McConnell Center Distinguished Speaker Series
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta
2012
Gary Gregg: [00:54:08] Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Provost of the
University of Louisville, Shirley Willihnganz, accompanying our senior senator, Mitch
McConnell, and United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. [applause]
Shirley Willihnganz: [00:01:02] If everyone would please be seated, we’ll go ahead and
get started. It’s really wonderful to see so many of you here tonight, and on behalf of Dr.
Ramsey and all of us at the University of Louisville, I’d like to welcome you here. I’m
especially delighted that in our audience tonight we have members of our Board of
Trustees, our Board of Overseers, many of the deans and vice presidents and others from
our university family. We’re also delighted to have the mayor and his wife here tonight
with us tonight, many members of Metro Council, and our state legislature, and, of
course, former Congressman Senator Ron Mazzoli. We’re also really, really gratified to
see so many members of our military units here tonight, and I especially want to welcome
all of you.
It’s my great pleasure tonight now to also offer the Republican Leader of the
United States, Senator Mitch McConnell. Senator Mitch McConnell is one of the best
friends anybody could ever have, but especially if you’re the University of Louisville.
He’s the father of our prestigious McConnell Scholars Program. We’ve recently had a
chance to meet with our students, and I hope that, Mr. Secretary, you could see what
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wonderful young people we have here at the university.
We’re also proud that his Archives and the McConnell-Chao Civic Education
Center is here at the university. Senator McConnell has made strengthening Kentucky’s
research universities one of his top priorities. He understands that universities serve as
engines for economic growth and for solving problems of the future, and, as with
everything he does, the senator went about strengthening Kentucky’s universities with his
trademark focus and tenacity. He’s provided unprecedented support for research and
infrastructure projects at Kentucky’s university, and with his help, UofL has been able to
invest in important undertakings such as the expansion of the Ekstrom Library, the
Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, the Center for Translational Research, and the
Belknap Research Building.
[00:02:58] He’s also fought to make higher education more affordable. His
Setting Aside for a Valuable Education, or SAVE, Act is helping thousands of Kentucky
families prepare to send their children to college. This law encourages families to invest
in savings plans such as the Kentucky Education Savings Plan Trust and the Kentucky
Affordable Prepaid Tuition Program.
To sum it up, as I started, the senator has been one of the most outstanding
champions of higher education in the history of the Commonwealth. We have been very,
very fortunate to have him as our senator, and I have been very fortunate to call him my
friend.
Senator Mitch McConnell. [applause]
Senator Mitch McConnell: [00:03:44] Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much,
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Shirley. You and Jim Ramsey are doing a fabulous job running this university, which is
getting better and better and better every year. And I also want to acknowledge the
superb performance of Dr. Gary Gregg, the Director of McConnell Center. Gary, thank
you for the wonderful job you’re doing. [applause]
[00:04:05] I also want to welcome this evening our many men and women in
uniform, especially our friends from Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, the Blue Grass Army
Depot, the Kentucky National Guard, Reserve forces from all of our services, and all of
our heroic veterans. Thank you very much for your service to our nation. [applause]
I also want to take a moment to recognize the sacrifice of Lieutenant Colonel John
Loftis of Paducah, who was tragically killed in an attack at the Interior Ministry in Kabul
in Afghanistan just last Saturday. Lieutenant Colonel Loftis was an air force officer in
the 866th Air Expeditionary Squadron, who leaves behind a wife and two daughters. I
know everyone here, including our honored speaker, grieves for his loss.
Well, we’re celebrating a “first” tonight. This is the first sitting Secretary of
Defense we’ve had in the twenty-one-year history of this program, and it’s quite an honor
to have him here. More than ten years after 9/11, America remains a nation facing a
grave threat from terrorism and faces a changing balance of power in the Asia Pacific
theater. Our position of primacy in global affairs must be reconciled with the national
debt that exceeds the size of our economy. In such daunting times, the president relies on
the secretary of defense to provide civilian leadership to our armed forces as they engage
with our enemies across the world.
Fortunately for us, the secretary of defense is Leon Panetta, a man who has never
shied from a challenge. Hailing from Monterey, California, Secretary Panetta has proved
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his mettle often in the most difficult jobs in public service. Paramount among his many
accomplishments is the one that will go down in the history books and still be studied
decades from now when today’s McConnell Scholars are running the world. [audience
laughter] As CIA director, less than a year ago, Secretary Panetta presided over both the
hunt for and the operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. [applause] The
success of the mission to strike the leader of Al Qaida is just one history-making moment,
albeit one of the brightest in a history-making career.
[00:06:49] Leon Panetta believes deeply in public service, and it’s America’s
good fortune that he’s answered the call to serve again and again. Secretary Panetta
served his country in uniform in the 1960s as an army intelligence officer. Lieutenant
Panetta received the Army Commendation Medal for his service. His service also let him
better understand some of the sacrifices our men and women in the military make, an
understanding that guides him today in his role heading up the Department of Defense.
Leon represented the Central California District in Congress for sixteen years,
served the last four of those as House Budget Committee chairman. His depth of
knowledge on budget issues led to his appointment by President Clinton as President
Clinton’s first Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He subsequently
became a White House chief of staff at a crucial point in our political history, and it is
thanks in part to him that Congress and the president were able to work together and pass
needed and meaningful reforms in an era of divided government.
After his congressional and White House service, no one could have blamed Leon
if he’d had enough of public life, but the secretary believes public service is an honored
calling. While out of government, Leon and his wife, Sylvia, created the Leon and Sylvia
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Panetta Institute for Public Policy based at California State University, Monterey. Much
like the Center here, the Panetta Institute’s goal is to instill in our brightest students a
passion for public service. Leon and I have known each other for many years, and I
know one thing we have in common is a belief that it’s important to find and seize the
imaginations of the next generation of leaders, regardless of party.
[00:08:46] Leon has great respect on both sides of the aisle. For his confirmation
vote last year to become secretary of defense, the tally was 100-tonothing. Every single
senator, both Democrats and Republicans, were enthusiastic about his selection. Now, in
fact, Leon used to be a Republican. [audience laughter] I guess some things even a
former CIA director can’t keep secret. [audience laughter] But regardless of his party
and regardless of which side of the aisle whoever he is talking to happens to be on, Leon
Panetta has built his career on honesty and by maintaining excellent relations with senior
leaders in government of both parties. I know he can certainly count on the trust and
friendship of the Senate Republican Leader.
In short, at a time of great challenges to America, our military enjoys the
leadership of a Secretary of Defense who is singularly well suited to advise the president
and those of us in Congress on the best ways to preserve America’s role in the world.
I’m hard-pressed to name another person in government today who believes more in the
importance of public service or in the deep gratitude we owe members of our armed
forces.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my distinct pleasure to present to you the twenty-third
secretary of defense, the Honorable Leon Panetta. [applause]
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Leon Panetta: [00:10:30] Thank you very much. Thank you. I deeply appreciate the
kind introduction and your warm reception and the opportunity to be here in Louisville
tonight. I am truly honored. This is a great honor to be at the University of Louisville
and to see such a large crowd gathered for this event. This is a great university, this is a
great state, and you’ve got a great basketball team. [audience laughter and applause]
Being here with such a large audience kind of makes me wonder how many of you
thought that the speaker this evening was somebody named Pitino and not Panetta.
[audience laughter] But whether it’s Pitino or Panetta, you’re definitely getting an Italian
tonight, and I can assure you that both of us believe that a sound defense is the key to
winning the game. [audience laughter and applause]
I’d like to thank Provost Willihnganz and Dr. Gregg for hosting me here tonight,
and I particularly would like to thank my friend Senator Mitch McConnell for that very
kind introduction and for inviting me to come down to visit his alma mater and to see this
great city and the great people of Louisville.
[00:12:23] Mitch McConnell and I got our start working in the United States
Senate as legislative aides in the 1960s. At that time I was working for a Republican, and
so was he. Between the two of us, between the two of us, we have over forty years of
experience in Washington. You have every right to question our sanity, but not our sense
of duty. [audience laughter] Over the decades of working together, I’ve developed a
great respect for Mitch and for his leadership and, in particular, his dedication to public
service. We have always enjoyed a strong working relationship and a strong friendship,
because whether you are the son of Italian immigrants or the son of a father who fought
in World War II, we both have been blessed with the opportunity to serve this great
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nation of ours that we love so much.
[00:13:43] When I learned that I would be coming down here to the Bluegrass
State to give a speech, my thoughts immediately turned to one of Senator McConnell’s
most distinguished predecessors, Henry Clay. As you know, he was an extraordinary
public servant in the nineteenth century. He also had a great way with words. Once
when a very long-winded colleague was delivering a particularly lengthy and boring
speech on the floor of the Congress and everyone, including Henry Clay, was obviously
losing their patience and making that loss of patience very clear, that colleague turned to
Clay and said, “You speak for the present generation, but I speak for posterity, for future
generations.”
“Yes,” replied Clay, “but you seem determined to continue speaking until your
future audience arrives.” [audience laughter]
[00:14:58] I promise that I won’t be speaking for posterity or eternally this
evening. However, I do want to share with you some thoughts, because this chance gives
me an opportunity to also speak about the future of the nation. Tonight I want to talk
about service to the country, how public servants helped forge the strong democracy we
have today and how we all have an opportunity and, indeed, a responsibility to help
secure and strengthen that security for tomorrow.
This great university and the McConnell Center are making vital contributions to
educating the citizen leaders who will help confront the challenges and the opportunities
that face all of us in the twenty-first century. I had a chance to meet with those students
before coming here, and it’s a great thrill to have that opportunity. As Mitch pointed out,
my wife, Sylvia, and I established a similar public policy institute at California State
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University, and the purpose is to try to inspire young people to get involved, to be part of
public service. I deeply appreciate the good work that all of these education centers do to
try to give young people a chance, the opportunity to see what public service is all about.
[00:16:51] That mission is important because all of us have a tremendous stake in
how the nation navigates the considerable challenges that we are facing from the
economy to energy, from war to international diplomacy, from deficits to defense, and all
of you have a responsibility as citizens to help the country confront these challenges. It’s
a responsibility that does not just rest with the president and with the elected leaders of
the nation. It rests with all of us and with all of you.
For more than two centuries, our democracy has survived because our heritage is
built on giving something back to the nation. That is at the heart of what public service is
all about, and I’m a big believer in responsibility of public service. That goes back to
what this country meant not only for me but for my family. As I said, I’m the son of
Italian immigrants, who, like millions of others, came to this country with few skills, little
money in their pocket, and very little English-language ability, but they understood the
dream that is America. I would ask my father, “Why would you travel those thousands of
miles to a strange country?” They came from a poor area of Italy, but they at least had
the comfort of family. “Why would you pick up, leave your family, and travel all that
distance?”
And I never forgot his response. He said, “Because your mother and I believed
that we could give our children a better life.” That is the American Dream, to give our
children that better life, and it is the fundamental bond that we all share.
Every Sunday at dinner as a boy, we had a tradition in my family of all gathering
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for dinner on Sundays. My parents would tell my brother and myself that we had a duty
to give something back to this country which gave them so much. And with that advice
came a set of values: hard work, honesty, a clear sense of right and wrong, qualities that
are essential to life and to citizenship.
[00:19:58] As a young boy, I was taught early on the importance of hard work.
My parents ran a restaurant in Monterey during the war years, and my earliest
recollections were washing glasses in the back of that restaurant. They believed that
child labor was a requirement. [audience laughter] Then they bought a farm in Carmel
Valley and my father planted walnuts, and I can remember moving irrigation pipes,
working with a hoe alongside my father, and as the trees matured, my father would go
around with a pole and hook and knock down the walnuts. That’s what they did in those
days. And my brother and I would be under the trees picking up the walnuts. When I got
elected to Congress, my father said that I’d been well trained to go to Washington
because I’d been dodging nuts all my life. [audience laughter] It was good training.
Along with the inspiration of my parents and two years of service in the army, and
at that time a young president who said that we should ask not what your country can do
for you but what you can do for your country, all of that inspired me to serve. In many
ways, Kennedy’s words inspired a whole generation, and the nation benefited from that,
from the impact of a generation that got involved in civil rights and education, worked in
the Peace Corps, and got involved in the issues of war and peace.
That torch of service and sacrifice has now passed to a new generation, and this
nation once again has benefited from that. It has been a decade of turmoil, these last ten
years, of war and of crisis. But like every such decade in our history, there have been
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those who are willing to step forward to give something back to their country. And no
group has given more than the men and women in the United States military. [applause]
The sacrifice that they have made and that their families and loved ones have made are
true symbols of what public service is all about. Stepping forward to serve the country at
a time of war takes uncommon courage and uncommon bravery, and millions have done
so in the ten years since our country was attacked on September 11th. That includes many
here in Louisville.
[00:23:26] Tonight we are honored to be joined by soldiers from nearby Fort
Knox and by members of the Kentucky National Guard. This audience includes, as I
understand, nearly eight hundred military veterans now enrolled at the University of
Louisville. We are also joined by the newest members of the military family, cadets from
the university’s ROTC program, and in the coming years, they will have the opportunity
to join more than three hundred Louisville ROTC graduates who have served in the
military as commissioned officers. I, too, am a product of an ROTC program at the
University of Santa Clara, and that’s what led to my serving two years in the army. So I
really appreciate the benefits of that program in helping young people be able to enter our
military. To the cadets I want to say that in volunteering to make this commitment, you
have distinguished yourselves in a profound and an honorable way. You have chosen the
path of service.
I would urge all of you here, even those for whom military service is not an
option or a desire, to consider how you can give back to the country that has given us so
much. Remember that you, too, have a responsibility and an opportunity to contribute
and make a difference, and I have always said that the test in life is whether somebody
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made a difference.
[00:25:30] And for those who are serving or planning to serve in uniform, please
know that the country is inspired and strengthened by your example. Every day, every
day that I have served in the office as secretary of defense and before that as director of
the CIA, I have been privileged to see this new generation proving once again the
strength, the resilience of the American spirit, and the unflagging commitment of our
citizens to be wiling to fight and, yes, to sacrifice for the American Dream. Thanks to
their service and thanks to their sacrifice, our country has in many ways reached a
strategic turning point after ten years of war and, I believe, an historic opportunity to help
secure the American Dream of a better future for our children. Because of their service,
because of their sacrifice, we were able to bring the Iraq War to an honorable conclusion
and give Iraq the responsibility to govern and secure itself. It will not be easy, but they
have the opportunity to establish a democracy in a key part of the world.
[00:27:06] In addition, because of their service and sacrifices, I was able to go to
Iraq when we cased the colors. It was a ceremony in which we paid tribute to those that
had sacrificed their lives to allow Iraq to be governed by the Iraqi people. Last night at
the White House, we honored those who served in Iraq. It was the beginning, not the
end, of a series of tributes that this country will pay to the veterans of that conflict.
Afghanistan remains an extremely challenging campaign, but 2011 was in many
ways a turning point in that effort as well. We have begun to draw down our troops and
transition to Afghan-led security and responsibility, and we have seen the level of
violence go down and the ability of the Afghan army to engage in operations and secure
areas that we’ve transitioned to their control. Our goal is that by the end of 2014, the
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Afghans will have the responsibility to govern and secure themselves. And let me be
very clear. The brutal attacks that we’ve seen over the last few days on our troops will
not change and will not alter our commitment to get this job done.
[00:28:45] On terrorism, we have successfully weakened Al Qaida, and we have
decimated its leadership under Bin Laden. We’ve demonstrated that we will continue to
do everything possible to protect our citizens and our security from terrorism.
Meanwhile, we have reasserted our essential global leadership role and shown that we
remain an indispensable partner to a stable and secure world. In Libya, we led an
international coalition that helped give Libya back to the Libyan people. I had the chance
recently to go to Tripoli and was deeply moved by the determination of the Libyan
people to try to forge that better future for themselves.
More broadly, through my travels as secretary of defense over the last eight
months, a consistent theme has been the desire by countries across the globe, including
our allies, old allies, new partners, to increase their partnership with our military forces.
All of this has been achieved because there were brave men and women who were
willing to serve their nation, who were willing to put their lives on the line, who were
willing to die to protect this country. We owe it to them to learn the lessons of the past
and to build a better future for them and for their children. That means that as they return
home, we must embrace them and support them in communities like this across the
country, whether it’s by helping them pursue an education at schools like Louisville or
providing assistance in finding a job or starting a business. And as we turn the corner on
a decade of war, it is absolutely vital that we maintain and even enhance the very
strengths that have allowed us to overcome the challenges that we have faced throughout
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our history. We must maintain the strongest military in the world, an effective
diplomacy, and an innovative and dynamic and strong economy. Those are all elements
of a strong national security.
[00:31:34] Underpinning all of that is the fact that despite all the frustrations that
we have, we have the best system of government on earth, and one that I’ve said gives all
of us the responsibility to govern this nation. That responsibility is a heavy one because
despite what I’ve just said we’ve achieved, the challenges that still confront us are
numerous and they are complex. There are no simple answers here. There are no simple
solutions.
We are still a nation at war in Afghanistan. We still face the threat from
terrorism. We’ve confronted it in the FATA in Pakistan. The terrorism is still there, still
in Somalia, still in Yemen, still in North Africa, and they continue to plan attacks on this
country. We deal with the dangerous proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We
have to confront the behavior of Iran and North Korea, who continue to threaten global
stability. There is a continuing turmoil and unrest in the Middle East. Rising powers in
Asia test international relationships, and there are growing concerns about cyber
intrusions and cyber attacks, a whole new area of the warfront that can take place in the
future.
At the same time, we face an additional threat to our national security which must
also be confronted, and that is long-term debt and high deficits. As someone who spent
much of my time in public service working on fiscal policy, I believe that if the country
doesn’t control and discipline its budgets, it will inflict severe damage on our national
security. It would deprive us of the very resources that we require at the Department of
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Defense, and it would also hurt the quality of life of the American people, something that
is equally important to our broader national security. I refuse to believe that we must be
forced to choose between our national security and fiscal responsibility, but to avoid that
choice, we have to be willing to make difficult decisions about how to reshape our
defense strategy, how to maintain our military strength for the future, while also doing
our part to reduce the deficit.
[00:34:54] A bipartisan Congress mandated in the Budget Control Act that we
should reduce the defense budget by $487 billion over the next ten years. We have come
together at the Defense Department with the service chiefs, with the combatant
commanders, with my undersecretaries to try to develop a strategy not just for now but in
the future that would be the basis for making the decisions, the budget decisions, in order
to achieve those savings. We have done that. We have stepped up to the plate. This has
been an enormous undertaking, but we have developed a plan and a strategy to develop
that force that we need for the future to reduce defense spending by nearly a half a trillion
dollars over the next decade. The force for the future will by necessity be smaller, but we
believe that we must ensure that it is supremely capable and ready and agile and prepared
to go wherever we need them to go in order to defend this country, and that we can
maintain that force with a decisive technological edge in order to confront aggression and
effectively defend our country and our global interests in the twenty-first century.
We are going to maintain and even enhance our presence in vital regions of the
world like the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region, to develop an innovative force
that will establish partnerships and a presence from Europe to Africa, from Latin America
to East Asia. And let me be clear. We will be able to defeat any adversary anytime
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anywhere. We must continue to invest in new capabilities like cyber and unmanned
systems and space and the continued growth of special operations forces. Those
technologies will be crucial to our ability to have a strong defense in the future.
[00:37:35] We also need to be able to mobilize, and that means maintaining a
strong National Guard and a strong Reserve, maintaining our industrial base so that if we
need the ships and if we need the tanks and if we need the equipment, that that industrial
base will be there and we will have the skills and the crafts that are so important to our
national security, not just now but in the future.
To do this, we have to make some painful and politically tough decisions, and we
have. I can’t cut a half a trillion dollars from the defense budget and not have it impact
on fifty states in some way. But let me also say this. We cannot balance the federal
budget on the back of defense alone. We have done our part. Now it’s time for Congress
to step up to the plate and make sure that we do not devastate our national defense by
allowing this mechanism called sequester to go into effect. That sequester would impose
another $500 billion in cuts, across-the-board defense cuts that would be devastating to
our national defense.
Additional deficit reduction must be made through a comprehensive and balanced
deficit reduction plan, which will involve making decisions not just on defense but on
every other area of federal spending and revenues. Making these tough decisions is what
our forefathers intended when they established this great country. They made this
remarkable system of three separate but equal branches of government. It is a wonderful
formula for ensuring that power is never centralized in any one branch of government,
but it also happens to be a perfect formula for gridlock. And the key to breaking that
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gridlock has to rest with people that are willing to exercise leadership, to find
compromise, and to make sacrifices in order to find answers.
[00:40:21] As we confront the broader set of choices and decisions that we need
to be made to put America’s fiscal house in order, all of us in Washington—all of us in
Washington—need to demonstrate the same leadership—the same leadership—that we
counted on our troops to display in battle. They made sacrifices in order to achieve their
mission. Surely those of us in Washington can make sacrifices in order to govern this
nation. We know from our history that the American people have always overcome crisis
and adversity, but we can’t just sit back and count on things to work out. It will take
leadership, it will take sacrifice, and it will take a willingness to fight to secure that dream
for the future.
I often tell the story of the rabbi and the priest who decided they would get to
know each other and understand each other’s religion. So one evening they thought they
would go to a boxing match, thinking that if they went to events together, they would
discuss each other’s religion. And just before the bell rang, one of the boxers made the
sign of the cross. The rabbi nudged the priest and said, “What does that mean?”
The priest said, “It doesn’t mean a damn thing if he can’t fight.” [audience
laughter]
We bless ourselves with the hope that everything will be fine in this country, but,
very frankly, it doesn’t mean a damn thing unless we are willing to fight for it. If we can
summon that spirit of leadership and service and sacrifice and fight for what’s right, I
believe that we can turn crisis into opportunity and demonstrate to the world that this
resilient American spirit will endure for our children and their children and beyond.
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Captain Stacee Blackburn, a 2004 Louisville graduate who is also a McConnell
Center Scholar, is an example of what I’m talking about. Stacee serves in the army as a
JAG officer, and she, too, recently returned from Afghanistan. Like me, her decision to
enter public service goes back to the lessons that were instilled in her by her family. As a
young girl reading her grandfather’s poems about serving in World War II as part of the
greatest generation, she for the first time learned what it was like to be part of something
bigger than herself.
[00:43:44] Stacee is now part of something bigger than herself, part of the next
generation that is willing to fight and, if necessary, die for their country. Because of
Stacee and because of millions like her, we all pledge to fight, to fight for that dream of a
better life, to fight for an America that will always remain the strongest power on earth,
and, most importantly, to fight for an America that will always be a government of, by,
and for all people.
Thank you very much. [applause]
Gregg: [00:44:54] Thank you, Secretary Panetta. You can all be seated. We’re not done
yet. We have time for a few questions, and we have four McConnell Scholar alums in
the audience. It’s a little bit dark to see up here. We’re always balanced here, Mr.
Secretary, so there should be two on the right and two on the left, and I see two right
here. So put up your hand, please, if you have a question now. Let’s go quickly to the
right. I see one right here.
Meredith Glick: [00:45:26] My name is Meredith Glick [phonetic]. You said it was our
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duty as Americans to serve our country. During your time in Washington, what do you
believe has been the greatest difference you have made in service to our country? What
mark have you left for future generations?
Panetta: [00:45:44] Thank you for the question. I’ve always believed—I mean, look, the
joy of public service is to get things done. I’ve never thought that people were elected to
office to just sit on their rear end and try to survive in office. I think the purpose of being
elected is to get things done. And I had the good fortune of being in the Congress at a
time when both parties worked together and you had the opportunity to get some things
done.
Probably the one thing that—well, there’s several things, but let me just say the
one thing that I’m proud of is the work that I did on the budget. I was Chairman of the
Budget Committee. I had the opportunity to work on budget summits. I was involved in
the first budget summit with President Reagan, and he, again, sent up his secretary of
treasury, sent up his chief of staff. We gathered in a small room in the Capitol with the
leadership, and we worked through and developed a deficit reduction package. It was
tough to do, it was not easy, but we did it.
Next opportunity was I sat in a summit at Andrews Air Force Base for almost two
months, working again with bipartisan leadership and representatives from President
Bush’s cabinet, developing a deficit reduction package. It was a deficit reduction
package of about $500 billion, and it was tough, and it was tough politically, but it was
the right thing to do.
That combined with when I was OMB director putting together the budget plan
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for President Clinton, that also brought the deficit down by about $500 billion, and
having the opportunity to work on that and get that through the Congress. I think it was
the result of each of those plans, plus, obviously, an economy that was able to move
forward as a result of Washington showing some fiscal discipline, and the consequence of
that was we balanced the federal budget, and not only balanced it, but had a surplus. So I
look back on that as an important achievement, and I regret that we’re now back in the
same damn hole and having to be able to come out of it again. But I do think that if the
same kind of leadership comes together on the issues that had to be confronted, we can
get that done.
[00:48:25] Obviously, the other thing that I’m most proud of is obviously the
CIA, having worked with some great men and women at the CIA, to not only develop the
information on Bin Laden but to help put together the operation that finally brought him
down. That’s not bad, you know. [audience laughter and applause]
Gregg: Yes?
Jessie Lee Thomas: [00:48:51] My name is Jessie Lee Thomas [phonetic]. I am a
student here at UofL in the political science master’s program, and my question is a bit
more specific. It pertains to the dictatorship of Belarus. Americans in general are
bombarded with media reports on the Middle East, but few even know the country of
Belarus exists, and I find that a little bit worrisome, given that millions of dollars from
Russia have just been invested in the country for a nuclear energy program. Secretary
Clinton said that she supported this program if Belarus would adhere to international
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standards and regulations. However, the country does not seem to be—due from past
actions, it doesn’t seem like that is a possibility.
So what are we doing for our defense to make sure that this threat doesn’t come
about? I mean, we’re worried about nuclear power in Iran developing in the next two to
three years. Is there any possibility that the Belarusian dictator could partner up, could
develop something that’s not important for U.S. interests or something we don’t want to
happen?
Panetta: [00:49:59] As I said in my speech, one of the concerns we have is, obviously,
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and I think we always have to be very,
very conscious for the danger of that happening. Obviously, that’s what concerns us
about Iran, it’s what concerns us about North Korea, and it’s what concerns us about
other nations as well. Specifically with regards to Belarus, I’d have to say that I leave
that issue in the hands of the secretary of state. But as secretary of defense, I want to
make sure that we are taking the steps necessary to make sure that we are doing
everything possible to try to limit any proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and
that means ensuring that no country uses nuclear power as a vehicle to develop nuclear
weapons. That’s something we have to stop.
Gregg: [00:51:01] [unclear].
Raul Rivas: [00:51:04] Sir, welcome to Louisville. My name is Raul Rivas. Sir, as the
former DCI and now secretary of defense, what is the problem set that keeps you awake
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at night? [audience laughter]
Panetta: [00:51:18] I’ve got a hell of a lot to keep me awake at night. That’s part of the
problem. There are obviously a number of concerns and issues that are out there. I have
to tell you that I do worry, however, about this new area I talked about of cyber war. We
are literally getting hundreds of thousands of attacks every day that try to exploit
information in various agencies and departments and, frankly, throughout this country.
There is, obviously, growing technology, growing expertise in the use of cyber warfare,
and the danger is that cyber could—I think the capabilities are available in cyber to
virtually cripple this nation, to bring down our power grid system, to impact on our
governmental systems, to impact on Wall Street on our financial systems, and to literally
paralyze this country. And I think it’s very important for us to understand that we not
only have to defend against that kind of attack, but we have to develop the intelligence
resources to understand when those possibilities are coming and to develop greater
capabilities in the cyber arena. So the one thing that I worry about the most right now is
knowing that this is possible and feeling that we have not taken all the necessary steps to
protect this country from that possibility.
Unidentified: [00:53:14] Thank you so much for being here tonight, Secretary Panetta.
My question is about the Arab Spring and the situation in the Middle East. For over a
year now, we’ve been watching people in Syria and Egypt struggle for freedom and
democracy. How do you feel that the events taking place in those countries impacts
America’s national defense?
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Panetta: [00:53:32] We are going through a very historic time in the Middle East. I
guess the last time we encountered anything like this, that’s close to this, was the fall of
the Soviet Union, and suddenly a number of nations going on their own and trying to
develop what their system of governance would be, how to basically put together the
institutions of governing, how to be able to develop the kind of reforms that they need to
put in place in order for people to be able to participate in their governing.
What’s happening in the Middle East, what happened in Tunisia, Egypt, and
what’s happening and what happened in Libya, the turmoil that we now see in Syria,
we’re seeing a Middle East that is truly in a changing state in which people are, in fact,
trying to achieve a chance to be able to have a better life and to be able to govern
themselves. So we’ve seen these dramatic changes. I think the important thing is to try
to do what we can to make sure that these changes move in the right direction. When that
kind of literal revolution takes place, there are all kinds of forces that come into play, and
there are those that would like to take advantage of those changes that oftentimes
represent extremism, that represent views that we don’t concur in, and so those begin to
come into play as well.
[00:55:22] I think the greatest challenge for the United States and for the
international community is to do what we can to ensure that these countries as they go
through these changes can develop the institutions of government, can develop the
reforms that are important to developing a country that can truly represent greater
freedom and greater opportunity to govern themselves for the future. That is not easy,
that’s a tough challenge, but I really believe that we have a chance now to be able to
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guide these countries in that direction. And as this happens, my view is that, in fact, it
further isolates Iran. Iran is an influence that tries to undermine stability in these nations.
The more these changes take place, the more isolated Iran will be, and I think ultimately
the greatest challenge we have in the Middle East region is to try to do what we can to
promote greater stability and greater democracy. [applause]
Unidentified: [00:56:37] Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you all for speaking to me. A
2008 Department of Defense report noted how climate change will impact current and
future U.S. national security. The Department of Defense has been progressive in
transitioning bases around the world, solar panels, etc., but the noted climate patterns in
Somalia have led to some difficulties with Al Shabaab there. So, first, I was wondering if
you could comment kind of on the unusual topic of climate change with regard to the
future of the Department of Defense, and then, second, if you could help Senator Mitch
McConnell accept that science and stop blocking that legislation. Thank you. [audience
laughter and applause]
Panetta: [00:57:25] You know, I learned a long time ago don’t mess around with people,
you know. State what you think is right and hope that others will follow and be able to
incorporate those thoughts in whatever they do. And I have tremendous respect for
Mitch McConnell, and I think that I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to discuss with
him not only this issue but other issues as well.
With regard to climate change, actually what we developed at the CIA was an
intelligence branch of the CIA that focused on that issue actually for intelligence
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purposes because of the implications that these changes might have with regards to
national security. For example, when we incur greater droughts, when we incur areas
that, in fact, have less rain and are incurring unusual climate impacts, it creates,
obviously, an impact in terms of the population. It’s something we have to be aware of
because that can create chaos. We’ve seen that happen in Africa. We’ve seen that
happen in other parts of the world. So we need to have that kind of intelligence.
[00:58:45] In addition, because of the ice melt, there are indications of rising
ocean, we’ve already seen that take place, and there our concern is how will that impact
on ports, how will that impact on facilities, how will that impact on low-lying levels that
could be impacted by that. So we continue to try to get intelligence on that as well.
In addition, obviously, we do look at the polar icecap and are able through
imagery to determine what’s happening with the polar icecap and just how quickly is it
melting and what impact will be. I can tell you as the polar icecap melts, national
security implications are that countries like Russia and others are going to be looking for
the opportunity to go into those areas and try to go after the resources in the Arctic.
They’ve already made claims to that effect. So clearly, as it melts and as those
opportunities increase, then there are countries that are going to assert themselves to try
to gain access to the resources that are there. That also constitutes an issue that relates to
national security.
So from an intelligence point of view, it’s important for us to keep track of those
trends. This isn’t about the battle of climate change and the issues related to that. This is
about what we are seeing happening and the intelligence that flows from that. And that is
important for us to consider as we look at issues that can threaten our national security.
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[applause]
Willihnganz: [01:00:39] I want to just thank the secretary for a wonderful conversation
tonight. We so appreciate you being on our campus. Thank you very much. [applause]
So in addition to thanking the secretary for being here tonight, I want to thank
Senator McConnell for allowing this community to have so many great conversations
with political leadership in our country right now, and thank Gary Gregg for the great job
he’s doing with our McConnell Center. Thank all of you for being here tonight. Thank
you all very much. [applause]
[End of presentation]
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