My time is expired but i appreciate your efforts in that regard and i would like to stay current on them. We will keep you updated. To you and all those under your command thank you for what you do in protecting our nation. I cannot thank you and those who serve in afghanistan enough. You mentioned in your testimony you see a change in russian behavior for the worse. Is that correct . Yes. What do you think their goals are in afghanistan . Their goal is to undermine the United States and nato and afghanistan. I agree with you. What about iran . Iran also but it is more complex. There are mutual interests iran and afghanistan share, water rights, commerce, we welcome the economic treaty between iran, afghanistan and india, we think this offers afghanistan economic alternative to going through pakistan. They have backyard issues but they also have strategic goal of stocking democracy. I do think their actions are undermining the Afghan Government similar to what the russians are doing. Is it fair to say they dont want democracy on their borders . It would be a threat to them. Do you think generally speaking the afghans want democracy . Yes, they want a representative form of government. They have a form of social democracy that has existed for centuries. In a democracy, relatively new to the country. It is hard. Hard here. We need to be patient with the people of afghanistan because they are starting a process. Can we win . Yes, sir. Briefly describe what winning would look like. The presence of our enduring protect our homeland. Winning for america is to have a footprint in afghanistan to protect the homeland in the region. They are willing to do that. Absolutely. They call this their foundational partnership. Winning for us, winning for them. Continue. It would involve the destruction of al qaeda in afghanistan, destruction of Islamic State in afghanistan, helping the Afghan Government to expand its control of the population. Is it fair to say most afghans want the same thing . Yes. Yes. That is winning for them and winning for us. The taliban are the ones connected to al qaeda. The Afghan People 87 of them think a return to taliban rule would be bad for the country. Do you believe we should designate the telemedicine a terrorist organization . That is a conversation i need to have with my chain of command, they are our enemy in afghanistan. Fair to say the taliban dated Osama Bin Laden dramatically. Absolutely. If we designated them a terrorist organization with you have more authority when it comes to engaging them . If i was granted those authorities by the administration i would. Would you use them . Absolutely. Could that change the moment among the battlefield . It would help. What does losing look like . It would be an attack. Is it possible if we leave . Absolutely. Is it likely . I think so, just a matter of time. When it comes to staying do you feel you have the ability to ask for more troops . The conversation is open to that. Do you think the administration is more open to troops from what you can tell in the early stages . My initial impression, these conversations are ongoing, is we are open to a discussion of an objectivebased approach, conditionbased approach. Rather than an artificial number. Your goal is for the chain of command to convey to our new president that the best thing for our success in afghanistan is to have troop levels against the objectives . Yes. Objectives and conditions on the ground. The objective is to win. The objective is to stop terrorism from growing over there to attack us at home. The objective is to keep afghan stable and on trajectory to rule of law. Do you believe you can do that with less than 50,000 troops . Yes. Do you believe you can do it with less than 30,000 troops . That is a conversation i need to have with my chain of command but yes. Is it fair to say that success in afghanistan will be judged not based on the day we leave but what we leave behind . Yes, sir. You think we can leave behind a stable afghanistan . Yes, sir. Senator nelson. General, if the russianss stated goal is to undermine the influence of the United States. When did this effort start . With respect to afghanistan they have not stated that is their goal. I understand, that is your opinion and i agree with you. When did the evidence of them cozying up to the talent and start . It started in 2016 so just within the last year this started. This is a gradual progression. Is that progression increasing . Yes, sir. I think we better let President Trump know that. If russia is cozying up to the taliban and and that is a kind word, if they are giving equipment, we have some evidence that the taliban and is getting it and other things we cant mention in this unclassified setting, the taliban is also associated with al qaeda, therefore russia indirectly is helping al qaeda. In afghanistan. Support of the taliban and. The taliban are the medium for any terrorist groups to operate because of the convergence of these groups, so your logic is absolutely sounds. Does that include isis . We dont see the same level of cooperation between the taliban and isis, they are in conflict with one another but the taliban is not achieving the key effects, and the counterterrorism effort. In response to senator graham, you said when we leave, restate what you said. We can leave, in your opinion, a stable afghanistan when we leave. He would be the reconciliation is the ultimate role between the belligerents in afghanistan so this is what the government wantss, a reconciliation with the belligerents. This year there was a reconciliation with the group, 20,000 of them returning to afghanistan to be reintegrated into society so if this goes well, this hopefully would be a catalyst for further reconciliation. That is the ultimate goal when i say stability. It means ultimately a political reconciliation and our objective will be to assist the afghans to achieve that. Part of that is military pressure, so the approach has been fight, fracture, talk, we need to keep military pressure on them, the way we do that for special forces to increase their control through diplomatic engagement with the pakistanis to increase pressure on that side of the border so this would be a government approach but the objective of this would be a eventual reconciliation. It will take some years. Does that reconciliation include the taliban and . Ideally the taliban would reconcile. That would remove their support for these groups who couldnt exist without. How does the taliban reconcile with the government in afghanistan when in fact they are being aided and abetted by the russians to counter all of that . Exactly right. This is the challenge though this requires a whole government approach as well as military to fundamentally get us to a place where we have reconciliation. You really dont see a dynamic between isis and the taliban and . They are ideologically in conflict and in practical matters vying for control in certain areas but i dont see an effective effort by the taliban and. You have to be careful about that in the future because obviously isis just like al qaeda would be against our interests. What we have seen is fighters changing allegiances. This is an important point to note. One of the dangers in this area is fighters change allegiance from the Pakistani Taliban and join basis so the majority of fighters came from the Pakistani Taliban and joined the banner of isis. Do you think there is any reason the russians other than trying to undermine us would be wanting to expand their sphere of influence and take back the territory and had to leave afghanistan with their tail between their legs . They are concerned if there is a coalition, us presence in afghanistan that this affects their ability to influence Central Asian states so i do think it is part of their concern. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you, mister chairman and general nicholson for being here and for your service. I want to pick up a little bit on senator nelsons line of questioning. As you said in your testimony we are seeing russian influence in afghanistan only recently. Earlier, four or five years ago we were bringing in our supply line with russias help into afghanistan so what has changed the dynamic . Within the last year when we have seen the shift to overlegitimizing the taliban and support provided the taliban and others in the north, i think getting a little bit out of the purely afghan context undoubtedly issues we are seeing in iraq and syria in terms of cooperation with read russians in that effort perhaps there is some spillover from that. Secondly would be this concern about central asia and the desire to maintain influence in central asia, so this narrative of a threat spilling over from afghanistan is touching a nerve with Central Asian republics because in the soviet jihadi and what followed they had this concern and in central asia there is a concern about terrorism. With counter narcotics and flow from afghanistan and secondly the spread of terrorism. That is a concern. We are dealing with that. And we are working to contain the terrorist threat. Any evidence the russians are providing money, material fighters to the taliban . We dont have classified reporting i requested to share with you in a venue but we are concerned with support. We will leave it at that. The dynamic between russia and pakistan. Are we seeing additional engagement in pakistan because of what is happening in afghanistan. There was a Training Exercise conducted in pakistan with Russian Troops and we have reporting of increased conversations about potential support to these groups. Pakistans nuclear arsenal, that should give us much more reason to be very concerned about that region. I had the opportunity when we had the confirmation hearing to ask him about our special immigrant visa program for iraq and afghanistan which i am sure you are aware made a huge difference for our men and women serving on the ground. My understanding is we are soon going to run out of visas for afghans who are in the pipeline to come to the us, can you speak to how important that program is and why we should extend it to make sure we address those people who were so helpful to us. Thank you for your support. I wrote a letter to chairman mccain on this program, we are strong supporters of this program because these brave afghans who fought alongside us and served alongside us, we believe strongly that we deserve the opportunity if they wish if they so desire to participate in this program. We have a backlog and many afghans would like to come to the United States and i know many of these afghans have joined our society, very productive citizens, great contributors and i strongly support this program and will continue to do so and offer my help in anyway i can. I really appreciate that. Can you also talk about what you think the message would be if we end the program and allow those who helped us. This would be the wrong message to send to our afghan partners, to give one data point on the difficulty of the fighting as has been mentioned several times today. The afghans are willing and want to fight for their country and in one year in this period we had in the last two years they suffered almost twice as many casualties as we suffered in the previous ten years which i mentioned that not to highlight the casualties but as an indicator of the depth of commitment of these afghans to our common cause, they dont want terrorists, a peaceful, stable environment for their families. They want to approve the world they live in for their children. They share many objectives. And taken great risks. Senator kane. I was back and forth in the foreign relations. And i want to ask you about it. And legitimacy of the delavan by nato efforts. And issues of water rights and trading security. You dont draw causally. And i was curious about your thoughts on that. I have not seen that. These are two separate issues but we know there is a dialogue, a relationship between russia and iran, selling advanced weapons systems. There is communication between them. Russia and iran are engaged together in the campaign in syria. Iran allowedussia to use airbases in iran. It was unlikely to be engaging in efforts to bolster or prop up the taliban and completely to be communicating about those efforts. Related to Afghan Government. If you dont feel you can comment on that, that is a fair answer but i wonder that is realistic given all the areas where russia and iran are working to at least promote a similar purpose including according to your testimony it is likely to appeal russia away from its cooperation and coordination with iran. Havent had the chance to discuss that with my chain of command, hasnt been something we looked at as an option. There are areas of interest that iran has with afghanistan. Exactly. I say the afghans are trying to establish a state to state relationship with iran to deal with these matters of mutual concern. The counter narcotics, the trade and what afghans would seek to reduce his eliminate support to the taliban and, lets deal with each other as neighbors and work on these areas of mutual interest. There is potential in the afghan iranian relationship for a more positive outcome than we see with the russian relationship. The russians lack legitimacy in afghanistan because of the antisoviet jihadi. Millions of afghans were killed by russians and russian backed forces in afghanistan so theres a legitimacy question when it comes to russia and afghanistan that is right at the forefront of the conversation with the Afghan People. It shows how antinato russia is to engage with elements of the tao my band, some of whom were responsible for kicking the soviet union out of afghanistan that they would try to bolster the taliban and as a check against nato in afghanistan. A pretty bold statement how much of a when you consider the taliban involvement in the narcotics trade and detrimental impact narcotics are having with russian society. I met with the afghan ambassador to the United States and we had a good visit. One of the things he said to me, curious to your opinion on this, sometimes military intel dont see it the same way, they see it as they are describing it but he said the thing that is most exciting to afghans is they have a National Identity and national voice, discussing top issues which are hard to solve but discussing them openly and publicly, painted a positive view of the civil government and relationship between members of the coalition, i am curious if your view is positive. We have extremely positive relationship with the admin. Security equity is going forward, the tough fight experienced this year that through us together in use of our authorities, soldiers advising and assisting them on the ground and the way we did and the way they prevailed, there is nothing like going through a difficult, shared experience and i think afghans are convinced of our commitment in warsaw, committing to four more years in afghanistan and International DonorCommunity Came together with 15 billion and the Afghan People took those is very reassuring signs despite the difficulty of the fight that they saw, strong commitment at the strategic level in the International Community to peace and stability in afghanistan. Thanks, mister chair. Thank you for your testimony, the informative exchange you had with members here. There is one point that is very obvious that we found in the beginning, we are not winning and i know you have been asked by the secretary of defense and others for a strategy to change the equation and you havent fleshed all of that out but you have been faced with this situation for quite a period of time. We look forward to sharing you, share with us the elements of that strategy and we on both sides are committed to seeing the situation resolved in a more beneficial fashion. As we said at the beginning, there has been a great sacrifice made by afghans and brave americans. We need a strategy to succeed. If we know that strategy which is being developed i can assure you you will receive the bipartisan strong support from members of this committee and congress but we need to develop that strategy and we need to know what assets and capabilities and support the congress can give you. We thank you for your service, thank you for your testimony this morning and unfortunately, tragically for you, some of us will be visiting you in kabul. I look forward to the opportunity. Thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] Federal Reserve chair janet yellen on capitol hill and the us economy. Happening before the Senate Banking committee, on cspan3 and cspan. Org and on the cspan radio apps. Since its official opening last september the National Museum of africanAmerican History and culture has welcomed 750,000 visitors and that they American History tv on cspan3 takes you inside the museum for a live exclusive after hours tour. The special includes the galleries and exhibits telling the africanamerican story from slavery to the first africanamerican president with mary elliott and its curator and throughout the program our guests will talk to you and hear your input, phone calls and sw