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MS. HILL: Yeah, this also relates to a veteran's issue, a little bit about what Lieutenant.
Colonel Garcia said. And this question comes from a veteran. He asks, "Global health, education,
and economic prosperity for foreign countries are certainly noble efforts, but what about
the need for economic prosperity here at home? If we're enabling foreign citizens to get
jobs, why not focus that money instead on putting our veterans to work here at home?"
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I'm a veteran, and I'll tell you, sir, I am very sensitive to
the question. The first priority - and I emphasize this - the first priority is to take care
of our veterans. The first priority is to put Americans to work. The first priority
is obviously to bring our economy back to health as rapidly as we can.
But here's the - it's not a secret - here's the reality of doing that. Every time we issue
visas to people that travel to America through our people who are abroad, stationed in another
country, issuing the visa, for every several thousand visas that are issued we create jobs
in America. The truth is that we are in an interdependent global market nowadays. So
it's important for the United States to invest in some of these countries because it actually
grows jobs at home.
Nobody is operating in an island today. You can't just trade with yourself or work with
yourself. And the more we develop the ability of some of these countries to avoid being
a failed state, the less costly it is for the next generation of veterans. I guarantee
you, if we ignore some of the places where we are investing today to prevent violence,
to have people grow up with jobs, to be able to choose a different path - if we don't do
that, we'll be sending another generation of Americans somewhere to clean it out when
they attack us because of their developed hatred or taught ideology or religious extremism
that comes home to attack the United States.
We didn't do anything to Usama bin Ladin, but he attacked us. And there are many jihadists
out there who view our way of life, our standard of living, our culture, our mores, our beliefs,
as somehow an assault on them or a threat to them. And so they decide to simply take
us on. And I believe that for the tiny percentage that we invest in these other places, we are
actually investing in American jobs, we are investing in American security, and we are
investing in future generations not having to go off and fight a war like Colonel Garcia
did and so many others. And that will save us money in the long run.