full-fledged plan. it s hard work and it will take time. i would just add on the question directed to me here, the campaign plan remains where we thought that it would be at this particular point. obviously engaged in very difficult fighting in mosul and around the iraq area. we anticipated the fighting would be difficult at this particular part and that s exactly what we re seeing. again, we certainly won t put a time line on this. it will ultimately prove to us be wrong. i think this is proceeding about the way we expected it would at this point. mr. secretary, if i can ask you about north korea. the u.s.s. carl vinson is headed to the sea of japan. has tension ratcheted up just recently in the past few days? what has changed in the past several days or weeks? and general votel, if i can ask
u.s.a. tempt to move bashar al-assad from power and ask general votel if he can bring us up to date on bringing additional troops to accelerate the campaign there? the goal right now in syria and the military campaign is focused on accomplishing that, is breaking isis, destroying isis in syria. this was a separate issue that arose in the midst of that campaign. the use by the assad regime of chemical weapons and we addressed that. the rest of the campaign stays on track before assad s violation. do you plan on having safe zones or no fly zones? the other issues are among consideration from allies and certainly the president has options, but right now the
isis might be the priority. regime change was not. do you feel that s the signal he got and are you sending him a new signal? for you, general votel, you don t talk about future operations and isis a priority, how prepared are you and is central command to take on additional military targeting? do you feel you know even if you can t say where his chemical weapons are at this point? barbara, we believe that assad has used chemical weapons several times over the last several years. violated the international law that prohibited their use since 1925. syria is a signatory to that convention. for them to have done this several times recently over the last several years is what i mean by recently. you have to ask him why he chose now to try it again. i trust he regrets it now considering the damage done to his air force, but when i say he should think long and hard about
people in contravention to all of the international conventions that he s a signator to, the u.s. will respond. he would not clarify whether that meant if assad used chlorine bombs, whether they would respond. i also asked defense secretary mattis if they were calling for regime change. there s been mixed most singles if you re calling for a regime change in syria. are you prepare if he were stepping aside tomorrow? general votel, are you seen any evidence that assad is moving his stockpiles of chemical weapons around in syria? jennifer, the strike we re talking about here today was
stated objective and the regime s ability to generate offensive military capability from the air field, which we assess was the launching people has been severely degraded. we main appropriately postured as necessary. the campaign is our primary mission. in closing, i want to commend the skill and professionalism of our military forces in the strike operation. they performed extraordinarily well and we re proud of them. thank you, general votel. we can take your questions now. bob, let s start with you. secretary mattis. in your view should the