Uniform to the Veterans Administration is as seamless as possible and i think we owe them that. One last question general. Your predecessor, general dempsey, stated repeatedly, and i am quoting we have the capability to use a military option if the iranians choose to stray off the diplomatic path end quote. My question to you is are you satisfied our nation has done enough to prepare militarily for the option and the president has said all options should be on the table if necessary to use a military option there as much as we all may wish that the negotiations should succeed. Senator, my understanding today is that we have both the plans in place and the capability in place to deal with a wide range of things in iran. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Chairman and general. Congratulations on your nomination and thank you for your 38 years of distinguished service and your leadership. Our nation is fortunate to have a military leader such as you serving at a time in great peril. I wa
And let me tell you what dishonors our soldiers. Let me tell you what is a dishonor to their memory and their service. It is to fly that flag i want everybody to remember this, im talking to all of my colleagues who think we must keep it up there because of heritage. Oh how i wish how i wish robert e. Lee general lees portrait is in the senate, i wish he was here right now at this podium he would tell you all, it is an abomination for his flag to fly as a matter of fact his very flag was furled it was furled when they surrendered at appomattox and it has never been unfurled and to do so dishonors those who fought and died and it violates the terms of surrender. General lee, when it came time, and the cause was lost, he called everybody to come back work, be good citizens and build a country together. Many times he was called to start start a gorilla war. The flag is furled. Maintain your soldierly honor, go back and serve your country. Never, never, never let the flags fly again. And y
Dempsey, is to me intellectually dishonest. Senator aot. Mr. Chairman just for the record president george w. Bush signed an agreement with maliki government to withdrawal all forces. Well have that debate later on but it was clear we could have and Everybody Knows they could have and the people that were there knows they could have senator a yot. Thank you both for being here and your service to the country. We both appreciate it. Secretary carter you had answered to senator manchin that the arms were providing to the kurds were doing so with the consent of the iraqi Central Government. Are we doing that directly or through the iraqi Central Government . We are not the only ones but we and others convey the weapons directly to the kurds. But we inform the Iraqi Government and get their formal consent to it. So it doesnt delay the arming of the kurds but were who are trying to stick up for the Central Government. Because previously we heard complaints about it going through the Iraqi G
Fortunate to have a military leader such as you serving in a time of great peril. I want i want to ask a question of you if the objective were to destroy isys, not to we cannot a great but utterly destroy what would be required militarily to accomplish that objective . It would not be possible to destroy. I do think the military aspect is critical. If the timeframe i suggested is not feasible feasible but let me ask you a followup question what will be required to destroy isys and what timeframe is necessary . If that were the objective what would be required to accomplish it . Clicks from my perspective today this is a longterm endeavor a longterm endeavor on the order of years, not months. And what would be required to do that in whatever timeframe is necessary . From military perspective we need to take action to deny sanctuary where everything takes root that will require us to build local forces in the Partnership Capacity with local forces that would be the defeat mechanism. Mech
Leadership has been looking at that to setup a climate where retaliation is not acceptable i will put a question for the record about the unused building record in afghanistan. I know there was an investigation that you were not found to be a problem in this but it is a problem the investigation found no problem and in reality there was a huge problem that someone signed off on a building for 36 million that is never going to go used. My final question if you dont have time to do it now, i want to make sure we get your take on isis in afghanistan. With your experience in afghanistan, are you comfortable you have a handle on what isis is trying to do in afghanistan . Senator, what i know from general campbells reports and intelligence is we have seen a number of taliban rebrand themselves as isis but beyond that i dont have a good feel for the depth of the problem but it would be one of the issues i look into if confirmed thank you very much. General dunford, i think you are just the ma