in that cause we owe them our deep deep gratitude right now the united states has about one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty thousand combat forces in iraq and under the current plan will end this year with eleven combat brigades in sharing a stable iraq that the threat is neighbors or undermine other goals i don't expect when this is your day to have all the answers to the question the war in iraq is coming to a close but my suspicion is that these transitions will take years to work this is the first time this general has appeared before the committee my guess is general that you will be with us many more times in the days  you taking the time to be here today please pass all of the men and women in your command how much we are proud of their achievements and how much we appreciate their service this is a timely hearing while the focus in washington has shifted to afghanistan we can't lose sight of the enormous challenges before us in iraq we've made remarkable progress in iraq while and continues to stay at a level comparable to two thousand and three the combat part of the last remaining the issue therefore is not whether we won the war but whether we will win the peace in iraq when nationally lection set for january a referendum on the  horizon as well as other significant unresolved political hurdles like the status of kirkuk there are many unknowns that will determine the prospects of enduring domestic peace in iraq in parallel with iraq's demanding political calendar the president's february two thousand and nine plan calls for a dramatic reduction to the u s footprint in iraq by august two thousand and ten by next summer the president plans to decrease our troop strength by sixty percent in addition to closing bases and moving materiel out of the theater basic question first is it still safe to assume that the iraqi security forces will be able to assume security responsibility and that electoral politics will not tarry in violence these are the assumptions underpinning the president's plan this plan arguably made sense in february does it still make many of us here have consistently held the position that scheduling troop withdrawals in iraq should be based on the conditions on the ground general we'd like to hear from you on this subject do we have contingency plans in the event the security situation demands revisiting the august two thousand and ten timeline i'm concerned we may be biting off more than we can chew in iraq as we begin executing the president's redeployment plan we also need to keep an eye on the future what do we want the u s or rocky bilateral relationship to look like this leads me to concerns about the normalization of our relations with iraq after all we've invested in iraq we should be taking steps to ensure that we pursue a robust security relationship with baghdad our increase in combat forces would not the only reason the surge was successful rather ambassador crocker and general petraeus knew how to leverage our presence to ensure iraqi leadership made the right choices i'm concerned that we may be retreating from this posture too quickly in an effort to normalize our relationship with iraq we must remember this is an m on embryonic democracy as much as the situation in iraq has improved i think it's fair to say the situation is far from normal so long as we have a force presence in iraq our leadership should continue to improve itself in iraq a political involve itself in a rocky political affairs to ensure the right decisions are made robust and seems to be the key to a redeployment plan beyond  strategic and political military concerns there are a host of issues ranging from operational implementation of the advisory and assist brigades to the enormous logistical challenges of moving all of our equipment out of iraq accomplishing this all in such a narrow window of time as a her task even if we did not face what you rightly call drivers of instability i hope we can discuss these issues over the course of the hearing chairman skelton congressman mckeon and distinguished members of the committee thank you for providing me the opportunity today to appear before you to provide my assessment of the current situation the challenges in iraq and how our strategy is adapting in order to achieve the president's vision first i just want to tell you what a great honor it is to command multinational force in iraq having spent a significant amount of time in iraq i remain encouraged continuously involving environment but the one thing that remains constant is the demonstrated courage compassion and commitment of our soldiers sailors airmen marines coast guard men and civilians who continue to self serve i'm humbled by the opportunity to serve with and privilege to great americans but i also want to recognize the families of our service members who have sacrificed so much  continue to give their unwavering support in order to allow our servicemen and women the ability to focus on the mission at hand although challenges remain in iraq with the continued support of congress and the american america's continued commitment to iraq and stability in the region and they also reflect the maturing relationship and of operation between our two nations the strategic framework educational and cultural exchanges just to name a few the security agreement on our current military relationship within the context of iraqi sovereignty by regulating the temporary presen and activities of u s forces in iraq and directing the withdrawal of our forces from iraq by december thirty first two thousand and eleven implementing the security agreement this past january we have security forces the primary responsibilities within the cities and us combat forces departed the last remaining cities thirty was a major milestone for the government of iraq its security forces and the iraqi people and a first step in the iraqi security forces assuming full control of security in iraq the positive psychological impact has been profound the iraqis want to be in charge they want of the responsibility and they have demonstrated that they are capable after some initial coordination issues immediately following thirty june the strong partnerships that we have developed over the last several years in particular have grown even stronger today nine months after we begin implementing this and three months after u s combat forces departed the city we continue to make consistent deliberate progress in improving the security environment in iraq percent over the past two years four thousand and sixty four in august of two thousand and seven to five hundred ninety four in august of two thousand and nine with five hundred sixty five attacks  in that same time period u s military deaths decreased by ninety three percent iraqi security force deaths have decreased by seventy nine percent and ethno sectarian deaths have decreased eighty eight percent in fact there is compared to nine hundred seventy eight in two thousand and six additional improvised explosive device explosions have decreased seventy four percent but i remain the weapons of choice of the insurgents and terrorists inside of iraq the second charge shows high profile explosions that are specifically intended to have a large impact you can see that even after the iraqis assume and they continue to reassess their security posture government of iraq leaders reinforce national unity and the people responded today to the stabilizer iraq have failed the overwhelming majority of the iraqi people reject extremism we have seen no indications of a return to the sectarian violence that played a plague the rock in two thousand and six two thousand and seven let me now take a little bit of time to discuss the iraqi security forces overall the professionalism operational effectiveness of the approximately six hundred sixty three thousand strong iraqi security forces including two hundred forty five thousand soldiers and four hundred seven thousand police continue to improve thus both bolstering public confidence and trust in the iraqi security forces supported by u s forces iraqi security forces recently provided safe and secure environment but to my pilgrimage pilgrimage is in july and august which millions of pilgrims but dissipated and transited throughout iraq we continue to see signs of normalcy returning to riyadh iraq recently the first international soccer match was held in baghdad with over fifty thousand people in attendance and just last week i witnessed thousands of iraqis in the parks and streets across baghdad celebrating which is another indicator of the growing confidence in iraq the security forces expression the following the baghdad bombings just one month you can honestly feel a difference among the people in baghdad and around the large majority of iraq continues to focus on institutional training for the iraqi security forces and hansing a long term professionalism although small improvement improvement continues in logistics and the sharing and integration of intelligence and operations the regional operational center and provincial joint coordination center continue to improve iraqi security forces now in the across the entire country with u s forces advis individuals including fifty two al qaeda in iraq twenty three and fifteen sunni insurgents and since two thousand and six we have systematically decreased the number of foreign fighters entering security forces in the cities and u s forces conducting partner full spectrum operations in the surrounding belts and along the borders to deny extremists safe havens and reduce the flow of foreign fighters  we believe the iraqi security forces will develop the capacity to conduct internal and basic defense over the next two and one half years as we continue to draw down our forces as the sons of iraq program over twenty three thousand former sons of iraq transition to the iraqi security forces and other non security employment thousand and eight including over five thousand five hundred baghdad over the last two months although security is improving it is not yet enduring still remain underlying unresolved potential conflict drivers of instability from the beginning security iraq has been a complex problem that has required valving approaches and our strategy has reflected this in this environment we cannot focus on traditional security threats alone especially as the united states continues to assist  in rebuilding the foundations of the security civil political and economic institutions we continue to assist the game of iraq in addressing and finding ways to mitigate the causes of instability current nascent democracy emerging from thirty years of authoritarian rule based on sectarian privilege its future as a stable multi ethnic representative state rests upon its ability to deal with the challenges and some of these issues will take time to resolve the national elections in january of two thousand and ten are critical to determine the path that iraq will take into the future people based on their affiliations rather than their ability even as iraqi political system continues to mature there is not yet consensus on the exact nature of iraq's representative government  sharing and long standing issue government institutions continue to evolve and their ability to provide essential services is improving yet it will take time to develop the institutional process and bureaucratic experts necessary to sustain programs over time also decades of infrastructural require substantial capital investment and the recent across the corn in the price of oil the mainstay of the iraqi economy has resulted in negatively impacting the gum iraq's ability to fund its many requirements while demick corruption and mismanagement persist the government of iraq continues to focus on anti corruption efforts and there has been some progress in developing a culture of accountability for governmental officials despite their increased capacity and progress in providing security the iraqi security forces continue to face shortcomings and budget constraints due in part to the corning oil revenues that affect their current and future operational capacity including logistical support across the ministries we continue to assist and advise the ministries of defense and interior as they prioritize the minimum essential capabilities for foundational defense capability land and air before the withdrawal of u s forces in december  two thousand and eleven critical gaps remain in controlling and protecting iraq territorial war in iraq much of the struggle is all about power land and resources which is reflective in the arab y province we strongly support the united nations assistance mission iraq process promoting political dialogue and resolution of the issue while an external fissures stabilize the government of iraq and undermine the progress made to date interference from external actors continues to exacerbate the security situation with iraq through either tacit or direct support to extremists and combat mission will end our transition force in iraq will then focus on training iraqi security forces conducting targeted counterterrorism missions by with and through the iraqis protecting u s forces and others fifty thousand boots on the ground by thirty one august two thousand and ten transition force will consist of three division headquarters and six advise and assist which will specifically tailored to support iraqi civil development we have already begun deliberately drawing down our forces without sacrificing security from over one hundred forty three thousand five hundred troops and fourteen brigade combat teams on the ground in january we have approximately one hundred twenty four thousand troops and eleven brigade combat teams operating in iraq today by the end of october i believe will be down to one hundred twenty thousand troops in iraq as we go forward will then our lines across the iraq in order to bases deliberately and systematically in iraq we have also reduced our contractor footprint from one hundred forty nine thousand in january to just over one hundred fifteen thousand contractors today saving over forces headquarters for structure by forty percent while maintaining the overall capacity to command and control the force as we transition more and more responsibility to the government of iraq to the end of mission in two thousand and eleven over the course of this campaign nonlethal operations critical to our success as we change our mission and continue to draw down they will become even more vital i mean for him specifically the commanders emergency response program and information operations both of which are paid dividends so far this past spring following the seating of the provincial governments well the national force in iraq in concert with the state department led provincial reconstruction teams and the continue to exploit the information space to try and reverse our gains so i cannot overstate the importance of information operations in achieving our national goals in iraq over the gains we are transitioning to stability operations and we will continue to responsibly transfer responsibilities to the government of iraq the iraqi security forces and the u s embassy in baghdad through the f though the focus of our forces is shifting from security to capacity building our strategic goal remains to foster a long term partnership with a sovereign stable self reliant iraq we have a good plan  i'm confident in our way iraq is a state and society under construction struggling to find its identity and its place in the world after decades of oppression and violence the way in which we draw down our forces not only the relationship between us and iraq into the future but also the nature of the new iraq our presence through two thousand and eleven provide psychological and physical support to the iraqi people the government of iraq and the iraqi forces that provides the opportunity for different groups to build up their constituencies to participate in politics to form alliances and to reach consensus the level nature of u s engagement with iran will continue to change as the u s military draws down iraq is making steady progress but as a long way to go we must have strategic patience through the strategic framework agreement the united states has a mechanism for supporting iraq to develop and human capacity success will be defined by our ability support iraq's developing institutional capacity from governance to economics that will sustain iraq's long term stability iraqi forces have made steady progress in our efforts over the next two and a half  national elections that will determine the future direction of iraq having demonstrated tremendous resilience of the iraqi people are determined to make iraq something very different from what it once was iraqi security forces are uncovered covering many of these elements in southern iraq they have continued to go after individuals who have been trained inside of iran so that's a positive aspect but it's still very much a concern that they continue to fund and conduct operations of surrogate elements inside of iraq it appears that the future polls just are for success in iraq is the coming election from your vantage point today do you see that in a positive light i think these elections are extremely important for the government of iraq and i do believe that they will occur in a manner as i look at it today the important part about these elections is that this is the first election   elections are important those who are elected will set the stage for iraq over the next several years where they continue to move towards democratic process and an open economy and these will be very important sacrifice our country has made in bringing stability to iraq either satisfied with success or anxious to focus elsewhere many in washington are pushing to move on from iraq i'm worried that that has led some to dismiss the strategic importance of iraq please state for the american people what is at stake in iraq explain why it is the national security interest to keep combat forces there until september tw population iraq is moving towards a nascent democracy and wants to move towards an open economy and the ability that it would have to potentially contribute to billet in the middle east in the long term in my  want to move forward as a country that is respected as a democracy and can continue to develop its own economy with the vast resources that it has available to it yet been able to take advantage of it and so i think for those factors it's important for us to stay engaged we have spent as i said earlier we have spent a lot of money and i know you all know that we have spent a lot of personal sacrifice and security is headed in the right direction we don't want to lose that we want to give them the time in the space to continue this development while leaving our combat forces in there by  september first two thousand and ten allows them to go through their elections allows them to their new government and then allowing for two thousand and eleven allows them to continue to build their civil capacity so we can take advantage of the opportunities that we think iraq bring stability in the middle east every four years we hold an election to determine our president we do that in november and we well maybe you could explain the timeline of how their election works i have a different system of government and the election will be held in january but it will take a while to establish a government perhaps you could explain that pending the passing of the election law once the election is completed they take forty five days the results of the election and so what happens is we'll have hundreds of international  august and that will be sufficient then your idea of always being able to pull them out securely at that time i do you know i look at the first sixty days following the election as maybe the most critical time if we think there might will be a peaceful transition of power which we expect but that will allow us to ensure this peaceful transition of power and then not allow us to draw down the government down to a level of fifty thousand by the end personnel out of the theater we have done a complete inventory of all the equipment that is in iraq we understand what we have in iraq and that states so i feel confident that we have a good handle on this we have already started moving equipment out that we believe is no longer needed based on the withdrawal of some of our forces already and also on the change in mission that we have we've already sent out over one hundred fifty thousand pieces of equipment from iraq so we continue to do this on a regular basis we plan on in some ways using we have taken a look at carefully with army central command who is responsible for the logistics support they also are represented in the cell that we have established and we know what their capacity is we have to plan this in such a way because of the damage to some of the regular army equipment or you still have a lot of equipment that belongs to the national guard and reserve in iraq because i can't tell you exactly how much we have but over the years as we have i appreciate your leadership and fact i had two sons serve in iraq a reason i felt so comfortable about their service persons like you the capable american military leadership it was really reassuring as a parent  it's relative to a quick moment and that is as you execute the redeployment of personnel and equipment from iraq to what extent is it reasonable to simply move the equipment to afghanistan in your opinion capitalizing on that that we no longer needed and we expedited the movement of that equipment to afghanistan so we had data by those key pieces that are no longer needed iraq that are needed in afghanistan and those are move very quickly that we coordinate that is completely coordinated through protection troops and allies and general i understand that the relationship between the multinational forces iraq and iraq security forces is actually far more positive than the media portrays in fact on our tour we had the opportunity to see the new iraqi special forces and they have the latest most modern equipment in the world i've also noticed they have m two forty nine crew served weapons which are made by  manufacturing of richland county south carolina my constituents they're very proud to make those for our troops and for every rocky allies what is your assessment of the relationship and what measures can be taken to further improve joint commands operating in every one of those there are there are always anecdotal stories that will tell you that maybe there's not good relationships but i will tell you that the strength of the relationship between our leaders and their leaders continues today as we continue to support them as they move forward and the large majority of iraqi leaders are appreciative of the support that we continue to give as we move forward here and as they take more and more  transitioning responsibilities to the embassy as well as the governor of iraq as we withdraw our forces in two thousand and eleven and we plan on publishing this document sometime around the first of the year that will  i'm closer to the what's really going then you but let me just put for the record that i do believe we're getting out we're getting out of dodge and we're going to get it done sooner rather than later and  that we really are looking at our state department and other departments to get that other work done as we withdraw our troops general mr secretary i'd like both of you to answer this question general at the end of july you and secretary gates visited with kurdish leaders in erbil and you were widely quoted saying that the arab kurd tensions over disputed internal boundaries in national petroleum policy were the biggest problem facing iraq in fact you said arab kurd tensions are the number one driver of insecurity yet this morning when you began and you talked about the drivers you didn't mention this so my questions are do you still believe that the number one driver is insecurity or do you still think it's up there and what measures have been taken to manage and to reduce the tensions that are going on and  of course article one of the constitution of iraq provides for a face process of normalisation and referendum to determine the final final boundaries of the kurdish region within a democratic  process but some have said to me that they think the u s has to be more active in getting this one forty article issue done this process in fact when i asked secretary gates in front of this committee he said that the renegotiate and get the sides together so we have a u n commission now that is working very hard between the government and the kurdistan regional government to try to come to come to some agreement with these very difficult issues regarding areas in terms of boundaries as well as the sharing of hydrocarbon and resources so what we're doing what we're doing is we are fully in support of that effort we helped to reduce tensions between these groups we now have them in discussion and they are trying to come up with some sort of an architecture security architecture that will reduce tensions between the arabs and kurds so will be at such a level that everybody understands  that they will solve this problem through the political process and this is something that iraq has to solve this in iraq problem that the iraqis have to solve we have to be engaged at all levels that we will continue to be engaged  fifty feet off the ground and i my memory is very clear that i was much more disconcerted about that than you were and i just appreciate what a great soldier freedom you are i am convinced that when that day comes and we do get out of dodge that the streets of dodge will be much safer because you pass that way and no one knows the future no one knows what will happen in iraq you know i suppose there are two people that try to predict the future those who don't know and those who don't know they don't know but that said i think you have given iraq a chance to live in freedom and you may have brought a beachhead of freedom to the middle east that potentially could help the whole of humanity we're in a better direction and whatever happens beyond that i certainly salute you for your noble and gallant service i suppose it my first question is some degree along chairman skelton's question but  it has to do with power vacuums i know it's been said that u s presence if it if it disappears that there will be a power vacuum that could occur mahmoud ahmadinejad himself has been quoted saying quote the political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly soon we will see a huge power vacuum in the region of course we are prepared to fill the gap with the help of our neighbors and the regional friends like saudi arabia and with the help of the iraqi nation close quote now i know that iran has been implicated very clearly in making the explosive formed penetrators that are one of the great dangers to our troops there and so i guess taking into account the potential regional influence of iran may have how close a relationship do you envision iraq and iran to have in the future and how great a concern should that be when we're going to be discussing the amount type of u s forces that should remain in iraq for ongoing stability first i think we must always realize that iran iraq are neighbors and they're going to have a relationship but one thing over time that i have learned spending in iraq that iraq or national they really don't want anyone interfering in their internal politics and they want iraq to be for iraq and i think it's important to remember that as we move forward again i think i think the important part about the term that the president used his responsible drawdown and that's why that's so important to do it slowly deliberately so we are able to draw down to such a way where the rocky security forces continue to all the other civil capacity builders continue to grow and that allows iraq to stand up as a country who can resist some of these outside forces who might have attempt to have und your testimony that quote we must leave iraq with a security force capable of defending the iraqi people and protecting the government of iraqi institutions obviously that's that's the long term goal that we all want very very cogent remarks what in the final analysis is your biggest concern with achieving this goal what can we do to make sure that happens what can the congress do i think you carry congress on your back this whole time so i just want to make sure that you can give us and i would just say is fire that what we need to you we also need to continue to support them in some way beyond two thousand not by having troops in iraq but by helping them to continue to develop their institutions and we can have an influence on that so we have to make sure that we allow them to do that and we keep that in mind as you reported elsewhere i believe that that will contribute to our own security and stability in the region well thank you general my time is gone but i thank you for again these attacks against innocent civilians absolutely mean nothing to the outcome and all it does is kill innocent people and it's frustrating to us and it's frustrating to the iraqis and that's what we're trying to stop inside of iraq framework of the status of forces agreement for several months now are there anything about those remarks that need to be adjusted or tweak that that you need help with from a legislative sample what is it for terms of filling out the rest two or three years are involved that would make it easier or better from your perspective i think i'll be honest with you i've been pleased and frankly it's turned out better than i probably rejoiced thought it would as we walked into this but i think it's because again i go back to the relationships the relations built with a game of iraq has allowed us to execute this agreement in a very fair appropriate manner i think we have the authorities we need inside of the security agreement to execute what we need to do it also importantly puts the iraqis out front although we're still conducting combat operations we do everything through the rocks i think that's what we where we want to be today because we want to slowly give them more and more responsibility so i feel comfortable so  far with the agreement as it's written all right one last question as it relates to the risk that the elections will come off of january other that they're not being put in the form and election laws what other risks do you see that if those elections won't be  to come down a little bit and what we've been able to do with iraqi security forces taking responsibility inside of the cities that's allowed us to move outside the belts around those one also move towards the border  with syria which has made it much more difficult for foreign fighters other groups to transit so i think because of that we're starting to see a reduction in some of the capacity up there but the currents concern goes back to their attempt still a bit resilient and they still are able to conduct operations they we have been able to to cut into their finance network a bit like a mafia organization money from many small businesses in order to fund their operations and we're very we realize that and we are going after that working with iraqis we believe if we can really go after the funding it will sniff limit what they're able to do  continue to progress over the next two and a half years we continue to fund some of the things they need i believe that they will be ready and will be able to handle the groups that are remaining the development of the iraqi special operations forces continue to provide security for the provincial reconstruction teams and other n g o s and u n individuals who want to still work with building civil capacity so that will be what they do and also always provide protection for our force but that will be what they do and so what we've done is we better organize them to do that mission we do some of that today but we really were organized more for combat operations and not for training and iraq in two thousand and five two thousand and six with united states marine corps working with sunni arabs in a civil affairs capacity and one thing i noticed from the population is that they expressed a concern to me that the was foreign fighters are coming in at a rate of ninety percent less than what it was back then there's very few the come across every month and once they get into country they have difficulty maneuvering but there are still some that are coming  in we are seeing a smaller and smaller group and it's and in some cases i would argue it's moving more to criminality than it is an insurgency but it's hard sometimes to determine the difference whether it's criminal activity or today or are they still largely depends on the united states or increasingly independent they are better but they're still not where they need to be to be completely independent they still need our support part of the individuals to fill the positions that's part of the problems you're working with them now to ensure that happens overall we have seen improvement but it's not yet where we believe they can be in order to counter corruption we are still we have seen the rest of two trade ministers involved in corruption we have seen the firing of some generals involved in corruption so they are starting to understand the importance of government officials being accountable for their actions and the fact that corruption will not be accepted i still think we will have years in order for them to solve this problem but they are beginning to move on the right  visiting you i think when they write the history books of this whole conflict your service is going to stand out in terms of your persistence and i think again the fact that there are so many empty seats in this room is  a statement on how successful you've been two years ago this topic you couldn't move and a committee hearing room and and again i think that by itself said a lot one of the other things that two years ago s embassy and you're in a different physical location and as congresswoman sanchez indicated the political challenges facing iraq are as much a part of the endgame here as it was two years ago how is the relationship between the ambassador how how often do you interact and what efforts are still being made by us to keep moving forward on the political and thank you so much for the question first we interact every single day  we probably meet personally three four times a week i have an office in the embassy that i am in but i also have about three hundred people with an m and a five that are actually in the embassy that are that are in support of economic police training other agencies planning that are there every single day working with the embassy so we're completely integrated at every level we continue to be completely integrated well dating this join campaign plan which also it's a joint plan between baster hill and myself we are working this very hard very closely together it's very important because it really is going to set what the deliverable we didn't do it quite right we have a chance now we've got to make sure we have the planning and the deliverables necessary to make sure this works as we reduce our presence and we're hand in here in doing a joint process with the embassy and i feel very comfortable with this together on a daily basis as i told the only thing that i disagree with every day is that he's a red sox player in the media and so besides that we do pretty well while i have to side with the state department on that issue july when we were over there about the fact that it was still kind of new to people but we're trying to get it done at the street level rather than have it go up wondering how do you find that you have to kind of referee or at least the system requires refereeing if i issues and so what we try to do is play a role that allows iraqis to solve it with us facilitating the process for them to solve these problems and that's a that's a change in mindset that we have to have it's not that we have less leverage that our leverage is different today than what it was and it needs to be different because of the security agreement because we recognize their sovereignty we want them to build the capacity to solve these problems themselves so it's our responsibility to make sure things some of the some of the money we asked was originally used to pay the sons of iraq and that was the first two hundred forty seven million return the iraqis took over the payments of the sons of iraq that's why we said we needed this we turned it over the other the other thing is we we also had two hundred seventy billion of iraqis that they gave us so we use their money before using our money so both of those combinations allowed us to turn back some money in the other thing is you know we're very careful that we will not do projects that we know we cannot track and make sure they're successfully completed and so sometimes we don't have the capacity to ensure that these projects are done done properly and they're finished properly so i think that all of those contributed to turning the money back into but i do want to still a very important program we still need some sort of money next few years to do this but it will be a request that's obviously less the what has been  you're an old hand to afghanistan thanks for being here today general you said to us in my last trip there in june that the number december january february will be the key months two months two months before the election two months after the election as to whether we'll be able to continue the drawdown and i think you mentioned here today that i don't foresee that happening but violence will be that will be one of those things that we look at is that the only thing that possibly spike in violence that would cause you to at is what are those potential points of instability that could cause us to have concern about the seating of the government and the successful will they be able to continue peacefully as we move for the last election i recall it took comes out of the oil industry right now one of the things that they're doing in october there will be an investment conference held here twentieth and twenty first where we have a lot many of the rocky leadership coming over to meet with u businessmen they've done the same thing in london already and these are the kind of things that we have to do to attempt to diversify the economy they still have some work to do an investment that they have to pass they are working those now and i'm hopeful that maybe before the october meeting they will pass one of these investment on there's some indication they might be able to do that but want to wait and see so it's important that they start to develop an atmosphere where  there's lots of opportunity in iraq for investment but it's about does it have the environment for investment and that's what we have to continue to help them to focus on i think i also believe getting a new government in will help i think we'll see the iraqi government continue to mature i think this the next government we more mature than a lot of them understand the process more than understand their roles and i think that will help them to also work some of these key issues that have to be worked in be the highest number on record i know the highest number since two thousand and three and i think it's actually the highest number even before that so that's a positive sign that they're six point six million children the school their universities are now developing will delay ships with u universities we have we know that some of the land grant universities around the u s have visited and are conducting regular engagements with them and exchanges come over act also approved four point five million dollars  in grants for iraqi students to a fulbright scholarship for iraqi students to study around the world mostly in the united states and western europe so i think these are all positive steps that are starting to be  taken them to continue to educate their population the iraqis have always been a fairly educated population but there has been some problem with that based on what's happened here in the aftermath of two thousand and three but we see that starting to generate regenerate itself and we're encouraged but there's still quite a bit of work to do in the strategic framework agreement this is one of the strong parts of this agreement is the cation piece thank you very much thank the ge equipment in iraq do you really believe that we can be totally out of there by the end of two thousand and eleven that number and all the other numbers attend and do you plan for the army requirements to close up the bases even with the environmental requirements as you know in korea they've been close intimate but they put a stop to them because they haven't followed the correct procedures nor have we funded for are you planning to help expedite the turnover more those pieces of equipment because it's a large difference between two hundred fifty thousand and thirty one million first if i could i believe it's three point one  when we say three point one million of course that goes in the smallest piece of equipment up to several different kinds as we close our bases we have a very sophisticated process that we go through that includes environmental assessment based on the security agreement that we signed with the government of iraq which addresses this issue and they have to go through very specific points in order to turn so i feel confident that we are following what we agreed to in this with the governor of a rock on how we turn over these bas in some cases it takes nine months the ten months to do this so the important part is we're able to identify this ahead of time in order to have the time to do things in addition many of these bases watch will be turned over they won't be closed they will be turned over to the is iran consistently comes through this committee and almost any security briefing in the general area of southwest asia the middle east whether it's afghanistan or tomorrow's hearing  defense and you spoke a lot of iran but over the last couple years i was struck by several comments that had been made one was by the intelligence agency when they sat before the committee and said if we are not there believe iran will work for stability in iraq the second one was made by general i can vary as he departed afghanistan as a general and when i asked if iran works towards our same objectives in afghanistan as we do he replied yes they do they want stability and they don't like al qaeda because they're sunni the third one was the an i e d that came out about two thousand and seven in testimony here the intel just meet again i testified that with regard to foreign policy and security decisions iran takes a cost benefit or pretty much rather than a headlong rush to a decision you know regardless of cost or benefits to its diplomatic political and other goals you've worked and you can't miss it particularly in this job and you brought up iran a number of times what perspective can you provide us because iran continue to be brought up in almost any security briefing that you can provide us rather than they cause mischief and north vietnam cause but what is that what can we you take away to give us of how to deal with this nation in view of those three statements that say you know maybe this nation overall much like other nations we've had to deal with has similar goals mccombs about of a different way i would just say first on if we were if we went there to believe that they would conduct attacks but it's hard to say you know what i would tell you is i know right now that on a daily basis they conduct attacks against iraqi security forces with no u s forces around so i'm not sure that quite tracks with with with that statement doctrine is being reinvented right now in general you've been you've been praised eloquently here all just backed that up by saying thanks for letting us walk up to the men and women that have served in iraq and say thanks for went and i think that's important first question is  if you could both put your heads together and say i think we've been to two and a half maybe three generals mckiernan macneil now mcchrystal in afghanistan during the time that you've been in charge of iraq what lessons learned would you like to see brought over to afghanistan from iraq that you haven't seen well i would just say first i've been as you said i've spent a large majority the last several years in iraq so i don't pretend to understand the environment in afghanistan in order to understand how what could be applicable inside of iraq as one of the lessons i've learned is you've got to understand the environment and you've got to understand what are the social economic polit issues that underpin the reason why violence is occurring so the one thing i and i will from what i've seen general mcchrystal is doing exactly this is outlining what are the underlying factors that are  causing the instability inside of afghanistan you've got to take a whole government approach to solve those problems and so i can't tell you specific as i don't understand of armor enough in afghanistan but i can tell you that from everything i've read that he is understands  completely and understands a fact that it is a complete approach that has to be taken to solve the problem there just like it we needed to do that in order to solve the problem iraq and we'll continue to need to do that until we leave in the end of two thousand techniques and procedures it was about a surge of the state department people as well in order to create provincial imbedded provincial reconstruction teams with the brigades it was about an outreach program to the sun insurgents that allowed them to begin to reconcile and form the sons of iraq it was about it was about understanding what was causing the underlying impacts and that we tried to go in iraq and afghanistan different people different kind of violence different area actual terrain but if you take something from iraq and put it in afghanistan maybe of lessons learned things way that we did internally that said there are common principles in good counterinsurgency that can be transported and i think general mcchrystal is doing some of that now to focus on protecting the population as a core mission for forces in the well in iraq you know we have a major review going on right now at the white house afghanistan pakistan strategy and that's probably about as much as i'd like to say now i'm out of time thank you b have we have twenty seven locations some are satellite locations now we provide the security for them and all of those areas when we plan our drawdown one of the considerations we take into place is the breach of the provincial reconstruction teams and we have coordinated with the state department how we will do this so they will be able to maintain a fairly significant number sixteen is that we're looking at throughout the country and we'll be able to continue one of the main missions of the  security for the provincial reconstruction teams to make sure that they have the access necessary we don't forsee that that will be at some point the artes will have a rocky troop security only iraqi troops for security but i think we will slowly turn that over to them so when we get to post two thousand and eleven that they would be able to do that that would be part of the process as you had mentioned earlier in this question i think mr schuester about economic investment coming from abroad what's the current status if you know in terms of the year i guess that we use where diaspora iraqis who have left the country to jordan other countries are they returning are they not returning they are returning but in very small numbers to the will provide the opportunity for those not interact with the that would be part of the election was a movement we focus a lot here in the congress the american people to do on troop strength so i think some time to our detriment that we should the state department side they we do watch that they are what they're trying to determine is part of our joint campaign plan they will determine the number that is needed as we transition and i think that number will not go down i think fact in june we closed out we finished reenlistment and we met all of the goals so i mean i think that's also a sign of morale they're proud of what they've accomplished in iraq and starting to see some of the progress that's been part of their sacrifice as you to conduct medical evacuation and i am absolutely confident that we can provide medical evacuation of all of our soldiers sailors or marines that are currently stages iraq have any helicopters helicopter pilots that they do their own medical baghdad the commander of the baghdad operation came back said i want to slow down the movement of the sons of iraq into the other non security ministries i want to keep them on longer because of what they for us in order to help us in the transition them and take care of them in two thousand and nine when they had all the budget cuts the only line that was not cut was sons of iraq and they continue to have fully funded so i think those are all positive signs what i have to make sure happens is  they will lock in a mall transition to the ministries by the end of two thousand i want to make sure that that will be taken care of in two thousand and ten and we will work very hard with the reconciliation committee of the government of iraq in order to do that i didn't see it in your  pre war levels of electricity to the average actually they are above the pre war levels they are producing i think it's average one hundred fifty five thousand megawatts what that means basically is about twenty thousand twenty percent increase from last year and even more importantly is they have less units now going offline so what they're able to do is maintain a more stable grid that said although they're producing more electricity still have some problems with this and so they have some problems in some areas of distributing distributing electricity to all the people so i would my guess is you run into some iraqis who have an increased other problem of course is demand has increased five fold since two thousand  and if you're not given enough time it can have an impact not only on the soldier but the family so number one is we've got to try to increase the amount of time between the points where they can enjoy their families get settled again understand build those relationships and then  hold the fact that we have more counselors the fact that we continue to have more awareness it's really about leadership awareness and leadership in the chain of command to recognize when an individual has programmed i'm seeing some progress at least in iraq itself i can't speak for the army as a whole but i can speak for in iraq itself but we still have too many so we still have more to do and again it's always disappointing to me is it's not because people don't care but when you when you when you break down a suicide you always find three or four plays if somebody intervened we could stop the act from happening and so we've got to do is understand where those intervention points are and then we have over to first outline to all the contractors what's expected of them in terms of proper safety requirements and and we've also offered them any assistance that they might need with task force to go look at all of their know i'm not sure we made a conscious decision not to inspect them i think what we focused on was the department of defense personnel and i think as we continue to expand this we will look but but there are some contractual issues that we have to work through to take a look at this to see what we can and can't do because the fact they are contractors so we are working our way through this now  highlighted a problem that we all didn't understand at the time and so we continue to work what i'm telling you to work on this problem now we have to go through some legal reviews and other things we have offered some initial assistance just to make sure we don't have well so that those in a whole nother issue about how we do this or we're working through this because we want to get rid of the bureaucracy so we save the lives of the people who are going there to work and that's important serve this country as well and i really don't understand it because i know go back and more legislation to address this issue and that's something that i think they have to do internally but accountable and justice law has been something that's been very difficult to implement because  it has not appeared to make sense based on some of the individuals that would no longer be allowed to work we've been serving honorably for several years already within the system so the government knows that they have to address this problem but it's still iraq i think there are what you don't see anymore as large movement of shia militia control areas but what you have now is militant groups that don't control or conduct attacks for  i think so we've seen the militia element move in there ability in what they do and their and their abilities so although they continue to be a threat because they do conduct attacks against both u s forces and for your parents for your excellent thank you for the service that you're rendering you are making history and your leadership in iraq for our country and we thank you for that