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Live up to our commitment to nato, should the nato response force be activated by nato. this -- putting our forces on a shorter string enables us to get there in a shorter period of time. and again, i think that provides reassurance to nato that were ready to live up to our commitments. in terms of what putin thinks and the way he feels about things, again, its hard to predict. we take those kind of things into consideration. but again, if you look at the forces that he has moved into the region...

Milley, both of you have been military officers for four decades. you served in the gulf war and iraq and afghanistan after 9/11. youve seen north korea and iran pursue their own nuclear ambitions. i am wondering, does this feel different to you? how would you characterize this crisis with ukraine and russia in terms of its potential to spark a great power conflict? >> well, in terms of whether or not he has enough forces to conduct a full-scale invasion, you heard the chairman say earlier that ...

Natos efforts. of course, this is about nato and the alliance. and i would remind you that nato is a defensive alliance. again, youve heard the chairman talk about the resources that nato has. and i think there are considerable resources, and again, its important to make sure that we keep the alliance united. >> phil, i would echo that the uniform u.s. military is prepared to do whatever were directed to do. and we are increasing our readiness postures for units and well be prepared to execute w...

Certainly we have had advisers and trainers there since 2014 as the chairman indicated earlier. and we remain focused on providing all of the assistance in terms of training and advising that ukraine feels it needs. and we work that issue with them on a consistent basis. i would also say that its all -- its less about the specific number, but about more about the capability that you bring and what youre focusing on. in some cases, it may take several more types of trainers to do -- to train on a...

Correspondent oren liebermann. were about to hear from the defense secretary, lloyd austin, joint chiefs of staff chairman general mark milloy. what are we expecting from them? >> the last time we heard from defense secretary austin as well as general milley was on september 1st. after the withdrawal of afghanistan. it says something about the seriousness and significance of the moment well be hearing from both of these two leaders. were not expecting any major announcements in terms of deployme...

His decisions will take him. but we remain concerned about the range of options that he could pursue and well stay focused on this problem set. and ill turn to the chairman there for his thoughts. >> in terms of the size of the forces that are amassed right now, they could. i mean, its potntial. we dont think theres been a decision as the secretary already made. but, sure, with 100,000 troops and youve got combined arms formations, ground maneuver, artillery, rockets, air and all the other parts...

93 squadrons, four carriers, many more surface combtants. the military capability of nato is very, very significant. in addition to bordering belarus and moldova, ukraine has a border with four nato members. poland, slovakia, hungary and romania. the president and the secretary of defense have authorized the united states military to increase our readiness in the event we have to reinforce or assist our nato allies. war is not inevitable as the secretary said. the right answer here is a diplomat...

Against one is an attack against all. and i thought that was a really important statement for the secretary and the chairman to affirm. >> he is getting more attention right now. that is putin. but in terms of his calculations, general clark, so far, putins actions have actually sparked a boost in nato troops and arms in russias backyard. hes basically provided justification for nato to expand further, should it desire so. isnt that his worst nightmare? did putin orverplay his hand? >> it absolu...

>> -- covering this press conference on zoom and the secretary and chairman will be taking questions from both in the room and on zoom. given the unique circumstances and, of course, the pressing schedules today, id ask you to please limit your follow-up questions so we can get a chance to get through everybody. and ill be coming back to call it towards the end of it as we get ready to close. both secretary and chairman have opening statements. i will stop talking now so that they can deliver th...