Businessweek Extra - Admiral Michael Mullen

Security hosted at the nine eleven Memorial and Museum. We talked about his role in one of the most critical missions in recent American military history, the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. Check it out. So, Admiral Mullen, when you look at this exhibit, this new exhibit at the nine eleven Memorial and Museum, it's arresting in so many ways, and it takes us back to such a dramatic moment in American history. Tell us about that moment for you, well, that moment for me. I viewed it

and said right afterwards that the world's changed forever. Uh. And I was actually in the Pentagon that day. Uh. And I was in a meeting with the head of the Navy, which was seventy ft or so from my office, uh and which was around the corner, and my two assistants. My office is up on the fourth floor the Pentagon, and my my two assistants looked out the window and saw seven fighting under their feet as they talked to me later about what they went through. So uh and

as I'm sure anybody everybody can remember, it was. It was a spectacularly gorgeous day in the fall that just reaked devastation that will and should always be remembered. So the uh nine elevens will always be I mean, it's

it's for me. It's sort of the pearl harbor of of our of modern times, and it is something that we should absolutely never forget, and our hearts and prayers, continuous thoughts go out to those who lost a loved one that day, and there were thousands, so that it all comes rushing back pretty quickly, and in many ways that sets off sets up I should say, one of the most important dramatic man hunts in American history that

culminates with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Tell me what that was like leading up to it, and then the day that that happened, Well, we had been hunting for Bin Laden for intensely for years and UM and I think just the fact that it took so long, it took a decade to to get to that culminating point, is indicative of how difficult to target he was and the care with which he took to hide and those around him. UM. And it was an incredibly intense effort

to do that. Obviously, we were doing other things. We had a war in Iraq, we had a war in Afghanistan, but we never lost focus. And in one of the one of the groups I'd like to give credit to UH, there was a special I think run on CNN a few years ago the four ladies in the agency who in the late eighties really started and stayed after Bin Laden when they had no resources, nobody was paying much attention to him, and so it had been going on

for a long long time, UH and UH. And then it culminated, obviously in better intelligence and in the last few months. Really I didn't get involved until January in terms of what the possibilities might be, and that was right because one of my concerns was all of our concern was if there had been any indication that we knew he would have he would have left, and in fact, his his principal advisors were telling him in that time frame that we actually killed him, it was time to go.

They were concerned he'd been there too long and they needed to move. So had it not happened that night, it could have been another decade before we found him. And what was that night? Like? People asked me that famous picture. Uh, And one of the reasons I think it's famous is because it really does capture the moment and it was very, very tense. That said, it was a decision, and it was a courageous decision from my perspective on a part of President Obama, because we didn't

actually know he was there. We had lots of circumstantial evidence. I viewed it as a bet the presidency. Uh, decision that the President made um and uh. And the night itself, the actual night of the killing was we were into that operation, uh, you know, for two a couple of days at that point, so it had it had been going for some time, and there had been rehearsals and lots of preparation go on for literally four months in

the event that we could pin him down. So Uh, we we had planned this down to a level of detail. That would in the end allow us to kill him. But one of the things I'm I like to remind people of is that same night in Afghanistan, there were fourteen other missions similar to that that were that were

carried out. And while strategically this one certainly had the highest risk, but we have done thousands and thousands and thousands of these missions over the course of the years that we had been fighting, So I had every expectation that if he was there, we were going to either be able to capture or kill him. That said, it was tense, and it wasn't over until it was over.

And by that I mean literally not just the killing him or getting him out and getting him back into Afghanistan, taking his DNA and positively identifying him, getting him on a helicopter, flying him through Pakistani airspace, and getting him out to a carrier at sea where he could be buried consistent with his beliefs, his religious beliefs, which is

what we did. And So when you think about that moment and you fast forward to today, what has it ultimately meant for the war in terror, which has not ended in many ways and has only become in some ways more complicated. Well, I think it's in terms of having a huge impact on the Alcada organization. It did when you take out a leader like that, just as the very recent killing Baghdaddy has had a big impact on the ISIS organization. But it doesn't make the ideas

go away, doesn't make the aspiration go away UH. And it hasn't al Qaeda, nor has Baghdaddy's death UH done that with ISIS. And so I think we have to stay at this. We still we still are in a situation where where we are seen as the evil empire, if you will, from the terrorists perspective, and they continue to come after us. There's a debate now about whether

or not we should stay in Afghanistan. We we in fact know that some twenty plus terrorist organizations who aspire to do us ill live in that border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and I think leaving them unattended we would be high risk and very dangerous. So that war continues and and and the root cause issues are the ones that I think we we all need to continue to

focus on. And it's tied to young mostly young men, but young men in that part of the world who have no future and who decide if the age of fifteen years old to put on a suicide vest and end their life, the root cause issues are still there. And I think as long as they are there, UH, and we are seen in the West as the individual or the the institutions and the nations that we are, that the terrorism is going to continue. And as you look around the world, clearly that continues to be a

hot spot. The Middle East, the Gulf States have only become in many ways, as I alluded to, more complicated, uh, in many ways. In your work now in the private sector, how how would you identify the biggest areas of threat for the United States in a in a world that is constantly changing, and we talk about the technological change

and the world changes in almost every dimension. What is somewhat ironic from my perspective is when we talk about the threats that are out there, in the countries that are out there, it's still Russia, it's China, it's North Korea, it's Iran. One might add Venezuela right now, just because the complete chaos that's there, But it's the same cast of characters that have been around literally even prior to the Cold War ending, but certainly with an intensity since

the Cold War. So as the world changes, Uh, it is the technology and the capabilities of these countries which we need to pay attention to. But it's basically the same group, and we're gonna need to continue to be able to push back on them in a way that that allows the world, I think, to to thrive. And that's certainly a problem. Whether it's the Gulf, the Persian Gulf, or the Middle East. I think we're on a we're on a long boil in the Middle East right now,

thirty or forty years. It's certainly not going to sort out very quickly. Um uh. And and we've got a you know, a rising China, a resurgent Russia. We've got a Europe which is certainly in some churn politically because of what's happened. So the challenges now, actually, and you add the the existing threat of terrorism, which we talked about earlier, the challenges now are every bit as much, if not harder, and more significant than they were during

the Cold War. You know, it's the week of Veterans Day, and I will take this moment to thank you personally for for your service to the country. I do wonder because I know It's an issue that's been very important to you. The role of the military and the view of the military in society in a lot of ways certainly ebbed and flowed change over the course of your career. Where do you see it right now in twenty nineteen.

It's a precious, precious institution and its reputation, which is a political UH from throughout our history in the ebbs and flows, is absolutely critical. And to your point about I've seen it in a different place coming out of Vietnam, which is the first war I fought in, where the military was was so um much. UH. It was held in very, very low esteem, and that has changed over the course of many decades, and the institution is held in high regard throughout the country. And we need to

preserve that. We're going through a very difficult time as a country right now. Certainly in my life, I've never seen us so politically divided. I've never seen Washington so dysfunctional, with political leaders on both sides of the aisle unable to deliver for the American people. UM. But it's a system I believe in, UH, and we need to make sure that the democracy continues to function and that we

don't walk away from its principles. UH. It's a responsibility of American people to make sure that that governance is correct for us in the future, and that the military is, in general, certainly the active duty side in support of those that the American people elect H and that even those who are retired oftentimes, from my point of view, UH need to be reminded that it's not our position uh to take a stand against the president or a policy,

because I think that confuses the American people because we're seen as military experts and in ways we always speak for the military, So preserving that a political aspect of the United States military is absolutely at the top of

my list in terms of priorities for the country. That was Admiral Mike Mullen, and I thoroughly enjoyed that conversation with him, so thoughtful about so many aspects of his own career, the role of the military, the political time we are living in, and the role that we all have to play. You've been listening to Bloomberg Business Week Extra, be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Monday through Friday at two pm Wall Street Time on

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