These things take time because we work with indigenous forces. We are using Iraqi Security forces to conduct the ground operations. As you pointed out, we have also said that you cannot do this with just power alone, and has to be a complement of fires and maneuver forces on the ground. Our approach is to generate those forces by training and equipping Iraqi Security forces. We are as we have halted isils advance into iraq we started the business of training and equipping new Iraqi Security forces so that they will have the ability to train and take back their borders and secure their sovereign spaces. Roger wicker is there any prospect of saudi forces being there in numbers that will be significant . Uae, jordanian forces, to have a police force and not much else. General austin they all have some capability. Not all of them have volunteered to come forward and put boots on the ground in iraq. Iraq needs to want to be able to take that on and take those forces in, but this point, as you look at what saudi is dealing with in yemen, it is currently focused on that. To answer your question, there is capability with the countries in the region, but none no countries have come forward to volunteer to put boots on the ground in iraq. Roger wicker thank you. Good luck to you. I appreciate your determination and resolve. I hope you are successful as you believe you will be. General austin we will be successful, sir. Joe donnelly can you talk about the psychological component of your preservation of the force and Family Program . General votel we are looking at a variety of things. We are looking at peertopeer programs to provide access to family members to reach out and talk to their friends and their peers about that. I think this is a comportment i think this is an important component. We to make sure our chapters of all trade in the ability to identify those behaviors that we take our related to stress which can lead to suicide. Third, i think one of the most important things we are doing is trying to send a clear message across the entire force that it is absolutely normal and expected to ask for help when you need it. And you can do that without concern of stigma or any concern about your standing within the command. We are putting we are working double time to put effort on that particular theme and message. The real census of our program is to empower people by communicating early and often by trying to enable them, to give them easy access to programs and resources so they can get help. Joe donnelly will you work with us to help us take the lessons you have learned and work with the other parts of our military . General votel absolutely. Joe donnelly thank you. It appears that efforts in tikrit are stalled at the moment. One of the areas i am looking at is how do we empower cities sunnis . The concern would be why do you want to team up with the Shiite Militia when isis is also sunni . They may be like the back cousin that shows up at the event, but they are still your cousin. How do we empower the moderate sunnis . Do see this as a key to success in iraq . General austin i believe that getting the sunni population involved is really, really important in terms of being successful going forward. You are right. The previous operation in tikrit did stall because i think the wrong approach was taken. Many forces that were being employed were not controlled or supervised by the ministry of defense or the government of iraq. That has recently changed. As of the last several days. Yesterday, we started supporting this effort, we think that this effort will begin to move forward with the employment of the special Operations Forces in the help of our enablers. I think it is absolutely key that the government has to be accommodating to both the sunni and the kurd population. We have to increasingly get the sunnis involved. Joe donnelly can you help make that happen . A lot of the folks surrounding him or so from the previous administration. You had extraordinary experience with all the service you have done with our country. Can you help to identify the key sunni moderate leaders to make them part of this . Is that what is going to you look at you say we think we are going to get it right this time how do you think this turns out . General austin to answer both of your questions, we continue to encourage the leadership in iraq to be more accommodating to the sunni population. And do some things that are demonstrable. That increases their confidence in the leadership and the government. And you may know that we are helping the Iraqi Security forces in the government of iraq reach out to the tribal elements and bring in some of those elements to train and equip them and get them involved in the fight. Those that we have trained and equipped, have performed remarkably well. Joe donnelly thank you. Deb fischer is this part of a strategy that accepts moderate risk . Are we less able to knit those problems in the bod nip those problems in the bud general votel i think all commanders constantly balance risk. I think that is what i am principally paid to do. As a move forward and continue to deal with changing conflict situations, i think it gets down to prioritization. For us, what we will attempt to do is offset the risk that is associated with increased operations by ensuring that we prioritize operations that we will have the biggest impact to support the broadest national objectives. Deb fischer is libya a place where we will accept risk . General votel from my perspective, we are looking at the things we can do to address threats in libya. Deb fischer rodriguez, in your opening statement, you say libyan risk is going. If left unchecked i believe they have the highest potential among security challenges on the continent to increase risk to u. S. And european Strategic Interests in the next two years and beyond. You also described libya as a merging of a safe haven where terrorists like al qaeda and the labonte affiliated groups can train and rebuild with impunity lavevantaffiliated groups can train and rebuild with impunity. You think our approach to libya is not adequate . Are we accepting too much risk . General rodriguez thank you senator. To make sure everybody is clear on what we are doing in libya, there is a significant effort in libya to prevent that from spilling over. When you look at what is happening in tunisia in niger and chat and egypt, we are working with partners as much as we can to strengthen their capacity to limit the spillover of that effort. We are also working with our European Partners to increase their effort there and we are supporting at this point in time the u. N. Effort to come to a diplomatic solution and anything past that will require a policy decision. Deb fischer how would you rate the success of the efforts you described, the spillover, the work with European Partners . General rodriguez the work with our partners has gone well with the exception of one or two sensational tactics you read about in tunisia. Their capacities have continued to grow and they can handle that threat every day, as does niger and chad. The work of the european efforts and the u. N. Has on have as much progress as anybody wants. Deb fischer general votel if i can return to that idea of moderate risk. Over the long term, do you think that if we see risk continue to increase and the smaller problems continue to accumulate, how do we prioritize that . If they are viewed as smaller problems at the time, but if they continue to escalate and become greater risks to this country not just the region they are how are you going to prioritize . How are you going to address it . Do you have the resources you need . General votel thank you. I think i have the resources i need to support commanders. What i think we will do for the future as i mentioned in my opening comments i think sof plays a role in the gray zone. Before we get to open conflict. The important piece i bring to the geographic commanders is our ability to come in and help shape and develop partnerships to help build cassidy and support relationships in all of those areas so that we can strengthen partners before big problems go into before small problems go into big problems. I think that is the direction in which we should be focusing. Deb fischer General Rodriguez do you have a response ec . General rodriguez that is done by policymakers. The addition to the risk is what our partners can handle and what they are doing them selves. We prioritize it based on the role of Government Agency efforts who can help most in different places. I could that is what is done every day in the defense department. Deb fischer thank you gentlemen and thank you for your service. Claire mccaskill sechrist ration, we have to be honest about the challenges we have. Well have a lot of time in terms of rhetoric we are now going further down the road of using boko as a slush fund. If not fiscal accountability, it is not good for restoring face to the American People. And not retreat to rhetoric and gimmickry that is not really true. We are not going to build as my colleague said we are not going to build a px with oko funds. Do you believe that the army can buy back strength with these funds . General austin i do not, senator. Claire mccaskill can the navy address the shortfalls in shipping . General austin no, maam. Claire mccaskill i think we got to be and i know we dont come to this is clean hands with democrats, because we dont come a we have engaged with gimmickry also i know the chairman wants to face this headon and i know it is a challenge in a political environment. But i did want to bring it up but we have obviously not met the challenge with the government as it is currently configured. I want to specifically ask you general austin, but something troubling to me. I have been told that there has been a determination that Operation Freedom Sentinel is a new Contingency Operation. You see it as a new Contingency Operation . General austin its a continuation of our efforts senator. In terms of the types of things we are doing, we continue to train and advise and assist the Afghan Security forces. In terms of how we account for the funding that we are allocating to that, that is a different issue. Claire mccaskill the reason i ask is i am told that there is an effort on the way of naming a new lead Inspector General and afghanistan as opposed to the Inspector General on afghanistan and if that determination is made, i just want to make sure everybody understands that is going to pose additional burdens and terms of contracting, oversight, i know there is continuity but i dont understand the value right now of changing Inspector Generals. At this point, the projects are ongoing that the specter general in afghanistan is aware of and is working on i dont get it. If there is really a sincere attempt to replace them, by labeling this as a new contingency, somebody is going to half to have explained to do i think it to me and i hope others on this committee as to why that would be a good idea. Are you aware of an effort to do that at this point . General austin im not aware of the effort, but certainly, i will find out, i will look into it. Claire mccaskill that would be terrific. As you know, we work closely with the Inspector General in afghanistan, i think the body of work they have done is incredibly helpful to our nations the lee terry as we look at how we honestly confront sequestration. One of the ways as being better stewards of the resources that we have allocated to these efforts. General rodriguez, i understand that most of the Service Members deployed to africa as part of the Ebola Response operation have begun returning home. Is there any effort to keep track of the number of contractors around this effort and how many of them have been pulled and how many remain in ebola as we continually try to stay on top of contractor costs . General rodriguez there is a strict accounting that has been done. We were very cognizant of the challenges with contractor oversight and also paying too much money for contracts. We have a strict accounting. Claire mccaskill we would love it if you would share it with our office. Also, general austin, if you could share with us how many contractors have been left in iraq as a result of our efforts against isil. We have gotten to the point will be were just counting contractors in afghanistan and now we are county contractors in iraq, we would appreciate an update on that number also. General austin i will take that for the record. Claire mccaskill thank you so much. Thank you mr. Chairman. General austin the forces that are clearing tikrit are special Operation Forces and police. As of this morning, when i took my commanders, the shia lucia and the pmf have pulled back. I am sure they are still in the area, and there are probably forces on the east side of the river and, as you know, the city of tikrit is on the west side of the river. To my understanding he was not in tikrit or in that area. Mr cotton general austin we caused the Iraqi Security forces to develop the new birth that can effectively accomplish the mission of clearing the town. Our fires are supportive of that effort. So we are focused on that. We always do everything that we can to ensure that there is not excessive collateral damage. At focus is on the isf forces be are supporting. Would you consider all lateral damage to include in the vicinity of an airstrike . General austin i would consider that unintended consequences. Freedom of movement in iraq . General austin i believe he does, senator. Six month ago, president obama cited yemen as a success is ample as a counterterrorism example. You think yemen is a success . General votel it certainly put us in a different posture right now. It is much more challenging today than it was when we had people on the ground. General austin, do consider it a Success Story . General austin jim is a very troubled country today with the challenges it is facing in the activity of the houdis, i think the country is in turmoil. General austin, approximately 10 months ago, the president released five taliban commanders in exchange for by history to command, i believe the agreement expires in two months, is that correct . General rodriguez i believe that to be correct. In qatar when that expires . General austin i dont know senator will do have freedom inside and out of qatar . General austin i think we would have to consult the carter government. Qatar government and also our government would discharge with monitoring the movement of these elements, i cannot answer that senator. I cannot take that for the i can take that for the record and do research on that. I would like to get answer for the record. Think you, general austin. Given the situation in yemen, if their actions by militants there to block the mendez straight, i assume that American Forces would immediately act to reopen that straight . General austin we would work in conjunction with our gcc partners to make sure that those straits remain open. It is one of our core interests to make sure that we have flea flow of con General Rodriguez we would work with the host nations of africa and europe to support those efforts. Make you, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Senator mccain for the record, i would like a response to the question. Do you consider yemen a Success Story . Yes or no . General rodriguez it is not a Success Story. Thank you. When the president made the statement, he was talking about antiterrorism statements. General votel i believe the described. He was not talking about yemen itself, he was talking but the success of counterterrorism against a q ap. Naturally, the deterioration of the situation in yemen has come is that, i follow up question is how much is that copyright . Are we able to maintain that effort against a q ap or is that aqap or is that pending the Dust Settling in yemen . General votel will work in conjunction with general austins headquarters and our other partners in the area to look at how we regain Situational Awareness to understand what is happening on the ground looking at how we can continue to address the threats that emanate from yemen. Thank you. I want to associate itself with senator mccaskills comment about sequestration. It obviously doesnt go to the base budget, it is on paid for it is just absolutely the wrong way to approach this problem. I hope that congress can find a more realistic and responsible solution to sequestration. Also, general austin, again without being because you talk to send it only about this, it seems to me that it is critically important that we use the leverage we have, which apparently was used in the tikrit battle to make sure that this isnt a Shiite Militia led offensive because, if this becomes another version of a war of shiites against sunnis, we have lost. This has to be inclusive, and i hope they do relationship with the president of the Iraqi Government emphasizes that because it is essential a successful outcome in iraq. Regardless of the short term strategic advantage in tikrit or mosul. Would you agree with that . General austin i would. I take every opportunity to emphasize those exact points to the leadership in iraq when i engage them. It sounds like this airstrike the last couple of days in tik rit were conditional that can a consideration it is that correct . General austin the operation had to be in control of the government of iraq. There had to be a force once the city is cleared to maintain stability in that city, that force needs to be in Iraqi Security force and so those things, those conditions were met early on. In terms of the planning and the synchronization, and so we were able to provide some support agnus king icu can argue th