's written the book on special operations literally the book So he also knows a thing or two about this And he's as you know an expert on making one's bed Sorry bill so these two Are gonna chat for about 30 35 minutes with one another and will is gonna kind of lead the discussion And then we're gonna have some Q&A From the audience so be lodging your questions, and then there'll be a reception afterward that we hope you all stay for If you're not a member of the future forum, please join It's worth it, and you'll meet a lot of really cool people so without further ado. Let's reason together With will and bill all right well Tim Thank you very much for that very kind introduction And let me add here that I first got to know Tim in his Urschweil capacity as the editor of the Alcaldade the UT alumni magazine, and he was a wonderful friend and supporter and had the Great wisdom to run a lot of really brilliant articles over the years and then the foolishness to one to run one or two that I Bamboozled him into letting me write so anyway, but the Alcaldade's loss was Texas Monthly's gain and we're glad to him That you're still here in town Thanks for the introduction I know this is ostensibly a conversation with the two of us up here But it's going to be a conversation where I put the hard questions to the chancellor and he's going to give you the answers so So the substance is going to come from him and the cheeky interrogation is gonna kind of come from me The chancellor let's let's start off with a little bit of a overview of the past It's been almost 16 years since the September 11th attacks and a very vivid Poignant moment for both of us in our respective careers and in some different ways Looking back over the past 16 years What would you say have been our country's greatest the successes in the fight against jihadist terrorism? And then what would you say are now our greatest challenges still because obviously the fight is still with us, but it's it's evolved so Yeah, you know it's essentially in October of that year I went from being the Commodore In charge of all the seals in the west coast to the White House just a month after 9-11 and so we stood up the president had stood up what was called the office of combating terrorism and Retired force star general named Wayne Downing who had been the commander of all special operations command or all special operations forces Had taken that position Very early on in the process We tried to pull all of what we refer to as the interagency together So that we could see what the threats were that that were probably still coming at us at that time And we did what we call the threat matrix Every morning it later became a television show interestingly enough But the threat matrix Was essentially a list of all the threats that were out there and up on the screen We would sit in the situation room And then on the screen it was a little bit of a Hollywood square sort of thing You would have CIA and the National Security Agency and DIA and all the three letter agencies FBI NGA Coast Guard was up and I remember very early on Joel Downing would sit at the head of the table And he would look on to the the big flat panel screen And he would say okay, we have this particular threat CIA. What do you have? And the agency would say General nothing to report Okay, FBI. What do you have sir? Nothing to report And you can see the general getting more and more frustrated as he would go down the line and everybody had Essentially nothing to report with the exception of the Coast Guard. God bless the Coast Guard. They wanted to talk a lot But so that was 2001 If you fast forward a couple of years Really into the fight in Iraq things began to change and and what changed was a recognition that the interagency Agency really had to come together because men and women's lives were at stake in the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan and And I like to think that the US special operations led a little bit of this evolution And in some cases revolution Because when we got into Iraq We needed to see the intelligence in a way that went from strategic down to tactical So we knew who to go after and this required having human sources from the CIA It required law enforcement intelligence from the FBI. It required overhead imagery from the National Geospatial Agency It required signals intelligence from NSA And so for us to be able to do our job us the special operations forces to be able to protect the forces across Iraq We needed to be able to see all this intelligence and be able to act on it And you really had to aggregate the intelligence in a way that made sense for the the tactician the operator And so this attempt to pull the interagency together that really started in either late 2003 or the early 2004 matured dramatically You know up to the point today and and there was a point in time for example when the FBI would not share Threat information with local law enforcement one. They didn't have the mechanisms to do that There were no secure telephones with local law enforcement. There were no joint The JTTFs that they have but none of that was in place at the time. So I would say the the biggest Success we have had aside from the tactical and operational successes is the fact that the government your government Has really come together in a way that is is remarkable because the interagency now Shares intelligence information ideas best practices There are liaison officers from CIA and FBI headquarters FBI officers and CIA headquarters All of them within the special operations and that ability to share intelligence is frankly What keeps the American people safe and we have done that exceedingly well really since again I would say early 2004 as we developed this I Think the biggest concern that I have moving forward is that as the wars have wound down People are kind of going back to their respective corners And and in some cases the money isn't there but in most cases people are kind of retreating back to their old ways of doing business and and therefore if you don't continue to have this Forcing function Then we're gonna have a breakdown in intelligence in a year or so and we'll say why didn't we know that well? The answer was because the cop on the beat didn't have anybody to talk to didn't talk to the FBI I didn't talk to the CIA didn't talk to the NSA and therefore there was a gap and a fatal flaw So I think again when you look at how the country came together not just of course the intelligence agencies and the military and The State Department and others but frankly I think how the country as a whole came together Was was really the key to our success up to this point in time The concern is as things begin to wind down or change will we lose some of those things that we've Yeah, yeah picked up on that does does remind me of just even yet I see penny and Andrew Peacock here and penny you may remember a few weeks ago You and I and some others had a dinner with Andy card The who is the White House chief of staff for the on 9-11 for the first five years And he was through town and we were he was sharing some very powerful recollections of the day on 9-11 But then the week afterwards including the day September 14th when Bush did the national cathedral speech and then went up to ground zero but Relative to this on the FBI's mission and our government and he told a powerful story I hadn't heard before that that morning on September 14th CIA FBI and the other three letter agencies came in to do a morning briefing for president Bush and Bob Muller was the FBI director and he'd been on the job for like kind of 10 days at that point I'm gonna talk about a rough first week at the office and He started by saying to mr. President I'm gonna tell you where we're out in the investigation and defining out who did this this attack on 9-11 and Cards said you know the president erupted said Bob keep doing that we need to know that but I want you to tell me what you're doing now to stop the next attack and That was that may sound like kind of a But not all thing there But that was a profound change in mission for the FBI who previously had been forced on Focused on the law enforcement thing something bad happens Then we investigate why it happened and now to changing to the domestic intelligence aspect of how do we Anticipate and prevent the next attack and we'll have Jim comey with us here on campus on Thursday given a talk at a on a conference Along with Chancellor McRaven on just this topic and it's been really amazing to see how the FBI has transformed itself into very positive ways there So alright, so speaking of speaking of missions When most average American civilians think of special operations forces we think of missions to capture or kill terrorists The kind of stuff in the movies and books and that of course is a key aspect of the soft mission But what are some other soft duties and activities that while just as important as that are maybe met much less well known to Civilians and appreciated by us because I know soft fans the whole spectrum, right? You know it is and you're right the books in the movies love To kind of tell the stories of the great bravery and heroism and I think all that is well and good And it's important for us, but frankly about 75% of what special operations forces do is they train other nations Soft as we refer to them soft forces So all around the world at one point time we were in at least when I was in command we were in 90 different countries So in those 90 different countries for the most part now They're obviously we were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places But in most of those countries we were working with our special operations counterparts to train them So that frankly we didn't have to do the job if they had a threat in their country So I mean within you know, North Africa and Africa you had every place from Algeria to Mali to Niger to Nigeria to Chad More attain you all of those countries We had special operations forces and all the countries in the Pacific Most of the European countries because we worked with the NATO our NATO allies and all this was about building their capability so that again, they could do the job when the time came and protect their own National security so that we didn't have to be there and that was it was and continues to be an incredibly important part of our job The other piece I think the surprise a lot of folks is we do humanitarian assistance It is one of the core responsibilities of US special operations. Now. It isn't completely altruistic But I'll take a case in point in Mali many years ago What we tried to do was provide a lot of the outlying areas with fresh water So you had to dig wells boreholes to bring that fresh water Well, it does a couple things for one. It does have an altruistic outcome in that you are helping the locals Have fresh water. We would also take veterinarians up there We would take doctors and and corpsmen and medics up there to treat the folks But it also put us in a position to understand what was happening on the ground So the humanitarian assistance was yes, we had doctors there and and veterinarians and clinicians But they're also looking around going well, let's find out what the intelligence situation is on the ground Not in a bad way just so we understood what was happening Because then it allows us to understand have a broader look at kind of a canvas of the threats that are out there in any particular country But all of this is kind of part and parcel to training the host nation to understanding what the dynamics on the ground are So we can be in a position to help them as we say kind of work by with and through them In order to achieve their goals and our goal our mutual goals Well, again, that's a great segue to the to the next question, which is during your 37 years in uniform You served with and fought alongside the military forces of for many of America's allies and partner nations You just mentioned, you know the kind of soft interaction partnerships with 90 some different countries So what what did you observe about the importance of allies through that work? Especially what kind of value do our allies bring to America's fighting forces, but also some of the challenges of working with allies Yeah, you know what you find at the soldier level certainly within the special operations community So let me let me kind of break them up into areas So if you look at the European forces the NATO forces, you know the Brits the French The Germans the Norwegians. I mean all of the the Poles that these are individually Remarkable soldiers. I will tell you they are just as brave just as talented as our US special operations forces They are just as good at the tactical level Unfortunately, what they don't have is what America brings in terms of the command and control So you may have a great young Polish special operations officer But that Polish officer when they're going on a mission, they don't have a predator UAV overhead They don't have artillery that can support them or air or airpower that can support them in When they get into a bind or an ambush and so what we had to do to train these remarkable soldiers was Okay, you are great individual soldiers We will that we worked with the Brits in Iraq and of course in Afghanistan We worked with the entire swath of NATO special operations forces and we taught them How do you call air support us air support or in some cases some NATO air support? How do you call an artillery? How do you how do you do the command and control things that you don't have an opportunity to train for in? Norway or Sweden or someplace, but to be part of our fight you're gonna have to learn that So and that's true. Frankly the United Arab Emirates the Emirates are great soldiers. They are hard. They are tough They have they have been with us in most of the fights and people are I think are surprised by that when you when you think of the Arab forces Because sometimes some of the Arab forces get You get you know people get dismissive of them, but the Emirates were terrific again They didn't have a lot of the command and control control structure. We have or the intel networks We had but they're all again most of them when they come together particularly the special operations folks We're all kind of cut from the same cloth Well, you mentioned the Emirates I was gonna ask if there are any other Countries, maybe once we wouldn't have expected that stood out to you as having a particularly potent and an effective courageous fighting forces. Yeah, and again, I would tell you Most of them really do have that and the Afghans for example. I mean I saw heroism From our Afghan counterparts and in some cases our Afghan counterparts on the special operations side These were young kids Many of them had been fighting the Taliban or fighting somebody since they were 14 years old 12 14 years old They didn't have a lot of equipment other than what we provided them in many cases But I gotta tell you they were as heroic In in support of their nation and in support of our troops as any soldier I've been around that includes the Iraqi forces as well. So I think you know soldiers around the world are Soldiers particularly if they volunteered, you know, they they have a certain ethos they have a Desire to take care of the soldier next to them Now again, are there variations in quality? Of course there are But at the heart of it, I think most of them are again great young men and women Who are who are ready to be in the fight and and and they served us well as a nation those partners those coalitions Were vital to us in the course of our fights in Iraq enough to understand Yeah, I just reflected on the policy side when I was doing policy and diplomacy at the State Department and the National Security Council Often found that sometimes it was the smaller countries who had the most capable diplomats and policy makers So when I wanted to know what's going on in Asia, I always talked to the Singhs the Singaporeans Andrew, you probably remember so I mean that's a small country in a rough neighborhood And they have to have really really good people who know what's going on and like guys in Europe as the Danes The Danes had these phenomenal diplomats and you want to know what's going on in Europe Just you know call up the Danes They'll tell you well the Germans think this and the Brits think this French this and so It's some of the underappreciated aspects of our of our allies and some of the attributes they can bring well And you know you talk about the Singaporeans. I mean again Magnificent special operations force And all up and down that kind of swath there are the South Koreans are good the Japanese are good small but good So again, I think soldiers around the world basically have a kind of a similar ethos and And the variation really is in the equipment and their command control That's again another nice transition to the next question here, which is The evolution of the American military because your first commission in 1977 right so you know the first wave of the all volunteer for it He was three years old at the time The first wave of the all volunteer force coming out of of course the traumas of Vietnam How do you say the American military as an institution culture has evolved since since the 70s? And you know follow on that is given that arguably the AVF has been a real success What are do you ever worry about the gap between civilian and military life in our country today? Yeah, I will tell you that the American military. I think has changed a lot since I came in Yeah in 1977 we were still fighting the Cold War and as a result of that there was a kind of a hierarchy in the military and and really in certain areas, you know the The sergeant didn't do anything unless the captain told him the captain didn't do anything Unless the major told the major didn't do anything to less lieutenant colonel or told colonel told the general So and and that worked fine when you were talking about kind of a force-on-force a full-the-gap issue with the Soviets You know militaries we built our military to fight the Soviet Union during the Cold War And it was about matching force for force You always wanted to have an advantage whether it was a nuclear advantage or a a conventional advantage over the Soviet Union But we knew the fight would come down to essentially a mass fight and everybody it really wasn't much different than the World War two tactics we had used Well as the Soviet Union fell We began to realize that now we're in a multipolar world That the threats were different. We weren't into the full war on terrorism But in the you know mid 80s to through the 90s We went through what we referred to as the Revolution and military affairs, and it was very interesting in the military Technology was really just starting to hit. So for example, I saw my first global positioning system GPS during Desert Storm it was about this big and They told me that if I used it I could get within plus or minus a hundred yards of what we called center beach So to do an amphibious landing you had to know exactly where center beach was and of course we were like I don't believe this How does this thing work? You know? But but this was it was a I think a Harris GPS But what happened was we knew as a military that technology was coming along that was going to allow us to do things That we had never been able to do before the Marine Corps God bless them really kind of got out on the forefront of this and What they wanted to do was we're going to take we're going to change the way the Marine Corps fights and Instead of the general having to tell the colonel who has to tell the major who has to tell the captain who has to tell the sergeant They said what we want to do is we want to empower these teams And of course the Marine Corps primarily their their primary job is to do amphibious landings So the Marines on board the amphibious ship had this again giant flat panel screen at the time I'm not sure it was flat panels just yet but each of the soldiers or in the team carried a global positioning system and this is by this time it's about the mid 90s and And there was a what we called a blue force tracker that allowed that guy on the ship to see where that corporal was and That corporal could relay information back to the ship Okay, I've got an enemy tank over here and then the ship would say okay The corporal has told me where an enemy tank is I'm gonna send naval gunfire in the concept was brilliant It was dispersed so Cold War were like this as the Revolution military affairs began We started to realize that we had to flatten the chain of command and we could do so with technology The problem was the technology wasn't there So the Marines for several years Probably almost a decade really tried to work this distributed approach But the technology just was good enough the blue force trackers did not give you second by second updates. They gave you 15 20-minute updates. Well, you can't fire, you know Naval gunfire 20 minutes after the fact then all of a sudden 9-11 happens and by this time the technology was starting to catch up and What happened when 9-11 was when we went particularly into Iraq Afghanistan started but Iraq in 2003 But this time, you know, we've got all volunteer force We did not go in with a lot of manpower And so we had to take the Cold War model and we had to flatten it and we had to trust that the sergeants and The young captains were going to be able to do their job. All we as the senior officers had to do is provide commanders intent Now by that time the technology allowed me to know exactly where that captain was exactly where that sergeant was We by then we were beginning to develop predators the unmanned aerial vehicles So we could actually see them and track them and as time went on and again in early 2004 I had one predator Unmanned aerial vehicle by the time I left in 2011 the battlefield I stayed on for another three I guess I can't go into those numbers, but by the time I left in 2011 suffice to say we had quadrupled You know how more than that let's say we we had gotten a whole lot more And and the point was yeah, lots of as a commander fighting a global fight I Could I could see all around the globe from my command center anywhere in the world And I had command centers in the States I Afghanistan Iraq wherever I went and frankly even Mobile I could pull up I could see my feeds I could see where the guys were I was getting real-time reports and that allowed us again To flatten the organization in a way that had never been done for and we'll never I mean this this I think was the greatest Revolution in the military, but it wasn't just about technology Really for the manpower it was about empowering the non-commission officers This started back in Vietnam In terms of this understanding that the sergeants really had an incredibly important role But it really it really kind of came to I think the forefront After 9-11 when you had to rely on the sergeants and of course the sergeants were incredibly capable They just needed a little bit of commander's guidance and they needed support And they could do the fight just as well as the captains and the majors and all those you know fancy officers with their degrees And so that fundamentally changed the relationship between the officers and the NCOs in a very powerful and important way Not only did that change it here, but back to the point about our allies all of our allies We said you need to start a non-commission officer core because the Europeans don't really have an NCO core like we do in the American military So that change but get the change in in Europe and Africa and Asia That will change the cultural dynamics of some of these countries Because the the day in Europe where you used to be You used to have to have a degree in order to be anyone that is changing because the soldiers in Germany and France and the UK are now showing that they are incredibly smart incredibly Talented when they leave the military now they go off and they do startups and they do things that in the past They would never have done so it fundamentally changed it so you've During your time in uniform served in various capacities under six different commanders in chief really every president from a Carter on up through Obama of course a couple of my no president Bush and Obama you knew personally and worked very closely with directly From the military perspective, what are the most important qualities in a president in the commander-in-chief rule? Yes, great question Having worked again, I was on the Bush National Security Council staff and then obviously worked in my three-star and four-star role directly for President Obama and And I've said it before I I didn't always agree with either president In the military course you learned that The commander-in-chief you can kind of debate things. This is a great thing about our military You can debate things up to the point where a decision is made But once the decision is made you salute smartly and you kind of move out. I Think what I can tell you about certainly both of those gentlemen is that They represented the office incredibly well and there was a certain amount of Dignity and respect they brought to the office and why is that important? because it really does leadership and That dignity and that integrity is actually transferable from the commander-in-chief Down to the private The private doesn't know that The private thinks that his whole world circles around the sergeant The sergeant thinks that he gains his leadership from the captain the captain thinks he gets it from the major of the lieutenant colonel So on and so forth the reality the matter is and I saw this as a four-star As a three-star, but as a four-star So my engagement pretty frequently with the president with the commander-in-chief That gave me a sense That you know we had a person in the White House that I could rely on that I knew would make good decisions Then I'm able to kind of convey that to the three-star to the two-star to the one-star And it kind of goes down the chain command. So I think this is this is incredibly important that Whoever the commander-in-chief is Recognizes that the soldiers will fight they'll fight hard for the country no matter what my concern is if we get to the point where it is really an existential threat and You lack confidence in the institutions of the nation How long will you continue to fight? And I don't know I mean I I don't have the answer to that question and maybe the soldiers continue to fight as they always have But I do think when you begin to wonder about again the fundamental Integrity and dignity of institutions Then you begin to wonder whether or not you're fighting for the right thing and and again I had soldiers that absolutely disagreed with President Obama and absolutely disagreed with President Bush But I got to tell you when those two gentlemen came into the field to visit them Those soldiers were the first in line to shake hands and to salute them Because they understood that that's probably the toughest job in America So speaking of speaking of threats Obviously any given week the headlines maybe you know another North Korean ballistic missile test More mischief the Iranians are up to Russia China You know obviously the ongoing terror threat. What are the what are the national security threats? What threat or threats were you most whether it is among those ones in the headlines or or maybe ones that aren't in the headlines? Sometimes it's the one not in headlines that we got to worry about most. Yeah, I think the greatest national security threat is pre-k through 12 I Mean the fact of the matter is if we don't take care of educating Our young men and women then we have to ask ourselves Where we're going to be in 20 years? and this is a Was asked the same question by a Bloomberg reporter Last year sometime he was a national security reporter and I said pre-k through 12 and he said no sir I mean the number one national security threat. I said pre-k through 12 And I honestly believe that it is not about again That's not to say North Korea is not going to be a threat and and or the global terrorism But if we don't take care of educating our young men and women Then it begs the question about our institutions and and whether we like it or not You know, we are we are a nation of institutions. We are a nation of institutions that have to run well in order for the Nation to function properly the bureaucracy is important respect for those institutions are important respect for each other is important Understanding the world outside wherever you live. I think may be the most important thing that a broad Liberal education by liberal I mean the in the classic sense of liberal that we need to Install in our young students because what I've seen I mean I have traveled to over 90 countries And I was fortunate to grow up in a military family But you know here in Texas then all of a sudden I started traveling. I the Navy was true to its word You know join the Navy and see the world. Well, I did not all the garden spots in the world But but I saw a lot of the world but in doing so you have an opportunity to meet young Afghan men or women that have No education and you spend time with them and you go And they're actually really smart They're really dedicated Their culture is different, but these are good people You know you go to Asia and and Africa and every place else I've been and it's about being exposed to other cultures and realizing that at the end of the day Almost everybody I've met other than those that are trying to kill me All those that I have met they all kind of want the same thing The parents want their kids to grow up happy and successful. They kind of want to live in peace But I will tell you some of the happiest people I've met live in grass huts And and that is sometimes hard for us to appreciate How can you live in a grass hut and be happy? How come you're not living in terry town? Wouldn't you be happier in terry town? No, they wouldn't but that's hard for people to understand until you have traveled around and had an opportunity to be exposed to them So I really do think if we're going to continue to be The global superpower we need to be in terms of and of course it is it is the schooling that gets them to higher education That gets the stem programs going that that generates our great You know folks that go to schools like the lbj school that then go on to be government officials and and historians um If we don't take care of that then I don't think anything else matters after 20 30 years Well, just think how much better north korea would be if kim jong-yoon had had a better third grade teacher too I actually don't know who his third grade teacher was but i'm sure they he was not a good student Okay, so final question from me and then one more question for me for the chancellor and then we're going to turn it over to questions from the audience Now that I especially appreciate your question about primary and secondary education because of You've now transitioned of course from uniform into a role as an educational leader So in what ways can america's universities, uh, pretty, you know higher education Helps support and strengthen our national security. What are what are ways we're doing this well and what are ways we can improve? And I know this is of course one of your quantum leaves. I'm honored to be helping helping you out on Well, I you know, I think you can answer my question there in terms of You know having great programs like this program like the clemen's center like the strow center Where we have an opportunity to kind of educate again those going to school on you know Politics issues of the day national security. I think every student Needs to have a a broad knowledge of this. I was a journalism major and I always tell folks The best thing about being a journalism major 40 years ago Am I sure what the curriculum looks like now was that the school of journalism encouraged you to take a lot of electives They wanted you to take a lot of electives as a journalism major so that you knew a little bit about a lot of things So I studied everything from Sufi mysticism the writings of kyle gibrand philosophy oil in the middle east You know, I think a class here I mean it was a very broadening experience that really set me up well as I went into the military So I think from the standpoint of great universities as this one is It really does get back you want students that can think critically It's not that we don't need the the engineers and the and the great folks that do the hard technical work But even those folks need to have The ability to think critically To reason well, I've talked about kind of three D's That I think are important for every university at first is discovery every student ought to be able to come here And again get a broad education feel free to discover new things The second one is debate And debate is can you make a reasoned argument? Can you put yourself in a position where in a civil manner You can make a reasoned argument about your particular position And the last one is dissent So if your reasoned argument doesn't work out and now you want to dissent How do you do that and again in a civil way? That allows you to say look, I I don't agree with this We're going to march on the Capitol. We're going to march on the tower But we're going to do so in a lawful respectful fashion that gets our point across I think those are three critical things that our university needs to teach all of our students that are here Um, and it will make us a better country as a result All right, well, we're going to turn it over now to you I'm sure there's a number of questions here on here in the audience and sarah's bringing the microphone around So yes this gentleman right here I don't want you to feel like the head of the fbi yesterday But I do want to ask you a question and answer it of course any way you will Um, what do you feel more secure about since the election or inauguration? I guess I should say and what do you feel less secure about if anything? Well, I it's fortunate within the kind of the pantheon of national security leaders I happen to know most of them So jim mattis, uh, who's the secretary of defense was an old dear friend as is uh, john kelly who's homeland security I obviously know rex tillerson not as well, but I know rest of my time here Obviously rick perry So, you know when I look out and then hr. McMaster who's the new head of national security hr And I've known each other for the last 10 years These are all good men who I know will speak truth to power when the tough issues are raised So that gives me again a lot of confidence that The cabinet members that I know ryan zinke who has the The department of interior is a navy seal Ryan worked for me many times Again, they will provide I think the right The right guidance They will ask the right questions and they will hold the line if they think something is Illegal immoral unethical or not good for the the nation. So that gives me again a lot of A lot of confidence a lot of hope that we're going to be just fine I do do get back to and again. I don't want to get into the politics of this But the soldiers, you know have to be in a position to they don't have to like the commander in chief Um, but I think they need to always respect the office of the president Um, and I think they do and don't misunderstand me. I think the the soldiers today do and I think that's good But I but I think that as we go forward Uh, you know, the commander in chief always needs to recognize that that is an incredible responsibility And a burden that in this case, uh, you know, he must bear As he goes forward and can never ever lose sight of the fact that as the commander in chief That person is ultimately responsible for every single soldier sailor airman and marine in the united states military Here right here on the front row Thank you both very much for coming. This has been very enlightening Um, my question has to do with with climate change The I've heard a lot from the pentagon that they take climate change As a national security issue very seriously Or can you comment on the current administration's position? Regarding climate change. Yeah, I'm not sure I can comment on the current administrations But I can tell you certainly my last several years Probably last 10 years There was an absolute recognition that climate change was a national security issue For for a lot of reasons that the the general public might think strange But for example, let's take a look at the polar ice caps So as those ice caps begin to melt what it does is it creates avenues from which the russians You know have access to resources they didn't have before Areas where we used to be able to protect ourselves in the the greenland iceland gap up there Some of those are changing as a result of climate change You know countries we used to support potentially will be you know small island countries may be underwater in 20 30 40 years Um, I mean all of this kind of affects our ability as a as a military to kind of do business to support the nation The services themselves and i'm particularly proud of the navy a secretary ray maybes Who just left as a secretary of the navy. I mean he was pushing hard to make the navy You know kind of a carbon-free footprint All every new building had to be zero carbon in the navy. I mean this was the navy for god's sake You know, how are you ever going to get there? Well, he pushed it and he wouldn't accept no for an answer So you would find all the new buildings. Were they more expensive in some cases? Yeah, they were But he drove it to the point where all the new buildings were essentially going to have a zero carbon footprint You know, we were looking at navy ships. How do you begin to change the the pollution of navy ships? I mean everything from potential oil spills off a navy ship Everything really did have an environmental Environmental conservative kind of slant to it because it came from the secretary on down Which really came from the from the secretary of defense on down which came from the commanders and chief on down and so You know from this administration, I think it remains to be seen in terms of You know where they think we fall out on On climate change and whether it's a real national security issue But I can certainly tell you that we viewed it that way now it wasn't We never viewed it and you know, certainly not in the special operations forces like Well, if we do this today, then it's going to have a national security effect tomorrow But there was clearly a recognition that over time climate change was going to change the way we as a and a lot in the navy because of the Navigation routes and a lot of other things might change as a result of melting ice caps or Changes in the environment And then right here in 1966 My husband and I got the first two masters in communication that your school of communication gave We were delighted to see you spoke to those grad those students a couple of weeks ago And unless I'm mistaken You almost encourage them to confront the bully As journalists, is that correct? Well, what I there was a couple things I said Still a good journalist still asking those good questions, that's right. You were taught well Yeah, so again, it was a the school of journalism. So I wanted to address a couple things As I kind of started my comments, I said people should understand I have been raked over the coals by the press From the new york times to the austin american statesman you pick a publication daily texan. Well daily texan, but Thank god, not texas monthly Not yet at least And so I have no real soft spot in my heart for the press as an organization because they have taken me to task so often But I got to tell you I mean, where would we be without a free press the answer is we would not be a democratic nation We would not be a republic we and this idea that the american press is the enemy of the american people So I just had to take stand and say look That sentiment and I didn't again I didn't point to a particular individual But I made it very clear that that sentiment That the the press was the enemy of the american people And I firmly believe this was in fact the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime And people would say well, how can that be you had the soviet union In the cold war I said yeah, but what the soviet union did actually was bring our democracy together in many ways What the war on terrorism has done is bring our democracy together in many ways Now that's not to say, you know, we could have done some things better in terms of You know torture and and hiding some secrets and things I got it But in general our our nation came together in in tough times Both the commander-in-chief and when I was in uniform We swear an oath and that oath says we will support and defend the constitution Of the united states And the president's oath says something about defending the constitution of the united states The fact of the matter is the first amendment of the constitution is free press So it's important I think to recognize that when you swear that oath You can't then come back and say the free press is the enemy of the american people But there was a part two to this Which is where I also talked to the journalists And I get back to my point In the school of journalism was you have to check your facts You have got to make sure when I went through school They said you'll have two primary and a secondary source And if you can't show me my my professor would say if you can't show me two primary and a secondary source Then I'm not sure as your editor I'm going to let you kind of print that story And so you had to struggle to find two primary and a secondary and you had to vet them And so the the point to the journalists journalism majors that were there was Look, you know There is a fair amount of criticism being heaped on the press and some of it is valid You have got to ensure that you have good sources and that you can back that up And also check your bias at the door Now that's hard to do But again going to school here there was a difference between news and an editorial And now what has happened in my opinion is the news and the editorials and entertainment Have all become conflated And so the listener doesn't know what am I listening to here? Years ago at my my kids who are millennial kids are getting older now, but They said there was a I don't know whether again. I don't know this fact, but I heard that John Stewart was one of the the John Stewart show was was where a lot of kids got their news of the day And you're like, that's not news. That's entertainment. And oh by the way, and it's also bad comedy in some areas Is that where you want to get your news? So again this idea that we have conflated news reporting Editorial and entertainment in a way that really undermines You know, I think undermines again the press And and the freedom of speech almost as much as this ugly sentiment about the fact that they are the enemy of the american people Um, so we have obligations on both side Absolutely not the enemy of the american people and absolutely critical to a free democracy But on this side, I think the journalists have an obligation as well All right, uh right here on the on the end Good evening. Good afternoon, sir. I wanted to ask you, uh When you were as an admiral, what are your thoughts about this scandal that's going on with the Armed forces and what did you do in place with the sexual harassment? Yeah, great question very timely I actually talked to the commandant of the marine corps yesterday for about 20 minutes on this particular topic um When uh, when I had my three star command, uh the joint special operations command My command sergeant major the senior enlisted guy in the command came to me at one point in time So say sir, I think we've got a problem with sexual assault sexual harassment in the command I said don't be kidding. You gotta be kidding me. I mean we're like 99 percent men And oh by the way, we're overseas fighting all the time. How is that possible? He goes sir, I I think we've got a problem. I said, okay Admittedly, I was a little dismissive and I said, okay. Well, then let's let's root it out If we've got something I need to find the facts And so the sergeant major god bless him Uh started kind of turning over Rocks and unfortunately the rocks happen to be my docks and my chaplains The young ladies have been coming to the docks and the chaplains But because the docks and the chaplains for hippo reasons and for privacy reasons on the chaplains We're not reporting these incidents to me the commander Well, we had a little talk after that I said look, I don't need to know whether it's jane doe But I need to know whether or not you've had 10 young ladies come in in the last, you know, four or five months So that I have a sense of what the problem is Well as we began to dig into this we had a problem and so we took some very I would say drastic steps to be honest with you Very early on to make sure that we did a couple of things one. We set up reporting criteria That later on became the broader military reporting criteria, which is if a victim had Had been assaulted or harassed or whatever They could come to we called it a sark the sexual assault coordinator And that person could say, okay, here's here are all your options You can go kind of a criminal option or you can you can, you know Tell tell who you are you can lose your anonymity and go this way criminal You can go this way keep your anonymity and and we'll take the appropriate steps that way We we set up counseling stations for them We began to understand why do things happen, you know When you when you look at how trauma works and we knew trauma from our time in combat zones And the trauma of a young woman getting assaulted is very similar to the trauma we would see From, you know, the soldiers coming out of a of a traumatic event in combat So we really I was about a year into my commands over the next two years the sergeant major Really kind of got on this issue and again as I began to talk to the young ladies We had a serious problem I was pleased to to say that at the end of two years We had really reduced the number of incidents not down to zero But pretty dog on close again. I had a smaller command I went from there to my force to her command Now I have command of all of us special operations 70 000 soldiers sailors airmen and marines So we immediately kind of took what we had learned from my three star command And we kind of used it across all of the special operations But at the same time the bigger military was waking up to the problem And so collectively between the service chiefs and myself and others we kind of came together and said look Here's some best practices that we've learned But I will tell you with all of that effort I'm not sure we're moving the needle as much as we'd like and obviously, you know, you've seen Uh the The kind of scandal that has broken on the marine corps and it's not just the marine corps. It's kind of across the services lately Um, I think we just have Constant work to do. I mean, but it is a recognition first and foremost that we have a problem Two that we have to aggressively kind of get after this problem So that we are ensuring that the victims of these problems Have have an avenue to report them and then we have a process to address them after the reporting You can't always, of course, and this is always an incident whether it's an issue whether it's you're on campus or in the military You can't automatically assume victimization And this is This gets into some very difficult nuance complicated scenarios What we have done here at the university of texas and and you will see this here in the next couple of weeks We've been doing a what we refer to as the class report the Cultivating learning and in a safe environment Dr. Noel bush from the College of social work here has been working on this and and again the schools in general are doing Pretty good, but we can do better And and we are going to do better I mean I I have a daughter And and I as when I see these Events happen I I immediately kind of personalize it. What would I do if this were my daughter? How would I react and so we're going to kind of drive to zero on this, you know Somebody told me the other day well, sorry, you know, we will never get to zero I said well, but we're going to drive to zero And we're going to make that our goal because if you don't set zero as a goal Well, then you're never going to come anywhere close So I just think that this is a constant problem that we have to we as as chancellors and as presidents And as leaders across the institution We just have to every day Work hard to make sure that we are driving down the number of incidents That we are educating our young men and women on on situations not to get into And that we have a process that allows us to address it quickly when it does occur Okay, um the woman in the green right back here I think that's green you're wearing right? Yeah Several shades of green. I'm a proud moody college graduate. Thank you for talking to us today I have a question about um diplomacy It seems that in the the president's budget proposal the state department budget is cut defense department budget is increased Rex Tillerson appears to be sidelined hasn't spoken to the press wasn't aware of mexican foreign minister coming into town That concerns me and I just wonder from a national security standpoint If you could comment on the role that diplomacy plays and what you think about that current situation Yeah, I mean interject. This is the last question. So yeah to see First I think every senior military officer will tell you that we need to invest more in the state department Now jim mattis had a great line several years ago about you know The the less money we put in the state department means that he has to buy more ammunition And the point being you know diplomacy really is The that we thought think about the military as the tip of the spear. It really is diplomacy I mean if you can Solve a situation through Negotiations through talking through diplomacy, then you won't have to employ a military So and and then once you do employ a military The fact of the matter is diplomacy in some cases almost becomes more important because you have to work with the host nation You have to work not only at the uh at the national level. So I I think about iraq I mean we had uh, you know ryan crocker who was the ambassador for most of time I was there in iraq and then jim jeffreys I mean they were working directly with maliki who was the president right prime minister right And but at every level so from there down to the ministerial level down to the Provincial level down to the district level down to the city and village level You had young state department or not always young state department officers There were at every one of those locations and they really were the go-between between the military and the civilian leadership of a particular town district province whatever um If we do not invest in the state department, uh, we will suffer the price and every senior military officer understands that So we've all I've often said look if if you have, you know your last couple of dollars and you want to know we're invested We'll figure something out in the military. You go spend that on diplomacy I can't really comment on uh on you know the Where where we are with the state department now, I mean rex Tillerson the very very smart guy obviously and and I think You know he is uh, he's he has a style that is different than uh than john carries But that doesn't mean that it is any less effective. I think we'll find out over time The one thing that of course All of our departments need is you have to again have those um A political bureaucrats that help you run these institutions And and I will tell you in my my long service in the military You never knew whether an individual was a republican or a democrat And they may have served most of them do they serve republican presidents democrat presidents say They just do their job And they're very proud of the fact that they are apolitical Certainly you saw it in the in the military and I will tell you I saw it in all the agencies Does that mean that they don't have personal feelings one way or the other? Of course not But at the end of the day they are going to do what's right for the nation and that was always I always saw that to be the case And and certainly in the State Department some magnificent Magnificent State Department employees doing You know remarkable work around the globe and a lot of it And I will tell you you know a lot of it without the support that you have in the U.S. military You know when I went places You know I had companies of of young soldiers with me and command and control and I've had all And then you go out into the middle of nowhere And there would be some young in a lot of cases young State Department officer Who's got a cell phone that doesn't work? And there and no Security in some cases they are just interacting with the locals Really remarkable great courageous young americans, but back to your point earlier Where do we get those we get those kids because they come through Government you know their government majors here at UT or they go through the clement center the Strauss center And they decide they want to be in policy and the best place to do that is the State Department So find that to be the case All right, well, please join me in a warm round of applause and thank you for this