Do you believe the army can buy back force with oka funds . Do i not, senator. Do you believe the navy can work with shipping in funds . No, maam. I just. Im not saying we come to this as democrats because we have engaged in gimmickry also. I know the chairman wants to face this head on. I know its a challenge in the environment. We have obviously not met the challenge with the bucket as its currently configured. I wanted to specifically ask you, general austria austin, there has been a determination that freedom sentinel is a new operation. Do you see it as a new Contingency Operation . Its a continuation of our efforts, senator so you know in terms of the types of things that we are doing we are continuing to train the and advise and assist the Afghan Security force but in terms of you know how we account for the funding that were allocating to that, thats a different issue. The reason im asking this is i am told there is an effort under way of naming a new lead Inspector General in afghanistan as opposed to cigar, of the Inspector General on afghanistan and i think if that determine is made, i want to make sure everybody understands, thats going to impose a lot of additional burdens in terms of oversight requirement on contracting, you know, i know there is continuity in cigar. I dont understand the value right now of changing Inspector Generals at this point on the projects that are ongoing that the special Inspector General in afghanistan is aware of and working on i dont get and if there is really a sincere attempt to labeling him a new contingency someone has to do explaining to me and others on this committee why there is a good idea. Are you a aware of an effort at this point . I am not aware of the effort, but, certainly, i will find out. Ill look into it senator. That would be terrific. As you know weve worked very closely with the inspectors generals both in iraq and afghanistan. I think the bid of work theyve done has been incredibly helpful to our nations military as we look at how we honestly confront sequestration. One of the ways is being better southwards of the resources that we have allocated to these efforts. General rodriguez i understand that most of the Service Members who deployed to africa as part of the Ebola ResponseOperation United assistance have begun returning home. Is there an effort to keep track of the contractors around this effort and how many have been pulled and how many remain in ebola as we continually try to stay on top of contractor costs . Yes, maam, there is. There is a very strict accounting that has been done. We had oversight from the dod ig from the very beginning and we were very cognizant with contractor oversight from the beginning and paying too much for contracts out of line with the u. S. Ideas as well as the host nation is providing. So we have a strict accounting, yes, maam. That would be terrific. Wed love it if youd share that with our office. Also, general austin if you could share with us how many contractors have been plussed up in iraq as a result of our efforts against isil, you know, we have gotten to the point that we were just counting contractors in afghanistan. Now were back to counting contractors in iraq. We would appreciate an update on that number also. Yes, sir, ill take that, for the record. Thank you so much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, gentleman, for all your service and the men and women sitting behind you, not just behalf of all the troops you represent. But you personally i know you have spent many years down range. I want to address the topics in tikrit. Do i understand you correctly to say there are now know Iranian Forces in tikrit . The forces that are clearing tikrit are isf forces, special Operations Forces and federal police and as of this morning when i checked with my commanders the shia militia and pmh had pulled back. By pull back do they remain there still shia militias like Iranian Forces from force in the vicinity of tikrit . Im sure share in the area. I am sure there are forces on the east side of the river and as you know tikrit, the city of tikrit is on the west side of the river. Do we know the whereabouts of qassim silomani . To my understanding, my last update he was not in tikrit or in that area. In anyway have we implemented fire control measures that issue we dont strike any of the Shiite Paramilitary forces or the elements in the vicinity of tikrit . We certainly have we caused the iraqi Security Forces to develop a scheme of maneuver that can effectively accomplish the mission of clearing the tourn and our fires are supported of that effort. So were focused on that we are always dos what we can to insure there is not excessive damage. The focus is on the isf forces with eare supporting. Would you include the kuds force to include qassim silomani . I would consider that unintended consequences. Does qassim silomini have freedom of movement in iraq . I believe he does, senator. General votel, six months ago, president obama cited yemen as the questions of our counterterrorism strategy. Do you believe yemen is a Success Story today . Certainly with the withdrawal of our soft forces over the weekend, it certainly put us in a different posture right now particularly in the threat we were focused on there of al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. So its much more challenging today than it was when we had people on the ground. General austin, do you consider yes, maam an Success Story today . Certainly yes, maam isnt a very troubled country today with the challenges it is facing and the activities of the houthi s and so i think the country is in turmoil. General austin, approximately ten months ago, the president released five taliban commanders in exchange for bowe bergdahl, i believe the arrest expires in two months is that correct . I believe that to be correct sir. Do we know what will happen to those five taliban commanders in two months in quater . I think we probably have to consult the quater regovernment and also the elements in our our governments charged with monitoring the movement of these elements, so i cant answer that, senator. I cant take that for the record and try to do the research on it. I would like to get the record back for the record, thank you, general austin. And i will address this to general austin and general rodriguez. Given the situation in yemen if there were action by militants there to drop the man state i presume American Forces would immediately act or reopen that strike . We would work in conjunction with our gcc partners to ensure that those straits remain opened. Its one of our core interests to ensure we have free flow of commerce through both straits. Yes, sir, we would also work with beth of the host nations of africa as well as our uniform mean partners to support those efforts, sir. Thank you gentleman. I appreciate your answers, once again, i appreciate your service to our country. For the record, id like a response to senator cottons question, do you consider yes, maam an Success Story or not . Yes or no . Its a simple straight forward question. Its currently not a Success Story. General votel. Its not a Success Story today. Thank you very much, senator kain. When the president made that statement, he was talking about our antiterrorism efforts against aqap, was he not senator votel . I believe thats correct. He wasnt talking about yemen, he was talking about the counterterrorism against aqap, naturally the deter scevioriation in yemen is compromised. My followup question is how much is it excised . Are we able to maintain that kind of counterterrorism effort against aqap or is that in a abayance . We will be talking to our partners int area to look at how we regain the Situational Awareness and understand whats happening on the ground and look at how we can continue to address the threats that emanate from yemen. Thank you. Id like to just briefly associate myself with senator mccaskills comments about using oco for the sequestration problem. It obviously doesnt go to the based budget. Its unpaid for. Its just absolutely the wrong way to approach this problem. I hope the congress can find a more realistic and responsible solution to sequestration also, general austin, again, because you talk to senator donnelly about this it seems to me its critically important we use the leverage we have, which apparently was used in the tikrit battle to be sure that this isnt a Shiite Militialed offensive, because if this becomes another version of a war of shiites against sunni, weve lost. This has to be inclusive and i hope that your relationship with the present body of the Iraqi Government emphasizes that. Because it is just essential to a successful outcome in iraq regardless of the shortterm advantage of tikrit or mosul. Would you agree with that . Yes, sir, i would. I would say further i take every opportunity to emphasize those exact points to the leader scholarship in iraq when i engage them. And it sounds like, this airstrikes in the last couple of days in tikrit were, in fact, conditioned on that kind of consideration. Is that correct . Thats correct, sir. This operation had to be under the control of the government of iraq and iraqi Security Forces. There had to be a force once the city is cleared, to maintain stability in that city and that force need to be an iraqi Security Force and so those things, those conditions were met early on the terms of the planning and the sinksynchronization. We are able to provide some support. I certainly hope you stay. I think you know a lot of the problems in iraq are the maliki governments failure to be inclusive. We cant make that mistake again. Lets turn to yank. We heard a wonderful, strong, passionate speech with handi this week. I am concerned we are still in a calendar driven status in afghanistan and even though the president allowed troops to stay through 2015 were still talking about kabul only at the end of 2016. Do you believe thats going to be sufficient in order to support the afghans . We made such progress there. I would hate to see you pull out in terms of air support, authorities for air support and train and direct services, give me your thoughts on that. Sir i certainly agree with you a new leadership in afghanistan causes all of us to be encouraged and optimistic. What i seen president ghani do and abdullah do in terms of reaching out to the International Community in terms of reaching out to the folks in the region as well, its all encouraging. Encouraging. The relationship with the Security Forces, the statement of common goals with the u. S. I think is all very encouraging. So i think this riffs us new opportunities we didnt have before we really have to think about what we want our relationship to be. I hope you you will won u counsel the white house to consider what i would think is a moderate investment in the gains that have been had. Its not for sure that the regime or the government of afghanistan can withstand the taliban on their own and after what weve invested over the past 13 years to walk away at five minutes of midnight and see it all collapse i think would be a real shame. So i hope you will urge that on the policy makers based upon general campbell and the other information you are receiving from the field. They need not only those troops but they need authorities. They, the president ghandi talked about air support. I think that will be crucial. So carry that message with you, sir. Thank you mr. Chair. Gentleman, thank you very much for being here today and also to your staff. Thank you for your many years of combined service to the United States. General votel, i just want to mention in your testimony today i would like to thank you for mentioning not only our active duty forces but the reserve and National Guard components. Your operators lor analyst and so forth its all one team one fight. So i appreciate youing a only ining that today. Something else that you brought up and a country him others have mentioned, too, is stress and suicide with our active duty members and with our veterans, those that have gotten off of active duty. It is important that we continue we are silliency programs and making sure that not only are they physically fit for the fight, that theyre mentally fit as well. So thank you for bringing that forward. A number of us are working on initiatives to make sure they are well cared for. I would like to address my question and thoughts general austin and general votel. Last week was the 12th anniversary of our entrance into iraq with the iraq war. Weve had 3,000 excuse me 4,000 American Service men and women that have lost their lives in iraq and weve had another 40,000 that have been injured in that war. And i want to thank you for your service in that war. I know all of you have engaged at one point or another in the war in iraq. Many of our service men and women will come home with not only is e ininvisible injuries, but physical injuries that will impact their lives for many, many years. But before we ever entered into iraq on march 20th of 2003 the iraqi kurds were already engaged and preparing the battlefield before we ever got there. They have been an important part of our effort in iraq. And so i would like your thoughts on involving more involvement of the iraqi kurds the peshmurga in this fight and really what their role has been from 2003 forward if you would please address that general austin. Thank you, senator. And i agree, you know, i was as you probably know with the elements when we went into iraq back in, you know 12 years ago and whereas i didnt initially make it all the way up to kurdistan, i can tell you that what the kurds were doing in the north at that point in time was very instrumental to the forces, our forces that followed in or flowed in later and facilitated our work there. Most recently with their efforts in the current fight against isil they really have done a terrific job and, you know, ive talked with president barzani and his staff on numerous occasions about you know, what were doing, what the requirements were and what they needed to do more. As you look at what theyve done in the north up there in terms of actually infliblthing damage on isil i think their efforts have really shaped this overall fight in a very positive direction and they continue to do more on a daily basis. So theyre a big part of this fight. Theyve punched above their weight class and i think theyll continue to do so. General votel. Thank you senator. I absolutely agree with what general austin said. I would only add that a key part of the kurdish relationship really has been the longterm relationship with them. So they were a key partner with soft forces when we were there from 2003 through 2011 and helped us ademocracy variety of networks and do i believe the great and enduring relationship weve had with them from a soft force to Kurdish Force aspect really was one of the initial successes we were able to achieve when we were back in there late last summer. We were able to quickly renew those relationships, draw on those partnerships and get going very, very quickly in some areas. So to me that highlights the importance of that longterm relationship that we have been able to develop with them. Do you believe that our resources would be best utilized if we were directly arming the peshmurga, the Kurdish Forces . Well, i think that i think is a policy question. Certainly, they are very capable forces, so i do think they would make use of any resources provided to them. Yes i think they have an exceptional force and allie to our American Forces in that region. Thank you very much gentleman for your service and also to your staff for being here in support today. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you mr. Chairman and to your witness and strong testimony this morning. I want to begin with yemen. I was intrigued with the account in news this morning about the saudi and other action in yemen and, in particular, the numbers of partners that have been a part of this in addition to saudi arabia, bahrain kuwait qatar, uae, jordan morocco. There is press reporting they are involved and pakistan and sudan, so nine nations in addition to saudi arabia springing into action to deal with this threat of the houthi takeover of the government in yemen. Im gratified by that. I want to see a region that will stand up and try to deal with its own problems rather than telling us you know, quietly they think its a problem theyre not doing anything. But i was also struck by the fact that those nine nations havent come together and acted with dispatch against isil. Theyre involved but they are not acting with dispatch against isil nearly a year into isils accelerated taking of territory in syria and iraq and just, you know, as experts who spent a lot of time in the region what explains why these nine nations would react with such speed and force to the houthi takeover of yemen but would not be so engaged in the fight against isil . Sir like you i am very encouraged that weve seen, what weve seen here recently with the number ofgations coming together to address a problem, the core of these nations are gcc nations. And i certainly believe that they all think that yemen is a very critical piece of real estate, just based upon the geography. Most important it shares a border with saudi arabia and oman and i think so, the gcc countries are naturally predisposed to helping protect another gcc country and then the relationships between the saudis and egyptians and others are really whats driving tear participation there. I would remind you senator, i know you are very, very well aware of this. The fight we flew into syria for the first time we had five sunni arabled nations fly in that formation with us, which is really unprecedented and we continue see them offer support if terms of Material Support. They also have offered to t