mr. lenderking: thank you, mr. chairman. first of all, we are dealing with an organization now designated as a terrorist organization that simply thinks the rules don't apply to it. they are backed by a common denominator of a range of threats around the region by iran, which provides weapons, intelligence, financial support, and training, and they, too, have an agenda, and that is to try to get the united states to be part of the middle east. these are the actors we are dealing with them and what our strikes are intended to demonstrate, first of all, is that we will continue to degrade and remove their capabilities if they continue to conduct these attacks. we will also try to interdict as much as we can and work with our partners on that. we will, of course, defend those who are transiting the waters. we will be prepared to take additional actions if there are, obviously, action against us or our people. we have demonstrated that clearly in our responses to the tragic attack on tower 22 in jordan. there was a very strong u