Historic private club with the leading organization for journalists. And what we like to say, given the current time in press freedom, we are the constitution. Please submit questions be a the submit questions via the cards on your table if you have not already. Those of you who are viewing, you can submit them via twitter 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] and now the good part. , as the tensions between the russia seem to be and syria 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, and congress debating how much money we should give this program, enter the chairman of the joint chiefs 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 the National Security council. Prior to becoming chairman october 1, 2015, general dunford served as the 36th commandant of the marine corps. He served as assistant commandant marine corps from 2010 to 2012 and 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. He served as an infantry officer from all levels to include command, command of the fifth marine regiment during a iraqi freedom. There are many, many more accolades, but since time is of the essence, i am going to were going to get right to the q a. How were going to do this is the general and i are going to go up on the stage here, we are going to conduct a conversation, fireside chat style. We have a lovely stack of questions here, and some have even come in through the internet. The president s office now has an ipad. So many you have taken advantage of that, and well be following along and hopefully keep up with current doings. We do have a special request of the chairman and i. I think we can accommodate that. And 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 some opening remarks, and well take some questions. [applause] there you go. Mr. Chairman, the floor is yours. Ok, thanks. Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much. It is good to join here today. I appreciate the flexibility of the club in rescheduling. I canceled at the last minute in april, which i typically dont have to do that. As you can understand, sometimes that is required and i had to do that. Im actually glad that it was a relatively slow news weekend. So i come in on a monday. Theres probably not many questions and not much youre interested in, and certainly nothing controversial i can address today. [laughter] gen. Dunford you know, i feel very comfortable. So with that, just, i will turn it over to you. Jeff well, take us well go right into the questions. We thought we were going to have a few extra minutes, that is fine. Gen. Dunford i can actually im happy to do that. I didnt think you were looking for a filibuster. Jeff no, no not at all. To jump we had, just right in, we had a very intense shootdown of a syrian jet by u. S. Sources, and we had a very ominous statement from russia that plays into the whole deconfliction agreement between the countries essentially saying west of euphrates were shooting down. What is your reaction to that . Have there been any developments . Do you have any updates on where that stands . Is deconfliction gone . Whats the latest, sir . Gen. Dunford we worked really hard on deconfliction. It is important to point out why. For the last eight months, we worked on deconfliction with the Russian Federation proregime forces. The purpose was to make sure our air crews were safe. To make sure our personnel on the ground were safe, and make sure we can prosecute the defeat isis campaign in syria, which is the reason were in syria. That has worked very well over the past eight months. And 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 operation 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 in the opening source some reporting from moscow, which i want to address now. I will tell you that we work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to reestablish deconfliction. The Russian Federation has indicated that their purpose in syria like ours is to defeat isis. We will see if that is true here in the coming hours because all of our operations around iraq and southern syria designed specifically to get after isis , and we have agreed in the past, that as we and Russian Federation forces, that operations at the coalition which conducting in syria were effectively degrading isiss capability. We will work to restore that deconfliction chain in the next few hours. Jeff ballou 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. And im also confident that our armed forces have the capability to take care of themselves. Jeff ballou ok, because some people have been writing some of the early questions, russia effectively declared world war iii. I mean its not that bad. ,gen. Dunford honestly, jeff, i think the worst thing any of us can do would be addressed this thing with hyperbole. An incident occurred. We have to work through the incident. We have a channel to be able to do that. I think it is going to require some military engagement in the next few hours to restore the deconfliction we had in place. The deconfliction that we have had in place is in mutual interest. It allows us to address what at least proregime forces indicated is our common enemy, isis. Jeff ballou have you been in touch with your counterpart in 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. Jeff ballou which also leads to whats the situation in iraq be when it going to is all said and done . Whos going to control it . You got a number of questions about how that recast the situation in the region. Gen. Dunford sure. First of all 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. 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 that as soon as raqqa is seized, theres an effective local government. That government will leverage arab leaders who are from raqqa. And well work on establishing a Security Force made of up local personnel so that there is stabilization efforts that will fall in the siege of raqqa. Jeff ballou lets move around the region a bit. Iraqi kurds have announced they will hold an independence referendum on september 25. What would that mean for u. S. Interests 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 are supporting iraqi Security Forces to diminish it from iraq. The issue of the kurdish referendum is one that have to be worked out by the Prime Minister and president and iraqi people. Jeff ballou going back to the question also becomes in the earlier things about russia and syria, whether or not you have to relocate or strengthen the security even more to training at the Training Base to be prepared for other regime strikes. They keep saying defensive strikes only against regime. When does this cross the line . Gen. Dunford its important to i think its important to point out that the incident that took i think it is important to point out that the incident that took place this weekend followed combined Arms Movement proregime forces, subsequent issue aircraft flew 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 have been two specific incidents have been in selfdefense. Weve communicated that clearly. Jeff ballou back 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 forces, how many troops are going when are they going . , how is that going to unfold . Gen. Dunford sure, let me see if i can probably answer that question and a few others that have been asked about afghanistan of front. 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 matus in terms of forces on the ground. But also, this is whats important and probably has been underreported, is that secretary mattis decision about Additional Forces in afghanistan will be made in the context of a broader strategy review for south asia that is ongoing and is expected to report back in the middle of july. So when secretary mattis makes a decision about force levels which he will clearly communicate to the president , secretary of state and the guidance direction that he has received is to do that in conjunction with the secretary of state. When secretary mattis makes that decision about force levels, you know you can expect he will communicate that in a broader context, specifically context of that strategy review. It wont be just about afghanistan. There are a number of interdependent variables. That bear on the problem inside afghanistan, across the region, we will be prepared to talk about those as well when we talk about force management levels. Number,on why this 4000, has been raised is theres , a request by the commander to shift in afghanistan. He has identified areas where he believes Additional Forces can make the advisory effort in afghanistan more effective. Theres also an outstanding requirement for forces that the commander asked for from nato last year. And so 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. But again what i would emphasize , is any decision on numbers is going to be done in that broader context. Jeff ballou speak of strategy, senator mccain came out swinging this morning. You have to give him credit. He is going to both democratic andrepublican president s 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 sure. Well secretary mattis and i had that idea before, and when he raced that question, secretary matus said that number one, we agree afghanistan is not where we want it to be. We spent the last couple of months discussing where it might go in the future. And he, as i will today indicated to chairman mccain, sometime in the middle of july, we will have that Strategic Review complete. We certainly will consult chairman mccain and the other members of the congress as the coming weeks go on and when the secretary makes a decision about resourcing the military dimension, realizing there are broader issues that have to be addressed in the economic areas. Jeff ballou which raises the question of the authorization of use of military force again. How much lobbying, if there if , you will, has happened between you and congress . How is the dialogue unfolding in terms of eventual, actual passage of an authorization for the use of military force . And how is that going to be applied . Gen. Dunford i have not been lobbied, but i have been asked several times in testimony what my thoughts were on the authorization use of military force. For those who do not 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 to the congress was that they pass an authorization use of military force. I thought one of the more important things is that our men and women that are in harms way will see clear unmistakable support from 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. And again i havent lobbied for , that effort. Im precluded from lobbying. But when im asked in testimony as i have been now several times, i am certainly able to answer that question. And what i have focused on is the message well be sending to those people who are actually making the sacrifice, what message would be sent if congress authorized the use of military force. What it would reinforce to make the message. Jeff ballou what do you say to an American Voter whos deciding whether or not theyre going to voice an opinion to a member of congress, who might be skeptical that thousands of more u. S. Troops could be deployed and a slightly tweaked strategy might break stalemate in afghanistan or other parts of the region . And after billions of dollars that have been spent, everything thats been done, is there sort of a fatigue thats out there . How are you going to convince the American People that this is going to be a necessary thing . If you decide to deploy a thousand troops to the region for afghanistan, and if you have to escalate your involvement in syria. Gen. Dunford i think its important that the conversation about afghanistan take place in the context of our Vital National 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 the United States and conduct attacks. Theres about 17 different groups, 20 that weve globally identified as terrorist organization. 17 operate in the Southeast Asia area. They 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 has prevented another 9 11. The other interest that we have in the region is preventing a regional conflict in south asia. So again when the strategy comes , in, its less about what has happened over the past 16 years, it is what is our National Interest in south asia, whats the diplomatic and military Campaign Pl