We need to articulate a real clearcut answer to this situation. Lets be frank. We are trying to figure out how to handle it. But the collective bodies that are responsible for this Global Security are not as efficient as they have to be. And this way i use very diplomatic language. We move to the back. Jackson deal, the washington post. They are discussing sanctions next week. Is the government of ukraine contemplating sanctions toward crimea . In particular, are you planning to continue water, energy, and imports to crimea . From public television. Mr. Prime minister, we would like to know what kind of actions do you expect next week from your neighboring countries romania,akia, hungary, and poland . Thank you for a very impressive statement to us today, mr. Prime minister. We really wish you the very best. On that line, what is the wish list with regard to the National Security that you would put to the United States and the European Union today . Thank you. Our ability to provide water and electricity to crimea. I want to be very clear, crimea is a vital part of ukraine. And we will do everything in order to deliver food, water, electricity to our people. Because this is our territory, and they are our citizens. On the european side, we xpect them to sign a political agreement. This is the best response the un u. N. Could make. They said they will unilaterally apply an economic package. This will essentially support the ukrainian economy. What is the best way to reform the country is to stick to the Political Association agreement, and to execute every treaty in this deal. And the last question, what we ask for . I already unfolded everything. We need to undertake we need to act boldly, wicely, and strongly. And to use all tools, all tools. Hat are acceptable the u. S. Is a powerful country. The. Is a very strong e. U. Is very strong, and they can and will, i believe, do everything to preserve ukrainian ndependence. If we speak in one voice, we act in concert, we can save my country and preserve peace and stability in the region. Thank you very much, mr. Prime minister. [applause] please join me in thanking mr. Arseniy yatsenyuk. Thank you for joining us. Please be seated thats why the United States has imposed stick economic penalties on the soviet union. I will not issue any permits for soviet ships to fish in the coastal waters of the United States. I have cust soviet access to High Technology equipment and to agricultural products. I have limited other commerce with the soviet union and i have asked our allies and friends to join with us in restraining their own trade with the soviet and not to replace our own embargooed items. And i have notified the Olympic Committee that with soviets invading forces in afghanistan neither the American People nor i will support sending an olympic team to moscow. According to general joseph the Top Commander in afghanistan, Afghan Security forces will deteriorate if the u. S. Withdraws at the end of 2014. The remarks came during the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Wednesday the. The interNational SecurityAssistance Force and u. S. Forces in afghanistan to hear testimony on the security situation in afghanistan. Thank you, general, for your decades of Great Service to the nation. The committee has both held regular earrings in afghanistan over the years more than 2200 americans have given their lives and thousands more have been wounded. Despite those sacrifices and despite the fact that afghanistan harbored those that attacked the nation in 2001 the recent poll shows that for the first time the plurality of americans be that sending our forces to afghanistan was a mistake. I do not share that view. More importantly, neither do the Afghan People. The recent Public Opinion poll in afghanistan shows that a large majority belief that conditions in the country have improved over the last decade. Our troops in afghanistan working with Afghan Forces and the coalitions o coalitions ofr countries have taken critical steps to deny safe havens and to ensure that afghanistan does not serve as a sanctuary for terrorists seeking to harm the United States. There are a number of signs of continued progress in afghanistan. During last summers fighting season Afghan Forces prevented a telegram from seizing the control of any urban center or District Center and we they put this month by the independent center for naval analysis concluded that, quote, for the force that is very much still in its infancy by the Afghan Security sources performance last year judged on its own merits should be considered a success. And in the poll released last month by the national police. Better security. More than 8 million afghan children are in school. Eight times as many as 2001. Under the taliban virtually no afghan girls received an education. Now, 2. 6 million are in school. There were 20,000 teachers all male. Today there are 200,000 teachers including 60,000 women. They are refurbished nearly 700 schools across afghanistan. Maternal and infant mortality has declined traumatic way. The average afghan has a Life Expectancy of 62 years compared to 45 under the taliban. Only 7 of afghans support a telegram return to power. How is it a large majority of the Afghan People think that conditions in afghanistan are improving when most americans do not . They rarely read about positive developments in afghanistan. Instead the media focuses almost exclusively on the negative incidents depriving the American People of the sense of accomplishment that they would receive if they were provided a balanced view and as a result our troops have not received the recognition for the positive changes in afghanistan for which they and their families have sacrificed so much. The positive developments are not the whole story of course. Real and daunting challenges lie ahead. The attacks will continue and be the focus of the media. The improving Afghan Military has proven its willingness to fight but is still in the early stages of building peace support functions such as logistics and maintenance and air power. Power. That are necessary for combat troops to do their jobs effectively. The bilateral Security Agreement providing protections for the troupe is the essential if even a modest number of divorces are to remain in afghanistan. President karzai has refused to sign a Bilateral Agreement that he negotiated and received a strong supporter of the convening. President obama decided to look beyond president karzai to the next afghan president following the elections in early april. Each of the president ial candidates indicated a willingness to sign the bilateral Security Agreement and any of them would likely be a more reliable partner than president karzai. Much continues to be at stake for the National Security and allies around the world for the regional stability and of course the Afghan People. The letter by Afghan Parliamentarians highlighted the extraordinary changes in the past decade or afghan women. She points out that 12 years ago was prohibited. And the prohibition was enforced here caret. She was nearly abandoned in earth simply because in the afghanistan of that time a female child had no future. In the posttaliban afghanistan she became a Senior Leader in the afghan parliament. She wrote it has been a difficult journey marked by blood and violence that we have made gains in achievement which would not have been possible without the generous support of the International Community and especially the American People. To tell the band have announced their intention to disrupt the april 5 election. The Afghan People will stand up to their threats. They do it every day. Only if president karzai and the government permits or perpetrate fraud, permit or perpetrate fraud whether the election failed to be credible. We mustnt lose sight of accomplishmentaccomplishment inr we will risk losing and if we dont maintain a moderate level of support in the years ahead, we also risk losing the games thagainsthat have been made at a high cost. I was in afghanistan in february and i observed the same thing that you did so i wont list of those things. If theres one thing i would mention that was on my list and wasnt on yours. Going through that airport there wasnt one empty gate. That is an indication you can see whats happening. There is a lot at stake right now we cant repeat the mistakes where the drawdown resulted in the security situations and increasing violence and the resurgence of the Al Qaeda Group of terrorists. We must ensure that decisions about the mission in afghanistan after 2014 are based on the strategy and effec affect on the ground and to do that we must trust our military commanders on the ground who told me a month ago they have made great progress and it is overwhelming the majority of the fighting against the taliban and and thef the need to continue to support the developed and especially in the critical areas of developing enablers and fighting terroris terrorists. The refusal to sign has cast a doubt about the future of the afghanistans stability. But the irresponsibility in signing doesnt really matter. Well the people by the elders and the tribesmen and loya jirga make it clear that they will sign and i appreciate the time youve spent with all of us to give the information i only wish as i told you yesterday but we are aware of. Thank you. Good morning frank a member i appreciate the opportunity to testify this morning and represent the men and women of the forces in afghanistan. The commitment and performance are a direct reflection of your support and i am confident theyll force is ever deployed better trained or equipped. We are in the final year in the nation to define a safe haven to those that attacked our nation on 9 11. We recognize our National Interest is best served by the stable and unified afghanistan. Afghanistan is a capable and willing partner in the war against terrorism. We have accomplished much to those. Our forces placed extraordinary pressure on al qaeda and extremist networks in afghanistan. As a result of those efforts are focused on survival rather than planning attacks against the west. Since 9 11 and was increased since 2009 we focused on developing afghan National Security forces. A capable and confident forces are secure and the afghan peop people. As a result of the efforts as the chairman outlined in the Ranking Member of the afghans have increased access to clean water, electricity, roads and education but more important than any sign of progress in afghanistan the Afghan People have something today they didnt have in 2001, they have hope for the future. We paid the price the chairman mentioned the over 2200 americans lost and thousands more have also made the alternate sacrifice and we have to give their sacrifice meaning never to forget them or their families. Some people have questioned our progress and pointed out the overall security situation in afghanistan didnt really change between 2012 to 2013. Thats true and when put in perspective its also extraordinary during that period of time. And the challenges since they took the lead in june i dont believe the time of an insurgency represents essential threat to the government of afghanistan or the Afghan Security forces today im also confident they can secure the upcoming president ial election in the first democratic transfer of power. To make the progress remains to build longterm sustainability of the Afghan Forces. Although they required less support in conducting Security Operations based on need assistance in the processes and the institutions necessary to sustain the army and police force they also need to continue to support addressing capability gaps in aviation, intelligence and special operations. To address these, the mission will be necessary after this year to further develop the self sustainability. The continued Counterterrorism Mission will also be needed to ensure they remain focused on survival and not regeneration. Without continued counterterrorism pressure it will not only begin to physically reconstitute that ret therreconstitute buttheyve they have also exploited effectively to boost recruitment, fundraising and morale. Its fair to ask if we are winning in afghanistan. I believe the answer is yes into several facts allow me to say that with confidence. First and foremost weve pressured the terrorist network and prevent another 9 11. Second, weve built Afghan Security forces that would reduce levels of support capable of providing security and to deny terrorists safe havens. Providing a stabilizing influence. As a result within which they can determine their own future to the intolerance and despite the skepticism is in the mission that looks like winning to me. Thank you for the opportunity to appear i look forward to your questions. For all of those whom you work we have six votes scheduled and attend 30 we ask if they be delayed in other situations they dont know that that will be the case but we will have a six minute first round to get as many in as possible but there will still be many of us who will have to work our way around the vote as w boat as we did yed before. We did it very successfully so lets start with five minutes. What is the latest date we can wait to find out if theres going to be security and we must begin to implement a total withdrawal if there is going to be no tsa. I will address first from the military perspective. Whether there would be a withdrawal at the end of 2014 or we would maintain the mission across afghanistan in the regional approach at the end of 2012014 iowa didnt do anything different between now and july to stabilize the forc force theo support the elections in april and we have plenty of flexibility through the events are rowdy in july and i would assess the risk of an orderly withdrawal that is a function of the tasks that have to be accomplished. It is into metaphysics or the redeployment it is the uncertainty that exists with the Afghan Forces and the behavior that we see and more importantly the Coalition Cohesion in shoring the end of the several months we have a coalition going into 2015. I understand that youve presented a range of options for the size of the post2014 military presence of the forces as part of a coalition to train and advise and assist the afghans. What range of the u. S. Troops would you be comfortable with what they post 2014 military presence . Over a year we just used the guidance with the defense ministerial and nato in february as our primary guidance. The guidance wa is called 812,00 nato forces to provide that the afghan level uncomfortable with that range in our ability to accomplish the mission with that allocation of forces and over and above that weve always assumed there would be additional thousands of forces to conduct the operations. An additional few thousand is that correct . And two thirds of the eighth to 12,000 nato range, two thirds of them would be u. S. Forces. We have provided two thirds of the force. Youve already characterized the performance of the Afghan Security forces in 2013. Can you give us the overall assessment you said that they were able to maintain the security that had been present in the previous summer when we were mainly in control and they did that although they were now in control in 2013. Did you say that the control was successful . I would start from the taliban and came out in their objectives we can say at the end of the summer they were unsuccessful accomplishing the objectives and Afghan Security forces but theres been a couple of recent events that highlight the ability of the progress theyve made over the last few years. It was conducted in november and is a good example where thousands of people met in kabul from around the country. The city was locked down without a security incident and we know the taliban and end of the network in particular had every intent of disrupting that particular events. Just last week there was an event with over 6,000 people celebrating the islamic festival people from throughout the region came and they coordinate the reference and then i started to the defense on that as well without a security incident and we also know from the intelligence the enemy had every intent. What we have seen increasingly as the Afghan Forces that are capable of what we no longer conduct any unilateral operations except for our own security and sustainment and richard ogrady. All other operations are conducted by Afghan Security forces. But i would say that the most significant thing ive seen is the sense of responsibility and accountability of afghan leaders and also the pride and the confidence that the people have in their Afghan Security force and i think t