Press club ive editor for Bloomberg News desk here in washington and i am the president of the National Press club. Our speaker today is his Royal Highness prince ali bin alhussein if a candidate for president of fifa we welcome him here today but first i want to introduce our head table introducing club members and guests of the speaker. From the audience right right, u. S. Navy retired Advisory Board member of the american sportscasters association. Assistant editor for the Washington Post and a member of the project for middle east Political Science at George Washington university. The starting goalie for the winning u. S. National team 1991 and a member of the gold medal winning 1996 u. S. Olympic team. Lead desk editor for the Associated Press and the ambassador of jordan to the United States. Breaking news editor at usa today. Former president of the National Press club and vice chair of the National Press club speaker committee. Skipping our speaker, president of standing commun
Let me explain. When the two forces are separate, when isil is at some geographic separation from the Iraqi Security forces, it is not very difficult at all to discriminate between the targets. Isnt our problem when they are not out in open space and we have to distinguish between civilian targets and military targets that our people are very effective at that . Absolutely. If we get into a circumstance where the forces are very intermingled then the target discrimination becomes more difficult. This isnt a light switch. There are technologies available that allow us to actually apply force and to see the situation on the ground in ways we couldnt before. Im not walking away from what i said. If we get to the point where i think we need with the Iraqi Security forces i will make the recommendation. You do not think we need that at this time . I do not. What was general austins opinion on this . On the dam operation, the one i described earlier which was very complicated, as much by the
When we look at this, what are the kind of things that general allen can do in effect to start to get the tribes to look at this differently, to say, look, our interests are more aligned with this coalition thats being put together than with this group isis. Well, at the National Level i think he will, along with our diplomats, encourage the new Iraqi Government to answer some grievances that both the sunnis and kurds have had for years, actually, since 2004. I think theres some indication that theres reason to believe that could occur. The sunni tribes in anabr. The maliki government was actually, as you might expect them to be, very much against the idea of a National Guard in a al anbar. I think this government may be more open to it. I think that will be one of the lines of effort. Is this something this is for either of you that we can get done in iraq if we dont get buyin from the sunnis . As i said in an earlier question, senator, every campaign makes assumptions. If those supgs
It out to the American People last week. What is the Legal Authority youre basing that on . The Statutory Authority is the amf of 2001. If you wanted to add something to that, would probably be the amuf of 2003. My time has expired. I assume you meant theres no purely military solution to isil . When you said theres no military because youre seeking yeah theres no purely military solution. Thank you. We need to stick very carefully to the sixminute rule because we have one, two, three, four, five at least, and so we have to be out of here at exactly 1 00. So, please, watch that clock, everybody. Im not your problem. Senator donnelley. I didnt mean i know that, mr. Chairman. I want to thank both of you for everything youve done and for our service to our country. I want to get back to what you were talking about as to having had partners and having buyin. I heard the role john allen is going to play. Is a big part of that role n your mind, working with sunni tribal leadership, the peopl
Tactically we have to get enough of the Iraqi Security forces to go from defense to offense, to put it about as bluntly as we can. As we do the government of iraq has to fill in behind that. So to be candid there is some risk here that the three big risks that i would mention to you are if the government of iraq fails to become inclusive and though the signs are promising they havent yet fully delivered. Second, if a coalition forms but doesnt have endurance because this is going to take several years. And then the third risk is retribution. When we encourage and assist the iraq Security Forces to regain lost territory we have to be alert for the fact that unless the government of iraq is there to embrace the people and ensure that they Work Together there could be retribution on the part of those who may have been seen as complicit with isil. So we have some challenges ahead. We are open eyed to them. I think we have a Good Campaign plan. I follow up on that. You have significant expe