[indiscernible conversation] [gavel pound] good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, members, welcome to the National Press club. I am the 100 110th president of this is stored private club. Given they girl current time and press freedom, we are the constitution. Questions it via the cards on your table if you have not already. Those of you who are viewing can submit them via Twitter Press club dc npc live. pressclubdc, 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 tweet and follow 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. On june 20. Newsmaker ine june 21. Another headline newsmaker the same day at 11 00 a. M. With the greek minister of economy. My good colleague peter baker will be here june 29 on his latest book obama and call of history. Following in the theme of todays luncheon, general mark millie will be here july 27. For information on these and other events you can log onto www. Press. Org. And now is the time to introduce the head table. Going to my far left, your right, heather weaver, freelance journalist, and a member of the National Press club Headliners Team that organized todays luncheon. The publisher of stars and stripes. With janes defense and current member of the National Press club board of governors. A member of the National Defense club and reporter for bloomberg news. The director of the chairmans action group. A National 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. A captain of the United States navy retired. And the press club member who coordinated todays luncheon. Thank you. A United States marine corps vietnam veteran. Thank you for your service, sir. [applause] u. S. Navy vietnam veteran and senior Vice Commander of the d. C. Department of the American Post 20, which meets here at the National Press club. Thank you very much, sir. And the chair of our fellowship team, who takes care of our wonderful members who are sick and distress. Militaryher of diplomats world news. I think i skipped over john donnelly. I cant skip over john. John is many things to us, he is the president of the military reporters and editors association. Chair of the National Press, chair of the National Press club freedom team and one of the ardent fighters for press freedom in the club. Thank you for your service. [applause] now the good part. As the tensions between the u. S. And russia and syria seem to be heating up over the shooting down of a jet over the weekend, and congress debating how much money the u. S. Military should thethis go around, enter joint chairman of staff, general 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 the 36 commandant of the marine corps. He previously 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. A native of boston, massachusetts, general dunford graduated from st. Michaels college and was commissioned in 1977. Levels,n officer of all command of the fifth Marine Operation iraqi freedom. There are many more accolades, but since time is of the essence, were going to get right to the q a. How were going to do this is that the general and i will go up on 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. And the president s office now has an ipad. So many of you have taken advantage of that. And 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. [moment of silence] thank you. No further adieu, general, lets go on the stage and you can have opening remarks and well take some questions. [applause] are you ready to go . Mr. Chairman, the floor is yours. Gen. Dunford thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. It is good to join you here today. I appreciate the flexibility of the club and rescheduling. I canceled at the last minute in april. Which are typically dont have to do that as you can s you can understand, butcally i dont have to do , 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. We thought we would have a few extra minutes but that is fine. Gen. Dunford i can actually no. Gen. Dunford im happy to do that. I didnt think you were looking for a filibuster. Not at all. Just to jump right into it clearly, we had very tense shoot down of the syrian jet. By u. S. Forces. And we had a very ominous statement from russia, that plays into the hold the whole deconfliction agreement between the countries. Essentially saying west of euphrates were shooting down. Whats the latest . Any updates on where that stands . What is the latest . Gen. Dunford we worked really hard on deconfliction. It is important to work out why. For the last months, we worked on deconfliction with the Russian Federation proregime forces. Through the russians. The purpose was to make sure our crews were safe. Make sure the personnel on the ground were safe and make sure we can prosecute and the defeat Crisis 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. And the Russian Federation on the ground in syria 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 an open source some reporting from moscow which i wont address now. I will tell you that we work diplomatically to reestablish the deconfliction. The Russian Federation has indicated that their purpose in syria is to defeat isis. Well see if thats true here. In the coming hours. Because 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. And we will work to restore that deconfliction chain. 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 in the early questions that russia has effectively declared world war iii. Its not that bad. Gen. Dunford 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, the deconfliction we have had in place is in our mutual interest. It allows us to address what proregime forces have indicated. Have you been in touch with russia . Gen. Dunford i have not. As of yet, this morning. I have met with my russian counterpart twice this year. Weve communicated maybe another five or six times. Which also leads to what is the situation in iraq going to be when it is all said and done . Who is going to control it . You got a number of questions about how we will cast that 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. And the balance are kurdish. 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. We will also work on establishing a Security Force made up of local personnel so there are stabilization efforts procedure. Ollow lets move around the region a bit. Iraqi kurds 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 secure sovereign iraq. We are supporting iraqi Security Forces. The issue of the kurdish referendum is one that will have to be worked out. To the question the question also becomes, in things that russia and secure 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 of proregime forces. The subsequent aircraft did fly into the area. We made every effort to warn those individuals not to come any closer. And then the commander made a judgment that there was a threat to the forces that we were supporting and took action. The only actions that we have taken against proregime forces in syria and there have been to specific incidences, have been selfdefense and we have communicated that clearly. Back to afghanistan. 4000u foresee adding 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 and 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 levels, which he will clearly communicate with the president , the secretary of state and actually, 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. That bear on the problem inside of afghanistan across the region. And will be prepared to talk about those when we talk about force management levels. The reason why the number of 4000 has been raised is because theres a request by the second the effort in afghanistan. In other words, 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. Again, but i would emphasize is that any decision on numbers is going to be done in the broader context. Speaking of strategy, senator mccain came out swinging this morning. You have to give him credit. He is doing it to both democratic and republican president and controlled congresses, 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 tis and i had an opportunity to appear before mccain. When he raised that question, secretary mattis and i 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. Np, as i will day, indicated to chairman mccain, sometime in the middle of july, well have that Strategic Review complete. We will consult with mccain and other members of the congress of the weeks no one. And when the secretary makes a decision about resourcing to the military dimension, realizing that there are broader 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 authorization for the use of military force and how will that be applied . Dunford i have a body that i can ask several times with my thoughts 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. But 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 that are in harms way would see a clear and 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, i am certainly able to answer that question. And what i have focus on is the message that we will ending to those people who are actually make the sacrifice. What message will be sent, if congress would authorize of military ors . It would reinforce the message area would you say to an American Voter who is deciding whether or not theyre going to voice an opinion to their number of congress . Who might be skeptical that thousands more troops are areas thousands more troops could be deployed. And a meeting that has been done is there sort of a fatigue that is out there . How he went convince the American People that this is going to be a necessary thing, it if you decide to employ thousands of troops to the region for afghanistan . And if you have to escalate your involvement in syria . Gen. Dunford it is important that the conversation for data stan takes place in terms of our interest of south asia and asia as a whole. They are two that i would talk about in public one is the remaining threat of terrorist organizations in south asia, who have expressed a desire to have in the United States. There are 17 differently of the 20 that you globally identified as terrorist organizations. 17 operate in the south asian area and put pressure area and continuing to put pressure on those groups is vital. The pressure that those groups have been under the last 15 years is what has prevented another 9 11. The other interest we have in the reason is preventing a regional conflict in south asia. So when the strategy comes in, it is less about what has happened over the past two years that it is about what is our National Interest in Southeast Asia today areas and what is the context in which we sue action in Southeast Asia and what plan is necessary in order for us to advance our interest in south asia . Is howlieve it much money we have spent and how long we have been in afghanistan. What is important is that for the American People, their interest in that region, why does it matter in the United States . What is it that we are doing . Andn, not just militarily economically and politically, to advance our interests . What is the endgame in afghanistan and syria . What is your prediction for cost in u. S. Lives that would happen . Gen. Dunford what i would say is that for a military dimension , the clear about what were trying to do and were trying to our partners on the ground in driving violent down