DRONE WARS: ARE WE GOING TOO FAR?

p.1 DRONE WARS: ARE WE GOING TOO FAR? [background conversation] Ambassador Kurt Volker : [0:13] Ladies and ge ntlemen, thank you very much for coming this evening. This is the seventh and final debate of this year for the McCain Institute.You may have seen, from our website or elsewhere, we've sponsored a number of genuine debates about foreign policy issues, ranging from Syria to Iran, to Afghanistan, to the defense budget in Egypt.Tonight, we have what is one of the most timely debates that we've had. Is this mic working, by the way? Thank you. Which is drone strikes, and lethal use of drones.Are we protecting our country, and do we have a lethal program like this well in hand and with the appropriate checks and balances and oversight? Or are we out of control? Have we become addicted to low-risk, easy killing with collateral damage that sometimes we can't even calculate?In order to debate that question this evening, we have an extraordinary panel of experts with a great deal of personal experience in this area. Before we turn to them though, I want to introduce a special guest this evening.We've had, in the past, Senator John McCain here to welcome guests for these debates at the McCain Institute. He's not able to be here, and you may have seen that was just in Li bya .T onigh t, instead , we h ave Mrs. Cindy Mc Cain, who we'r e delighted to ha ve, who was kind enough, after another speaking engagement in Washington, to come and say a few words here. Let me introduce Mrs. Cindy McCain. [applause] Cindy McCain: [1:56] Thank you very much. O bviously, I'll be very brief. Welcome everyone, and thank you for coming and participating in this very important subject.This is important to me too because, I really want my packages delivered by Amazon... [laughter] Cindy: [2:10] ...on my doorstep, with a drone, please. This is a v ery timely discussion tonight. This is a very timely debate.More importantly, we are looking forward to interaction from everyone in a thoughtful and kind manner, if I may put it that way.Welcome, on behalf of my husband. He does say hello. He, as the Ambassador said, has just returned from Libya. He was just in Libya. He's in Saudi Arabia right now. He'll be home tomorrow, I hope, anyway.Welcome. Thank you, and thank you for participating in a McCain event. [applause] Kurt: [2:47] Thank you v ery much. If I could, I'd like to make a fe w housekeeping announcements. One of them, #MIDebateDrones. Feel free to tweet. Put your phones on vibrate so they don't ring, but feel free to tweet. We'd like to have a conversation online as well.These debates are broadcast by live webcast. We have viewers in Arizona State University, it's broadcast on their television as well. The McCain Institute, as you know, is a part of Arizona State University.We'll have questions from the audience. We'll start with opening statements of five minutes each, from each side. We'll then have a three-minute rebuttal and then time for questions.The questions will begin with our moderator, who will be joining us in a minute. Following that, there will be an opportunity for the

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