I want to thank our witnesses, secretary esper, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff milley for appearing before us to testify. The purpose of this hearing is to discuss our policy in syria particularly in light of the events that happened when turkey invaded and drove the kurds out of portions. Our first hearing since the congressman from new york joined the committee. I want to thank him. We have a lot of new faces in this committee that are a year into it. They are not new faces anymore but good to have another freshman added to the committee. I appreciate him serving. The purpose of this hearing is to look at events around syria. A whole bunch of questions and the other big issue is the ability of memories of this committee to ask questions of the key policymake is in an area of importance to the committee and to give them an opportunity to learn more about the policy and express their views and that is a huge part of our oversight role in congress and it is enormously important.