Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, members, welcome to the National Press club. I am the 110th president of this historic private club. Current time in press freedom, we are the constitution. Please submit questions be a the cards on your table if you have not already. Those of you who are viewing, you can submit them via Twitter Press club dc npc live. Headliners. Those of you who came a little late, now is a good time to silence your cell phone. We do welcome you to tweak and t and follow twee the actions and send questions into the club. Some upcoming events. Chicago mayor and former clinton senior official rahm emanuel will be here for headliner luncheon. Another Headline News major same day at 11 00 a. M. With greek minister of economy. My good colleague peter baker will be here june 29th on his latest book obama and call of history. Following in the theme of todays luncheon general mick , milley. That will be july 27. For information on these and other events you can log onto our website. And now is the time to introduce the head table. To my far left, your right, heather weaver, freelance journalist that organize todays luncheon. A publisher of stars and stripes. Current member of the National Press club board of governors. Member of the National Defense club and reporter for bloomberg news. Director of the chairmans action group. Security reporter from cbs radio. Captain gregory hicks, special advisory to the chairman of public affairs. Skipping over myself for the moment. The Washington Bureau chief of the new york times. And member of the National Press club. Skipping over the chairman briefly. Captain of the United States navy retired. And he coordinated todays luncheon. States marine corps, vietnam veteran. Thank you for your service, sir. [applause] u. S. Navy vietnam veteran and senior ice commander of the d. C. Department of the American Legion post 20 which meets here at the National Press club. Thank you very much, sir. Chair of our Fellowship Team as well who takes care of our wonderful members who are sick and distress. Of military diplomats world news. I think i skipped over john donnelly. John is many things to us, he is the president of the military reporters and editors association. Chair of the National Press, freedom team and one of the ardent fighter for for press freedom in the club. Thank you. [applause] now the good part. As the tensions between the u. S. And russia seem to be serious all at the same time, seem to be heating up over the shooting down of a syrian jet over the weekend. Enter the chairman of joint staff general of joseph f. Dunford junior. Who is the 19th person occupied this post. Nations highest ranking military officer and principle military officer to the president and secretary of defense and National Security counsel. Prior to becoming chairman october 1, 2015, general dunford served as 36th marine corps. He served as assistant commandant marine corps from 2010 to 2012. He was Commander Security force and the United States forces afghanistan from february 2013 to august 2014. That will come in handy in the questions sir. Native of boston, massachusetts, general dunford graduated from st. Michaels college in 1977. There are many more accolades but since time is of the , essence, were going to get right to the q a. The general and i will go from the stage here. We will conduct a conversation, fireside chat style. We have a lovely stack of questions. Some of them have come through the internet. Many of you have taken advantage of having an ipad will be following along and keeping up with current doings. We do have a special request of the chairman and i. I think we can accommodate that. That is to have a moment of silence for those who are lost and injured on the uss fitzgerald. Thank you. No further adieu, general, lets go on the stage and you can have opening remarks and well take some questions. [applause] mr. Chairman, the floor is yours. Gen. Dunford thanks. Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much. I appreciate the flexibility of the club and rescheduling. I canceled at the last minute in april. I typically dont have to do that, but as you can understand, sometimes thats required and had to do that. Im actually glad that it was relatively slow news weekend. I come in on a monday. Theres probably not many questions and not much youre interested and something nothing controversial i can address today. [laughter] i feel very comfortable. [laughter] with that, i turn it over to you. Well, take us well go right into the questions. I can actually no. Gen. Dunford im happy to do that. I didnt think you were looking for a filibuster. Not at all. Clearly we had very tense shoot down of the syrian jet. By u. S. Forces. And we had a very statement from into the holdays the confliction agreement between the countries. Essentially saying west of euphrates were shooting down. Whats the latest . Any updates on where that stands . Is the the confliction gone . Gen. Dunford we worked really hard on deconfliction. For the last months, we worked on deconfliction with the Russian Federation proregime forces. The purpose was to make sure our crews were safe. Make sure the personnel on the ground were safe and make sure we can defeat isis campaign in syria. Which is the reason were in syria. That has worked very well over the past eight months. We have worked through a number of issues with the Russian Federation. We have an effective link between our Operation Center in qatar. That link is still ongoing here this morning. When i left the building this morning, were still communicating over the last few hours. I like you, saw in the opening open source some reporting from moscow, which i want to address now. I will tell you that we work diplomatically to reestablish the deconfliction. Their purpose in syria is to defeat isis. Well see if thats true here. All of our operations around iraqi and southern syria designed specifically to get after isis and we have agreed in the past that as we and the Russian Federation forces that operations at the coalition which conducting in syria were effectively degrading isiss capability. Well work to restore. Are you confident that u. S. Forces wont be shot down . Gen. Dunford im confident that we are still communicating between our Operation Center and the Russian FederationOperation Center. Im also confident that our forces have the capability to take care of themselves. Some people have been writing some of the early questions, russia effectively declared world war iii. Its not that bad. Gen. Dunford i honestly, the worst thing any of us can do would be address this anything with hyperbole. An incident occurred. We have to work through the incident. We have a channel to be able to do that. Its going to require engagement in the next few hours to restore the deconfliction we had in place. Again, that d confliction we have had in place is in our mutual interest. It allows us to address what at least proregime forces indicated. Have you been in touch with russia . Gen. Dunford i have not. This morning. I have met with my russian counterpart twice this year. Weve communicated maybe another five or six times. Which also leads to whats the situation in iraq going to be when its all said and done . Whos going to control it . You got a number of questions about how that recast the situation. Gen. Dunford were supporting the Syrian Democratic forces in seizing raqqa. Thats a force of about 50,000, which about 20,000 or 25,000 are arab. Even as we support their efforts to seize raqqa theres ongoing effort led by the state department to put together a governance body so as soon as iraq is seized, theres an effective local government. That government will leverage arab leaders who are from raqqa. Well work on establishing Security Force made of up local personnel. So theres stabilization. Lets move around the region a bit. Iraq curds have announced they will hold an independent referendum on september 25. What would that mean for u. S. Interest in the middle east. Should the u. S. Support it . Gen. Dunford our stated objective at this point is a Stable Secure in sovereign iraq. We supporting iraqi Security Forces. The issue of the kurdish referendum is one that have to be worked out. Going back to the question also becomes in the early things about russia and syria. Whether or not you have to relocate or strengthen the security even more to Training Base to be prepared. They keep saying defensive strikes only against regime. When does this cross the line into war with the Syrian Government . Gen. Dunford its important to point out that the incident that took place this weekend followed combined Arms Movement proregime forces, subsequent aircraft flew into the area. We made every effort to warn those individuals not to come any closer. The commander made judgment there was a threat to the forces that we were supporting and took action. The only action that we have taken against proregime forces in syria have been two specific incidents have been in selfdefense. Weve communicated that clearly. To afghanistan, do you foresee adding 4000 troops, theres a lot of discussion about whether or not Additional Forces allocated to afghanistan. Has that decision been made. How many are going and when are they going . How will that unfold . Gen. Dunford let me see if i can probably answer that question in a few others. First of all, no decision has been made with regard to deployment of Additional Forces in afghanistan. One decision that was made by the president was to delegate that decision to secretary mattis. But also, this is whats important and probably has been under reported, secretary mattiss decision about Additional Forces in afghanistan will be made in the context of a broader strategy review for south asia. That is ongoing and expected to report back sometime in the middle of july. When secretary mattis makes a decision about force level which he will communicate to the president , secretary of state , and the guidance direction that he received is to do that in conjunction with the secretary of state. When secretary mattis makes that decision about force levels you can you can expect hell communicate that in a broader context. Specifically context with that strategy review. It wont be just about afghanistan. There are a number of interdependent variables. Well be prepared to talk about those as well when we talk about force Management Levels in the reason the number of 4000 raised theres a request by the commander to shift in afghanistan. He has identified areas where he believes Additional Forces can make the effort in afghanistan more effective. Theres also an outstanding requirement for forces that the commander asked for from nato last year. Thats what you also heard him talk about publicly. Were short about 3000 from the stated nato requirement for forces in afghanistan. Thats where the numbers come from. What i would emphasize is, any decision on numbers is going to be done in that part of context. Strategy, senator mccain came out swinging this morning. Hes going to both democratic and republican president s about whether or not theres a strategy for afghanistan. Hes asking where is it . When is it going to be delivered, where is it going to be, where is it headed . What is your take on that . Gen. Dunford secretary and mattis had an opportunity to appear before mccain. When he raised that question, secretary mattis said we agreed afghanistan is not where we want it to be. We spent last couple of months discussing where it might go in the future. He indicated to chairman mccain, sometime in the middle of the july well have that Strategic Review complete. When the secretary makes a decision about resourcing to the military dimension, realizing that broader issue nas have to issues that have to be addressed in a diplomatic and economic areas. Which raises the question of the authorization of use of military force again. How much lobbying, if you will, has happened between you and the congress . How is the dialogue unfolding in terms of eventual, actual passage of use of military force and how will that be applied . Gen. Dunford ive been asked several times in testimony what my thoughts were on the authorization use of military force. For those who dont know we rely , now on the 2001 authorization of use of military force that was after 9 11. It was modified in 2002. What i have said is that, we have all of the Legal Authority that we need right now to prosecute al qaeda, isis, other affiliated groups. My recommendation for the congress was that they pass an authorization use of military force. I thought one of the more important things is our men and women in are in harms way, we see clear unmistakable support for the American People through their congress. Thats what i believe right now would be very positive if congress would pass an authorization use of military force. I havent lobbied for that effort. Im precluded from lobbying. When im asked in testimony as i have been now several times, certainly able to answer that question. What i have focused on is the message well be sending to those people who making the sacrifice what message will be sent. What do you say to an American Voter whos deciding whether or not theyre going to voice an opinion to member of congress. Who might be skeptical that thousands of more u. S. Troops could be deployed and slightly strategy might break stalemate in afghanistan or other parts of the region. After billions of dollars that have been spent, everything thats been done, is there sort of a fatigue thats out there . How going to convince the American People that this is going to be a necessary thing . If it is, you decide to deploy thousands of troops to the region for afghanistan and if you have to escalate your involvement in syria. I think its important that the conversation about afghanistan take place in the context of our interest in south asia as a whole. There are two very simply that i would talk about in public. One is the remaining threats from terrorist organizations in south asia who expressed desire to have another 9 11 in United States. Theres about 17 different groups, 20 that weve globally identify as terrorist organization. It continue to put pressure on those groups i believe is critical and vital to our National Interest. The pressure that those groups have been under for the last 15 years has been what is prevented in the 9 11. The other interest that we have in the region is preventing a regional conflict in south asia. When the strategy comes in, its less about what happened over the past 16 years, it is what National Interest in south asia, whats the diplomatic and military Campaign Plan thats necessary for us to protect and advance our National Interest in south asia. I dont believe its useful to have a conversation about where weve been, how much money weve spent or how long weve been in afghanistan. Whats most important arctic little lathe articulating to the American People. We should be able to articulate that and roll out a strategy. What is it that were doing. Not just militarily. But diplomatically and economically. Thats the conversation well be prepared to have. Whats the end game in afghanistan . Whats your prediction for new cost and u. S. Lives . What i would say from a military dimension to be clear about what is it we trying to do, we trying to support our partners on the ground and driving level of violence down to where local Security Forces can deal with security challenges with a minimal amount of international support. We trying to do that from west africa to southeast asia. What were dealing with is a transregional threat. One of the manifestations is in afghanistan. It extends from west africa to southeast asia. Thats the broad design of a strategy is to support local forces and addressing security challenges. Some need more support than others. The methodology is consistent across that transregional threat. What degree does that involve pressuring pakistan . Pakistan is a key to afghanistan and its security. Ensuring that economy does not have sanctuary in south asia. Making sure secure border between afghanistan and pakistan is critical. Thats one of the interdependent variables. To talk about going back to syria. Can you talk about the role in iran is playing in syria . Is it increasing, in particular the hezbollah iran is playing unhelpful role in syria and middle east. Some of you may have heard me describe it this way. Again, iran, unlike the United States and coalition, is not focused on isis in of syria. Iran is focused on propping up the regime committed atrocities in the civil war. Addressing the grievances of the save war and syria will be necessary for us to have peace and stability and have a sanctuary for violent extremism. Staying in the region, are you concerned about any long term implications of the current gulf crisis on Regional Security and has the crisis affected u. S. Military operations in the region . You said something last week on capitol hill that your operations relatively unaffected. With turkey sending troops in and u. S. Arm