Say yes to your life. When it comes to drugs and alcohol, just say no. First Lady Nancy Reagan as our original series first ladies returns monday night at 9 00. On cspan and cspan 3. Also on cspan radio and cspan. Org. Next, the army chief of staff is at the National Press club. He recently spoke about the u. S. Armys future. He covered a range of topics including budget cuts, Sexual Assaults in the military, and the u. S. Role in afghanistan. He also talked about the situation in iraq, regarding al qaedas influence in the region. What it could mean for u. S. Combat troops. Good afternoon and welcome to the National Press club. I am a reporter for Bloomberg News and the president of the National Press club. We are the World Leading Professional Organization for journalists. We are committed to programming such as this, that foster free press worldwide. For more information about the National Press club, please visit our website. To donate to programs offered to the public, please visit press. Org\institute. On behalf of our members, i would like to welcome our speaker. Our head speaker our head table includes guests of our speaker. I note that members of the general public are also attending. It is not a lack of journalistic objectivity if you care applause. I would also like to welcome our audiences. You can follow the action on twitter. Now it is time to introduce our head table guests. I asked each of you to stand briefly. Son, the right, kurt Jack Washington correspondent. Gene, reporter with the hexagon newsletter. Jim michaels, military writer for usa today. The uniteder for States Institute of peace. Patrick, a reporter with defense daily. Eeva, washington correspondent or the chicago tribune. Alison fitzgerald, finance and Investigative Reporter at the center for Public Integrity and chairwoman of the National Press club committee. Skipping over the speaker for a moment. Eric, new systems specialist at the associated press. The Committee Member who organized todays event. Jen, editor inside the army. Carlo, a freelance defense and National Security reporter. And thomas young, a retired air National Guard. Senior master sergeant. [applause] when our guest became the chief of staff act in 2011, his job was not too easy. He had served nearly 37 years. He fought in desert storm as a key defender in operation or rack ephraim. He was the head of the campaign in iraq. Saddam hussein was captured under his watch in 2003. Not the home, he is fighting a war against sexual abuse in the army which has an army higher rate than other branches. In a message to Army Personnel he said, the u. S. Army is failing in its efforts to combat Sexual Assault and sexual harassment. The general has also said sequestration budget cutting is making the fight against sexual abuse harder than ever, from slowing hiring, not providing resolutions for victims. The tightening of washingtons pocketbooks and higher than expected costs in afghanistan have added another dimension of difficulty for general odierno. Even though the financial restraints are certainly being felt, his message to the soldiers was clear. He said, i just need you to stay focused on what you do to train, to sustain your equipment, to develop leaders, to take care of our families. Do the best you can with the resources we give you, he said. General odierno has stood by president obamas measures to shrink the size of the army by 80,000 troops by 2017 while working to increase its capabilities. A native of new jersey, general odierno is married to his High School Sweetheart and they have three children. He holds degrees from west point, the naval war college, the Army War College and North Carolina state university. General odiernos son retired army captain, tony odierno, had his truck hit in southwest baghdad in 2004. Tony is now secretary of the board of directors of the Wounded Warrior project. Please join me in giving a warm National Press club welcome to u. S. Army chief of staff, general ray odierno, who will proceed straight to questions and answer, rather than a speech. \[applause] well, thank you. Its an hob to be here. I thought it would be better during these times of lots of news that wed go to questions and answers. Just an initial opening comment that every day im extremely proud that i have the opportunity to represent the men and women of the United States army. 1. 1 million in the National Guard, u. S. Army reserve and the active component. Over the last 10 years, theres been over 15,000 awards of valor given out to u. S. Army soldiers. Nine medal of honors, almost 30 distinguished service costs, 600 silver stars and awards of valor because they did what we asked them to do, go and provide security over this great nation of ours. And its important that we think of that as we move forward and look to the future and what are our National Security issues, what are the things that we have to be concerned with as a nation and what is the armys role in those National Security issues. So i hope well have a good discussion on that today. We face many challenges, today, whether it be budgets and balancing our budget, reducing the debt and whats the right level of funding for our military. We face problems, social problems which was mentioned, such as Sexual Assault, sexual harassment. We are working the issues of suicide, the issues of taking care of our soldiers who have been wounded, both with physical and injuries and those that are nonvisible injuries. It is something we must stay focused on, not just today but for the foreseeable future, bull there are some soldiers who are impacted by this for many, many years. Its our responsibility to make sure that we continue to take care of them. So i hope its an honor for me to be here and i look forward to the discussions. So with that ill turn it over for the first question. Thank you. We do have a lot of ground to cover. Lets start broadly since were in a new year. What would you consider the most significant change we might see in the army in 2014, considering the new strategic environment and the shift from conflict to peace . Thank you. So theres several things that youll see in 2014. Obviously at the end of 2014, well see a change as we come out of afghanistan. Were still waiting on the signing of the agreement. We call the b. S. A. With afghanistan and after that well make a decision on do we leave residual forces in afghanistan or not and that decision will be made in consultations with the joint chiefs and the commander in chief and with the commanders on the ground with that what that says is, just a few years ago the army had over 250,000 soldiers deployed in iraq and afghanistan. The end of 2014 it will be much less number than that. So well be in the process of transitioning our force. So there is a couple of things, a rebalancing to the asia pacific which is the defense strategic guidance that we developed at the beginning of 2012. But in addition to that, it is also about us staying engaged regionally. And the armys pushing forth with the concept of regionally aligned forces whether it be in the asia region, africa, middle east, southern command, in order to provide them the resources necessary for them to do what their job is that is to prevent conflict, build security structures that allow us to be safe and continue to grow our economy as we move forward. Allow us to help shape the environment for the future. And then if necessary and as the last resort, be prepared to win if thats what we have to do in order to protect our own security. Those are the things and the changes youll begin to see in 2014, but this is a process in a will occur over the next five, six years. Looking to iraq, with the seizures of parts of fallujah and ramadi, much of the work you have done has turned back in iraq. How do you feel about our role now in iraq as we watch whats going on over there and trying to figure out whats next . So first i would say, obviously its disappointing to all of us to see the deterioration of the security inside of iraq. You know, i spent a lot of my life over there. From 2006, end of 2006 to september, 2010, i was there as we continued to reduce the level of violence and the sectarian violence was going on. I believe we left it a place that is capable of going forward. Weve seen it because of several political issues internal to iraq, that security situation is now devolved into my mind that is concerning. That is something to be cognizant of, whats going on in syria, whats going on in lebanon, whats going on inside iraq, and this sectarian potential building of sectarian conflict between sunni and shiia and the exploitation of that of nonstate actors such as al qaeda and other organizations who will try to take advantage of this. The biggest threat to our National Security is this ungoverned territory becomes areas where we have terrorist organizations that become dom plant and then try to dominant and then try to export their terrorism outside of the middle east and into several other countries, including the United States. So i think its something we have to watch. I think its something that we have to stay engaged with politically and its important for us to make sure that people understand that were concerned. And i think youll see us as we move forward. Can the u. S. Keep al qaedas expansion there at bay without having troops on the ground . Well, we have to wait and see. We have Trained Security Forces to do that. I think the First Alternative is for the forces that are there that we have trained to execute that strategy. You know, one of the things that we did in iraq as well as what were doing in afghanistan today is train about counterinsurgency and how you fight insurgencies. And i think what we have to do is continue to work with the iraqi army and others to ensure they understand the basic techniques of counterinsurgency. And so i think we continue to do that. We have a very small element on the ground that works in the embassy, that has some expertise, that can continue to help in these areas. And i think its important that we do that. Its also important that we continue to ensure that we stay involved diplomatically, which we are. As we work through. So we got to wait and see. I would say this is certainly not the time to put american troops on the ground. I think its time for them to step up and see what they can to do. And we have to just wait and see and see if it becomes part of our National Security interests to put people on the ground. But i think right now our goal is to let them take care of this problem. And well continue to work with them to try to solve this problem as we go forward, but it is dangerous. The thought of al qaeda getting on ungoverned territory is something we need to be very cognizant of. And as we continue to work with them as they conduct counterterrorist operations as well. And thats what well focus on as we move forward. You said we will not send troops back in iraq. Could these seizures have been prevented, did the u. S. Blow the end game by removing all the troops when they did . Well, i would just say i can be we can all be monday morning quarterbacks on this. The answer is i dont know what the answer is. What i do know is as i said earlier, we provided them an opportunity. When we departed in 2011, the levels of violence in iraq were the lowest they had been in a very, very, very long time. Their economy was growing. Theyre exporting more oil. They had a political system in place that appeared to be working, but since those times, that political process has begun to deteriorate. Their economy has actually continued to grow because they continue export more and more oil because they now have access to their oil fields. They have access to importing that oil. So its important for us to try to assist them in getting that political process back on track. And part of that is making sure that they understand all the different factions inside of iraq and we dont alienate factions. When we alienate factions you tend then to provide for opportunities of nonstate actors such as al qaeda and other terrorist elements to try to exploit that. I think thats the message that well continue to work as we move forward, that its important to bring everybody into the political process, continue to improve economically and we can continue to assist them in understanding how you fight potential insurgencies. Given the uncertainty in iraq, at this point, how do you answer questions from veterans and soldiers about the myriad of the time they spent there . There was a piece that was recently published by paul i am going to mispronounce his last name soldra, who questioned the service there titled tell me again why did my friends die in iraq . What do you tell those people thinking along those lines . First off, theres many of us who spent a lot of time in iraq. Theres many of us who have personal sacrifices inside of iraq and afghanistan. The bottom line is, we raise our right hand in order to defend the constitution of the United States and when we do that we are prepared to go forward and do what is necessary as were asked to do by our civilian leadership in order to provide security for this nation. Thats what we did in iraq. At a time when it was believed we would go there our military went. We were prepared, we went. I believe we left it in a way that enabled it to move forward. We eliminated a ruthless dictator, which tend to forget about, an incredibly ruthless individual who i was there long and long and longer, the stories i was told by many different iraqis to include their military were actually gruesome in the life they had to live inside of iraq under saddam hussein. I think you have to look at it under those viewpoints, we did our job, we left it in a way that is important. It is incredibly difficult for us to deal with the lives that were lost. No matter what the cause is. Its difficult to deal with lives lost in afghanistan. Its difficult to deal with lives lost in iraq. Its difficult to deal with lives lost in a car accident of a military member or a suicide of a military member, because were brother and sister in arms and theres a relationship there thats built that youll never forget. And so i can never explain properly to anybody when somebody gives their life, but the bottom line what i do know in each and every one of those cases, they raised and volunteered to be in the military because theyre proud to be part of the army. They were proud to do this mission. They were proud to be involved in that. And many of them died doing the things they wanted to do. And thats what i remember. I remember their service and their sacrifice and i remember that they dedicated themselves to something much greater than themselves personally. Thats what the armys about and thats what i remember. Even though i know its very difficult as we look back at some of the sacrifices that were given. What sort of future do you see for iraq and besides the small staff left in the embassy, what sort of role do you see for the u. S. In that future . When i was over there and i used to have people come and visit me, id show a map of the middle east, and if you look at iraq, it is right in the center of the middle east. To the west is syria, jordan. To the east is iran. To the south is kuwait, saudi arabia. To the north is turkey. It was its in a strategic location inside of the middle east. Its a very important location. So for us in my mind its an important country in the middle east. We are still allies and partners with iraq. We have to build on that partnership. We have to make it a partnership that allows us to build security in that region. And i think thats what we have to do. Right now its not its disappointing whats going on. Nobodys going to deny that. But again theres still potential. Theres economic potential. I believe theres political potential and we have to continually work hard to help them to reach a state where they can be a good, Strong Partner of the United States in order for us to sustain the right level of stability. And i would be the first one to admit that today thats looking a bit shaky. But we have to keep working very hard as we move forward. Looking over to afghanistan as you prepare for troop withdrawal there, what lessons do you have from the iraq drawdown to apply to afghanistan . So i think even though were very cognizant of the fact that afghanistan is very different culturally, very different securitywise, difference between iraq and afghanistan, there are some parallels that are important. One is i think we have the military, the afghan army, the Afghan Police today are showing signs that they are being very successful in handling the security situation. We turned almost completely over the security operation to them last year in april. Theyve gone through a very significant fighting season with the taliban and actually performed very, very well. Theyve proven they can do it. Theyve proven they have the leadership to do it. The one thing we have left to do, though, we still have to help them in developing their institutions because its about sustaining this for the long term. So we have to help them in developing the institutions that help them to sustain an army, through personnel policies, through sustainment policies, through developing leaders in their institutions because thats what makes it long lasting. And thats what we have to focus on now and thats why were anxious and hopefully we can get the b. S. A. Signed and talk about the residual force which their responsibility will be is developing the institution, is developing so it can be a long standing success story. And i think thats important that we do that and im hoping that th