I think it really depends upon the situation as it evolves and that is why i think that we have to look at the conditions and provide our best advice on what it is that we need to sustain and what we need to have an embassybased approach in order to continue and accomplish our objectives. I appreciate both of your testimony you have both said makes a lot of and, how we could possibly make the announcement from the administration of exactly how many people are going to be at that embassy where they are going to see, giving the important to help us avoid another attack on our country and when we dont even know what the conditions will be at the time. Its really hard to come up with a word of for it or it but it is certainly not a military base that decision based on the announcement of our president. So im glad to hear both of you say that you will have to hear what the conditions are on the ground. I hope that our president will be the conditions on the ground so that we can continue to perform this Important Mission of protecting our country and ensuring that we have this intelligence that has helped us to prevent future attacks after 9 11 in this country. So i thank you. Thank you, senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank all of you and your families here today for their sacrifice. And he put in place the preservation of the force and Family Program to try to help with that. And so what i want to find out is do you plan on continuing that and do you see it as a success, do you see anything that is more effective or avenues that can be part of this. I absolutely do continue to apply the same level of effort as much as i can in this problem and this includes every potential resource to understand the problem and identify ways to the we can deal with this for our service members. And so i think that we have a great deal of respect with preserving this. One thing of after to do is the things you learn from this program if you see any of it and you say this has been really successful if you would continue to share that with all of the other commands it would be very helpful. And you continue to give us your unvarnished opinion Going Forward and where there might be glitch is and, you know, if the plan is not coming together, let us know. The general has been great in saying this is where we are with the metrics and heres where the problems are and we continue to count on you for that. Absolutely. I know you well, keeping an eye on this is one of the distressing things to happen in iraq including so many of the real generals were replaced by folks who have been shipped or whatever and i think that cause significant damage to the iraqi army. And we want to make sure the same thing doesnt happen enough in the end. So you could continue to let us know, as you look at the force Getting Better and getting worse, leadership, those kinds of things. And i know that you will keep an eye on it and it would be helpful to us because it will telesis something is starting to side with her. The general put in the place working hard at the afghan officers that they had their own academy. And so they look their very hard. And i absolutely will continue to work that hard. One of the things that we sell recently if it is somewhat unique in recent times and the Pakistan Army has moved people out of their to the nature of whether they have gone out of their is still up for discussion. Anytime we can do this, anytime we can work with Pakistan Committee will continue to work as operations inside the borders and coordinate those on the afghan side, that is a win. We try to do that in 2010 and 2011. This is is the first post in a long time. And i hope that this will be easy and being a general term that if they clean up some of the mess on their side, there may be less. In the sofa agreement, you will continue to tell them how much the troops will remain, but if we dont have this agreement, it completely changes the whole discussion and i trust that your primary efforts will talk about how critical this is. But all of this lines up with it. I think that they want to make sure that they have continued coalition and they know the consequences and so i will continue to work without. Thank you. One of the concerns that i have is that whole region, that there are also americans fighting with them over there. And my fear is that they take a look back to our country and they can be people who can be against us, i wonder your efforts that would coordinate with Homeland Security. And we stopped there before comes to the homeland. In the Homeland Security, we will have to deal with the Homeland Security if we fail at that. And there is much of it coming up across the border. We have seen this coming in through the straits of lorna and other areas and we have had testimony that theres not near enough equipment and men and women and personnel and things needed to try to stop that. So would you give us that in a perfect world, how to make a change in this area for how to beef up our efforts. It requires the government approach that includes all of the inner agency is, as well as close cooperation between the pacific Northern Command and Southern Command in order to work to close any of those teams that are out there between the geographic commanders in the commanders in the interagency process in order to do this particular flow. And so we have to go to the far reaches at our borders and we have to go to the root of the problems and try to extend it. Sumac thank you so much, and i hope you keep an eye on that effort as well. Thank you, senator fisher. Thank you, mr. Chairman. First of all, i would like to thank you gentlemen with the Service Personnel that you represent and we are truly dedicating our lives to the people of the country and keeping the faith, thank you so much. And in your written comments, you speak about the greatest threat to the governments of syria and iraq. And their connections are growing throughout north africa. And this thing, if it doesnt improve significantly, and when they become a threat to the United States . Thank you. They threaten some of our regional interest in this poses a very significant problem not only for us. The admiral spoke about this, you have this in order to make the assessment on what is happening in iraq and how we are going to address the . Another we are looking at all the options that are out there and we are starting to know those within the time of eight Tipping Point where it may be too late to even take advantage of some of those options are there or not. First off, i dont think its too late to do anything right now. You may be aware that we are completing the second phase here in iraq. And so we have been working with the Iraqi Security service and partners there down in the baghdad area to the places we can ensure what the situation on the ground is and what their capabilities are and then what options we might have to assist this in the future. I heard a comment made recently that perhaps we should take this machiavellian approach and let the militias and the terrorist fight each other to stand back and let our enemies fight each other. Author risk to that . In general i think that there is a risk to try to resolve themselves. And do you think that would be an option that the United States should look out with regards to iraq remapped. I think that we should look at all options that might be available to us. And how we can address this particular problem. Im sure that we have had an opportunity to look at everything before reaching the conclusions. Thank you so much. The president has requested 5 billion for the partnership fund. So what Top Priorities would you like to see this accomplish . I think they can certainly help us with some of our Partnership Activities and i think it should also help us getting the Additional Resources to enable our partners, which i think would be very helpful in enabling our partners in a variety of different ways. Have you see special Operations Forces evolving, giving the demand and they touched on the pressures that you are looking at and you have mentioned to senator ayotte about the size of the force be with look at including in afghanistan. Do you see the special ops evolving and i will discuss you how to we see them evolving. And i think it is important as we continue to focus on some of the work that has been done by the admiral. And strengthen this with other military partners out there and so we do have dependable relationships and partners out there that we can work with and depend upon to accomplish a broader effort. So i do think it is important. And we have those who share interests. I would ask you, general, we are going to be conducting these operations outside afghanistan, how effective without me. Throughout the region as well, if you would lose all of your forces within the country. I think that that would be very challenging. And certainly there are lots of things that we can look at and i think that it would be challenging to try to address problems in one country from other regions and other countries. And this includes how we best use this in a manner that gives us the most effect. And your thoughts on that as well . If youre talking about afghanistan and how it involves the relationship of pakistan come in the capability and i look forward to the work that we are doing to provide those assessments on the resources that would be required for the mission. I appreciate this on having this stability and also to be able to make decisions based upon and thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator mccaskill. Thank you. Are the smugglers moving through mexico with impunity right now im at. I would say the effect of the Mexican Government and the armed forces are not as effective as they could be whether or not they are trying to interdict them and i do not have any specifics on that, but i seriously doubt it. I think it is important once you confirm that you have a handle on this because it appears to me and it is the same enemy that we have been funding for as long as i have been in the United States. So at a certain point in time we have a metric on how successful the money we have been pouring into mexico has actually been in enabling the basics. And its obvious that buses and trains are loaded with thousands of children from miles through mexico. Mean, clearly Something Like this shows that they dont give a dam. Date control areas that give them the freedom to do what youre saying. I think that that is certainly a priority and if we have a neighbor to the south that has decided this is acceptable, it is acceptable that threatens our national security. And i look at our quaint strategies and if you look there was a belief that if we did the political piece it would be successful than the political piece did not turn out so well. And the economic piece is an abject failure because we spent hundreds of billions of dollars building of a structure and facilities that are in crumbles and inoperable. So is there any Movement Among her level of leadership to take another look at the strategy and i have just been highlighting this and we have the highway and we are so focused on our mission of the weed is good landers on. And theres a lot of functioning capabilities of the government or military and it appears to me that we have put a bandaid on a cancer and that it really is not something that is being successful and is it time to take another look at the strategy. What i would tell you is that the military continues to take a look at all of its tactics and to the and procedures to make sure that we are flexible to always see what the next fight would be and we always have to be caught and sent and so this really isnt just the military piece, but a whole approach and so we have to bring in the entire inner agency to continue to learn the lessons and apply the resources to make sure we can continue to sustain. And that includes whatever we are building capacity in the country and it is a whole government peace and not just a military this. And they have to put in this effort as well. So the leadership makes a difference and we have to work with that hard. We have a lot of this with infrastructure in iraq and there are major league infrastructures in afghanistan and some of the situations, they were doing those things. And we will not be able to see that and there is a percentage of projects that you will inherit that we can have any oversight and i watched and analyzed that i think many of them are going to come to pass again in afghanistan and i wonder if we will do the same thing again. I dont want to see what is happening in afghanistan and iraq was much further along in terms of penning some kind of central ability and i admire all of you so much and im so proud of our military and what you are capable of. And i think that you are being given an Impossible Task in afghanistan in light of what the reality is in that country in terms of them realizing the investment that we hope that we would realize in the money we spent on building things for them. I would only add that i think its an inherit responsibility for all of us who are intellectually challenging ourselves and our concepts and the way we think about the missions that we are given and i do think that we have to include our way work. My current level of leadership and i look forward to working within the general purpose forces. This includes what has worked and what hasnt and why the failures have occurred but works against you in terms of acknowledging that there could be something there that we are trying to do under the circumstances, it just doesnt make sense russert tried. So thank you both. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you so much. I have been there and i know what happens is they came about. This is the crown jewel of criminal justice in that part of the world and theres a very moderate facility and they would not be putting this without a threat to afghanistan and they will be secured with these cases. And this is very important with the insurgency. And so they have to believe at times and they will get killed or captured. We have to understand theyre likely to go to jail. So without that, its very hard to defeat these guys. Does that make sense you . Yes, and the pastor has been saturated that has created the conditions to allow organizations. You agree with that . Just. The forces have safe haven in afghanistans leadership. Is that correct . That is correct. That we have had at least one attack generated by the Pakistan Taliban and then filled in new york and the bond and go off in times square, but apparently is that still accurate, do you think . Many organizations that want to do harm to the homeland, every day the great military services other individuals. Many of those organizations have talked about work into the afghan pakistan regions as well. We have provided this. Especially if we do these things as we desire to do. I think it is possible as lets just lay out the plan for the American People. By the end of this, its 9800, the current plan and the proposal right now is half of that, probably 5500. What percentage of Counterterrorism Forces would exist today . How many forces, special forces we have in afghanistan today . And today we are roughly 300 plus. I think 7000 is the total effort there and that includes the efforts with that. And how many do we expect to have the current plan. Well, lets look at what we could have. We are down to the Security Cooperation forces. That is the current plan. And how many corporations forces to be way behind in iraq . I believe that the rough number is in the neighborhood of 200 or 250. Lets say it is a thousand in afghanistan. But with their chief mission be . Achieve mission is an example and so we have that number. So who fills the not what we go through this. A rate on a scale, the ability be of the pakistani and afghan army to cooperate together including counterterrorism capabilities. Im sorry, i havent looked at it in those terms. And i agree with the general on this. We cant rely on the afghan and pakistani element from the regenerated al qaeda task force. And it seems to me that the line of defense is going to vanish if something doesnt change. Is that a fair statement . Following your knowledge, that would be a fair statement. This includes the likelihood of Afghanistan Holding together. Decanted through this process and they have done this political power and i think it narrows really and increases the risk. I couldnt agree with you more. As to the makeup of the Security Forces, about 45 are on the east and what percentage of the leadership in the Security Forces were . Is it disproportionately large . I dont have an exact percentage but i would think it is probably low. Benefit has been holding strong. And that is considering what they could revert to to go to the trouble filiation. Thank you, senator graham. Thank you for being here, gentlemen. How would you describe that level right now with the taliban and a commie network . Level directed against them or inside afghanistan . Both. That includes the general interagency and the threat to the homeland because they keep the pressure on the networks are continue to be mitigated and we havent had another 9 11 type of attack because people havent been trying to do that. This includes being on the ground since april to give you a better sense of this. If i understand your testimony the threat has been mitigated because of the pressure and if that is right that raises an obvious question which it will be reduced in 2017 and thats nothing. And so if that plan is carried out, what will be our capabilities to engage in the operations and defeat that. We have other technologies and as i stated earlier, we continue to work hard at building the capacity for the Afghan Forces who have a better force and we are doing that now continuing to work on that. And we do have a threat at that point in time still and we