Vice President Biden it is genuinely an honor to be a before such a distinguished audience. Ambassador, thank you. She is a senior Vice President. I am just a Vice President. [laughter] vice President Biden these days, i dont like the word Senior Associated with my name. [laughter] vice President Biden i like to say to the ambassador, it is an honor to have you here today. Military officers men and women and brian how are you doing brian . Good to see you. Next week, the Prime Minister will make his first visit to washington dc. This provides us with an opportunity to take stock of where things stand right now. That is going to be the focus of my remarks today. Critics have made a number of claims regarding our policy in iraq and the state of affairs in iraq today. They say iraqs fight against i sil that i American International coalition has been stalemated. Isil remains in a commanding position inside a rat, that ran isil is dominating iraq and iraq itself is likely to be a thing of