Of Naval Operations John Richardson and comidant robert miller. Good morning. The committee is meeting today to receive testimony on the plans and programs in the department of the Navy Fiscal Year 2018. I want to thank each of the witnesses for their distinguished service and is civilians they lead who are serving around the world today. In recent months, our nations senior civilian defense and military leaders have testified to this committee about the severe threats we face around the world. They have reported shortfalls and readiness that our military advantage over our potential adversaries is eroding and the dire need for new capabilities. And yet, as secretary mattis testified here on tuesday, the greatest immediate threat that our military faces is right here in washington. Fiscal uncertainty, continuing resolutions, arbitrary and inadequate caps on defense spending, four more years of the budget control act and the threat of sequestration. We desperately need a new approach. U
Assertive abroad. Thats just what we are doing. Thats something that we are addressing with this Regional Security strategy. Admiral harris, as i indicated in my opening remarks, theres concern about north korea. I recall when we met in singapore, you expressed significant concern. Can you just briefly give us your latest update about north korean activities . I might add, since china shared a border with north korea, are they at all being helpful or do they recognize the threat . Senator, i believe that as i have said before the north korea is the greatest threat that i face in the pacific as Pacific Commander. I think you have a leader in north korea who has Nuclear Weapons and is seeking to deliver them intercontinentally. That causes me great concern. He has 20 to 30,000 artillery pieces within a range of seoul amounting to several hundred thousand rockets that place 28,000 american troops plus their families in a 700,000 american citizens who live on the korean pa sin sue la in da
The forces and the presence of the pkk, none of these issues are easy and none of them are going to go away tomorrow. The kurds are fighting isis right now, they are kind of the pointy end of the spear, they are not perfect and they need more support in our view. I think eventually the International Community will come around to giving them that support. I would like to see it happen sooner rather than later. That does not mean theres not questions with the impact on the pkk, how turkey would address that, and nervousesness in iran and others. But the truth is, the most urgent challenge right now is defeating isis, and retaking the territorial integrity of iraq and syria. So long as thats an equation, none of the other issues can move forward and things are going to get worst and hundreds on of thousands of people are going die. So, i think we need to look at the kurds as an integral and essential part of the battle and treat them as an ally accordingly. And all the other issues. What
Why would you be interested in an insurance policy wax those files often contain the blueprint of the buildings he insured. Allied air forces have the blueprints particularly useful when theyre trying to figure out how to bomb the structures. In november 1942 just after the allies invasion of north africa, dulles slipped into switzerland with orders from donovan to penetrate nazi germany. In burnie set up what amounted to a mini cia running espionage operations funding guerrilla missions in occupied france and italy and inundating washington with Foreign Policy advice. Most of it unsolicited. They were not interested. For his step dulles recruited a handful of americans living in switzerland. One of them was married bankrupt, and american socialite who eventually became his mistress. He had scores of informants on his payroll. Many of them turned out to be professional snitches who often passed the same sequence to the germans in the morning, british in the afternoon and to dulles in t
Asia pacific area. So weve had those treaty obligations for a long time. A long, long time. Secretary cohen . If i can followup on secretary browns answer. I think we have to be concerned what china thinks. We are up to, and also be concerned about what the Asian Countries believe is necessary. As seen, china is number one trading partner replacing the United States, were number four. To say the u. S. Is trying to contain china would be to sea all of the members of asean are trying to contain china, which is not the case. They want to continue to do business with china. But they dont want to be dominated, as secretary brown said. And that is a reason why this strategy on the part of the United States makes sense in the sense of how its being pursued. To say we have 2500 marines in darwin, australia, is not a containment strategy against china although the marines think so. To say were going to rotate four combat ships through singapore is not exactly a change in the balance of power. A