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 Federation Operation 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 Plan thats necessary for us to protect and advance our National Interest in south asia. I dont believe its useful to have a conversation about where weve been, how much money weve spent, or how long weve been in afghanistan. What is most important is articulating to the American People their interest in that region, why does it matter here in the United States we owe them , that. We should be able to articulate that when we roll out a strategy. What it is we are doing, not just militarily, but diplomatically and economically to advance our interests. Thats the conversation well be prepared to have. Jeff ballou whats the end game in afghanistan . Whats your prediction for new cost and u. S. Lives . Gen. Dunford what i would say is from a military dimension to be clear about what is it we trying to do. We are trying to support our partners on the ground and driving level of violence down to where local Security Forces can actually deal with security challenges with a minimal amount of international support. We are trying to do that from west africa to Southeast Asia. Because what were dealing with is a transregional threat. One of the manifestations of that transregional threat is in afghanistan. It extends from west africa to Southeast Asia. And in all cases, thats the broad design of our strategy is to support local forces and actually addressing those security challenges. Some need more support than others. But the methodology is consistent across that transregional threat. Jeff ballou so what degree does that involve pressuring pakistan . Gen. Dunford well i think pakistan is a key to afghanistan and its security. Ensuring that the terrorists do not have sanctuary in south asia making sure secure border , between afghanistan and pakistan is critical, making sure there is effective political and military relationships between afghanistan and pakistan. Thats one of the interdependent variables that is going to allow us to be successful. Jeff ballou talk about, going back to syria, can you talk about the role that iran is playing in syria . Is it increasing, in particular through hezbollah. Gen. Dunford iran is playing an unhelpful role in syria and middle east. Some of you may have heard me describe it this way. Their major export is malign influence across the middle east. Again, iran, unlike the United States and coalition, is not focused on isis inside of syria. Iran is focused on propping up the regime that committed atrocities in the civil war. And from my perspective addressing the grievances of the , civil war in syria will be necessary for us to have peace and stability and have a no longer have a sanctuary for violent extremism. Jeff ballou staying in the region, are you concerned about any long term implications of the current gulf crisis on regional security, and has the crisis affected u. S. Military operations in the region . I think you said something last week on capitol hill that your operations are relatively unaffected. But with turkey sending troops in the army, and the u. S. Army bringing troops around qatar, how does that whats happening , in terms of operations sent there in the middle of the country . Gen. Dunford i think most people know. I think the reason we watch the reason why we watch qatar, thats where our Operation Center is located. Thats where aircraft support, our Current Campaign against isis is located. And so its pretty significant. Thats also the location of the Forward Command post for the United States Central Command. What i would tell you is, has there been friction associated with what is going on between the gcc and qatar . Absolutely. But what i said last week remains true. We continue to be able to operate even through that friction. Jeff ballou are you playing any sort of diplomatic role trying to resolve issues and so forth . Gen. Dunford we obviously worked the military to military line. We continue to do that. So is secretary tillerson. You answered the question well. This is primarily secretary tillersons lane right now to resolve the issue between gcc and qatar and come up with a negotiated solution to the challenge that addresses the issue. With allou all right, qaeda, isil, and their popping their offshoots popping up all over the world with a world war ii strategy of defeating this enemy with our allies, various parts of world . I cant quite read this. Gen. Dunford ill speculate what this individual means. [laughter] gen. Dunford it is probably important. Let me explain our strategy for dealing with transregional violent extremism. Of which isis is one manifestation. First of all what connects the , group in west africa to Southeast Asia . Really three things, the flow of fighters, flow of resources, and the narrative, the message that they disseminate. Strategically the idea is to be able to cut i describe those things as connective tissues between the groups. Strategically we are trying to cut that connective tissue. How we doing that . By establishing a broadwell dad Broad Coalition with a Good Exchange of information and intelligence so we can get after the flow of money and deal with the narrative. We have now members in the 60 coalition in iraq and syria. About 45 of my counterparts i mentioned around the world to improve our information and intelligence sharing. We have an interagency intelligence and information sharing location in the middle east where right now we have about 20 countries represented both militarily and intelligence organizations. The organizations like homeland security. And the idea is likeminded nations are sharing the intelligence and information that allow not just for effective military operations, which is one dimension of the problem, but also in effective legal frame work in countries where foreign fighters either came from or return to. It is also an effective way of sharing information so we can anticipate the flow of foreign fighters and resources. So with regard to the combat operations, those combat operations are designed to enable local forces to deal with specific regional challenges. So there is a number of regional efforts, but there is a strategic framework that connects those regional efforts. That strategic effort is getting after those three elements that actually connect these organizations. And the longterm endstate of a strategy is to drive the level of violence down in each of the countries where it exists and regions where it exists, drive the level of violence down, and increase the capacity of local forces such that local forces can deal with that challenge. Thats where were going. Thats very much unlike world war ii strategy. In a very isolated case, the u. S. Coalition forces are doing the fighting. The majority of fighting, you can look at the majority of causalities, being experienced by local forces fighting their for their own countries. If somebody wants to ask another question about that strategy, because i think understanding that is very important. By the way, my assessment, my assumption probably more properly is that were going to be dealing with violent extremism for a long time. Some people have described it as a generational problem. Whatever it is, its a long period of time. So one critical element is it must be politically sustainable, it must be physically sustainable, it must be militarily sustainable. And for the American People, i want them to know were conducting a campaign against violent extremism in the context of all the challenges that face our country now to include north korea, china, iran and russia. And so when i talk about sustainability, its sustainability in the context of addressure that we can the United States thinks and acts globally. We do not have the luxury of dealing with one thing at a time. We are dealing with all those simultaneously. To deal with all of those simultaneously, again you need , to have a strategy thats sustainable in case of violent extremism. Partners on the ground who are doing most of the fighting. It is local forces. Speaking of the list you just spouted, north korea. What is north korea has been increasingly active, shall we say in its missile test. , how are the u. S. Forces positioning themselves to deal with this particular threat . If you are seeing it as a threat . And how are you trying to deescalate what is an increasing tension in the region and specifically how is the new south korean president helping in this regard . Gen. Dunford sure. First of all, to the question do i view it as a threat . I do. Its clear to me that kim jongun, the regime is on a path of attempting to develop a Intercontinental Ballistic Missile matching that with a Nuclear Warhead that can reach the United States. We should be concerned about that, and we are. The primary means of dealing with that is diplomatic and economic pressure. The campaign is led by secretary tillerson. We have a very open dialogue, a very aggressive dialogue with the state department to make sure that everything that were doing everything that were , doing, in terms of our military posture, is supportive of secretary tillersons primarily economic and diplomatic campaign. Many of you have watch closely whats happened in the u. N. There has been two unprecedented sanctions regimes passed this year. That is the primary way that secretary tillerson hopes to do that. In the meantime, we have responsibility we the department , of defense, number one to deter any provocation by kim jongun in the meantime, and to provide the president with a list of options in the event that hostilities occurr. That is exactly what we are doing. What i want to emphasize the military dimension today is in support of the diplomatic and economic effort led by the state department. And at the same time, we have an effective posture in the region and for response in the event deterrence fails. Jeff ballou speaking of north korea and china, it seems the president is trying to utilize his newfound relationship with his counterpart in china to try to resolve tensions in north korea. How is that impacting what you just said . And is there anything that youre doing in the region that might have an adverse effect . For example, what you are doing with the South China Sea . Gen. Dunford right. So the president met with the president of china at maralago. I think it was the end of april. They discussed two issues. One of them was this issue of north korea and the commitment to denuclearize the peninsula. Secretary tillerson a key said a key element would be an equalizing the peninsula it would be the cooperation of china. So it is a bit early probably to judge how far we have come in the past 45 weeks, but that is a critical piece. In the meantime, to talk about other things that we are doing that might be counterproductive to gaining chinas support in north korea, we view that issue as separate from other issues in the region that were dealing with. And that we maintain open lines of communication with our chinese counterparts. To that point, we will this week have a meeting with the secretary of state. We will discuss a wide range of issues. To include the issue we just spoke about at length, the north korea issue. Jeff ballou sorry to jump back to syria. Our code colleague missed rollcall. Missed theleague rollcall. Whats the legal justification for targeting Syrian Government forces . Gen. Dunford we have prosecuted a campaign against isis and al qaeda and syria. Jeff ballou cyberattacks. Cyber attacks threaten the National Infrastructure our , complex weapon and defense systems. How is the military doing in recruiting the talent needed to defend and defeat cyberattack . Gen. Dunford whoever asked that question, i think it is a great question, and is something we dont take for granted. One thing i would have said if i did filibuster up front and talk about our people, i would tell you that we have effectively recruited volunteer force even after 16 years of war. But there is certain skill set, and fiber is one of them where , we have a growth industry inside the department. Theres a lot of competition in the same industry we are trying to incentivize people to join the u. S. Military or service as a civilian. We are not taking that for granted. We are as you know, looking across the department it was different ways to modernize our personnel system to recruit people to include cyber. We have grown the cyber force. We have a plan for 133 Cyber Mission teams. We outlined that plan about three years ago. 70 of those teams have reached full operation capability. Or reached initial operation capability. That means they are out there doing what they get paid to do everyday. We have met the current requirement. As we look forward, i imagine that our requirements will grow. Weve identified requirement to grow cyber capability. Well need more high quality motivated people. We have to find a way to incentivize them. That does not necessarily mean the way weve done business in the past is the way we will necessarily be able to do business in the future. How do you create ration al military strategy with an impulsive president . I dont think someone really expects me to answer a question like that. I mean that sincerely. One thing that im proud of, i am proud of freedom of the press, im proud of what you do everyday. Im not just saying that. [applause] i mean that. I have said that in private to the folks i work with closely at pentagon. I hope youre equally proud that the United States military remained a political during a difficult political season. Im certainly proud of our men and women in uniform. I cannot think of a single case where an active duty member has violated is our ethnos. As a senior military officer in the country, i think our men and women look to me as an example. I would never answer a question like that. So thanks. [applause] women look to me as an example. And so i would never answer a just a reminder, those who may be watching, not everybody in the room is a journalist. We asked for a bit of decorum from our colleagues and hold your applause. Just a reminder, those who may be watching. Not everybody in the room is a journalist. We asked for a bit of decorum from colleagues and hole your applause. United states is providing thousands of weapons and heavy weapons to kurdish groups which have been regarded as terrorist organizations by turkey. How do you guarantee these weapons will not be turned against your 65yearold nato ally fighting against iceland . Gen. Dunford we are very focused on maintaining the relationship a we have as you pointed out, jeff. Our nato ally in turkey. To that point, i made nine trips to turkey in the past 12 months. I met with my turkish counterpart no less than 15 times in the last year to make sure we maintain an effective relationship with a nato ally. Weve told them at the end of the day, key element is making sure we accomplish a mission with our relationship with turkey. Intact. Ally, so we sat down with the turks. We have a tight frame work. We have transparency in reporting. We providing them routine reports what were doing. We provide them transparency and type of weapons that we have. We have put in mechanisms in place to make sure the weapons were providing to the Syrian Democratic forces are intended for raqqa and raqqa only. Backont find their way into turkey. Whoever asked that question, its very important question. Its a strategic question. It affects relationship with important ally. Were mindful of that. Secretary mattis next week will meet with his turkish counterpart in europe and go through this. Last thursday we wrote a detailed letter to his turkish counterpart providing routine update. I speak routinely to the general whos become a good friend. Hes a turkish chief of defense. And our european commander speaks at least once a week. We have a very robust presence both United States Central Command and United States european command in a joint Operation Center with our turkish counterparts to mitigate the concerns. Thank you. Jumping around a bit. Senate passed a broad sanctions package last week against iran and russia. How are the details of that broad strokes, impacting u. S. Military strategy in those countries . Gen. Dunford theres been no impact on the military dimension of our relationship with either country at this point. Budget question. Theres a lot of them. Are you comfortable gen. Dunford after 17 hours really looking forward to these. Are you comfortable with how u. S. Defense addressed to military capability of near competitor states . Gen. Dunford the short answer is no. Let me walk back. I think its fair to say that turn of century, 2000, we had a decisive competitive advantage and our ability to project power to advance our interest and meet our Alliance Commitments. We can do that. Just for those who dont track what we do routinely, i believe there are two sources of strength in our country. The strategic level, its the network of allies that we built up since world war ii. Operational level its been ability to project power from United States to meet our Alliance Commitments. Our peer competitors have studied the United States since desert storm. They studied the development, they studied our ability to project power and almost every case, you look at china, russia, iran in particular, what they have done over the last few years, started to develop what has been called in the trade journals, the ni access, area of denial. What that means is, develop a wide range of capabilities that keep the United States from moving into europe in the case of russia. Moving into the pacific. Meeting our alliance commitment. Then operating freely within europe or within the pacific. My greatest concern, emphasis that i placed on it last week in testimony i think highlights that, United States of america has to maintain a competitive advantage in the ability to project power when and when necessary to meet our Alliance Commitments or advance our interests. A wide other range of maritime offensive there are areas of concern. One of the things that were doing that classified level communicating with congress. To talk about the areas of competitive advantage. Weve identified a number of those. We can talk about where are we today relative to where we need to be to maintain a competitive advantage. Where will we be in five years to maintain a competitive advantage . What specific capabilities must be filled to ensure that the chairman in 2022 can be as confident of our ability to project power then as i am today. Again, as a result of unstable budgets and operational tempo, we have been focused on violent extremism, we have delayed modernization programs. Our potential adversaries havent had to suffer through that same experience. As americans we should be concerned about that. Our ability to project power is a critical element of conventional deterrence. I believe right now that our competitive advantage conventionally has in fact, mitigated the risk of conflict. The loss of that competitive advantage conventionally would be a risk. Obviously the loss of a safe,effective, and reliable Nuclear Deterrent is a concern. Thats the primary thrust of our budget recommendations. Between the budget control action, continuing resolutions, countless hours of testimony, has congress and the white house essentially failed the military by not coming to an agreement and getting the military the ability it needs in its funding to increase its personnel, strengthen modernization. I was reading through your hours of testimony, how Senate Committee by committee same things kept coming up over and over again. That you were being effectively shortchanged. The one that i said in testimony, i routinely say, i fundamentally dont believe we should be sending our young men and women into a fair fight. We shouldnt be doing that. We will send them some place, we should send them with the wherewithal to accomplish the mission. Amoun of risk. L were got going to be able to do that with the budget control act. We will not do that with more continued resolutions. We are where we are now back in 2012 with the exception of one assignment ive been involved where weve been since 2012 with regard to a budget. As a result of continuing resolutions every year, as a result of the budge control act. We havent been able to allocate the resources that American People give us for the nations defense. If we didnt lift the budget gap and get back to regular order, that is passing a budget every year, we will not get out the trap that we found ourselves in. Its going take us some time to get out of that trough. Only way well get out of that trough is to have regular order and budget process. Path wet sustain the are on right now and maintain that competitive advantage. [applause] jeff speaking of regular order. There are several things you can pluck out of that. Youve got decades old icbms. You got all of this military vehicles that are not equivalent to their peer counterparts and competitive nations. Where do you start . There seem to be a long laundry list of what you have to fit in order to be competitive. Gen. Dunford it starts with the Nuclear Enterprise. Weve made that, we believe thats the Department Number one responsibility deter nuclear war. It would be nice if we didnt have to invest in Nuclear Enterprise. It would be nice if Nuclear Weapons werent part of the National Defense strategy. The enemy gets a vote and russia has increased the role of Nuclear Weapons in their Defense Strategy and maintaining effective deterrence is important. Thats job one. I spoke about our ability to project power. Again, what we have done, weve taken a look at each of the four state actors and none state and the one nonstate actor. I dont use that four plus one as a predictive model. Heres an important assumption you can test, we build a u. S. Military with the right inventory and capabilities and capacity and right size that can deal with russia, china, iran, north korea or violent extremism, that well have the right force in the future to maintain a competitive advantage. And deal with what we deal with as unexpected. As i tell people, if theres anything i learned in 40 years of active duty, its to be humble about our ability to predict the future. But again, just like any industry, you have to benchmark yourself against something. What we have done, benchmark ourselves against those four plus one. The way we will inform our priority nas we provide to congress by looking at where we are today relative to where well be five years from now. That will be where the priorities outside the Nuclear Enterprise are established. Theres other things about training the force. Im speaking about it from a joint inventory perspective. Jeff lets go global again. You mentioned briefly nato. The president was on overseas trip, he had pretty tough words for nato. How did those words have an effect on your dealings with your counterparts and the allies that we have dealt for so long . Gen. Dunford this is some my find this hard to believe. I was in nato probably ten days ago. Im there at least every quarter. Met with all now 29 members of nato. Witnessed this afternoon, about 4 00 im speaking to or meeting with one of the nato counterparts every week. Theres not a week doesnt go by where im not meeting with one or more of them. The military to military relationship to include our combined operations in afghanistan. To include our combined operations in syria and iraq. To include the partnership we have to french and west africa. Include the partnership we have the french and United Kingdom and United States and east africa. Has not suffered a bit. I find it hard pressed to find a time when more than 30 nations stayed together in a fight for over a decade like we have in afghanistan. Weve been able to put together coalition of 60 countries. What i would ask you to do when you think about what impact where we are with regard to our allies, its look what were doing. Who were seeing what were doing across the world, i believe from coalition and alliance perspective, pretty effective. You were the only chief to oppose integration of women and units. Chose not to appear at the secretary of Defense Press conference. Whats your current views on the issue. Are you now if favor of military jobs to include qualified women . Gen. Dunford i hope appreciate that when you provide military advice, do you so in good faith. At the end of the day, when youre in uniform, youre inside the department of defense you provide military advice and then civilian leadership makes a decision. The day secretary carter made a decision i had one task which was with full commitment implement the decision that secretary carter made. I also want told you when i made the recommendation to secretary carter, it wasnt a i dont recommend women be integrated. Even as a marine corps, i opened up all but two percent of the occupational fields. With those fields that i did not recommend, i outlined the specific conditions that i thought should be said before we move forward with full integration. It was a question mr. Secretary, we done some careful analytic work. We done some experimentation. Heres the issues that should be considered. In a conversation, he said thats fine. I believe that we can address the issues. He said, i accept the issues that you raised. By the way if you look at the memo that secretary carter signed out to implement the decision, every single issue that is in the letter that i sent to him is reflected in secretary carters implementation memo. He said, ok general i got it but i believe the issues that you raised can be addressed in implementation. This process doesnt have to be sequential. I got it, yes, sir. I havent thought about anything other than executing the secretarys decision since that. Jeff along those lines, there are thousands of Transgender Service members serving in the military today. Secretary carter allowed transgender individuals to openly serve and allow new transgender groups to join. Why is the pentagon considering changing this policy . Gen. Dunford first of all, lets be clear. The transgender personnel are serving right now. Theres no review ongoing that would affect the ability of those currently serving to continue serving. Provided they can meet the physical qualifications in the same standards that other marine meets. The issue now is, the challenges of assesing individuals in of assessions. There have been some issues raised with regard to challenges of asssessions transgender individuals. Thats what the secretary is reviewing. This is not a reversal of the policy that was implemented before. This is the next phase of implementation with asssessions. There have been issues identified that service chief believe need to be resolved before we move forward. Thats where we are now. The joint strike fighters entering service with cost and delays, will it continue as a program . Is it too expensive to maintain . Thats a pretty loaded question. Someone has an agenda the way they phrased that question. The f35 is operationally deployed today. It will remain as a program. The initial operating capability in the marine corps was made before i changed jobs in july of 2015. I had sufficient confidence in the f35 to declare it initially operational capable and capable of worldwide deployment. You will see in the budget, they significant buy of f35s in the budget and we expect that to continue into the future. The cost overruns a bit of that is history. Over the past 18 to 24 months, most people would argue, Congress Certainly supports this perspective that the Program Manager has done a great job of getting lot of those cost over runs back in check. The cost of the aircraft and the operation sustainment cost also in check. The short answer is, f35 is a critical program. I believe its not a better f18 or better bomb truck but its a transformational capability. Both its ability to deliver ordinance to serve literally. It transform the way we fight. We fully havent appreciated all the things it will do. Proliferation, lone wolf actors of terror, what steps are being taken by the u. S. Military to prevent some of the Osama Bin Laden sons from perpetuating counterterrorism fight is to prevent attacks on the United States or allies and partners. With regard to lone wolf attacks, we are in support of local and federal Law Enforcement officials. If you talk about lone wolf, u. S. Citizens inspire by propaganda, its battlefield success that undermined the credibility narrative. Dealing with individual u. S. Citizens who maybe nspired. Were running short on time. Im going to one more substance question. Then im going to give you our traditional mug. What can be done to stem the flow of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea and human suffering . Should Refugee Centers be built in north africa to provide safe havens for those fleeing violence and what roles should groups like the vatican play . Let me answer that question in my way. I would argue, lot of times when we look at violent extremism, we focus on the risk of attacks. We should. He tragic loss of life shows violent extremism is a big issue. If you think about it, probably the most significant effect of violent extremism has been the throw of refugees. Certainly the impact it had in europe and the sheer human suffering thats taking place as a result of 10 Million People in the case of syria that have been dislocated or become refugees. Its a tragic outcome of violent extremism. The military dimension that particular problem is, working with local partners to create the conditions where people can be safe at home and dont have a need to be refugees. We worked very closely with. S. Aid in places like mosul and raqqa. When we sit down and develop a Campaign Plan for raqqa and mosul, sitting at the table is usaid to making sure we can go into stabilization and set conditions as quickly as possible to relieve some of the human suffering. Before i ask the last question, im going to present our traditional National Press club mug. Mr. Chairman, your picture will go on the wall outside with the rest of the historic speakers that have been coming here since we started Speakers Program in 1920. Last question. Goes back to wait a minute. Can you expand upon your plans after isil is defeated . Thats an optimistic question, you say that the does it become a safe zone or are you prepared to protect it from aerial attack. If theres no fly zone are you listening to expand that one . Im going to answer a different question. No, ill answer the raqqa piece. But there is a broader question. Were working now with the state department to making sure theres local forces that are recruited to provide security inside of raqqa. Thats our plan for raqqa. What i will tell you is that violent extremism is not over with isis. Thats one of the reasons why im running now, we have all of our commanders and Service Chiefs together here in about 30 minutes for quarterly review of where we are in dealing with violent extremism. Very much looking towards framework. I talked earlier about sustainable which assumption this is a long term fight. Making sure we review our organization construct, making sure we constantly review our intelligence sharing. Making sure we constantly review the success of partners in the ground. Its all part what we trying to do. This is a long term fight. Raqqa is tactical. Mosul is tactical. I believe it will have Strategic Effects on overall messaging. It undermines the credibility theres a physical caliphate that exist in the middle east. E ought not to confuse success in raqqa and mosul. As something that means the end of the fight. I think we should all be braced for the end of a long fight. We should make sure we have the broadest network possible to deal with this challenge. Its not about just the United States. Its about the 120 plus countries from which foreign fighters have come just to iraq and syria. To degree we can get all 120 countries to cooperate and intelligence sharing information, and effective action, limit the freedom of movement of foreign fighters, limit their ability to share resources and erode the effectiveness and narrative that will be successful. Were prepared for long term fight and review of how were addressing it. If theres one thing i will leave you with, dont ever think that those of us in uniform are complacent about any of the issues that we spoken about today. I tell people that when i was second lieutenant, my level of experience was way down here. My level of confidence that i had was way up here. As i speak to you today, my level of experience is arguably way up here and my level of confidence on issues that were dealing with that i have all the answers is way down here. These are extraordinarily complex wicked problems. Beware of those with too much confidences like they have all the answers. Thank you. [applause] stay in your seat as the chairman leaves the hall. For more information on the program, you can log into www. Press. Org. We are adjourned. Thank you. [applause] tonight on q a i was a reporter that covered politics. I got interested in political power. I can see these books as studies in national power, but i thought when you were a reporter i won a couple of really minor journalistic awards. When you win an award, you think you know everything. Time robert moses started talking to me, i realized i did not know anything about power at all. Prizewinning journalist and author robert caro talks about political power in america and shares his progress on the next part of his multipart biography of lyndon johnson. He had compassion since the beginning, but ambition was the overriding consideration with him. It was only when compassion and ambition coincided when he was in the senate, he realized if he wants to be in the senate, he has to pass a civil rights bill, to turn to this. You asked if his feeling was false not at all. All his life, he had wanted to help people and particularly poor people of color. Released aepublicans new discussion draft on their Health Care Law of replacement thursday. The Congressional Budget Office will score this bill this week is congressional debate expected to begin. We have posted the bill on cspan. Org. You can follow the discussion on cspan2, online at cspan. Org, and on the free cspan radio app. Our guest on cspan newsmakers this week is mac thornberry, republican of texas, chairman of the House Armed Services committee. In that role he is interested in , all things military including spending, operations, and strategy. We will talk to him about all of that as his Committee Works on the defense spending plan for the coming year. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me. Let me introduce the reporters who will be asking chairman thornberry questions this week. Joel gold with us for the first time this week covering congress
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