is perceived by the proper -- by the people to be a problem. we need to help them at every level, partnering with them to work out corruption. i do not think there is a way we can suddenly take a society that after 30 years of war has developed some bad habits and bring it out suddenly. i do think constant pressure on it at the ministerial level, and i would partner with the team to define people in each level to work, and more locally, p.o.t.'s to reduce it. it is one of the things that must be reduced for the government to be legitimate and for the people to trust it. >> do you see us having any success of their long term, absent a functioning -- "clean" is probably too much of the word to use, but an accountable and effective government in that

country? . legitimate. >> i want to come back to one other question. it has to do with one -- the issue of the command structure, and i think that is sometimes hamper our efforts and critics often point out the part of the problem in afghanistan is the lack of a unified effort among our allies, and we managed to cripple our effort because there is not what ordination or vision and there is confusion about strategy and tactics and operations and those sorts of things. things. you have touched on this already. i would address this to you, admiral, to establish a more unified effort, especially as we contemplate putting more troops into afghanistan. >> of the first point i'd make

is it is not as clean and unified as we might like. the nation of coalition warfare is to bring a number of partners together with different values and goals and habits and at the end of the day you have to judge whether you get more from fighting as a coalition then you give up by not having enough sleep. historically, i think we get more out of being a coalition. it is like democracy, you pay for a certain lack of order but the benefits are so great. we have to work to it by over communicating and constantly staying wire. there ought holy things we can do that would make us more effective. -- there are things we can do to make us more effective. >> i would agree. they are complicated, but they are not unworkable. i believe that the communication and the friendship between

myself, general mcchrystal, general petraeus, we will all be very effective. and then we will turn in war with our allies to create a pallet on which we can paint are different pictures and then have it come out as a picture we want. >> a vote has begun after this. we will then identify this. excuse the interruption. >> in your efforts, as she strengthened and build relationships, this issue of caveat is problematic. if you talk to troops are commanders it continually comes up, and it really does undermine our ability to be affected. i understand there are limitations when you are dealing with a coalition effort like

this, but i really hope you can hone in on that and see if we can perhaps provide some relief for some of our allies. >> we spoke earlier about the importance of these teams that we are going to bring together and that is at the very top of the priority list and i would say the caveat would be the next. i read every one of the 69 caveat that applied to the various nations involved in this. it is complicated. it is worth mentioning that 18 of the 42 countries are caveat free. there are those who cannot place caveat among themselves. by working with our allies, and try to find where the red balloons -- the red lines are

and we are getting closer to those every day. i think is an area where we will be working very close together. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you very much to our panel for being here. also, congratulations on the nominations. also, think he to your families. i know families are great supporters of what you do. i know your outstanding leadership is due to the support of your families. thank you all for being here. general fraser, i would like to thank you very much for your steadfast leadership over the past year in the pacific command.

the proud men and women of the pacific command have met the challenges of a very demanding region and that want to thank you for your service as she moved on to the southern command. as you know, it is critical to our u.s. strategic objectives. if confirmed, what would be your top priorities for the region? >> thank you, senator. i see two basic issues. in my role there, it is the basic defense in defending the southern approaches to the united states. i think the big thing within the region is an international an interagency approach. the issues require us to take that approach, and so if i am

confirmed, that is my goal, to continue what admiral stavridis has done and that is engaged with the military in the region and in gays in the interagency is an internationally -- and engaged in de interagency spent internationally. >> thank you. i know you did spend your young life in that area, and for me, being knowledgeable of the culture of these areas makes a difference in the command their. general mcchrystal, according to secretary gates, the goal in iraq is to have a soldier in their medical facility within one hour of being wounded, in afghanistan, the response time

has been closer to two hours. i applaud the initiative of secretary gates and his defense budget to improve the medical evacuation capability and afghanistan. general, what is your current assessment of the medical evacuation issues in afghanistan? >> senator, thank you. you are exactly right. they referred to it as the golden hour and that is how quickly you can get a casualty to their right level of care. we were behind in afghanistan what we had in iraq and not near as many as assets. the secretary directed some changes at the beginning of this calendar year in many of those

forces have flown in and some of the others are flowing in as part of the 82nd combat brigade. i believe that the time will be down very close to about what it is in iraq. if confirmed, one of the things i will look at closely is to make sure we maintain the ability to get our casualty's -- and that is all of our casualties to the right level of care. >> thank you. admiral, a major focus of european command is building partnerships with in the region. there are several security cooperation programs dedicated to building relationships. these programs include peacekeeping and they help

minimize conditions that lead to conflict. what is your assessment of the capacity of building efforts of european command? >> let me begin by saying i am and complete agreement that this kind of effort but because -- we call this phase 0 and that is working early on in the problem. it is crucial to the security of our nation and global security. i have used those programs very effectively. we alluded to them a few moments ago. if confirmed, i would like to take that same approach with me to u.s. european command. from what i can see at a distance, general pratique is doing a very good job of using

those funds, particularly in eastern europe and the caucasus. if confirmed, i would build on his good work. >> thank you. general mcchrystal, there has been progress caring for reuters that have been diagnosed with mental health issues, but because of the stigma associated, many do not get assistance that is required. we must get the message to our war years that one of the most courageous acts is reaching out for help. if confirmed, what would you do to continue efforts to tear down the stigma that deters many from getting counseling? >> i think primarily it is to talk to leaders. we have had senior leaders that have sought help and i thought that was usually helpful. i would continue to talk to our

leaders and tried to convince them that they don't have to pretend they don't need help but to break down the walls of the stigma. it begins with leadership at every level. >> thank you very much. senator wicker. >> i am on the horns of a dilemma. i understand you have not voted and neither have i.. i have a lot more confidence they will hold the vote open if you could get some assurance from the majority leader. my questions may be briefed there for. i certainly appreciate the hearing and it has been very, very educational. admiral stavridis and lieutenant general mcchrystal, both of you said you believe that the afghan army will have to be higher than they are currently

projecting, is that correct? >> based on very preliminary information, that is my intuition. >> ok. i guess it is an intuition on the part of general mcchrystal, too, because you are not willing to speculate on your predecessors request for an additional 10,000 american troops. square that with us, if you can, and what is the estimate from both of you gentlemen on how much higher the afghans might need to go, and how are you able to say that and not give us an estimate on the 10,000? >> when you look at the afghan requirement, i look at the police and the army together,

but this -- because together they form the security. it is about 80,000 police and more than that. about 82,000 to 84,000. at think we can just look at the size of afghanistan and you can extrapolate that it would be a small number security forces to have in reticent to speculate on u.s. forces but i want to get on the ground. i would like to see them on the ground and see the impact they are having before i get comfortable. >> you are all three going to be involved in counter narcotics. let me start with you, admiral stavridis, are you proud of the

plan in colombia? are there fewer drugs coming from latin american as a whole because of this? what advice, based on that, will you have for general mcchrystal in the field with the poppies, and for your successor is sought america? are we thinking and outside of the box and enough in terms of fighting the narcotics? i know we want them to go to alternative crops. are we thinking outside of the box in terms of addressing the demand for@@@@@@!!4@ @ @ @ @ @

? senator, as i have testified on numerous occasions, and the counter narcotics effort is composed of three tasks. one is the demand side, which you just talked about, one is the supply side, and one is the interdiction. trying to understand the supply chain and kill it. those three things have to work together. if i have advice for general mcchrystal or advice for general fraser, it would be to understand to attempt to use precision use prn guided ideas to go after one single part of a counter narcotics problem. you have to have a robust demand side, an enlightened supply-side approach, which prostitution is crucial.

-- and it crop substitution is crucial. i think general mcchrystal been working very hard on the plus side of this -- general mcchrystal will be working on the supply side of this. also, convince them to quit growing and producing it on the supply side. >> although we have made progress in columbia, your question about the overall drug trafficking from columbia and the neighboring regions. >> there is still an extremely high level of drugs don't do the region. and to your points if we are thinking out of the box, acting

that is an area where we need more creative thinking. they are creating some nine submergible submarines to move cocaine from -- they are creating semis submergible submarines for cocaine. >> thank you. >> gentlemen, welcome. i want to congratulate all three of you on your nominations. i am confident that all three of you will be confirmed. i'm glad to have a chance to ask some questions. i will start with general mcchrystal. we talked before the hearing and i mention that i had a chance to travel to afghanistan and pakistan last week.

it is hard to see a lot in five days but we had back-to-back meetings. we also visited islamabad. we did cover a lot of ground. we met with people on the ground who are working to deliver the new strategy and we had a chance to meet with many of the afghan and pakistan leaders and key american leaders as well. the new strategy has a chance to work, but i had a feeling that this one will clearly work. we talked a lot about good government than they did about what entry or military tactics. all in all, there was a feeling that we are on the march.

the pakastani political leaders were talking about real concern about the western regions of their country, not the eastern border with india. if i might i'd like to drill down into this concept of success. it is hard to define. could you talk about what success might look like in afghanistan and in pakistan? the city hoped to see progress in 18 to 24 months. >> i think it would have several components. it would be a reduction or a complete elimination of al qaeda in pakistan where they mostly are now. they would be reducing their ability to operate transnational lee or to cooperate with taliban.

i think it is a return to stability in their victory against their internal insurgency. they do have a functioning government with a strong history. if they continue twith their counter insurgency campaign, it will look like that. afghanistan has much further to go. their infrastructure is fifth worst in the world. there is not much to build on physically. i think we achieved a level of security that allows each of the areas to include those currently challenged by the taliban to bring in government that might be locally based but is linked to the national government so when they think of the change they might think locally, and it may be tribal or in a village, but when it goes

up the chain is recognized as going up to the national government. they are not challenge to the point where they have a taliban shadow government. i think the other aspects -- rather than -- the challenge is to make them irrelevant. of course, then you can't allow actual governments and economic development to grow. i don't expect a sky rocketing growth in the country, but steady growth under solid governance is what i think success looks like. >> you are distinguishing between the big taliban and a little taliban. you talked about the hard court

taliban efforts which you say are irredeemable but you alluded to those who join the fight because that is what afghans do in the spring because it is the only way they can provide for their families. >> absolutely. i think what we have to do is eliminate the people who do it, other than strong ideological reasons. >> the al qaeda situation is a large part of the problem in afghanistan and pakistan. if we were to capture and kill osama bin laden tomorrow, with the job be done in afghanistan and pakistan? >> i don't believe it would. i don't think you can destroy a cockeyed finally until osama bin laden and others are gone -- i don't think you can destroy al

qaeda antel osama bin laden and others are gone. >> i know we have focused on him for a long time. we will continue that work. that is a goal we hold. we had changing focus to the afghan security forces and he agreed that the new goals of 134,000 troops would not be sufficient. we had some additional conversations about the sustainability of a large afghan force. how would we pay for that? do you have any thoughts about that? >> i think a growth in the afghan security force is likely to be required.

i would be surprised if we don't. resources it is one to be a challenge. i have not seen a sell recommendation for that. >> general fraser, you have challenges on the counter narcotics front that stavridis has to oversee from his position in europe. it would seem like there are some common levels and approaches that we might be able to apply in afghanistan and the northern reaches of south america. can you comment? >> i do think there are great similarities. if confirmed, one of the challenges that we will have is communicating between one another. i will endeavor to do that to make sure we communicate what is working in one region and how that applies to what would work in another region so that we are crossing the boundaries, a decrease in the boundaries and

enabling one another to use the best practices wherever they are to success in our regions. >> we are in conversation with our columbia friends about the possibility of colombian military engagement in afghanistan. if it comes to fruition, it is a very direct and personal vinny to have soldiers who have had experience in both counter is surfacing in counter narcotics. there are 20 a day donations and other countries that are also involved. these lessons are very important. >> i will make one final comment. at one point before the last 30-

year miss adventure that has characterized afghanistan, it said much of the region. it has a potential for raising food. we do have to provide an alternative. we do have to provide that security for the farmers. thinking. -- thank you. >> thank you to each of you. thank you for your leadership and thanks for your service. americans are fortunate to have men like you in the roles that you are now. and to families we say thanks. general mcchrystal, i think i have seen you more in the gator that out of the gaidar in recent years. those bars on their sleeves say

you have gone -- say you are gone from your home more than you are there. i was in your ethnic home over the last week and that had opportunity to observe what is going on in greece, in regard what is happening with the migration of pakistan through turkey. turkey is a very strategic country right at all. the european orientation and nato relationship make it a bridge of stability between the euro atlantic committee and the nations of central asia and the arabian gulf. how would you describe our relationship with turkey today? >> thank you.

although i am definitely greek, my father -- my grandfather was born in turkey and he came through grease on his weight to the united states. i think i have a cultural understanding of both of those nations. turkey is a very important friend and ally to the united states. i would categorize our relationship at the moment it is a strong relationship. we are conducting a great deal of information and intelligence sharing. we recognize the threat to turkey post that the kurdish separatist movements, and i believe it is an important as strong relationship and one i intend to focus on is confirmed. >> general mcchrystal,