Good afternoon. I am chris miller, acting secretary of defense for the United States and am here today to update you on president trumps plan to bring the wars in afghanistan and iraq to a successful and responsible conclusion and to bring our brave Service Members home. And kabul to kandahar fallujah, hundreds of thousands of americas sons and daughters who answered the call to serve in our Armed Services have brought us to this point. Their efforts and sacrifice will go down in history as it did amazing the strength as strength,g the commitment of a force that is unlike any the world has ever seen. Just last night, i joined Vice President pence and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to have the soldiers who perished on duty in the middle east. This was a somber and humbling moment that reminded us of the tremendous sacrifices made by the men and women of the United States military in service of freedom and security. Our armed forces take an oath to support and defend the constitut
A bit later now theyre heading straight to the pentagon. Lets listen to the pentagon and to bring our brave Service Members home from kabul to kandahar and from mosul to flu, hundreds of thousands of americas finest sons and daughters who selflessly answered the call. To serve in the army, navy, air force, marine corps, and coast guard have brought us to this point. Their efforts and sacrifice will go down in history as a pit in my eyes, in the strength of commitment and empathy of a force that is unlike any the world has ever seen. Just last night, i joined Vice President mike pence and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general milley to attend the dignified transfer of 5 american soldiers who perished on duty in the middle east. This was a somber and humbling moment. That reminded us of the tremendous sacrifices made by the men and women of the United States military in service of freedom and security. Our armed forces take an oath to support and defend the constitution of the Un
He is the chief officer building capabilities for the military and department of homeland security. We can talk about that as we go through the interview. Thank you for being with us today. Just to start, what led you to do this book . I know you have been thinking about these issues for a while and it is something you have encountered a lot on the Armed Services committee and senator mccains policy advisor, but what was the genesis that led to you sitting down and writing the entire book . Great question. I ask myself that constantly. Why did we get into this every day i was working on it . Basically two things. Both of these were a product of many years i looked at these issues, just thinking about this on a daytoday basis but the first was the growing realization that we had a fundamental problem i felt was underappreciated that people didnt appreciate that we were losing competitive advantage, we werent where we needed to be from a technological standpoint or operational standpoint
Understanding that a businessman would have when hes about to the speaker the house will be in order. The prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, ms. Verna teller, southern tiwa, pueblo of isleta, new mexico. The chaplain o creator and great mother, having asked and received your permission to invoke your blessings today to all directions, to the east, north, west, south and the center we thank you for the life you give to all your children, the two legged ones, the four legged, those who live in the waters and those who watch over us from the skies above. Sacred pollen, sacred earth mother, sacred water that man fests your desires, o creator and great mother, we thank them for the nourishment they give us equally with no regard to race, color, or creed. Creator and great mother, bless those standing before you who carry a sacred trust to all of us who inhabit turtle island, our homeland, and i pray today that you will give them the wisdom and the courage to carry out their sacre
Been a little bit slow out of the gates. Islandared the whole emergency situation, no electricity, no Running Water and the list goes on. You can see the images of people leaving the island, trying to get to the airport. It is a desperate situation. I just hope that it is not too ofe to prevent a deepening this humanitarian crisis, and a hope we are much faster to send troops down there to take control of distribution. Supplies seem to be there. It is a question of logistics. I think the only entity capable of taking control of the situation is the armed forces. Host those efforts ramping up quickly the last couple of days. The headline in the wall street journal front page, puerto rico eight trickles in. They ranked that the diploid a threestar general to puerto rico to oversee efforts. And the administration weighed the jones act to allow nonus ships to carry cargo to puerto rico and the Transportation Department said it was making 40 million immediately available to pay for road and