Before being the president s special envoy many of you know he took on the small challenge of trying to help lead the middle east Peace Process for two years working back and forth between the israelis and palestinians in helping with what was a pure like efforts to move forward towards the two state solution in hes been the commander of centcom and is somebody that applies a great deal of thought and reflection to help America Needs to handle its most ethical challenges. And most importantly and i have seen in in this capacity wearing the uniform and out of the uniform, he understands the challenges we face are never strictly military, they are always political and always complex. We could have no better person to bring to this task to try to figure out what are all the pieces of the puzzle countering the threat posed to the country that it is correctly decimating in the racing borders to the region in how we can get a solution that isnt going to rely just on a military force by us and by others because the only way forward is going to be something comprehensive and sustainable, something led by the countries most affected in the support of a wider coalition of partners. We dont have general allen for very long time today so i wont go into much detail. We will be hearing from him and had a chance to do a short discussion and have a distinguished panel will join us afterwards for some followup discussion. So without further ado welcome to the center for American Progress and thank you for joining us. Plus good morning ladies and gentlemen, its a pleasure to be here and i want to thank you for not just the introduction that you give me this morning that in your own. As many of you know, hes had substantial contributions across a whole friday of ways to the diplomatic and Coalition Efforts in afghanistan and i benefited directly from those and also your work in east asia. It should benefit for the work that youve done not just there and in the department of defense but more broadly in the community that takes an interest in the important and Difficult Conversations. Thank you for that and i want to thank the center as well for its contributions to this important contribution and so many others so many complicated and complex issues facing the country today and in particular i want to compliment you on the report that has come out recently and the recommendations we are digesting and i will tell you that we will find a ready ear in the community that im not forgetting for the recommendations youve made in this report and we are digesting it and i want to thank you for the efforts. As president obama said last september at the United Nations general assembly, disassembled where the world is at a crossroads. We are living in a kind of Human History when the older order is passing into the new order is coming into being. And how isis has effectively used 21st century tools, the ease of world travel and Global Financial networks and the internet we see some vulnerabilities and gaps in this global order that is in fact emerging and that can be detrimental to this order. Indeed, it is one of the great ironies they are so skilled at using modern technologies to to spread such an antimodern and medieval theology. For someone who has spent four decades as a u. S. Marine, ive come closer than many of to the chase of inhumanity. I have never before seen the kind of bummed theyre ready that affects and celebrates every day. But in my service as the president s special envoy to the Global Coalition to counter over the past ten months the Global Response to the calculated inhumanity has given me reason for optimism. Im continually impressed by the Diverse Group of partners that have committed themselves and their states to counter and contribute to the campaign. By their willingness to make substantial contributions of National Prestige and the blood and treasure of their population it is their genuine effort to mark the contribution insulting the complicated and complex problem. Indeed its been a privilege to organize their efforts, the efforts of the 16 nations and to organizations into the Coalition Campaign that matters profoundly to the security not just of this nation but if the nations of the world. From the outset of this coalition the campaign to counter which i will henceforth refer to by its arabic acronym. Weve understood success would require us to persist and adapt and reassess our activities in the light of victories and setbacks such as the one that was experienced in the body. Its also in. If for all of us to understand the direction of the campaign. Having been a part of the previous coalitions in having commanded the coalition of the 50 nations in afghanistan. Its in the longterm strategic objectives and as we mark one year on the perfect events in iraq spurred the United States to act and convene a Global Coalition we have an important opportunity to take stock of how far we have come and how much further we have to go. Its difficult to remember how peerless a moment it was last june as the fighters crossed the Syrian Border and began to pour down the river valley in the communities and massacre thousands of religious minorities. It was a moment where they were under siege and largely alone in the world. Not only what they went during the early days but they demonstrated an ability to use Information Operations as a force multiplier as they took to the social media to those that theyve brutalized. They had a remarkable effect upon the world. Immediately ultimately we will never know the complete impact these messages have on thousands of iraqis voters that fled to the rank off just because of the weight of the Media Campaign against them but to defend their homes and families. But we do know this the ability to find the information environment played a pivotal role in fact perhaps a defining role as they begin to emerge in this crisis and our ability to delegitimize the narrative and impact the very idea of the organization would play just as pivotal a role in their goodbyes. Nowhere has the message mattered more than in the weeks after the capture when they declared the existence. He proclaimed the noble ambitions but it was also during those difficult days last summer as this round of thousands and attended the approaches that they would actually shift the momentum. President obama as secretary kerry made some decisions that would begin to lay the groundwork for a coalition. First we surged intelligence assets over iraq from one Intelligence Surveillance reconnaissance for a month to 60 per day gaining a more granular picture of the movement essential to the operations. Second you stop rushed critical relationships between the Central Government and kurdish commanders. Third we deployed as forces to assess the security formation and most critically for iraqs future we redoubled our efforts to support the political process following national elections. These were absolutely essential in the immediate term. It was last summer that we began to understand that it wasnt simply in iraq you are were serious problem but emerging as a regional problem and a generational implications in the keen awareness of that reality and understanding of the thinkable implications if this emergency were to go unabated that our president supported by the secretary resolved to build the Global Coalition. It was as a special president ial envoy to the coalition. Since i began serving in his role i had the opportunity to travel to 30 capitals many of them repeatedly during that time as we worked together with the leadership of the Global Community weve been able to establish a coalition of 60 nations and two partners and unlike other Coalition Campaigns ive been a part of weve had to build this coalition. When i served as the commander of the forces in afghanistan for instance our authorities resided upon the Un Security Council resolutions into the framework for the organization rested upon the North Atlantic Council of nato. The unprecedented nature and urgency of the effort required that we create a framework to sustain a longterm effort while simultaneously confronting the emergency that we faced so the Global Coalition to counter agreed unanimously of the ministerial level to the joint statement which outlined our objectives and commitments to Work Together over multiple lines of effort and while it is the coalitions actions you do receive the most attention. It is the aggregate effort of the coalitions activities across multiple lines of effort that will determine the coalition success. Thats why in every visit that i have to the capital every conversation i have with the Prime Minister or president or king described the campaign does organized around five multiple lines of effort, the first is the military components to deny safe haven to and Security Assistance to the partners. Second is disrupting the flow of the fighters and access to the Financial Resources and their ability to access the International Financial system. Providing humanitarian assistance in the stabilization report and fifth is in the counter messaging or defeating as an idea. Let me provide an overview in the lines of effort into the ways in which the coalition is involving to confront. The first is provided on the security to the partners on the ground and while these are the purview of the Central Command and its partners it is a sensual that the activities over each of the lines of effort are synchronized and mutually supportive. As we evaluate the effort it is a setback from which we must learn and understand it if you havent been following it the forces jumped off into the attack to recover so the Security Forces are in right now to isolate and to take it back. We should also not forget theyve also had setbacks in places like the province and its assault on the Kurdistan Regional government and they hope to achieve a media spectacle in the world to see as they reduced the city but for the support of the air power over the top of the determined fighters they were soundly defeated and that is an accurate term across the stretch of the border neighboring in the crossborder two thirds has been wrested from the control in the last six weeks and where the prankster asked the fires permitted the Security Forces to push out of tikrit to recover the city and three months later hundreds of displaced families have now made a peaceful return to the city. The process gives us a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the efforts or stabilization and support to the liberty did communities as they seek to prevent reprisals. These are important to the partners on the ground and theyve played a role in the capability as well. 15 partners are helping to build up the Iraqi Security force capabilities in the five and the five Training Camps and six partners are contributing to the coalitions advise and assist machine. Eight nations participated in airstrikes over iraq in five overs. Among the fighters the coalition has trained many are now helping to secure beijing and are in the attack in the effort to recover the body and since the fault of the decision to locate the troops at of the fifth Printing Center has produced an additional 1300 tribal fighters who are in fact engaged in the Security Forces in the attack on this moment. So make no mistake they must be recruited and trained in the gauge to take back their country. Building the capacity of the Security Force will require a commitment one i believe the coalition has made. Others may not agree but it is my belief as greater numbers are trained and equipped and take to the field we will see there increasing effort. Success will inspire success as we have seen in other places. At the same time we must appreciate the security gains can only be sustained if political reforms are made in parallel. We must continue to encourage the investors pursuit of an inclusive path that he has set for his country and one begins to operationalize his approach of governance called functioning federalism. This vision of governance emphasized in the current disguises the authority to the poppins is. And it is in that approach that we hope to test the plan that the president put in place to solidify. Success will depend heavily on the willingness to recruit and train and equip to take back the communities. This will require that premise and others in his government to assume Political Risk with a large constituency that we have seen him assume that risk and that the decisions made that are beginning to payoff pay off and as we see them begin to organize and more tribal fighters and Security Forces be produced we will begin to see the reality of that support as well. We must avoid oversimplification of the identities. Weve taken note of the position of the leaders for example of the Province Provincial Council to endorse the contributions of the Popular Mobilization force a womans and endorsing their presence in the province and invoicing their willingness to fight alongside the iraqi Security Forces they recognize that there is a distinction must be made under the influence of iran and the large number that answer the grand ayatollah called to defend iraq last last december and they summer and they came to the countrys rescue by the tens of thousands and we have to understand the differences between the two. I believe i am Better Qualified than most to understand the district attempt to destabilize and will they can play. Someone that is deeply committed to the campaign and iraqs success i understand that error in seeing the future through a narrow sectarian prism. Enabling the iraqis to move beyond the division is part of why stabilization efforts in the liberated communities are so important as the Campaign Continues to unfold and why they support these activities is one of the central winds of effort. There are four opponent components that require the peace in christ. First theres the clearing element when the iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization committee enforces and remove them from the Population Center or urban location. Second, there is the security and policing element that deals with crime and provides general security to the liberated population so that i can return to normal. This whole force will likely be combination of the beliefs, local tribes and even some militia elements. Behind the effort by the Central Government and provincial headquarters in capitals to extend governance to the populations that have recently been liberated and have suffered so much. In the stabilization effort itself well for a provision of the Services Include immediate humanitarian assistance to address lifethreatening issues as well as shortterm restoration of Services Like healthcare and fresh water and electricity. On the elements the coalition is surging Technical Support and assistance to our iraqi allies. While the germans are helping organize these stabilization activities of others are providing significant support. The training and effect of Police Forces that are being reconstituted in several nations including the United States have made sizable contributions to the Stabilization Fund and this will allow them to make immediate investments to meet the urgent needs of those that suffered the dalia deprivations for so many months and to restore Critical Infrastructure and electrical distribution. Through the support of baghdad has provided they need so badly and creates the opportunity to strengthen between the capital and the people being liberated and this could be and i think ought to be considered as reconciliation from the ground up. These efforts will eventually be just as critical to the coalitions support fighters in a recent game. The coalition is enhancing the and are working so that we can create reliable partners alternately for the coalition outcomes. At the same time looking for ways to streamline the programs so that we can get more recruits into the pipeline and the kinsey the number enrolled in the program is smaller than we had anticipated to ensure the lasting defeat it we must find ways to improve this aspect of the strategy and we are. And believe nothing can be done and we continue to work this very hard. Each of us has a profound state and creating the conditions where people can begin to determine their own future the future that is cf. The brutality of the bush cartel aside regime as well as organized elements such as. One of the tools to coalition can use to reflect the