The committee is part of a major transition of American Military leadership. If confirmed as army chief of staff you will serve along side the joint chief of staffs new Service Chiefs for the navy and marine core. You will lead part of the volunteer soldiers and time and time over a decade of time in iraq. The army indured 70 of the casual casual casualties. As the nation confronts the most array of Global Crisis since the world war ii the next chief of staff of army is responsible for making sure the total army and active guard and reserve remains the most decisive land troops in the world. We have drastic reductions in defense funding and the army is going to be forceded to carry out missions with fewer dollars, soldiers and equipment. It has been reduced from 570,000 active duty personal to 490,000 troops this year and last week the army announced they would cut an additional 40000 troops reducing to 450,000. There is talks the army could decline to 420,000 troops and what is worse
I have heard it said that russia was a more centralized state today than it was were least there was a bureau that has to be consulted in some sense and that means that it is the power that can make decisions very effectively and can respond very rapidly with a changing situation and can exploit opportunities very rapidly and we as a nation and as part of a western alliance have to think about how we deal with are relatively cumbersome decisionmaking processes and the much broader need to get by with any course of action from a wide range of parliamentary opinions public opinions, Civil Society and 28 countries across nato and so this is also a very big challenge and its not just a challenge of being ready with conventional wars is but a challenge of thinking outside of the box in this approach and meanwhile the prosperity agenda must remain at the half of the scas work and the Prime Minister and chancellor said many times and you cannot be a strong country and that you have a Strong E
Is one of the tests that the fbi utilizes. One other thing most of the people have been radicalized and guarded to violent extremists has certain characteristics. The same type as people who join gangs. Low selfesteem, unemployed categories such as this. A gives you some indication of the kinds of people they usually get involved. There are different statistics on that. That maythat may be more true to those who are going of foreign fighter out and less true or al qaeda type operators. Educated and you have seen across the board a high incidence of the down and hours. Not to say that there are not pockets. There are two aspects to the foreign fighter problem. There going to come back in the terrorists it is true. What is even more vital is the fact that they are recruiting going over the. It is like voting on american idol. It allows the claim that this is a caliphate. Showing the pipeline down over and apart from the physical threat is an important part of diminishing the brand. Yes,
Thanks clarke and the Aspen Institute have having me back. Lucky to have the Homeland Security jeh johnson. Not going through his bio. You have it in your pamphlet. The two things that struck me as the most interesting preparing for this. It is difficult to know where to start in an interview with the secretary. He has Legal Council at the pentagon was involved in the most important issues that the Obama Administration inherited from the Bush Administration and many of you know he was responsible for helping resend dont ask dont tell he was the last legal word on every drone strike outside of the main seeders of war at the pentagon, he was in charge of the fraught issue of figuring out how to shutdown guantanamo bay, and the list goes on and on. With that background, it does make you realize why you were the guy for dhs which is another institution with a lot of problems when you inherited it. I want to ask you given that background you went from the pentagon and offense on the war on
I think it will take many, many years, and it will not only be dealing with the taliban, which of course is the headlines, but all of the other issues they have to address. That is much more important as a comprehensive matter i know the president is dedicated to, the chief executive is dedicated to. You get those indications from pakistan as well. While the trust may not be there to the extent that we would like, you can build momentum. So, you get get to the end goal. Two more rounds of questions and i will ask that each person only ask one question. I will start with the word row the two gentleman in the third row, one question each, please. Thank you, michael. Im representing the International Stability organization, some companies that provide services to u. S. Id usaid in afghanistan. As you draw troops down, will you be returning more to contractors to fill those gaps . Maintenance, etc. . I am a journalist in washington. My question is with these socalled peacekeepers, as the t