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tv   Today in Washington  CSPAN  March 10, 2010 2:00am-6:00am EST

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in our country and a host of areas but savings and investment the together. and then we need equity. the twin deficits, fiscal and trade, is what's on the instability in the global economic system. it seemed to be that all people with think that these three things we need, and we need to find a way to them. i'll go through some thinking that we have on policy to do with the crisis. i don't think i could be more complementary of what the federal reserve has done in particular to see us through a terrific recession. if you think back to a uriko, it was pretty scary -- first quarter of last year with a global markets and free fall and
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the credit markets and seizure, where do we go from here? . that's occurred, the decisions taken last fall may not have been perfect. made in the middle of the night without a lot of data but i think those decisions are going to serve us extraordinarily well and have served us extraordinarily well in preventing an outright depression. and people were using the "d" word a year ago. so providing liquidity to avoid a prolonged recession and deflation. as i listened to charlie evans this morning, i think the fed really gets that. the japanese have tried deflation for about 20 years. it hasn't worked very well. modern industrial economies modern industrial economies don't know how to deal with it. so certainly we want to keep a focus on low inflation. but not letting it go negative, i think, is critically important. from a business perspective -- and i think i'd speak for a big
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cross-section of the business community, i think it's important that the policy issue right now is maintaining the independence of the federal reserve. having it be politically engaged strikes me as -- that would be very problematic. so i would champion that very strongly. on the fiscal policy side, i certainly agree with remarks this morning by our chairman of the council of economic advisors. we needed fiscal stimulus last spring. with the economy in the state that it was in. and good people will argue about how many jobs are created or saved or, you know, there's a lot of moving parts in this economy but we certainly needed fiscal stimulus. i would have liked to see more investment orientation to the fiscal stimulus as opposed to sort of maintenance consumption-oriented activity but nevertheless that's picking at the margins. we now, i think, have to really
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focus -- we've underinvested, for example, infrastructure in this country for quite a while. since the interstate highway system was built and completed in the early 70s, our investment rate and infrastructure has been about one-half the rate of growth of the economy. one of the things i worry about is as i travel extensively and work outside of the united states is many of the countries that we compete with in another 20 or 30 years will have a much better infrastructure than we do in the united states. and when i say infrastructure, i mean, roads, ports, logistic parks, rail services, airports, telecommunications and power grid. all-encompassing. they are investing hugely in state-of-the-art modern facilities that is dazzling. and we're letting ours age and we're underinvesting in it. this is problematic for us as a country. so i would have liked to see a little more investment directed that way if we have to do deficit spending.
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certainly long-term deficits matter and they matter a great deal and we don't want to transfer this challenge to our children and grandchildren. ultimately somebody has got to pay for it. and in times of full employment, which we recently enjoyed, we the public have got to find a way to pay for the government services that we want. and then i think another huge problem -- and i'm in a state that's got one of these huge problems, the state of illinois, where a state government negotiate with -- for service providers, labor unions within the state and don't give out in many cases very high wages but they do promise extensive post-retirement benefits. be that in the form of medical benefits for life or pension plans that are unfunded or underfunded or both. and i think we've got to take a look both state and federal governments and cause them to do the accounting the same way the corporations do it.
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if you commit to an obligation you have to put it on the books and you have to recognize that obligation is there. i think that in and of itself would give us a lot better fiscal discipline than we currently have. and for some of our states to be rated aa -- i mean, the way corporations are getting evaluated these days as to their credit rating, i mean, they're all over us for the details but then for for the states what will they have to do in terms of tax increases to pay the obligations they're committing to? it's off the charts. so we need to be looking at that. tax system as a whole, you know, there's a lot of things about it. but we all have opinions about it. we need to some way find ways to incent more investment and innovation. this is key to our long-term economic health. you can make a case that our tax code has gotten so big that it's so broken that maybe we ought to throw it out and reinvent it. but i'm not sure we don't need to go to some kind of a consumption tax scheme which most of the world has.
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as opposed to an income tax scheme. you can still find a way to deal with social issues. and in the area of corporate taxation, again, it may sound like a invested interest and it is to a certain extent but i think the key question for our country is, do we want large multinational companies to headquarter here and compete in the world? if we go to -- if we eliminate the deferral system that we currently have and keep one of the highest tax rates in the world, we virtually eliminate the possibility of that happening long term. so that really needs to be rethought. we keep proposing that. it sounds like a good populace idea but it won't work. and it's going to destroy a lot of jobs and wealth in our country if we aren't careful. and then finally trade. most of us economists went through school learning about comparative advantage and competitive advantage and trade being a win-win proposition.
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but politically now we've got it framed as a win-lose proposition. and, you know, i think -- i'm pretty convinced that we the united states with 5% of the world's population can't build a big enough wall down the southern border to protect ours and give us greatness 20, 30 years from now. only through the best ideas, the most innovative society and the best educated are we going to be a great and leading and a national economic power a decade or two from now. so i think we've got to force ourselves to compete. and companies like caterpillar to compete if you want a lower quality tractor at a higher price, protect me. i don't think that's what my customers want. i have to compete to win their business. that's the best way to keep me honest. but i would sure like to see some push to get the free trade agreements that we have negotiated through. these are win-win. they create a lot of high-paying
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jobs in our country. they create export opportunity. the doha round of negotiations need to move forward. we need a trading system that helps keep the level playing field on the world's stage and then we want to encourage u.s. companies to export from here and to create investments around the world that allows us to be leaders. all these things, i think, are critically important. i'm sure all of you could probably put together your list of these things. you would have some slightly different things that we would emphasize but i would guess about 80% of policy issues at least amongst us economists we could have a pretty thoughtful discussion and we could come up with some rational and good policy recommendations. i guess my -- what my plea to nabe today is i think we have a citizens obligation to get engaged. i try to give this message to my
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ceo colleagues in different forums and tell them we got to get back to the -- you know, the post-enron world, where people went into hibernation or something. we have to get back to the rotary club and the kiwanis clubs and the community activities and help people understand business and understand what it takes to have a competitive economy and to support good policies. i mean,, quite frankly, we can't look at washington and point a finger and blame them. i talk to congressmen one-on-one. they virtually say, jim, i get it on this trade thing. i agree. we need to be a great trading nation and we need to be open. but my constituents aren't for it. and there's no way i can vote for it. so this education role -- i'm not pleading for us to all become lobbyists. it's a bigger task and the task is that we all need to become citizen activists and we need to help educate and shape public opinion and to get more support
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for rational economic policies. you know, if you think back to -- i mean, there's not an actuary in the country, i don't think, that doesn't know that social security is upside down. right? or medicare or medicaid for that matter. and that we have a huge demographic bubble coming that's creating a massive problem. and our budget deficit really stems from these programs that are unfunded. it's a ticking bomb. but when president bush suggested it, i mean, that we address social security -- we may have disagreed with how he wanted to address it but the fact that it needed to be addressed one way or the other -- there's a lot of things you can do with more flexibility a few years in advance of, you know, when the train wreck occurs -- i mean, he didn't get support even from his own party in the end. certainly none from the other party. and no support from the public or the business community.
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so i think we're all a pretty enlightened group. my call here today is we need to rally the troops to engage with the public to help understand some of the difficult challenging problems that our country faces over the next few years if we're going to create an economic environment that's really healthy and good for our children and grandchildren and keeping our economy as one of the best, most globally competitive economies in the world. we're not talking much about when we develop monetary fiscal policy and regulation in this country. we aren't putting it through the litmus test will that help us be more globally competitive? is that important? i think it's very important. and i think business economists within companies, economists across the academic fields -- we need to rally together and take
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on the mantle that we got to do a better job of getting they say message points out and beginning to shape public opinion on education on some of the things that we need to do to be sure that we got a strong, vibrant globally competitive economy going forward. so let me stop there. i'd be delighted to take any questions or rebuttals. [applause] >> we need to use the microphone for questions. >> thank you for your remarks. >> turn that mic on, if you would. >> is this better? >> yeah, perfect. >> as for myself, maybe others in the room would be interested to learn a little bit about your personal story. and how you managed to move from
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the ph.d. geek into the business side and succeed so well on the business side since so many of us start in the same place and find that it's not always so easy to make that transition? >> i'll be delighted to. you know, i said i came to caterpillar because they had a professional economics department. i did start out doing econo metric modeling and detailed forecasting work. i had a unique opportunity my first three years to spend a lot of time with senior caterpillar leaders and work on white papers and things at the time our outgoing chairman was working with the commerce secretary pretty closely so i got to know the company from the very topside view of our senior executive team. then i went to geneva switzerland, for a small time kid from north carolina it was a great place to get globalized. and i had responsibility from everything from moscow to johannesburg. i was curious and i got to
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travel and spend time with economic groups and bank economists around the theater. i started working more and more during that period with our business teams so working on price elasticity type things and helping them with pricing strategies in different parts of the region, working on projections of wage negotiations around factories in europe and i got to know and work with our business people during that stretch. i came back to peoria in 1980, we had a very tight until the union structure. it is very large. it is concentrated in illinois. we knew we were making things in house the week did get to suppliers.
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i've read the task scores. we decided we should counselors to suppliers. and i did that for three years. it is an unpopular thing to do. they put me in the foreign legion. i had the responsibility to get joint ventures around the world. in those days, if you wanted to sell, you had to manufacture. we tried to find a way to get our foot in the door. i said a lot of joint ventures. that required a more holistic venture. they sent me to indonesia to run
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a factor. hibiscus it cannot be a step that could then wind up when you take any chances going to take any big chances on you by running a big factory in illinois so we'll give you one in indonesia with a rice patty. it was a big family decision i had two children at the time and one who was newly in college. but i went to indonesia. family enjoyed it. we had a great time. they had great international schools there. the people were wonderful there. so our business went from about $25 million a year, one of my predecessors had set it up and got it started to about $100 million inside the three years that i was there. so i was hanging on and growing as fast as we could grow with the assembly plant. and getting to know a lot of, you know, the local politicians and thinking about how we
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expanded our reach across the s ossion group of countries. my mentor became the chairman. i was asked to come back as the president of our gas turbin division in san diego and be sort of the ceo of that business. and an officer of the company, which was a huge promotion and a great opportunity. they picked me because i had a strong strategic and financial background. not because i knew anything about turbines. fortunately the team there knew a lot about turbines. i knew a lot about caterpillar and our willingness to invest. the oil and gas market which had been pretty depressed for a long time to come back a bit. i convinced the team we could take price increases on the oil and gas side and we shouldn't be looking at total market share. we should look at segment market share and thinking about how to do that. anyway, took some price increases. got our earnings up.
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started investing in product technology. that business has turned out to be one of our huge successes. three years into it, caterpillar came to me and said we need you to come back to peoria -- this is by the way in san diego, california, so pretty good living place. we need you to come back to peoria as the chief financial officer. i said no, i'll stay here and see how things work out. same boss said, i don't think you understand. this is what we need you to do. [laughter] >> so i explained that to my wife. we came back as the chief financial officer only about 18 months and then i became a group president. it's been -- it's been a great run. i think just trying to continue to learn all the way along. i still try to do that every day. >> thank you very much for your remarks today. i have a very minor public policy question to ask you about. healthcare reform. i'd be interested in what your
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thoughts are on that. what recommendations you've made. and particularly with regardo t legislation which is to continue an employer-based healthcare system as versus moving away from an employer-based healthcare system as many have suggested? >> well, i don't want to suggest that i'm in any way very expert in this area. i've spent a lot of time working on it and we think if the current legislation passed getting rid of medicare part d and a couple other things cost us of a one time hit of about $100 million so that's a concern. and then about $10 million a year in terms of incremental cost. i think most people in industry are concerned about it because they feel it's not addressing cost. we're bringing a lot more uninsureds into the system but the cost of medical service is not going down.
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i don't want to sound biased towards the insurance industry but if you look at the value chain, they're kind of the whipping boy of this whole thing. the insurance industry -- their margins is 2.3 or 4%. that means 2 or 3 cents on the dollar for revenues they get in. so they're basically passing on the cost of healthcare cost. i think we've got huge, huge challenges as a country to think about. we're spending a huge amount of the money in the last 60 days of life but if a politician said that, he would get hung out. i mean, these are some of the challenges we've got to deal with. medical malpractice, it's not just the cost of the malpractice. it's all of the tests that drives to be sure there is no possibility i didn't leave any stone unturned that drives a lot of cost in the system. and a system that, you know,
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basically because people have had cadillac healthcare plans they haven't had to think of the cost of what they're buying themselves, then we don't have millions of consumers doing a good job of shopping for healthcare services. so, you know, i'm worried about passing a very large entitlement program that i fear costs will go go up faster than we'd like. but i don't put myself as an expert on this space. >> ken simons, yesterday there was a new price increase. the energy administration said diesel prices were six-month high, copper, gypsum aluminum have been moving quite sharply. have these taken your company by surprise. are you expecting further price increases. do you expect them to spread to the general economies to say to consumer prices?
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>> we monitored this pretty carefully. and, in fact, i talk to the chicago fed about cost trends around the world. basically we would -- last year's we ended up with a slightly negative total material cost increase on a global scale, and we are big buyers of all kinds of industrial materials that go into our products. and this year we expect another slight reduction in total material cost on a worldwide basis. so we're not seeing a lot of risk of inflation. commodity prices have stayed reasonably strong, which i think the good thing is about that that drives investment therefore creates supply. and we're seeing investment starting to pick up as people are gaining confidence again. our -- the biggest part of our turn-around -- you notice our forecast was for 10 to 25% increase in sales this year.
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which looks on the surface pretty large. a big part of that is the inventory cycle. we, you know, reduced a huge amount of dealer inventory on a global basis last year. close to $3 billion worth. and so just the absence of that gives you pretty big pop in sales. and the global oil and gas industry, global mining industries are really starting to come back and that's what's driving the rest of the strength. a lot of uncertainty around it because commodity prices are pretty volatile. but so far our groups are pretty optimistic that we're going to manage material costs flat to slightly down this year. >> i guess i'm sneaking in as the last question. thank you for your remarks. they were great. i want to focus on your last slide and the political objectives. and i thought it was great you brought those up and we do need to increase awareness and specifically on the entitlements. when you have large organizations like the aarp supporting them, continuing on
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forever how do you suggest combating that. unless it's grassroots, unless it's people stepping forward and being educated and knowing that this is going to be a problem i think a lot of people are just being ostriches and it's never going to affect me. not nobody but the majority of people are happy to hear the aarp line and they will not have to take responsibility. so how do you shift that? >> that's a great question. i don't have all the answers. one of the suggestions i put on here and a great starting point and i think intellectually honest people would say we need to start here would be the proper accounting. you know, for states to promise post-retirement medical benefits and pension plans that they don't have any reserves for can't pay for on the hopes they'll be able to raise taxes in the future but they haven't told the public about it or then for states who mismanage themselves to say we'd like some
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federal help, you know, i don't know how that's going to work 'cause some states have managed themselves pretty well. it seems to me the same standards that apply to the corporate public sector in terms of accounting integrity ought to apply to the federal government and the state governments. and i think if professionally at least if we could encourage that to happen then at least we bring the problem to the surface. then we begin to think about it. but you know i think a lot of people would be -- you know, if everybody is just looking out for themselves, i think if you polled the large businesses in the country they would say some means testing is probably appropriate. i mean, there's only so many different ways you can -- there's means testing, there's upping the age, there's reducing the benefits. a few ways to get at it. creating an investment fund maybe to support some of these things but there's only a
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defined number of different ways we can solve the problem. but right now we're choosing to be ostriches as a public and we do that at our risk because this problem is going to -- i think you had a presentation yesterday morning on the magnitude of the deficit and how big the problem is becoming. i mean, all of the discretionary spend, you know, is less than 20% of the budget. so it can't possibly be resolved by being more efficient which all the politicians like to talk about. that's easy. but that's not going to solve the problem. we've got to address the entitlement piece. i don't think there's any thinking person that hasn't figured that out but we haven't communicated it to the public and we need to find a way to do that. but thank you all very much. i've enjoyed the opportunity. [applause]
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[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> on tomorrow mornings "washington journal" he will talk about health insurance. after that, melanie sloan on lobbying and earmarks. also, john della volpe on the 2010 midterm election. later, meredith will announce the winner of their annual student cam documentary contest. what should "washington journal each morning." -- "washington journal" each morning. >> ron kirk outlined efforts to
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open up foreign markets to u.s. exports. the administration has set a goal of doubling of exports in the next five years. this one hour and then is that the national press club in washington. >> thank you so much for the kind introduction. i think you prove you can do this speech in a minute and a half and said the 15 minutes. i would make one correction. if i'm still talking at 1:30 p.m., please, let your cellphone ring or do something. we will find a way to bring it to a close. it is an honor for me to be at the press club. especially to be to a buy to a bar deputies -- to be joined by two of our deputies.
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areer serving in various capacities in trade in the clinton administration and running her own various successful international consulting business. they have made a wonderful, wonderful addition to our team and help us to advance the objectives that the president has laid out for us. alan mentioned it was a year ago i was before the senate finance i was before the senate finance committee for my today is her birth they prefer it if you are watching, honey, i love you. happy birthday. it felt like i spoke to another group today. i said that the the first couple of years had gone well. they kept reminding me that it had not been a year. it just felt like it was a
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little over a year ago that president obama took office. when the initial challenges was to deploy it all of our collective talent to help get our economy back. as we have worked to address the challenges, we tried to incorporate what the president believes should be the foundation for our economy going forward. we also looked back on some others for theirs. in 1934, as countries struggle to make its way through that great economic depression, president franklin roosevelt's told them that full and permanent domestic recovery depends in part upon the strength in international trade policy. we think that is pretty good
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wisdom today. in the seventh five years since he delivered the message, u.s. exports have increased. roosevelt delivere ex-ports have increased ex-- exports have increased exponentially. today exports account for more than one in every $10 of america's income and exports support millions of jobs across the country. in fact in the last quarter of 2009, some economists believe that exports alone accounted for more than half of all u.s. economic growth. if you remember it was a year ago our economy was going at a negative 6% rate, this last quarter we were growing by almost 5.7%. our exports grew at a clip of 18%. in 2010 as the world's economy recovers, export driven growth will continue to multiply. and our administration has laid out an aggressive agenda to seize the full measure of
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opportunities before us. we believe those are opportunities that support the creation of more and better jobs, at least a fair prices, and more choices for consumers. president obama has set a very ambitious goal for us to double our exports in the next five years. if we do so, that can support up to an additional two million new jobs here in america. he's also asked agencies across the federal government to take part in a national export initiative to help americans take advantage of these export opportunities. our office at the u.s. trade representative will play a key role, we hope, in helping the president achieve this goal by doing more of what we do best, and that's creating new market access for america's exporters. we can do that in a couple of ways. one, by enforcing our american's
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existing trade rights through our existing agreements and also negotiating new trade opportunities. our trade agenda outlines the united states' role in the community of trading nations and underscores the obama administration's staunch support of the rules-based trading system, as well as our intent to fully exercise and defend america's rights within the system. if i might, for those of you who might be joining us by television, you can get a complete copy of the president's 2010 trade policy by visitling us at ustr.gov. our trade agenda acknowledges as well that our administration, frankly, has our work cut out for us as we seek to help americans restore their belief in the wisdom and value proposition of our trade polcy. our trade agenda steps up to the biggest opportunities and confronts some of our thorniest challenges that we face in the global trading system. and our trade agenda seeks to
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place trade in its proper role as part of the president's broader economic reform agenda. fundamentally each of these objectives is anchored by a commitment to the global rules-based trading system. now, when times are good, that system promotes international growth and multilateral cooperation. and when the global economy suffers, as it has over the past several years, the rules based trading system can help to keep trade flowing. but the global trade system could support even more commercial and economic growth. so our administration is seeking to support that growth in a number of ways, and that's what i want to spend some time talking about. first of all, we are working to achieve and help lead the members of the w.t.o. to a balanced and ambitious conclusion to the doha round of development talks.
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and we think that has to be won one that promotes meaningful market access for all members of the w.t.o., as well as enhancing the economic development of many of the world's poorest economies. we are also seeking to resolve outstanding issues with the three pending free trade agreements that we inherited in terms of panama, colombia, and korea. we are committed to resolving the issues related to each of these agreements for a simple reason, they represent great market opportunities for our farmers, our ranchers, our entrepreneurs, our manufacturers, and they'll help us gain access to new markets and create jobs here at home. but we recognize that we have to do those in a way that allow us to work with congress and other stakeholders to move them forward at an appropriate time. at the same time we are taking other steps to expand and deliver on additional job creating opportunities to america's businesses and workers
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in accordance with our rights under existing free trade agreements. i believe that through frank negotiations, and where that fails exercising our legal rights through the w.t.o., our enforcement efforts can pay off in terms of new market access for america's exporters. we have already seen the results of that in many cases in a positive way. our efforts have yielded and saved jobs in the tire industry and here in america. we have won direct distribution rights for american content companies in china and challenged unjustified restrictions on u.s. agricultural exports in a number of markets from the european union to the soviet union to across southeast asia. we have expanded on our enforcement activities as well. and this month for the first time we will introduce a new, comprehensive report that will help us to identify and address
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troublesome technical barriers to trade and unfair restrictions on agricultural exports through sanitary and fito sanitary barriers. as traditional trade barriers fall what we have seen increasingly is that in many cases nontariff barriers are taking place and becoming some of the more difficult challenges for american exporters. we hope these new reports will help us focus on specific s.p.s. and t.b.t. challenges and will use them to guide our efforts to try to redress some these problems. u.s.t.r. is also taking steps to address the fundamental problem and the too common problem, frankly, of the theft of american intellectual property because americans cannot and should not be asked to compete with counterfeiters and thieves. thievery this is piracy. i worry about using that term because it sounds too romantic.
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in the age of american kids who grow up with johnny depp and think that's cool, but it isn't anything funny about this. we suffer losses ever billions of dollars of create -- of billions of dollars of creative energy to america's exporters and it also can have very real harm to american consumers as well. i have taken the opportunity over the last several months to increase our domestic outreach around the country. so i have been traveling around the country from west coast to east talking to stakeholders and businesses about what some of the challenges are and opportunities in the trade world. fortunately one of the stories i heard in detroit was the same story i heard when i was on the west coast and when i was in texas and others, but it was a woman, businesswoman who told me of her frustration in many of our markets in which she has gone into market, been forced to joint venture with another business, they make an order for her product, she ships them the initial order. then they frankly take that
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order and either copy it and try to reverse engineer it and then cancel the rest of the word. by the time she shows up to confront it, she's looking at her business product often not well engineered, already on the market. i don't mean to pick on google or boeing. if you are boeing you can maybe survive and join me in a fight to recover your intellectual property rights. for too many of our small businesses, that can absolutely be a death knell. so we are confronting this plague of international piracy straight on. we are working with our other partners to try to bring to a conclusion the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement that will help support efforts to regain america's competitive advantage in these cutting-edge industries and protect the intellectual property that goes into these new products and services. we hope that we are able to generate the beginning of a new international consensus that will support legitimate commerce
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while marginalizing if not eliminating illicit trade. because benl property 2k -- intellectual property theft doesn't just hurt our small businesses, our entrepreneurs, and investors, it also can harm unwitting consumers of potentially harmful and dangerous counterfeit goods. similarly we are committed to upholding basic international labor standards. when our trading partners violate labor obligations in our trade agreements, or deny foreign workers their international rights to organize, this not only hurts those workers, but frankly it tilts the playing field away from american businesses and will present an unfair manner. we are working to address those. our enforcement efforts go hand in hand with the pursuit of new market openings as part of a balanced, comprehensive trade policy. president obama has said that a
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successful trade policy is made when we get beyond the idea the new market openings and enforcement are somehow oppositional to one another. or that trade must always be a battle 2003 international and domestic interest. or frankly between business and labor or trade at the cost of jobs. frankly between those of us who believe in trade and from my travels around the country, some of those who simply hate trade. this is too important to allow this to become balkanized in the way we do business in washington. we are seeking a trade policy that best serves the american people and will help them recognize that all of these elements are compelling interests for a smart trade policy rather than competing interest in a subzero gain. we believe honestly that the responses to those who feel like they haven't benefited from trade and to those families and
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businesses and others that have knelt left -- felt left behind is an important part of rebuilding america's faith in the value proposition of our trade polcy. in the president's 2010 trade policy agenda, these building blocks rest on the solid foundation of belief and the ability of trade and exports in particular to produce the kinds of well paying jobs that americans desperately want and need during this time of economic recovery. as i mentioned earlier, i have taken this opportunity in this quarter to travel all around the united states. and i met with shareholders on both sides of the trade debate from small business owners in nevada to auto workers in michigan, from port workers in orlando and tampa bay and textile workers just last week in south carolina. i heard from many of them their very honest concerns and skepticism about our trade policy. frankly a lot of them feel like we have let our partners just
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run roughshod over us, but what has encouraged me is that in every case every one of them understood and understands that a smart trade policy that will opens markets, creates the level playing field that america's exporters want and deserve, and creates jobs here at home is one that all americans can get behind and benefit from. this is the trade policy that the obama administration is committed to pursuing. as our trade policy agenda makes clear, ustr is working around the clock to help american businesses and workers of every size. not just those larger business but our small businesses as well. you might find it interesting to know, insightful to know, of the 275,000 roughly companies that export in america, 97% of them are what we define as small businesses. so that's 250,000 of our 275,000 are small businesses.
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we know one thing that they know that the world desperately still craves that phrase, made in america. so the president has said if we make more we believe we can sell more. if we sell that to our friends and neighbors around the world, we can help create good-paying jobs here in america. in this difficult economic time this administration will fight for every job there is to be had. to targeted trade policy initiatives, our -- such as our small and medium sized business initiative, we are working to initiative, we are working to help create those opportunities >> the growth will come in the asia-pacific region. academics home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies around the world. i will ask what we spend so much time speaking about asia-
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pacific. . >> i am a man at heart. i stuck to the proposition. did i start with a proposition. -- i start with a proposition. most of the growth is going to be in the asian-pacific region. it is critically important that the united states becomes engaged in opening up that market for our service providers. i think there is great excitement. we are at the apec summit last fall. president obama announced the night states would move forward toward correcting an aspirational 21st situation better guarantee exports. many of you know that i'm speaking about the trend pacific partnership.
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we have began our confrontations with congress in stake holders. many of our printer present a number of industries. we thank you very much for your input. engaged with the ambassador, and we thank you very much for your input. during our initial round of negotiations, we will focus on how we can maximize export opportunities for small to medium-sized businesses. what we can do to promote innovation and competitiveness. also what we can do to promote regulatory coherence and make it easier for americans to export throughout the asia pacific region. we are also working to expand trade opportunities through other seeks in this important region. one of which is the asia pacific economic cooperation, apec. as many of you know, we have worked throughout apec to grow jobs, expand exports, and
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stimulate trade-driven growth of small to medium sized businesses and others. specifically in 2010 we have an ambitious work agenda to make it cheaper, easier, and faster for the apec economies to operate within the region. we are also working on an exciting initiative to reduce barriers immediately for trade and investment and environmental goods and services. we think focusing on these areas will help american exporters to succeed within the asia pacific region, but we can also help the apec economies to become greener. in 2011 many of you know the united states will host the apec economic forum. president obama has announced they will host a leaders meeting in honolulu, hawaii. we also plan at ustr to leverage this unique opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to play a stronger and more constructive role in the development of the asia pacific
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region. we are also looking to further increased market opportunities within those 10 southeast arabian economies that make up the association -- southeast arabian -- asian economies that make up the association. they are our fifth largers trading partner. within that group we are working to strengthen our trade and investment relationships. and in may i'll join my colleagues, a number of trade ministers, in a multicity tour that will permit us to exchange ideas about how government and business can work to expand trade and investment opportunities between the united states and asian. this is one part of the world. i want to make it plain while we explore these new opportunities in the southeast asia region, while we strengthen our regional enforcement, that we won't neglect some of our most
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significant trading partners as well. we continue to work with our partners within the european union, which is still our largest trading partner, to reduce nontariff barriers between the european union and the united states, and we are also working on other matters to strengthen the bilateral and multilateral relationship with this important partner. within north america we continue to work with canada and mexico to strengthen the economic engagement between our three great economies. our three trade ministers recently convened in dallas under our nafta free-throw commission and -- free trade commission and committed to work together to strengthen the environmental commissions and begin to look at how we can bring about more regulatory cooperation, specifically with the goal, again, of making it easier for small businesses to participate in this extraordinary economic engine.
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these efforts and others outlined in our trade policy agenda are not merely paper commitments. ustr's lawyers, negotiators, and trade specialists are already putting in the hard work necessary to bring home the benefits of trade. and doing so is not just a priority for those of us at ustr, it's a priority for all of us within the obama administration. president obama has made it clear that trade is an essential element of our administration's overall economic recovery. he has talked about the importance of increasing exports whether it's through our negotiations within the w.t.o., through the conclusion of our pending free trade agreements or through new market access opening opportunities. in the state of the union ave dress most recently -- address most recently in the white house business round table, the president has been very clear that to create jobs here at home, to boost economic recover
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i, and re-- recovery, and remain globally competitive, the united states needs to export more american goods and services to other nations. but we also recognize that a robust and aggressive trade policy initiative won't be enough to get us where we want to go. reforming our health care system will help every american business whether it's large or small. i won't go into an exhaustive debate about health care policy, but i can tell you none of us can accept a default in which the result is that health care costs rise by 70% over the next 10 years. we also have to continue to invest in our education system. president obama and secretary duncan have directed more resources through the american recovery act towards investment and higher education than at any period of time in our history. we also have to invest in america's core infrastructure. not one of these things alone
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will solve of -- all of our problems, but if we do them in a thoughtful way, we can can help to fuel this economic recovery and create the good jobs americans so badly need and deserve. in the words of president roosevelt again, we must revive and strengthen not only our exports but all parts of our economy. this is a big job. and ustr can't do it alone. but we will do our part to boost american exports, to support export sector entrepreneurs, and to increase export sector hiring. as we do so, we will continue to maintain an open dialogue with the american public. as i said when i spoke to the senate finance committee last week on the president's 2010 trade policy, we can use common sense to find common ground. on the common ground we can move forward together toward new jobs
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, new opportunities, and a brighter future for american workers and businesses and farmers and ranchers. i look forward to beginning that conversation with those of you today. thank you so much for the opportunity to address you. >> thank you very much for your time, ambassador kirk. we didn't even need people's cell phones. it's shy of 1:30. we have a good amount of time for questions. please keep them coming. our first question is a philosophical question about the obama strategy on his trade missions. comment on the difference in strategy between seeking exports and seeking trade. exports, which the obama administration pledges to double s. about selling products while trade implies two-way concessions between nations. how is the obama administration strategy a trade strategy rather than export strategy? >> as todd gilman would know in
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texas, we might it more of an answer than a quefment you can't have -- it's easier, it's certainly more digestable for a lot of americans right now to talk about exports. but the reality if we are going to meet the president's objective to double exports over the next five years, it's going to happen as part of a comprehensive trade strategy. that's why the president also talked about this national export initiative. so as practical matter what he has done is convene all of us who touch our trade policy in any manner whatsoever, he's tasked us to come up with the most focused, targeted, approach to expanding our exports using all of our available tools. some of that is what we laid out. some of that can be through enforcement. through stronger partnerships with our general system of preference partners. we are going to look at everything we can to open up those markets with the hope by exporting more we help create
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and support these jobs. >> clom's a -- colombia's president will step down in office. will he be able to see the u.s.-colombia f.t.a. passed? and what is the timetable? >> august may be a bit ambitious. i would say this, president uribe and his team have been great partners with us to address the issues raised by many members of congress about the violence against union organizers and labor leaders. and president obama recognizes that this is a great opportunity in one case for america to get a huge win. colombia and panama are both g.s.p. fartherers in. the practical effect is that their goods are coming into the united states for the most part duty free. lost on many of our friends is the reality in the case of our g.s.p. partners, these free trade agreements are almost
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singularly about our ability to access those markets. we understand the concerns and are working as smartly as we can to try to address in a responsible way so we can move forward. >> two of the president's frayed nominees are being held up in the senate. what is the impact of not having those two staff members in place? >> march madness is absolutely my favorite time of the year. i love it. i live for this. but none of you would want to coach a basketball team in which three, four of your star players are told they have to sit out of the game for no reason. they are grades are fine. they don't have an injury. they haven't violated any rules. but because of the unique wonders of our senate parliamentary procedures, we don't have an ambassador in geneva. although he has been approved by the senate finance committee. we don't have an agriculture ambassador. we are getting the work done.
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when i took office i had a chance to visit with one of my predecessors and real men tors, ambassador bob strauss. hi a chance to talk to charlene and carla and susan and they reminded me, we have, we believe, truly the best value proposition for the american taxpayer in ustr. we only have 227 employees. we are stretched thin. when we don't have a full complement, it means the rest of us have to do more. secretary clinton made the observation when she testified on the hill the other day, at some point this begins to strain our credibility and the good will in a we have worked so hard to regenerate around the world. because the world believes you don't care. you don't have an ambassador in geneva, how can be serious about the doha round. we would be greatly advantaged not only just from manpower and intellectual strength these two individuals bring, but i think it would help us regain some of
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our credibility. >> several questions not surprisingly about the doha round. what are the chances that the doha deadline of this year called for by the g-20 nations will be missed? >> considering that we have tried and failed three successive years. i don't know that i would put too much stock in it. i would tell you this, president obama perhaps more than any president we have had in recent times is fundamentally committed to developmental premise of doha. as difficult of a challenge as we have had with this economic tsunami here in the united states, you just can't imagine the impact this has had on the poorest countries in the world. we take very seriously the president's challenge to us to work collaboratively with our partners to try to meet the
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imperative at least the stretch goal from our leaders at the g-20 summit to bring the doha agreement to a close. if all of our partners are willing to sit down and engage with us, and particularly open their minds to negotiating across not only agriculture but in services, and are willing to make the hard choices necessary to produce a balanced outcome, i think we can meet that goal. i'm proud of the work that we have engaged in, short-handed as we have been, to change the negotiating paradigm in geneva. we especially need, frankly, these advanced developing economies such as brazil, china, india, south africa to come to the table in the same spirit. >> last week australia's ambassador said his negotiating position was all products and sectors are on the table s that the u.s. position? >> we believe so. let me say this, australia, canada, european union have been
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very helpful, very open. but australia in particular in their trade minister, simon, have been very helpful in helping us to convince our colleagues, our partners within the w.t.o. that we have nothing the w.t.o. that we have nothing to fear by putting everything on >> we believe indicating -- indicating it and supplemented with the bilateral talks between the developed and instead wants developing economies. -- and it danced developing economies. >> is there a danger that the u.s. could be blamed? >> that is a certain possibility. read it and operating from that paradigm, the president has told this this is important.
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forgive me for not mentioning this. if we get this right, this is a huge shot in your arm. as important as doing bilateral agreements are coming to get one among the 153 economies and have a major trade and but this could help every economy in deep world. liberalizing impetus could help every economy in the world. but we have to get it done right. we think it's port staying at the table and we would rather focus on moving us to a position that we are in a stronger, more productive environment rather than worrying about who to blame if it doesn't pass. >> former mexican president has said that the relevant question about doha isn't how the w.t.o. can save the doha round but whether the w.t.o. can be saved from it. give the changes in trade in economies since the round was launched, is there an appeal to
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just scrapping it and starting fresh? >> we believe frankly that a lot of good work has been done. i know there's been a lot of attention on the fact it's taken seven or eight years. as we recently saw in copenhagen with the climate talks, it's hard to bring 153 of the most diverse economies in the world to a consensus when you have the poorest economies in the world to. so most advanced. i don't believe we should give up. a lot of good work has been done , but we shouldn't be afraid of honestly confronting some of the gaps that exist. there are loopholes in terms of the use of special safeguards and safe mechanisms that make it impossible for some economies to determine what the market opportunities are. rather than focusing on a failure phenomenon, we believe
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it's more important to honestly confront the gaps and see what we can do to work collectively to close those. >> the u.s. is currently facing the prospect of w.t.o. approved tariffs worth hundreds of millions of dollars of brazil over cotton. the e.u. is now alying to the w.t.o. to impose tariffs on the u.s. anti-dumping technology. how difficult is it to make others comply with the rulings when the u.s. fails to comply with rulings gone against it. >> first of all you have heard me say over and over again our support for our trade policy begins with the staunch belief that this only works if we have a rules based system. that has to apply to the united states as well as it does to our partners. and i would submit and put the united states' compliance record in the w.t.o. against any of our trading partners. where we have been found and where we have exhausted our
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appeal remedies, we have acted to come into compliance, but we are also going to expect all of our trading partners to do so as well. dispute resolution is in fact a healthy part of any trade relationship. any american, any businessperson enters contracts every day and most contracts you anticipate and include how you are going to resolve disputes. they inevitably arise. we shouldn't lose sight of the fact if we can get this right, in the case of the european union, this is our largest trading market. we are talking about almost $3 billion a day that goes on between the united states and the european union. in the case of mexico and canada, each of these are a billion dollar a day relationships. what aim trying to do in our office is move away from focusing on those handful of disputes to a broader discussion of what we can do to work on some of these nontariff barriers and others to facilitate and help grow trade.
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>> given that, what specific trade issues do you plan to address during your upcoming trip to the e.u. and equipped? -- egypt? >> in the case of egypt we are just beginning this relationship and we are looking for ways whether it's through either atifa where we can strengthen opportunities in this region of the world with an important strategy and domestic partner. we are frankly very proud through our work with egypt that we are now going to be able to remove them from our 301 priority watch list as they have made great progress in strengthening their intellectual property rights regime. when aim in the european union, one i have to do practical work. my previous colleague, who served as their trade minister, is now, as i affectionately refer to, the high priest it's for foreign affairs. she's equivalent of their secretary of state. i have had a chance to speak
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with carl by phone. we'll be meeting with him to begin the later round. but one irritant we have still is the fact that our poultry producers have been locked out of the european union for 14 years now. even though we have been to the w.t.o., we have won the lawsuits, we have taken it to their scientific community. we want to talk about what we can do to get them to be more client with that as well. >> what solutions is the u.s. considering to the brazil cotton dispute? >> we have a team -- we had a team that met with the brazilians, not last week but the week before last when they were in argentina. mike and secretary locker in brazil as we speak. ambassador sha -- shapiro and her team have been engaged with our brazilian counterparts if not daily but weekly. seeing if we can't find a way to avoid this retaliation.
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ultimately if we can't do that we have to work with congress to see if we can't come up with a means to comply. >> mexico last year imposed $2.4 billion in tariffs on 90 u.s. products after the u.s. shut down a cross border trucking program. what steps are being taken to resolve this dispute? will we see a new cross border trucking initiative? >> we would like to. we were most pleased that the language that was included in the 2010 appropriations rider that wiped out the funding for the cross border trucking initiative was not included in this year's budget. one, we don't have that prib torrey language in place. president obama has tasked secretary lahood and secretary lock and myself to work with congress as well as with our partners in mexico to see if we can't come up with a program that meets. so concerns raised by members of congress, but also allows mexico to step away from their tariffs.
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i was in ambassador shapiro and which in mexico three weeks ago. we met with president calderon dwrectly about this -- directly about this. we have heard from u.s. agricultural exporters for the most part, particularly in the west coast that have been impacted by this. so we understand the sense of urgency. we will work as quickly and thoughtfully as we can to see if we can come up with an acceptable resolution. >> on the general topic of w.t.o. dispute set elements,s, should they be made so they can be retroactive so countries can be published for violations that occur before they are found guilty? >> i'm a little uncomfortable with -- i don't know that i'm ever going to be comfortable punishing anyone before they are found guilty. part of the efforts we are making in the doha round as well is we have the opportunity to
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revisit our rules and compliance systems and very little attention has been paid to that. it's probably best if we address that in that form. >> in line with the national export initiative, how is ustr and the administration handling the opening of markets in asia for u.s. beef exports? is the administration willing to be flexible in what product standards are set to open these markets? and where do japan and china rank in priority? >> we were cautiously opt missic, very proud in december when we announced after 15 years or so that we had negotiated an agreement with taiwan. to essentially get them allowing beef back into their country under the same terms and conditions that we have with korea. unfortunately in this case taiwan's legislative body acted to undo that act. so one of our first priorities
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is to work with taiwan in working with the new administration in japan to see if we can't get them to become o.i.e. client to allow our beef into this market. for those of you that maybe aren't in the agricultural industry. these are big dollars. these are not insignificant funds. these are billions of dollars that affect cattleman and ranchers. but we continue to engage all of those partners to see if we can't bring them into compliance. again, ambassador morantis came back from about a 17-day trip throughout southeast asia and met with every one of our counterparts on this particular subject. >> what steps is ustr taking to china's national indigenous innovation initiative program which is seen by some as a threat to u.s. intellectual property? >> we are very concerned about the so-called indigenous innovation program. we were disappointed that china
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put this initiative in place, particularly after what secretary gary locke and i joined by secretary vilsack believe is a fairly productive jcct meeting last fall. suffice it to say we have been engaging businesses here to bert understand what their concerns are. we met with one of the chinese vice ministers who was here in preparation for our next strategic and economic dialogue this spring and then the jcct this fall and this was one of the prime topics of concern. we believe broadly, let me say this not just with china, throughout asia, whether it's europe, china, canada, mexico, our objective is to just get government's thumb off the scale. we are guided by one principle and one fundamental belief that america's manufacturers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, workers
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can compete and win with anybody if you allow us to do so fairly. whether it's indigenous innovation, intellectual property, s.p.s. barriers, government has to abide by certain internationally recognized standards. and our objective in every case is to try to move government distorting behavior from every venue that we can. and that's our approach on all of these. >> the u.s. government provides incentives for solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects through production tax credits and d.o.e. loan guarantees which are open to and obtained by foreign companies seeking to rebuild energy projects in the us you. what are we doing to ensure u.s. economies get -- companies get the same access? >> one of the initiatives i mentioned both in the context of work that we are doing within frankly apec, one of the critical elements, more exciting elements of our proponentsed
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transspecific partnership is our work to reduce -- to work with what we call a coalition of the like minded to try to move quicker to eliminate all barriers on investment and environmental goods and services. president obama has noted time and time again, it's not just enough to rebuild our economy, but we ought to be looking more toward the future. where we can compete and gain a foothold. that we get a competitive advantage on the world as all of the world seeks to be more concerned about climate change. all of the world is in the race to go green. we think it only makes sense in those proven technologies to work more rapidly to try to reduce barriers on others. but initially we are doing it within the apec region and it's incorporated into what we are doing in our talks on the t.p.p. the speaker pro tempore: you discussed green standards. how -- what prospects do you see for some future advancement between the e.u. and u.s. in
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developing joint transatlantic green standards? >> well, our dialogue through the european union takes place principally through the transatlantic council. one of the issues that we have been talking about is how to be more sharply focused on a number of issues that could make a difference right away. but the european union is a central player in our broader effort to have a faster harvest on the environmental goods and services trade initiative. so this is one area that we are working hand in hand with our partners at the european union. >> mentioning the transatlantic partnerships there is a question about the transpacific partnerships. as the us you talked to japan, south korea, mexico, and canada about joining the talks? would you expect any big new -- new big economies to joint talks this year? >> first and foremost, part of our excitement about the transpacific partnership is that
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it does represent one of the fastest growing, most dynamic, economic regions in the world. but we recognize that to move as quickly as we would like to do, and ambitiously, we probably were better served starting off with the smaller number of m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rr @
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for clearer signals on russia's trade plans. how much clarity will it take for russia to enter the w.t.o.? >> that's probably a question more appropriately that when you have the prime minister or the president of russia here, there is a healthy debate, i think, within russia on whether they would rather proceed as this proposed bloc of belarus and kazakhstan. we have made and were making very good progress in helping russia get over the final hurdle of its w.t.o. accession. we continue to dialogue with them. but to some degree this is a decision that the russians will have to make. but we believe in the united states it is very much in our interest, and in the interest of american businesses and entrepreneurs, to have russia a part of a global rules-based trading community. >> the u.s. and canada recently
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reach agreement on buy american requirements. but there are still barriers in accessing highway projects at the state and local levels. with such policies the u.s. may be sending a message on protectionism that the u.s. may not find advantageous. can we expect to see buy america requirements as a standard for doing business in the u.s. in respect to government procurement? >> let me speak to the resolution of the buy american issue with canada that our office negotiated and we were very proud of. because one, for the first time we got canada to agree to essentially comply with joining the government procurement act through the w.t.o. of the give kudos again to ambassador shapiro who very quickly after joining our team jumped into those negotiations. one of the misconception abouts our buy american provision that was included in the recovery act by congress was that it was not w.t.o. client.
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in fact the president insisted and we had language within the bill that made it clear that the buy america provision would be instituted in full concert with all of our w.t.o. requirements and agreements, as well as any of our other free trade agreements. and within that, for any country that is a signatureor to the government recurement act, they would have access to most of those funds spent at the federal level. until we negotiated this reciprocal market access for u.s. businesses, canada and its provinces have never been a part of that government procurement act. what we negotiated was a very good win-win swlution because for the first time now our businesses have access to spending and procurement, canada's provincial level while giving them reciprocal access under the recovery act. this was a very smart and good result for u.s. exports.
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>> question, what is the update on whether the ustr will take china's internominate sensorship to the w.t.o. as an unfair barrier to trade? >> i am going to assume this relates to the google case. we are still dialoguing not just with google but other internet providers to make sure we fully understand what is happening in china. i know there are still very intense negotiations, frankly, between google and the chinese government. and then we are studying, making -- trying to make our own determination whether we believe in fact this is not w.t.o. client. and if the best resolution is to go forward and file an appeal. our preference, again my very strong preference, based on my career as a mayor and a lawyer, is that if we can get these resolved through direct negotiations or within the context of our dialogue with
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china in the strategic and economic dialogue or the jcct, that is so much more preferable than the uncertain path of what can be a two, three, four year legal battle through the w.t.o. i think we have demonstrated pretty clearly we are not afraid to take matters to the w.t.o. we took china on on the tires case. we have a pending raw materials case. when i talk to american businesses, what they tell me in this very difficult and economic environment, time is simply a luxury they don't have. if it's going to take five years to get something resolved, a lot ofure business can't survive that process -- of our businesses can't survive that process. our first preference is to see if we can't get this resolved through direct negotiation rather than having to run to the w.t.o. in every case. >> in your background, background as a businessman, do you run ustr like a business?
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>> i wish. i would say this, having been a mayor with 15,000 employees, i never forget when i got elected mayor my city mayor said you can only be mayor if you accept the fact is the good thing is you -- i was a city attorney for six years, you have 15,000 people so excited that you are leading the city. and about 25% of them are into the whole ron kirk magic. they are onboard. they are ready to go. you got about 60% that, you know, don't know but they'll follow. he says, we got 10% probably. you got 2% or 3% that are doing something so wrong, so bad, every day. willfully, they just don't get it. that's the nature of 15,000 employees. the flip side at ustr, i'm serious, this is the best run agency in the government. we have for the most part about 225 trade specialists who we have, frankly, stolen from
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commerce and agriculture and export-import bank and they get to do what they love and that's focus on direct negotiations and market openings. the agency really does run itself. it is a great place to work. we have an exceptionally talented team of dedicated professional people. >> we are almost out of time, before asking the last question we have a lot of important matters. on march 15 we have dick armey, the chairman of freedom works. on april 15, douglas schallman, the commissioner of the internal revenue service will be talking about the tax code. and on april 15, actor dennis quaid will just the prevention of potentially deadly medical errors. second, i would like to present our guest with the traditional obligatory and could have vetted -- coveted national press club mug.
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so now for our final question, which was actually mentioned in your introduction, remarks, ambassador kirk, how are you going to make it up to your wife given that her birthday was the dominant thing on your mind earlier today? will you need to work some of that ron kirk magic? >> my wife is blessed to know she's the first thing on my mind every day. we had a great weekend together in new york and hopefully she'll be back up this weekend. i know all of you that know her will call and help share the love with me and help rescue me from this faux pas. >> thank you for coming today, ambassador kirk. i would also like to thank the national press club staff, including its broadcast and library for organizing today's event. for more information about joining the national press club and how to acquire a copy of today's program, please go to our website
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>> "washington journal" continues.
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host: maria carrillo is the medical director for the alzheimer's association. a new report out that african- americans are two times more likely and hispanics are 1.5 times more likely than white counterparts to have alzheimer's or other dementia. how did you find this out? what are the factors here? guest: every year, the alzheimer's association publishes the report where we attempt to compile information on alzheimer's at how it affects our communities. each year we see rising trend in the numbers. this year we really focused on these two diverse populations, and that is because we know to in our studies, a compilation of several studies, actually, that we examined, and found that african-americans and hispanics are more likely, as you mentioned, to have alzheimer's.
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we looked at the reasons behind that, the research, and noted that were not -- there were not any conclusive genetic risk factors that could be attributed, but what we really focused on was to look at the risk factors involved. we found that hypertension, high blood pressure, specifically, and diabetes were the main contributors to those numbers in terms of the increases. host: what causes high blood pressure and diabetes? guest: in these populations, african-americans and hispanic americans, they just have a tendency to have a higher risk factors. we don't know much about how race and ethnicity contributes to those factors, but we note that those are risk factors that very specifically contradict to an increased risk of -- contribute to an increased risk of alzheimer's disease. african-americans and hispanics are naturally at higher risk for
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alzheimer's. host: at what age? guest: generally, we know to that hypertension and high blood pressure in middle age contributes to alzheimer's disease at a later age. but research shows us that the good news is that modifying those factors early on, and perhaps avoiding them altogether early in life, or middle age, you can see a difference in delaying cognitive declines, or maybe even prevent alzheimer's disease and the venture. that is the good news, that you can do something about and modify those risk factors. it is important, because these two populations are rapidly growing in the united states. we want to make sure we get the word out, because awareness of these is factors, modifying these risk factors, can have an impact on alzheimer's disease. host: what about across the board, the rise of alzheimer's? guest: we find that it is on the
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rise in the general population. 5.3 million americans are living with alzheimer's in the united states, by our calculations . every 70 seconds, somebody is diagnosed with alzheimer's disease in the united states. additionally, we know that by 2050, that number will rise to 60 million, if we do not find a way to stop the disease with medical treatment. we know that that would translate to an american beat agnes -- being and i guess every 30 seconds and 2050. those are numbers -- an american being diagnosed every 30 seconds in 2050. host: how much in research dollars does the association needed to put forth its efforts? guest: we have launched a bill, we have introduced to congress, and that bill calls for $2
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billion in research. currently, the federal government contributes about $460 million towards alzheimer's research through the national institutes of health, specifically the national institute on aging. we feel that the national parks are packed -- the national bricks or act -- national breakthrough act should really give us that push. we know today that there are five drugs and three clinical trials for alzheimer's disease, and we are pleased with the five, but when you think of the epidemic proportions we are facing of people who are facing alzheimer's disease, that is clearly not enough, that is acceptable. that -- is unacceptable. host: you what the projected changes between 2000 and 2025 in
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alzheimer's prevalence by state. guest: there are more people that are aging, and we project out of the population so that we can no to where -- note where the changes in aging are by state. we want to make sure they have information for the futurep&r:z
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dementia, and a new report showing that african-americans or two times more likely and hispanics 1.5 times more likely to get the disease. first call from the independent line and connecticut. caller: hi, how are you? i am calling because i think there is misunderstanding in the statistics come because if you compare the population to populations of african-american populations, and general country like south america or africa, the cases are very rare. the agency has the most people that are white. many of my friends, at least
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three or four have one family or relatives or friends that have alzheimer's disease, and they are white. i think it has to do with other kinds of signs that we see, or fruits or -- guest: great, thank you for the question, greta. i want to make sure that we clarify that when we talk about hispanic and african-americans, we're talking about americans. we're not referring to people outside the country, although we do prefer to hispanics who come here from other countries. -- refer to hispanics who come here from other countries. these are people from many different countries, in south america and central america, mexico, the caribbean. but when we talk about the differences in statistics, you are absolutely right. the numbers seem to indicate that in the united states,
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hispanic-americans are more prevalent than when they would be living in their own countries. a lot of that has to do with the increase in diabetes that happens here, and keep in mind that many of these people are over 65 today. that means they have perhaps lived in this country for many years. that changes that happened in your health, when you come to the country and have a different lifestyle and perhaps different eating habits, really contribute to the rise in cardiovascular diseases in the hispanic population in the united states. the main driver of that is diabetes. i will tell you that also these statistics come from members that we gather from medicare and medicaid, and many other cities across the country. they are not simply projections, they are actually counts of people. thank you very much for the question. host: our twitter page, of you are asked this -- a viewer says
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this -- maryland, austin, democratic line. caller: when you ask a question, what is the cause of alzheimer's, high blood pressure and diabetes -- i did not get it. host: that caller and the twitter, or referring to -- guest: when the moderator asked if the question about the causes of the disease, -- asked me the question about the causes of the disease, it was referring to the increases in the disease in the african-american and hispanic population. the actual cause and the general population, for anyone, because it is a global disease, is
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actually not known. we know that there are several contributing factors, because there are many studies that indicated that if you have cardiovascular risk factors, like high pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, you are three or four times at an increased risk. if you add in stroke or obesity, that increases your risk factor even more. we have that type of data, and we know that those are contributing risk factors. but the actual cause of the disease is not known. there are lots of dramatic risk factors that are being investigated because there seems to be some type of genetic link in the general population. not specifically linked at this time to afghan-americans or hispanics, but the general population -- not specifically linked at this time to african- americans or hispanics, but the general population. host: sara on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wish i knew these things before my husband passed away.
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he was diagnosed with dementia. he lived for two years, and years after that, they never did name it alzheimer's. years before he passed away, he had chronic leukemia. that is what i was wondering about this disease. i wish i could study more on it. do you think isolation -- people, when you don't get out or whatever -- that that contributes to a high risk of you being this way? guest: that is such a great question. that is absolutely very true. many studies have actually look at, for example, depression and isolation, and its link to alzheimer's disease. i am not sure that depression itself causes alzheimer's or the beginnings of alzheimer's
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disease causes a subsequent isolation, depression, possible with a drawl from social situations. it is understandable when you think of the early symptoms of alzheimer's disease -- short- term memory loss, the inability to remember your friends' names or where you have been for any given period of time did we stress that the association that we need to continue research in this area to find out more about isolation and depression and alzheimer's disease, and also is stressing the fact that once a person receives a diagnosis of the disease, make sure that person stays socially engaged, active, mentally active. we have noted that that does help in the symptoms of alzheimer's disease. that is a very good question. host: what is the difference between demint and alzheimer's -- dementia and alzheimer's? guest: that is a very good
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question, too. dementia is an umbrella term. you need to think about what type of dementia. alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, but after that, a vascular to mention it exists, and several other types of dementia. host: what is the overall cost of alzheimer's and dementia? guest: about hundred $72 billion overall in total care, specifically medicare -- about $170 billion overall in total care, specifically medicare. unlike other diseases, and you actually require 24-hour care, and perhaps even hospice, because alzheimer's disease does not allow a person to remember when they eat, took the medication, or take care of themselves. the ability to take care of themselves on a daily basis is gone. host: michael on the independent line.
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caller: good morning, greta, good morning, ms. carlo. it seems that the main focus of your study is on the african american and hispanic populations, which are really the most downtrodden -- i will use that term. i would like you to give your opinion on stress. stress, as we know, causes many, many problems in the human population, and it seems like -- i hate this term -- caucasian people or more well off than african-american and hispanic. maybe you should focus on, with the economic downturn in the whole world, it's stress is the major cause of alzheimer's. guest: that is a very good question an interesting point. certainly there is a lot of research on stress and alzheimer's disease. we know that stress is not great for our bodies. i am a narrow scientist by training, so studying -- a
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neuroscientist by training, so studying stress has great interest the scientific community. we do need to put more research dollars into that. the alzheimer's association does sponsor much research. we are the largest private a founder of research, and to date have done it about $360 million to that. not only the biological side, but the social side, in terms of the stress. but i will also tell you that the socio-economic factors you mentioned that perhaps work contributors in the african- american and hispanic population may not just be due to the stress, although that could be a part of it. we see indicators that in social economically -- so economic -- socioeconomoically disadvantaged communities in
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general, there is less likelihood to have access to good health care. going to the doctor and not having to worry about paying the doctor or approaching a medical institution, for example, if you are hispanic american, having a language barrier may be a problem but we feel that in terms of health care and access to health care, perhaps even awareness of the disease, being disadvantaged socio-economic ally is a contributor. and many surveys and studies have indicated that african- americans and hispanic americans are in the lower socio-economic bracket, especially in that age group. these are wrapped up in complicated issues. host: another tweet -- guest: that is a very good question. certainly, inflammation is one of the leading avenues of research that we also fund, and
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the federal government does as well. inflation has been studied in several trials ibuprofen, which have been put for clinical trials for alzheimer's disease. they have not yet been successful, but there is quite a bit of research on anti- inflammatory research. it is not good for us in our body, certainly not good in the brain, and it seems that where the protein deposits that happened in alzheimer's disease in the brain actually promote inflammation. we are trying to focus a lot of research on that, and in addition to that, recent findings show that people who suffer from general information in the rest of their bodies, systemic inflammation, people with the dow -- with gout, perhaps have an increased risk of alzheimer's.
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the disease may be a heterogeneous disease, meaning that there could be many causes of it, and it could very well be that in certain people, the perfect combination of causes come together to lead to alzheimer's disease. it's a very complicated question. host: do you see alzheimer's dementia happening at earlier ages of the years? guest: absolutely, very good point. it is the increased age of our community, as well as an increase in the awareness of the disease, and in particular, we also look african-americans and hispanic americans, died last up to six years earlier than their white counterparts -- diagnosed up to six years earlier than their white counterparts. african-americans are twice as likely to have high blood pressure and diabetes.
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hispanic americans are twice as likely to have diabetes. those are very strong risk factors that drive those numbers. host: and because if you have high blood pressure or diabetes, you have to go to the doctor and deal with those issues first. is that a contributing factor? guest: absolutely. many times, in those populations, african-americans, hispanic americans, they don't treat those conditions. they leave it and treated for many years, whether it is from access to community health care, knowledge of the condition and how it will affect them in the future -- we feel it is a contributing factor. host: westchester county, new york, and nathan on the democratic line. caller: good morning. maria, thank you for giving me a chance to comment on alzheimer's. you see, my wife has alzheimer's, and she is at a
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facility and i this occur each and every day -- a visit her each and every day, i want to tell you something, area, that despite all these theories they have about alzheimer's, almost everybody in that@@,@ @ $@ @ @
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host: before your wife was put in this facility or had access to it, what was your situation like at home taking care of her? caller: well, of course it was very difficult. i thought i could easily do it, but the alzheimer's association warned me that it was the most difficult thing and it will, and you know what, they underestimated. it is even more difficult. this facility, assisted living, i call it, with an alzheimer's unit. i visit my wife every day. believe me, i think i am quite right. i don't know what scientists are coming up with, but there is a basic, absolutely basic cause of alzheimer's. you cannot get alzheimer's, in my humble judgment, it is not hereditary -- if it is not hereditary.
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guest: thank you. genetic causes are being investigated to the fullest. genetic causes are strong indicators of alzheimer's disease. the first, biggest factor is age. as we get older, we have an increased risk to the general population. newmont -- no matter what else you have, what is going on, whether it is diabetes, heart disease, or aging. the second great contributor is having a relative with alzheimer's disease. it seems to be a little bit stronger. if it is the maternal relative, that seems to be a factor as well. however, we do have people with a genetic link to alzheimer's disease by a first-degree relative that never come down with the disease. it is not quite certain that if you have a relative or are connected genetically to alzheimer's disease, a hereditary or otherwise, he
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would contract the disease. but it increases your risk. once you add to that additional risk factors like heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, then you increase your risk even more. it is a combination of factors that could end up giving us the perfect storm, so to speak. host: los angeles, republican line. caller: good morning, how are you this morning? host: doing well. bill ahead -- go ahead. caller: i heard our guest made reference to diabetes being part of the problem. in the african-american community and hispanic community, they have a tendency to eat poorly. things like high blood pressure, diabetes, all of these medical issues, they are highly related
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to poor diets. i'm thinking is that each a plant-based diet, remove foods like white rice, remove alcohol , that all these kinds of bad foods from our diet, then we would see improvement. guest: that is a great question, i think inherent in discussions about high blood pressure and diabetes is the fact that the risk factors are modifiable mainly through diets, and certainly through medicational intervention. inherent in the discussion is that a healthy diet is always one of the best things to do to combat not only those factors, but alzheimer's disease. there's a lot of research that tells us that a healthy lifestyle by it, and to exercise, believe it or not, and
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the late your risk of -- can delay your risk of alzheimer's disease. thank you very much, because it is a very important point, that these are things that we can change, we can modify them with our lifestyle. host: new orleans, independent line. caller: i want to mention two things that our government has put in our food chain that has been documented, and i can bring up the scientific studies if you wish to show the direct correlation between the introduction of these ingredients into our food chain, and the alarming rise in neurological diseases, specifically alzheimer's and other diseases. the first one is aspertame, a genetically modified bacteria. it is an artificial bacteria. it is the excrement from that
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bacteria -- in other words, aspertame, when you take it, because it is in 80% of our sweeten food -- when you eat it, you are eating bacteria crap. it has neurological damage. ghost: your background is an 8 neuroscience. guest: we examined many risk factors, and certainly, aspertame and nutra-sweet and artificial sweeteners have been extensively studied. we have not found a direct link between artificial sweeteners and the risks as of yet it is certainly under investigation, but as of yet, we cannot definitively say there is a risk. in order to have a definitive
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conclusion about any particular food or in our mental risk factor, it needs to be studied on a national level with thousands of people. current studies are sufficient and that perhaps we should continue to research the areas, but not generally conclusive for us to make a determination and that recommendation as to people should or should not eat certain things. host: what are the symptoms of alzheimer's? guest: the main symptoms start with short-term memory loss the association has published 10 warning signs and you can find that at our website. we included difficulty to remember words, very common things, easily being disoriented and lost in space and time. many times people will feel that their loved ones will first have
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symptoms when the forget words for common things. those are some of the very first signs and symptoms. but the association encourages is that any type of memory loss should be talked through with your physician. it is very important to monitor that. it is hard to know on the first time you have memory loss, because when you are under stress, you forget your wallet, lose your license but it is important to monitor these things with your physician, so that they can no to any major changes that need further investigation -- note major changes that need further investigation. host: next caller. caller: my mother suffered from dementia, and yet, i visited the alzheimer's association in manhattan. there are things i would like to point out. my mother stayed home, and she died in her home, and i got assistance from the association,
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which is god's gift. but i would like to point out some things. trying to put this as a black and latin disease, like the most victims of it, and if you take their research, it seems that alzheimer's has no color. what i have learned with my mother's dementia is that she consumed a whole lot of world aids. -- a whole lot of rolaids. my mother is african american, and has some native american. she ate a very well, never had a high blood pressure or any dietary situation. i find that most of problems when it comes to alzheimer's or dementia has to do with not understanding what a person can or cannot do -- host: all right, we will leave it there. guest: certainly, care givers
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are an important part of the equation. our recent figures in the report highlights that there are a 11 million caregiver is out there in the united states -- 11 million caregivers in the united states giving 12.5 billion hours to the loved ones. that is estimated to be millions of dollars, really significant part of the equation. absolutely, with your mother and the risk of alzheimer's disease not having a genetic link, it is hard sometimes for us to have that type of information, because alzheimer's disease is a disease of longevity. we have made great progress in research and investments in many other diseases -- for example, the death rates of diseases like strokes, cancers, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, and certainly even hiv and aids.
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those rates are going down, which is great news for all of us. but the death rates for alzheimer's have in turn skyrocketed. it is a disease of longevity. it is hard to know -- our ancestors did not live long enough to be able to see alzheimer's disease. that can be aluminum is another informant was a factor that has been extensively studied, similar to the call about artificial sweeteners. and enamel -- we have seen that aluminum could be a contributor. however, one that has been studied in humans, we understand using aluminum products -- our body has an inability to allow aluminum to penetrate. we are relatively protected from aluminum spirit -- we are relatively protected from aluminum. certainly, alzheimer's can still
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affect the person, despite doing everything right, unfortunately, and despite even at not having a genetic link. that is one of the major reasons why even in the general population, this is on the rise, and we must act now to do something about it. increase and research dollars would be key. host: you said that $2 billion is what you want congress to approve. how would it be used? what areas? guest: much of it would be focused on basic science of the disease, basic biology. what the research dollars to do or really contributed to our knowledge of how the disease actually forms in the brain. and it gives us opportunities to interrupt that process, gives us more opportunities to have molecular targets, perhaps even compounds, the pharmaceutical companies could develop. secondly, there is a large portion of the bill that calls for an increase in the diverse population of clinical trials.
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that is very important. currently, about 95% of participants and the clinical trials are white americans. we know that with genetics, and race and ethnicity, a good -- it could have different info for what could to bits -- what contributes to the disease. host: republican line, pensacola, florida. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. go ahead. caller: i wonder if some of the medications that people are using to treat different diseases, could that be some of the side effects? i have both my grandparents, taking high blood pressure medicine, and they or older. one of the side effects they had was starting to have memory loss. it continued on from there. i'm wondering if with different
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medications people are being treated with, could that be some of the said act? -- some of the side effects? host: one of our twitter people is also saying, or asking the same question, but asking specifically about anti- psychotic drugs. guest: i will address the first one, the first caller. there is a possibility that some medications could increase memory loss. not quite sure if that is a direct link to alzheimer's disease, because just general memory loss can be because of several things -- certainly a lack of sleep or depression. there is not a direct link to those did specifically, high blood pressure medication, there are several studies going on of high blood pressure medication, because it actually seems to be beneficial for people with alzheimer's disease. specifically to that one, there are some studies currently, even
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in phases one and two of the development process, early on, looking at high blood pressure medication in alzheimer's disease. that could be the case for other medication, but i blood pressure noá,@# @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @k
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increased morbidity in people who use them. one has to be really careful in using anti-psychotics with any loved ones, but very specifically people with memory loss and dementia. host: arkansas, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you, greta? and hello, paisano. i am 86 years old. i have a question and comment. has anybody ever made a study on sexual activity of people with dementia or alzheimer's? guest: specifically, on the sexual activity as a cause of alzheimer's -- i am not sure if that is the question -- but no, there is never anything studied -- has never and -- there has
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never been anything study. but there was a study of couples with alzheimer's disease, a couple counseling studies with alzheimer's association funding several of those, and federal government continues to find that type of research. it is important to note that even if your loved one has been diagnosed with the disease, they are still your loved one and a person with many biological needs. sexuality is part of a couple's life. whether couples want or need to engage in sexual activity once they are diagnosed is a factor that can lead to continued healthy relationship, even with a person with alzheimer's disease. good question. host: another nodte -- guest: it has been known to keep
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your mind sharp. caffeine is a stimulant. it can keep your mind sharp during the day. exercise can also do that. there have been a lot of studies that indicated that caffeine in coffee perhaps can ward off alzheimer's disease. there have been studies of coffee drinkers, that they have less risk of alzheimer's. it is hard to know what in coffee is contributing to when you do studies like that, you can bias your study, because they could also just be people who exercise more, read more, they want to stay awake in the morning and are more active. it is hard to know what about coffee may be good, but anything that increases your alertness is very positive. host: wichita, kansas, you are on the air. caller: good morning, c-span, and maria. my mother passed away from alzheimer's in 2004, and she was
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in a nursing home for 10 years before she passed away. it is a very difficult thing to deal with, especially for caregivers. a couple of questions or comments i had -- she came from a family of 10 kids, and out of those 10, five had alzheimer's over their lifetimes. there might be a genetic link there. also, the amount of people with alzheimer's over the next, say, at 10 to 20 years, is going to triple. we are going to see a huge amount of increase in nursing home care, and this is going to be even more of a drain on the health care. host: let me leave it there and have you addressed what he said -- talk about characters a little bit. what is the cost to care givers, and the hours that they put in? guest: we estimate about 12.5
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billion hours of unpaid, informal care goes into helping your loved one. when you put that together with the 5 million people with the disease, that means almost 17 million people in the united states are living with this disease in some form or another, whether they have it or are caring for someone to that really, of course, but contributes to some factors with caregivers, because the health deteriorates as they are trying to provide 24 hours, until, as the earlier caller said, they just could not sustain it anymore. it is also important to note that the costs associated with the care is, in our estimation, $144 billion, which is more than the federal government spends on alzheimer's and dementia in terms of medicare and medicaid costs. the costs are absolutely astronomical.
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host: indiana -- idaho, excuse me, republican iline. caller: i would just like americans to know that nutrition has a tremendous effect on at the body, and therefore on the brain. it has been noted that several countries have far less alzheimer's disease that americans do, and the nutrition of the people in those countries is far superior. host: we will leave that there and go to the last call if we have enough time to answer. dawn on the democratic line, go ahead. caller: real quickly, i want to know this disease that might daughter-in-law's father has -- i wonder if it is a form of alzheimer's.
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also, can she recommend a good book that we can get? thank you very much. guest: certainly. certainly, there have been some studies that are looking at links between these and other diseases and alzheimer's disease, but there is no indication curley that it is a type of alzheimer's. about 24 hours a day" is a great book weakened recommend -- "24 hours a day" is a buckwheat and recommend for care givers. an act -- a book we can recommend for care givers. alz.org has a lot of information. any infnformation can be mailedo africa, and joint
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forces commands. just getting underway live on c-span 3. -- in their sacrifices of carrying out the missions of your commands. while the admiral is not new to appearing before this committee, this is his first time testifying as supreme commander in europe. u.s. european commands engagement with our allies and partners in europe is an essential component of the transatlantic relationship. nowhere are the benefits of this relationship more clearly demonstrated than in afghanistan where 43 countries and nearly 40,000 non-u.s. troops, the vast
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majority of which come from countries in the area of responsibility are participating in the nato-led international security assistance force. ucom's ability to build our allies and partners in europe are an important contribution to bringing security to afghanistan. we welcome the increased commitment of forces by our isaf coalition partners since president obama announced the commitment of additional u.s. forces in december. in addition, isaf soldiers from britain, denmark, and canada join u.s. soldiers and marines and afghan troops in the recent combat operations in helmand province and more than a dozen isaf troops have died in that operation. we honor their sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families. at the same time, an issue that i want to get into further this morning is the continuing
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shortfall by our nato allies to provide the additional trainers. the nato training mission in afghanistan needs to build up the afghan army and police. it's apparent that growing the afghan security forces so they can take responsibility for ensuring their country's security is essential for the success of our counterinsurgency strategy and for meeting the july 2011 date that president obama has set for the start of the reduction of u.s. troops in afghanistan. there is no shortage of recruits for the afghan army. thanks in part to that july 2011 date, which has energized afghanistan's leaders to bring in more recruits. according to general bill caldwell, the head of our training mission in afghanistan, a major problem is the continuing shortage of trainers
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to provide the initial basic training. training the afghan army is a mission that our nato allies should embrace regardless of their ability or their willingness to be on the front line of the fight. yet, at a recent conference to generate forces, nato members pledged fewer than half of the approximately 1,200 additional nato trainers sought by general caldwell. that is more than disappointing, it is unacceptable. the european command faces a number of other security challenges within the area of responsibility. president obama's new plan for nato -- excuse me, for missile defense in europe, the adaptive approach is supported by our allies. nato plans to complete a revised strategic concept for how the alliance should adapt to today's security challenges. the first major revision of nato's strategic concept since the events of 9/11.
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general ward, the challenges in the aor are staggering. from the conflicts that rage across borders to fragile governments to nations where peace keeping or peace enforcing forces are the best and sometimes only hope for security and stability and to the spread of violent extremism. while confronting some of these issues falls squarely in the lap of a military command, many do not. and command is directing to assist where lines between the department of state and defense are blurred. we look forward to your testimony on these issues and efforts to confront and counter them. the threat of terrorism from africa and particularly the potential for havens and recruiting grounds for terrorists in ungoverned or undergoverned areas are cause for deep concern.
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the attempt at christmas day bombing of an airliner reminds everybody that al qaeda and violent extremists who share their ideology are not just located in the afghanistan/pakistan region, but in@@@ @ rr
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of the future. we're also interested in hearing the role of joint forces command with respect to the drawdown of forces in iraq. specifically of interest would be your views on how to withdrawal u.s. forces from iraq will have an impact on jifcom's ability to resource in the future. how the services and other government agencies are preparing to execute the drawdown, and how well the services are meeting their expected dwell times to restore readiness rates. in addition, as persistent conflicts in afghanistan and iraq continue to stress our forces, our committee is interested in hearing your assessment, general, of the readiness of deploying forces. again, we thank our witnesses for their dedicated and continued service, and we look forward to your testimony.
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senator mccain. >> thank you. i'm grateful for your service and that of all of the brave men and women under your commands. many of my colleagues and i have been strong supporters of our transatlantic partnerships and nato alliance. succeeded as we all know in promoting and protecting freedom and democracy in europe and we won. but today the alliance is facing a number of very significant challenges. secretary gates rightly said in his speech at the nato strategic concept seminar last month and i quote, unless the strategic concept spurs operational and institutional changes, it will not be worth the paper it's printed on. right now the alliance has serious budgetary problems and is facing a budget shortfall of some $900 million. the problem is not just the current underfunding of nato. over the years, nato and the national defense budgets consistently have declined to
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where only 5 of its 28 member states are obligating and requiring defense spending of 2% of gross domestic product. while the war in afghanistan has shone a light on the diminished capacity, these are not new. due to the limited budgets has let the capabilities decline. for example, nato lacks the cargo airlift to helicopters, aerial revealing tankers and isr platforms needed to be effective in afghanistan or any other future conflict. member states should be explaining to their parliaments and to their citizens that nato shares threats and goals. i'm concerned that they can continue to allow the idea to build up among their publics that nato is fighting wars because the americans are making them do it. the alliance must be about more
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than just fulfilling our obligations under article 5 as essential as that is. it must also serve to deter potential adversaries within the alliance and beyond. only then can we begin to collectively transform our alliance from one of common defense to one of common security. admiral staff redis, i look forward to hearing your prescription for developing and better leveraging nato's capabilities to meet future threats. i strongly believe it's important to nurture and scrutinize old friendships. it's equally important to develop and foster new ones. africa is a continent full of potential friends and allies. we often grow too complacent and lack the foresight to prepare for things we don't expect. and that's why i'm glad we have the africa command. africa as we know has been vulnerable due to widespread
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corruption. somali's continue to flow into yemen and train with al qaeda and the affiliates and we don't have to look any further than the christmas day bomber in nigeria as proof that extremists exist in many places we're not thinking about or fighting a war. but we have partners in the region. malian troops have launched an offensive against al qaeda and lost as many as 13 troops last summer, african nations are vulnerable to a variety of threats, trafficking and piracy. any of which would weaken an already fragile region. general, i look forward to hearing your testimony and your plans for resources. your leadership comes at a time when our troops are engaged in more than ever in joint operations. the branchs of our armed forces are expected not only to team with one another, but with
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allies and host nation troops as we have seen most recently in the offensive in marjah. the committee is interested in understanding how joint forces command is preparing our troops to operate jointly and what steps you believe the services should be taking in this regard. i'm also curious about how the rapidly changing feedback from the field in iraq and afghanistan will be incorporated in joint command's future doctrine of development. all highly decorated and highly respected members of the military. i appreciate your service and weigh your opinions, requests, and predictions heavily. so i look forward to all of your testimonies. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator mccain. we'll start with you, admiral. >> good morning, chairman, good morning senator mccain, all the senators here. >> is your mike on? >> yep. >> move it closer to you if you
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can. >> thank you very much, senator levin, and senator mccain, all the members of the committee who were taking the time to hear from my two very good friends and wing men this morning. general kip ward, i feel very safe between these two distinguished combat veterans. i want to thank the congress, this committee for the support you give us in all of our operations. it's vital and it translates directly to our men and women. and we thank you for it. i'll be glad to talk about all of the things that were raised by the chairman and the ranking member. in afghanistan, i would say that i'm cautiously optimistic. i think that secretary gates yesterday in afghanistan put it very well. we have some challenges ahead. but we are seeing some bits and pieces of good news. and i'll be glad to talk about some of those. senator levin, i agree completely that we need to focus like a laser on trainers for the nato forces.
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i'm committed to doing that and i'll talk about it as we go along. we're very engaged from a u.s. european command perspective in the valcans. today we're down to about 1,200 troops. and our allies are working very hard as we move toward a safer and more secure area there. i'd also like to touch on today some of my concerns there. talk a little bit about iran and potential threats to europe. touch on our relations with russia, and then talk a bit about some of the initiatives we're undertaking at u.s. european command that focus on inner agency, international, private/public partners and the use of effective strategic communications. i'll close by saying i represent
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here 80,000 brave men and women from u.s. european command. all proud to serve, all volunteers. they thank you for your support. thank you, sir. >> thank you very much. >> good morning, chairman levin, it's great for me to be here this morning, as well. alongside my two great friends, the admiral and the general who we've come to partner with over time. and i think our collaboration has been good for men and women who serve with us as well as for our nation. i'm very happy to be here to address the points that raised as well as others. and i'd like to thank this committee for the support provided to my command, men and women, as we carry forth our mission on behalf of our nation. we do what we do to protect american lives and to promote american interests. and we do it by supporting security and stability programs in africa and this island nation.
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we concentrate our efforts on helping african states build capable and professional militaries that respect human rights, adhere to the rule of law and more effectively contribute to stability in africa. we're assisting our african partners and building capacities through transnational threats from violent extremist organizations and to adjust consequences of natural disasters. the development of professional and capable militaries contribute to increase security and stability in africa allows african nations and regional organizations to promote good governance, expand development, and provide for their common defense and better serve their people. the partnership, which includes our european and african partners. as members of the staff is now on the fifth deployment and expanded some of the initial focus in the gulf of guinea to
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other africa coastal nations. a continental wide command and control exercise has been seen a steady increase in participation that will amount to 30 nations participating this year. exercise natural fire, conducted by the nations in east africa, a tremendously successful program that looks at how these nations respond collectively to a natural disaster. these programs reflect the willingness of our partners to work with us and with each other against common threats and reflect our programs and activities are indeed producing tangible results. my focus is on activities, program, and communications that support our national interest and also reenforce success in ways that assure progress for the long-term goals our african partners for themselves. we closely harmonize our activities with our colleagues
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at state, usaid, and other agencies. our service components are, in fact, maturing. our security cooperations, defense attaches and security locations. they are tremendously valuable as we pursue our u.s. security interests. it's my honor to serve with the very distinguished uniformed and civilians of the department of defense. making a difference in this vitally important part of the world as we look to cause their work to lead to more effective global stability. their dedicated efforts exemplify the efforts and strength of the people. and the security and stability on the african continent directly supporting our interests there. i'm pleased to also say that representing those men and women
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that i've brought along today our command sergeant major the command senior. mark ripka as someone who exemplifies the goodness of that great, great team. i thank you for your support, i thank you for what you do to cause our mission to be successful. any additional information i can. thank you so much. >> thank you so much, general, and general mattis. >> members of the committee, thank you -- >> and it will be. >> over the course of the past year, joint forces -- [ inaudible ] we continue to encourage joint
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forces -- nato. [ inaudible ] we have continued to adapt our forces. we've been increasingly confident in warfare. the chairman and secretary of defense stated that we must not [ inaudible ] if we continue to deploy forces in a regular fight in iraq and afghanistan, dormancy of our conventional capabilities. our forces are achieving balance and will continue to do so as dwell times build with the iraqi drawdown. through effective training and education across the force, we can strike the appropriate balance while ensuring our
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current and future combat readiness. i returned a week ago from afghanistan and our field commanders there confirm that our troops are superbly trained for the fight even as we use @ ssons learned to not fall back av@ ád)
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forces are not cosmetic, they are in the fight, but at the same time, anecdotal accounts of afghan soldiers smoking hashish and failing to help fortify positions. afghan soldiers that are partnered with coalition forces in the fighting in helmand. >> sir, as you can imagine, i discussed this frequently with general stan mcchrystal, my nato subordinate who is directing operations. and i also receive reports on a daily basis. i am satisfied with the progress of the afghan national army and overall its performance i think has been effective in marjah. as you recall, senator, when we went south about a year ago, the ratio of isaf troops to afghan troops was ten of the isaf for
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every one of the afghans. in this particular operation, we are one isaf troop and just less than one afghan. so we're approaching that one-to-one ratio. so the quantity piece has improved dramatically, the quality piece, i think, is spot-on. we're seeing them actually in the fight. we're also seeing instances where the afghan troops are stepping ahead of the coalition forces and saying let me go through that door first. let me go up that road first. we're seeing that kind of shoulder to shoulder effective combat fight out of our afghan partners. in terms of individual instances or anecdotes, we follow up on every one of those. we report them, action is taken by the afghan chain of command, but overall, senator, i am satisfied with the progress we've seen over the course of a year. and i think the operation in marjah shows that.
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>> well, that's important news. i want to focus on that ratio. we were there just -- i guess the first time maybe a year ago now. and got into this issue. it was a five to one ratio five of ours for one afghan. we heard that in marjah for that effort, it was about two of ours to one of theirs. and now you're telling us that it was actually a lot better than that closer to one-to-one which was very significant and important news. that's critically important. not only in terms of turning over responsibility to afghan security to the afghans which is a major part of our mission, but also in terms of the credibility of what we're doing there to the people who live there, to the residents, but also to the training of the afghan troops so that we can have that close
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training relationship and the closer that ratio is, not just the one-to-one, but two of theirs to one of ours the closer we are to our own standard and our own goal. i read in the paper this morning that, however, when that effort was undertaken that we left, i think, afghan troops left or perhaps it was some marines in the nearby area to -- without adequate protection at all and a number the taliban simply moved next door. can you tell us anything about that? and if that was happening, why was there not a plan particularly given the size of the afghan army to have afghan forces secure places where other combat troops were leaving in order to succeed in the fight in marjah? >> senator, i'll have to take that one for the record and get back to you on that particular incident. i'm not familiar with it. >> you'll see it reported in this morning's paper. >> thank you. >> as i mentioned the opening
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statement, nato members are falling short once again. and the most recent generation conference. they fell short in meeting the nato mission requirements. nato is committed to provide. can you give us any kind of assurance as to that -- whether that's going to be filled in and whether the nato countries that have fallen short of their commitments and obligations are going to be forthcoming? >> first of all, let me give you the exact numbers. we're looking for an additional 1278 and we have pledges for 541. so it is absolutely correct to say that nato has fallen short in providing these vital trainers. what we are doing about it is taking further steps in terms of contacting each of the nations
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individually and going one by one through the precise requirement for each of the nations in terms of where they could most effectively fill in the trainer mix. that effort is going on in realtime both from my headquarters and up in brussels where the secretary general is very engaged at the political level. so we will continue to hammer away at this until we fulfill that commitment. and i will continue to place it as i told you, senator levin, at the top of my priority list. >> we appreciate that. at a press conference last week said that afghan army recruitment is going very, very strong. i think you said an 800% inkroes in army recruitment over the last four or five months that they can't put them in the basic training right away because of the shortage of trainers. and that is totally unacceptable, almost unbelievable to me that we can't
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get nato allies to carry out that kind of commitment, which is not the most dangerous of the positions that they need to fill. there's obviously danger anywhere, but comparing to being in combat, it falls well short of that. and we need to do everything we can. and i'm not sure if there's anything more we can do. if there, is please let us know. in your judgment, can the recruiting trend, which is a great extent according to general caldwell to the efforts of the afghan leadership to stimulate recruiting as well as an increase in pay. but he attributes the large increase more to the leadership of the afghans and to the pay increase when we met them. will that recruiting trend in your judgment be maintained? or is it maintainable right into the spring? >> i believe it will be maintained, senator, and i'm also very focussed on the other end of that equation, which is
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the retention piece, which is not going, as well. so we have to focus on retaining just as we do in the united states. it's so important to have the retention along with the recruitment piece. i'm confident we will continue to be strong on the recruiting side. working very hard with stan mcchrystal and bill caldwell to put focus on the retention side, as well. >> a new missile defense program in europe called phased adaptive approach that the obama administration has announced and begun to implement. does nato support that new missile defense plan? >> nato is beginning that conversation. and at the moment, what we have is a ballistic missile defense c-2 command and control structure which is being explored to decide where, when, and how nato could connect into this if the alliance decides to do so. i anticipate there will be a
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significant discussion about that at the defense,which will be in the may time frame. and i'm hoping to see a decision taken toward the time of the summit, which is in lisbon in november. so it's very much an active conversation. i don't want to pre-judge the political decisions of the nations, but it's certainly on the agenda. >> all right. from what you know, can you say there seems to be a positive response to it? >> i think overall, that would be fair to say. >> thank you very much, senator mccain. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, admiral, are we -- as i understand the president's proposal was that we would be adding approximately 30,000 troops and our allies including in and out of nato would be adding an additional 10,000. >> yes, sir. >> how are we on track for that 10,000? >> sir, we're in pretty good shape. we're at 9,500. and if i can get the additional
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700 trainers that i just talked to the chairman about, then that would put us over the 10,000 mark overall. >> does that include the 2000 dutch troops that are scheduled to leave? >> no, sir, it does not. >> so you're really talking about 7,500, you don't have any illusion about the dutch troops remaining, do you? >> my sense is listening to the political dialogue out of the netherlands that they will be leaving. >> so we're really not on track, then. it's nice to say, but if you're going to lose 2,000 dutch troops who are, by the way, great fighters from my visits, it's not 9,500, it's closer to 7,500, and there are other of our allies whose commitments certainly not been firmed up yet. the afghan army, as i understand it, needs to be around 300,000 and 100,000, rough numbers we
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would like to see over time? >> i think over time, yes, sir. >> how do we expect over time to pay for the afghan army? >> i think the international community will have to be in a position to continue to support it for a great deal of time to come. >> and rough live how much would that cost be on an annual basis? >> i don't have that number at my fingertips, but it would certainly be in the billions, probably in the low billions. >> and we would expect our allies to foot the bill for that? >> i think it is fair to say it's an international effort and we would hope that all in the international community would continue to support it moving forward. >> overall, the operation in marjah was successful? >> i think it is going very successfully, certainly through the clearing phase. we're now in the build and hold, which i think will be challenging, but i am confident that the plans that we have in
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place will give us a very good chance at overall success as we go to transition. >> what presence was our nato allies in that operation? >> the overall 55 -- >> the marjah operation. >> the marjah operation was in the range percentage wise of the isaf forces was around 25% to 30%. >> and that was in direct combat roles? >> largely, yes, sir. >> so some of our allies are fighting very well, some of them have very restrictive rules of engagement, right? >> we have -- we have 22 nations that have no caveats and we have about 20 nations that have caveats, yes, sir. >> and some of these caveats are very disturbing. >> some of them are very restrictive and we work very hard to try and reduce those
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whenever we can. >> i thank you, there's a lot going on in nato and in europe, and we appreciate the great work you're doing. general, this sounds like a perhaps a question that need not be asked, but should we be looking as part of africa command some headquarters located in africa? >> the work of the command is in its programs, its activities, its exercises, the things that we do across the continent to help the nations of africa increase their capacity. the headquarters location quite candidly doesn't affect that work where we plan those activities, where we look to resource activities. it's not something that the leaders in africa are asking me about. and at this time, it is my estimation that any great efforts to locate an
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american-sized headquarters of that nation would be more counterproductive than productive. >> because? >> because of perceptions, because of the reactions to neighbors, to parts of the continent where the headquarters might not be located. many unintended consequences, i think, would fall out from that type of a move. >> what's your area of greatest concern? maybe tell us a couple of countries of your greatest concern, general ward. >> senator, as we look at the continents, clearly the challenges are there. there are also opportunities. but when we talk about what's going on -- >> your greatest concern. >> what's going on in somalia, sudan, nigeria. the judicial means of changes of government that we saw in guinea, those activities concern me. >> and do you believe we're making -- since it's not news
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perhaps it's obvious we're making some progress in the piracy issue? >> we are making progress from the standpoint of addressing the threat at sea, the weather, threat at sea, the weather, lately also helps because of the are more than less able to control their territories will
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also contribute to increased stability and reducing the effects of piracy. >> the main area of piracy operations is where? >> predominantly the gulf -- >> what country? >> somalia. >> somalia. an incredibly unstable country. >> sir. >> and very little prospect for stability in the future? >> well, it's a work in progress to be sure. small things happening now. but much work to be done. >> could you just make a comment about ethiopia and the situation there? >> ethiopia remains a friend, a partner in our efforts to help produce stability there in the region. there are work that the ethiopians do in the counterterror business as well as in the work of their participation in peace keeping operations is important work. and i think the partnering with
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ethiopians as well as other east african nations is something we would continue to look at in ways of helping produce stability in that part of the world. >> i thank you, general, thank you admiral, thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator mccain. senator liberman. >> thanks mr. chairman and thanks to the three of you for your extraordinary service. general ward, let me just pick up where senator mccain was. particularly in somalia, we know from experience that where there's a no government either piracy or provision of space for terrorists, islamist terrorists particularly to operate. i gather that there is an attempt by -- i'm not sure what you call it. the provisional government to retake the capital city of mogadishu. and i wondered if you could give us both your estimate of how that's going and to what extent
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we're able to be supportive of that effort. senator, as you know, somalia has been an ungoverned state for 20 years. what we're facing today is not new. the current transition federal government being supported by the african union, being supported by the mission in somalia, and being supported by others of the international community to include the united states is an effort that i would continue to endorse and think that it has for now our best potential for helping to turn around some of the instability and lack of governance we experience there. what's going on in mogadishu with respect to the desires of the transition government to reclaim parts of mogadishu is a work in progress. i'm not aware of the specifics. i'll have to come back with you, sir, with the specifics on what that current operation looks like. but to the degree, the tfg,
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transition federal government can, in fact, reexert control over mogadishu with the help of others. it's something we would look to do and support as well as the other provisions of the process that looked to instilling the governance, instilling governmental things that would serve the benefit of somali people to cause that situation to reverse itself. we look to participate with those who also support them, the other nations, and the neighbors who contribute to the mission, uganda, supporting their work and trying to lend a hand that they lend to the tfg and increasing stability. so those efforts are ongoing. it's an effort that i think we would certainly support, and we would look to do it in ways that add to stability in that part of the continent. >> let me go to the sudan, there's a lot of continuing concern here about the situation
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in sudan. we're in a critical period in the coming year when national elections next month, which are the first and more than two decades, maybe more than 2 1/2 decades. and then there's a referendum in the south in january. i'd like to hear first what your command is doing to support the u.n. au force in darfur where the human rights abuses are continuing. and what they're doing to support implementation to the comprehensive peace agreement of january 2005. >> our support through the united nation mission in darfur has been in form of training assistance, logistics assistance, support to those forces who have been declared a part of that mission.
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we provided logistics support as i've mentioned and we've continued to do that in the support of the peace keeping efforts in darfur. we have no direct on the ground involvement there. those processes as a part of the comprehensive peace agreement are essentially political processes that we certainly support. we do support in the case of southern sudan the formation of the liberation army in southern sudan, some of their training initiatives. and we do that through in conjunction with the department of state, working with the special envoy and doing those things that increase the professionalism. >> let me ask you how you would suggest that we interpret the statements that president bashir has made that essentially the war is over. how should we interpret those? >> senator, the cooperation that we see emerging between the
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presidents, i think we would look to that as an encouraging sign. >> so it's real? something is changing there? >> something is changing. >> for the better? >> it's for the better, it's still fragile, not irreversible to be sure. i think we should be encouraged by those signs, but we look forward to more of that as this political dialogue continues. >> admiral, let me ask you about bosnia. senator mccain and a couple of colleagues visited there last month. we feel a sense of pride about what the u.s. was able to do in the '90s to stop the aggression and genocide there. but as you indicate in your posture statement, the problems continue particularly the ethnic divisions. it's not what it was in the '90s, of course. but you've got some really
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explosive situations. and people there. i will tell you that the one most encouraging experience that we had was visiting with the military. and i think ucom has had a lot to do with that. all of the ethnic groups in there functioning at a higher level. i want to quote from something you said in your statement, it's the question i want to ask after your evaluation. you warned that the "deprogrammed reduction of nato and european union forces may induce additional risk of instability in the region." and i'd like to evaluate the situation. but then specifically, would you counsel now that the program reduction of nato should not go forward that it involves too much risk? >> thank you, senator. just, again, the context of the
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reduction of u.s. troops is really quite remarkable. 20,000 in bosnia alone, we're down to 20 there now. in kosovo, as many as 10,000, we're down to about 1,200 troops now. in bosnia, you correctly hit on, i believe a central element, which is the security force there, the armed forces. moving them in a direction that is integrated, i think will be very encouraging to the body politics in bosnia. in terms of kosovo, we had 15,000 nato troops there as recently as december. we've been able to draw down to about 10,000 nato troops there now. again, about 1,200 u.s. the next step in that process is for me to provide military advice to the secretary general about whether to take the step to go from 10,000 down to 5,000. i'm evaluating that very carefully. there's still tension,
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understandable, between serbia and what they perceive as a break away province of serbia. but what the united states and 62 other nations have recognized as the independent country of kosovo. so i think we need to move carefully so we don't fall back. the progress has been extraordinary. we don't want to let it unravel. we don't want to let it unravel. i will be looking very carefully in kosovo, continuing our encouraging efforts in bosnia. overall i'm confident we'll continue to move in a good direction but it requires sort of watchful, watchful approaches. >> well, i appreciate that. i'm encouraged by it, and i guess i would encourage you to err on the side of caution. we may look back and really regret it. end on a bright note. one the serb, told by the commander of the military, in bosnia herzegovina, at one
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point, called on all serbian members of the bosnia herzegovina armed forces to return home, and no one came. that's a great comment and a tribute also to u com's role in training that force. thank. >> senator inhofe? >> thank you. senator lieberman ended on bright note. i'll start on a bright note, some of the things that are working. e talked tab before or every meeting in private. the programs, 1206, 1207, 1208, the inet program, serb program, ccif, those programs are working well. admiral stavridis, i would ask you, with some of these things that have been changed recently, like in the 1207, the whole reason for structuring these programs the way they're
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structured with d.o.d. is so they can be activated quickly, and get an immediate response. now, we're kind of going in the other direction with the 1207. you want to comment on that? >> senator, first of all i completely agree that the 1206 and the inet programs have been superb. i think each of the combatant commanders has testified to that over the last couple of years and i benefitted from them greatly in the three years that the command continued to be a strong advocate here at u.s. european command. 1207 money is kind of dual key between state and department of defense. i think that any time there's a dual key it's going to take a little longer to work through the challenges. so some of that immediacy so valuable in the 1206 funding is not as readily available in the 1207, but we're committed to work with our partners and make it go as rapidly --
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>> i understand that civilian to civilian. are you satisfied with the funding level of the ccif program? >> yes, sir. >> all right. general, with all the great things happening in simulation now, as you know yesterday we broke ground on the new building for the jvets program, and by the way i appreciate very much your personal attention going down, watching that. i mean, we had people from all over the world there under the, our inet program. i think some 250 coalition members are being trained by this jvets program. so just another example of how iset in working. also an xumpl how the jvet programs is working and i -- why don't you give an update as to what you think is happening in terms that things with the jvets programs? >> thanks, senator. you know this is an issue near
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and dear to my heart. in prepares our troops, which is ultimately my responsibility, we cannot do it as efficiently or effectively or as cheaply, i might add, as we can in real world, as we could using simulation. one of the biggest challenges we face is breaking the old paradigm somehow they're good for submarines, aviation, ship drivers, missile ballistics but somehow leave the people who take 80% of our casualties off the ledger. so we're going forward very strongly with this from the small unit levels to how we integrate joint isr intelligence surveillance reconnaissance and more importantly joint fires, because if we distribute our forces more broadly on the battlefield we need to reduce the risk to them. that means they can access joint
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isr and know what's over the next hill. they can access and use well joint fires and the installation >> the best way to break that paradigm is to get people out there to see it. >> yes, sir. >> it is one of those things, you can't explain this. it is mind-boggling. >> yes, sir. we have a couple of programs that do that right now. we're getting a lot of interest. we have had significant support from this committee. >> good. general ward, of course, as you well know, i've been very interested in africa. as a matter of fact, i've been criticized for the amount of time i spend in africa. i was very strongly in support -- it is hard for me to understand why we would have had africa the continent under three commands as we did. as i told you before, i would have preferred to have the headquarters in africa.
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i know the political problems that come with that but let's start with , i was recently in djibouti, talked to admiral fitzgerald and rear admiral curta. heavy lifting over there. but everything is happening. briefly, tell us what is happening in djibouti and some of the successes there. >> thank you, senator, and thank you for your support to the command and also to our security efforts on the continent. we feel that we appreciate it. in djibouti, as you know, the combined joint task force in africa, we assumed responsibility for command and control over what became an endorsed unified command a little over a year ago. the program was combined joint task force programs we undertake in the eastern part of the continent and in other places as
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i determine a skill set that they possess that's required. proips the type of training support, the type of mentoring, coaching. the type of program that we are using along with our civil affairs activities to help the nations in africa concentrate their efforts in causing a degree of harmonization of the training, the professionalism as well as the regionalization of security assistance and cooperation programs that i think are proving very, very beneficial insofar as moving to the next level, a capacity of many of these african nations to increase their military and security capacity. doing it in ways, because of our long-term approach to doing business, doing it in ways that fully integrate the elements of diplomacy, development, as well as defense and not that we do those thing, senator, but because we understand the importance of all of those activities being a part of this
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dynamic, the comprehensive approach, it is working. >> okay. i want to expand on that a little. first on the cuts that were there in your information operations program, are they going to hurt you? i mean is that serious? >> it is serious. the information programs that we looked to do, we cut the $3 million, that was about one-third of what we wanted to do and the focus for those additional programs would have been in the east africa region to complement what we're doing in north africa. >> such a huge area. i think people just don't really comprehend that. and how about any other equipment, first there was problem there's. do you feel fairly comfortable that the resources you have? >> always looking for resources what they have are sufficient to do the work that we want to do. we could enhance that with additional resources, but the work that we are able to do, working with those nations to
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include assisting them as pointed out the various programs, 1206 program, very, very important and beneficial as we work with the nations on their territorial security as well as their maritime security and capacity building. >> yes. i'm running out of time here, but do this for me. the reason that our activity in gentleman djibouti with the rest of the continent is the that we already there. it's more difficult if you start anew. as large as that continent is, probably toot have someone in ghana. activities there and maybe for the record you could respond as to what, are there any hopes for that, or if there's anything, should we continue to try to do that? and as i go around, i talk to the presidents. i find a lot of them, although there's a political problem with naming names, because they don't want other people to know they
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agree we should have that activity, for the record, you might answer that. lastly, enheartened a little by some of the new faces in zimbabwe. that have been on the other side of mugabe, and i feel for the first time in many years somewhat optimistic these new faces that want to bring that country hopefully back to where it was at one time, the breadbasket of subsahara africa do share that there's room for optimism now in zimbabwe? do you? >> i do. i had a conversation with the ambassador posted there and he's gone there, senator, with that same sense of optimism, to look to take advantage of what might be a changing political environment. >> thank you. senator reid. >> thank you for your distinguished service. admiral stavridis, the last several years forced us
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operationally in our budgets and acquisition to be expeditionary. has that same fever caught on in the nato countries? can you describe their budget acquisition and military policy? >> senator, thank you. terrific question. i think a little bit would be the answer. there's more of a sense of expeditionary and this part of what general mattis tried to work so hard and i think somewhat successfully moved when he was commander for transformation's i think that work continues in that side of the nato organization, and it's had, it's had some sal uer to effect. just the thought that we today have 100,000 nato troops engaged on three continents speaks a certain level of expeditionary, including counterpiracy, including the balkans, which isn't enormously expeditionary,
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but somewhat and of course afghanistan. i commend the work of jeffcom and ect transformation. we need to continue to encourage that and move it forward. the nature of threats in this 21st century will demand more than just sitting behind our borders. >> has the military of political leadership got the idea, and now the question of implementation, or is it still something that's unresolved and under debate? >> i think it is under debate, but i think increasingly the forces of security, the demands of this non-traditional threats, transported threats are moving the europeans in this direction, and i'm confident as the nato strategic concept is unveiled in lisbon in the fall we'll see further movement in that direction, sir. >> general matis, if you want to comment on that. >> yes, senator. i completely agree with where
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admiral stavridis had set this effort. to the united nations i made the motion italian troops going to afghanistan or to the balkans -- excuse me, the baltics would have to deploy about the same distance, when you look at what the alliance is trying to do under article 5. so it's not an either/or. if you want the alliance to defend more than its home turf each army in its own country must be expeditionary. i think that is becoming politically more acceptable, where at one time it was seen more along the lines of what senator mccain brought up, that it was the americans trying to get the europeans to fight an american war. i don't think the expeditionary argument is any longer characterized like that. so i'm optimistic here. >> let me turn to the, one aspect of the way forward in iraq, and that's the advise and
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assist brig gatades. i wonder if they'll had a chance to look at these. they've continued to configure combat power but also at the name applies to essentially be a trainer, mentor and integrator with iraqi forces. and our success in drawing down our forces and stablizing iraq rest on their performance and i wonder if you have done any work? >> senator, we have, we leave that tactical training, of course, to the chief of staff of 9 army. however, we have looked closely at it, and it is the behavior of the troops as much as any significant shift in their capabilities that is important. what i mean top say is, that when those troops go in, they will focus on the train and assist, but it would be ill-advised for the enemy to mess with them. they will still have their capability to fight and if the
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iraqis ask for it, of course, protecting, demands these forces are quite capable of rocking the enemy back on their heels but they're going in with the mission, and the troops are trained and adjusted to a train-advise-assist mission to the iraqis, and right now from our perspective, these troops are exactly the right thing at the right time and their preparation looks sound. >> and just to follow-up with a question. part of this is a staining this effort, the best, highest quality forces we can, and is it your imflaegs with the -- impression with the department of defense, the army, this mission is highest priority and they will organize these brigades in a way that you have the best possible component elements? >> sir, obviously we're having to juggle a number of high priorities. we also send combat troops in that can partner in afghanistan,
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but the theme we're seeing more and more now is that all of our troops going in must have this ability to fight in a coalition atmosphere and be able to partner whether it be with estonias, afghans, iraqis, and this is part of the shift that secretary gates and chairman mullen directed for the entire military force in becoming more attune to this advise and assist effort, whether it be in africa or afghanistan or iraq. i believe because of that there will be no lowered priority on something that has now considered an inherent part of the primary mission. >> can we assume that this model will be adapted into afghanistan also? that as we make progress in terms of reducing the capabilities of the taliban that we'll be able to put more of these type of units on the ground? >> sers, i'd go so far as to say the units we're sending ober there now into the area that admiral stavridis spoke about
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are completely capable on their own as combat units of partnering with the afghans. we are learn as the british prime minister put it, once we've exhausted alternatives we'll do the right thing. we've it right this time and are using the lessons learned to change the very makeup of the unit training. >> thank you, sir. general ward, can you describe the nature of the partnership between afra com and the frim union standby force of five brigades? >> the command, senator, has a relationship where we have a president determination put in place that allows to us work with these five standby brigades. currently that determination in place for the southern african standby force. the west african standby force. we're working on one for the east african standby force. we see that these regional
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alignments, very critical, important and where they don't exist, we still work on a bilateral basis with the nations who would send forces to the standby brigades to increase their capacity as well. as the training relationship, and in some instances a r an equipping relationship in some instances where we provide that type of assistance to these standby forces that are part of the regional economic communities. >> do we have an ongoing liaison with them in terms of personnel on the ground with them? boots? on a day-to-day basis, or is this -- >> we have a liaison with the fren union. a liaison with the economic community in west african states and their stand. by states. we do not have a permanent liaison with the southern african developmental nor with the each african but a day-to-day relationship in east
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africa with those east african forces as well, and we have supported each of them as they conducted training, exercises and other things to increase their capacity to bring these brigades together, yes, sir. >> i want to thank you, general. i also want to thank you for your service, because it's a long time that we talked together at west point and i'm awfully proud of what you've accomplish for the military and the army. thank you. >> thank you, mr. senator. thank you. >> thank you very much, senator reed. senator? >> thank you, mr. chairman and general ward, add mill stavridis, nice to see you, admiral, thank you for your service to the country and thank you for being able to be here to answer our questions today. i want to talk to you, admiral stavridis about a report that came out last week where a spanish judge accused the government of venezuela of maintaining elicit ties with farc and eta terrorists planning to quill senior government officials in spain including the president. i'm asking you not only because
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of the spanish connection but your previous work at south com. is there good cooperation >> yes, sir. very much so. and i'm in quite a bit of dialogue with general frazier. another example would be after the earthquake in haiti, i have been in close coordination in terms of support from the many european nations who have pitched in and helped so a very strong relationship there. i would also add a strong relationship with africa. they toned work together very closely and it is partially geography, partially the friendships and partially the geopolitical issues that we can highlight. >> i have a concern that touches this issue that i just raised with potentially an assassination plot against
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general uribe. the concern that iran was projecting its influence through spain and also latin america, has become a destabilizing force and certainly, europe is, you know, tremendously important for our security interests and if we have a new mexico-armed iran, that is going to impact your area of responsibility. impact your area of responsibility. can you speak to that issue? >> senator, i find iran alarming in any number of dimensions. not the at least of which is, as you mentioned, increasing iranian influence throughout latin america and the caribbean, drawing on my previous experience. they're very active sponsorship of terrorism and pursuit of a nuclear weapon and ballistic missiles can which deliver such weapons. one of the reasons i think
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missile defense is particularly important and i think a concerted international effort to focus on the dangers of iran is well warranted. >> the administration recently made a decision about ground based interceptors and not pursuing that in the czech republic and in poland. do you feel that the plan going forward to make sure that we have an adequate missile defense to protect europe and the united states is adequate? >> yes, sir, i do. i think the basic adaptive approach is timely. it is flexible. it will provide the capability and be able to step up faze adaptive title of it as the iranian ability to use ballistic missiles goes forward. it is being well received in europe where a dialogue, we the united states are in dialogue with a variety of the partners. potentially partners for placement of it. secretary tauscher, ellen tauscher, is in charge of that
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particular effort and she's doing a very good job working with allies to move forward on it. overall, yes, i am a supporter of it and i believe it will be very effective in defending europe over time as well as the united states, of course. >> thank you, admiral. general, and i may have missed this testimony before. so if i have, forgive me, but can you give us and update of the status of al qaeda in africa? >> we look at al qaeda in africa, senator in two locations essentially. although likely that there are more of a predominantly east africa al qaeda, although al qaeda islamic bred. we see in the northern part of the continent al qaeda, they're operating, conducting kidnapping, other sorts of activities that certainly threaten our interests, threaten those interests of our partners in the region. in the eastern part of the continent, they're in east
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africa. we see east african al qaeda. recently the claims of merging between the el sha baabens in somalians eeast african al qaeda are there. the linkage between them and in the peninsula, that network. so i would say that we certainly see indications andpresence of al qaeda in africa as well as in the greater sahara, that's part the continent as well, sir. >> is it a growing ins influence? are they becoming more organized? >> i would not characterize it -- i would come back with something for the record more specific detail, but i would also offer that the, based wloon they are saying, that they are seeking to expand their influence. they are in the east africa region as well as in the north africa region. >> general, this weekend we
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learned that 500 people including women and babies were massacred in nigeria. what's our current strategy to curtail human rights abuses in africa? >> we obviously, senator, as we conduct our military to military relations with the various nations of africa, we encourage the promotion of human rights. we encourage the conduct of military and professional ways. obviously, those activities that you describe, i've seen nothing that support they were committed by the militaries of nigeria. clearly, the role that's been taken by the nigerians to go in and stop that action is something that we applaud. we certainly, like all others, deplore that type of activity that ends in killing of anyone. killing of any incidents. so we would certain encourage the work being done by the government of nigeria to address those atrocities, to those who
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are responsible to arrest them and do their very best to prevent that. we clearly see that as something that is deplorable and regret that loss of lives to those means. >> thank you. general mattis, a london times article, talked about vulnerability to a cyber attack in the rise of china as a hostile cyber combatant. what are we doing to strengthen our allies, and safeguard the sensitive information we share with them? >> senator, i would have to take that for the record to give me more data. u.s. strategic command, as you know, is our main effort on the cyber effort, and we're in constant contact with them. we also work on the concept and frankly we're scrambling to find a concept that takes into account how best to protect our networks and obviously we must
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maintain an exploitation capability against the enemy. it is hard to come up with a theory that also includes the constitutional issues with our own country as far as how we do this protection. our first step is to protect our d.o.d. network. we work closely with primarily the nato allies but also some other allies in the world who work with us on putting these concepts together. we're drawing a fair amount of effort now, attraction now, with stratcom now that they've been assigned this and are maturing it. i'd have to get back to you with your detail, which i will do. i will do so by going to strategic command to make sure i'm current. >> add that in europe, nato has established a center for cyber. it's in estonia, appropriate, since they suffered a severe cyber attack two years ago, and i think that's exactly as general mattis says.
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indicative of all of these organizations, reaching to build the first structures that can focus on this problem, but i believe it's vital. and it is something we think about a lot incurity. admiral staff redis, i look forward to hearing your prescription for developing and better leveraging nato's capabilities to meet future thd your concerns with me on cyber security, and in the broader context how you view the vastness of this realm at cyber c. and in a recent paper that you authored i want to give a quote that really paints a picture of this sea for me and e wrote, the seas i'm referring to, however, are not of water and waves but of zeros and one, optic fibers and routers and browsers and satellites and servers. is the cyber sea the new global commons and it is untamed.
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two reason i can think of for cyber security and attacks when the iraqi insurgents recently intercepted video feeds from predator uav using off the shelf software and then a second one concerning google when, claiming that chinese hackers stole some of its computer k0eding and attempted to break into chinese dissidents e-mails. will you describe your principle concern with cyber security and how you think we can best mitigate our exposure? >> thank you, senator. i completely agree with the thrust of senator lemieux's questions as well as general mattis' response. today we have a billion -- a billion -- devices that are accessing the internet. our economies are fundamentally intertwined in this cyber sea, and it is an outlaw sea. we do not have the norms, the buoy system, the navigation, the satellites. nothing really exists to develop
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norms of behavior in the cyber world. so i think that there's a military component to this, but it's actually much larger of a problem. this is a classic example of a society approach must be taken into -- it's not even whole of government. you point out, google and many other private companies are very engaged in this. from a military perspective, what we're trying to do in european command and in nato is to highlight the challenges ahead, put in place initial structures. do the kind of damage control that general mattis is talking about to initially at least protect ourselves and then try and, i think what's necessary is to think our way forward through a process that can create these kind of global norms, and that may be a process that brings a lot of nations together to have this conversation. just as we gather to talk about the climate and have a global summit on the climate, i think
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at some point there needs to be a very global conversation on this challenge. >> well, i understand that the summer of 2009, you ucom held an entver including a mix of international, interagency and public/private entities focused and computer network defense. i also understand that nato recently established a cooperative cyber defense center of excellence in estonia to enhance the capability cooperation and information sharing among nato nations and our partners in cyber defense. how did this endeavor serve as a model for the development of multi-national policies to ensure continued unimpeded and lawful access to cyber space? >> thank you for highlighting those activities or european command. i hayes tsten to say each of th commanders is taking this on. i know general ward is doing
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this. spratcom at the heart of it, general madison, we're all grappling with this, and i think that the more we cross-communicate and cross-level our efforts at this stage, the more effective we'll be in dealing with this. so i believe that exercises that bring international, inner agency and private/public actors together as we try to do an endeavor need to be elevate and taken to a higher level by the nations that want to connect on this. and we're working that very hard, as you mentioned, on the nato side through the center in eston estonia. >> i'm very concerned about this, because i see numerous examples going forward where we will be subject to much more attack on the cyber sea. >> yes, senator. >> general ward, as you know, the u.n. peacekeeping mission in the democratic republic of the congo is the largest and most expensive, and reportedly the u.n. could begin withdrawing its
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troops from the western portion of the country, i understand, as early as june of 2010. additionally, the u.n. peacekeeping mission reportedly plans to begin withdrawing from the unstable eastern portion of the country in june of 2011. and studies estimate that up to 1,200 people die each day from conflict-related causes as well as diseases and malnutrition. rampant corruption and pervasive weak government allows members of the national army and members of armed groups alike to abuse its civilians. can you, please, describe the effects that a u.n. peacekeeping mission withdrawal from the democratic republic of the congo would have on the stability of the country and region, and what plans are in place to counter the democratic forces for the liberation of rwanda that focused on destabilizing the eastern portion of the democratic republic of the congo? i'll be happy to repeat any of that.
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>> well, thank you, senator. i'm sure if i don't get to everything, you'll remind me. first, the president talks to the united nations in a withdrawal of those forces from the congo. i, too, think it would not be a good idea for that to occur too quickly. the conditions that you describe with respect to the corruption, the professionalism of the armed forces of the congo, their activities, the lawlessness in the eastern part of the country, to be sure, all contribute to abuses to the population, to instability and the united nations force that's there has clearly been a force for good in addressing those conditions. as large as that contingent is, given the size of the congo, it is still not covering that entire country. so any place where those forces are reduced would have, i believe, a negative effect.
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right now the western part of the country is, in fact, the most stable. it would probably be the least effective with the withdrawal of united nations forces. majority of the things occur against the people rpgs either being committed by rebel groups that operate in that region or some cases the armed force t'wolves congo itself, would have an effect of the overall condition. the congolese, the plethora of conditions that contribute to that stability, the lawlessness, our focus now is moving ahead with a training of a battalion that hopefully can serve as a model for what professional behavior is and what it could be to other parts of the armed
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forces, the democratic republic of congo. democratic republic of congo. we have begun that program in earnest. about two weeks ago. it will run about another six or seven months, and should it prove successful, there is potential it could be expanded to other battalions as well to help a process of increasing professionalism of the armed forces of the republic of congo to move ahead. the work being done by the fdlr in the east, those activities, the congolese are addressing that through some of their activities, supported by the united nations, and i think that, too, is important work as a part of overall comprehensive way that those rebel groups have to be addressed and as we've also seen, i might add, with the cooperation that exists between uganda, the congo, rwanda, as well as the central african republic, and the regional way to address these common threats is something we also will
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continues to encourage. >> well, i'm extremely concerned about the number of people that are dying every day, and certainly the abuse of their men and women, it's just reprehensible. but thank you for your testimony. thank you. >> thank you. senator? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i, too, want to add my thanks to these three distinguished americans who dedicated their lives to protect us. so, from me to you, thank you, gentlemen. and i just -- i want to submit questions for the record because i have a whole list of them and will try to start with general ward. general, your command was designed to employ the whole of government approach to executing theaters security cooperation. and to facilitate counterterrorism effort with the african nations. general, what is the future role of the joint task force, task
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force horn of africa and the military base in gentlemdjibout? what is the future role in that, general? >> sir, the camp is a very critical part of our national structure in that part of the continent that serves four combatant commands, not just mine. it serves a u.s. central command, special operations command as well as u.s. transportation command as logistics hub, infrastructure point, as well as a training platform. it, i think, is in the long-term interests. united states to maintain that facility to the degree that we have it and continue to improve upon it that will allow our activities in support of our missions in that part of the world to be facilitated. so it is very important to us, i think it has a great, long-term meaning for us, and i will clearly endorse it over the long
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term. my force that's there right now continues to do work in the region insofar as helping build the capacity of those nations in east africa to counter the terror threat as well as to be able to deal with the threat of terror by increasing their capacity. we are providing training ining assistance, equipping, as well as helping bring together them in a regional way as they continue to work together towards addressing that common threat. both activities, both the platform itself, important. the work being done by the combined joint task force in africa, as it institutes its programs fully align pd with the goals and objectives of my command also very, very instrumental in promoting that degree of professionalism in east africa and in other parts of the continent where we see those unique capabilities that could be aapplied.
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civil apairs in particular. >> general, do you feel, since you're the last command to be up here, that you are fully operative and fully personnel staffed correctly, or do you really need additional staff personnel? >> senator, we always look for more. and we think that the work that we've done with the inner agency through our osd, the secretary of defense has written to all of this colleagues asking for additional interagency support. not that we would do the work for the interagency, but so the interagency input to ours would are further assures what we do, in fact, is in keeping with supporting the overall comprehensive work done by other parts of our government. we don't have all that we would like to have, but there is a recognition on the part of our interagency partners that they should be and want to be a part of this command and they'll continue to move forward. we see that occurring. that's why i endorse all that the secretary of defense and chamen says about increasing the
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capacity of our interagency partners as well so that they can in fact participate in -- >> are you going to include egypt into your african command? when do you anticipate that taking place? >> egypt, you pointed out, senator, is a line with central command but for matters with the continent of africa. currently question work with them. in fact, i'll be in egypt in the matter of a couple weeks working with them on matters of continent. >> also, general, the reason why we've not been able to locate african command in african countries is because the politics of these countries in locating the right country would be a major under taking. is that the reason we've not located it there? still in stuttgart or can we find a very friendly african country to headquarter african command on the continent of africa? >> senator, very complex. the degrees you site are par innocent and there's more than
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that. at this point in time, in our work is to be about increasing the capacity of african nations, it's our programs, activities we do in about 38 different countries, right now that's the important part. and the effort to find a location with all of the other associated issues, would be distracting to the real work of the command that is through our programs. >> admiral, the theater engagements seem to be a major tool used by the command when partnering with the nations with the area, your area of responsibility. how is the national guards state partnership program integrated into your theater engagement strategy? admiral? >> deeply, deeply engaged. this state partnership program which brings the state guard into individual nations to partner with their militaries is fundamental to what we're doing. we have 26 of them around the
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u.s. europe command and i'd highlight one among many, which is the georgia guard, which is partnered with the military of the republic of georgia, and the two of them are working hand in hand to prepare a deployment of the republic of georgia's brave soldiers. they're going to send 750 to afghanistan. so multiply that by 26 programs around the theater and you get a sense highway important this is, sir. >> january ma-- general mattis, you have a completed draft document, educational employment for operations and integration. one of your working concepts is to stand up and exploratory civilian force. what is the mission and employment of the expeditionary civilian force?
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>> shir >> sir, there are two forces. one inside the department of defense and this where you actually take d.o.d. swells who can fill certain jobs overseas on the joint coalition interagency staffs in these irregular wars. i think the one year refer ear referring to, we work with ambassador earp's with secretary of state and that would integrate better the civilian, military interface when we go into these kinds of wars that cannot be won by military means alone. there's a, there will be an immediate response force that's being built. these will be people who have been trained. it's their primary yob, packs packed. had shots. through various excesses with the military ready to go on short notice. then a response force of members of various agencies, and they will be ones who are basically
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trained. they're like the reserves. they go to some training every year. they're maintained as far as health records and deployment records, and they know what to do, but it would take us anywhere from 30 to 90 days to get them deployed. then there's a larger force of people that we would endeavor to train as well. and that would be the backup force. the sustainment force that would replace these others after -- >> we want to use contractors for some of this. >> sorry? >> we ought to use contractors for some of these forces. you know, private contractors we see in the theater. >> the ones we're looking at that i just described are under the department of state, ambassador earp's efforts, all government employees. contractors would about separate issue, and we do that when we have to fill the gaps, frankly, sir. so they don't have the active duty or active government civilians that we can put in. >> my time is expired. so i will yield, mr. chairman.
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thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator bill nelson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. gentlemen, thank you for your public service. tomorrow in our emerging threats subcommittee we're going to look at the comprehensive way that the military integrating with the civilian agencies can best project u.s. power and interest. this is particularly applicable to general ward and admiral s a stavridis. not only presence in afghanistan, admiral, also your previous command of southern command. and general ward, clearly, africa command is taking this comprehensive approach. now, mr. chairman, i just was not very satisfied when we had the assistant secretary for,
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assistant secretary of defense, ms. flornoy, come to talk to us about the policy, and it didn't seem to me that the department of defense had its act together. its act together on integrating. and it was like, that there were the same old answers about stove pipes that we're trying to break down. you give your commanders on the ground the opportunity that they have a certain amount of serp funds they can go out and dig a well or build a school, but above that, an integrated approach which is key to afghanistan, which is key to africa which is key to latin america, things like wells. education. training for jobs.
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the position of women. medical. all of these things that for us to be successful in third world areas, like we are projecting, there's got to be a holistic approach. now, the military has been so good as the one who leads it, and that, of course, is what is the thrust of africa command and admiral stavridis, your former command. i'd like to have you reflect, because i'm worried about afghanistan, that once we get beyond those serp funds, that these courageous young officers can go in and utilize, that then we get right back into the old stove pipes, and i've got the head of usaid coming in in the morning, and i want to talk to that person about this. so can the two of you give me some advice?
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and, also, advice for our emerging threats subcommittee, it's the subject of our hearing tomorrow, mr. chairman. >> senator, i fully share your prescription which is that we have to put together what we actually call a nato comprehensive approach. it's the whole of society approach. it really is inner agency, international, private-public and all has to be connected in a way that we have not been terrifically effective at in any of these theaters. we will never deliver security in afghanistan from the barrel of a gun. it has got come as a raumt of all of these mechanisms working together. to that end i just met myself with dr. shaw, the administrator of usaid. he's extremely impressive. highlyer in jetic
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an energetic. we're state department as general mattis is talking about with herb's and his team, we have a long way to go but i believe this precise issue is the most important security issue for the united states moving forward into the 21st century and back into the cyberpiece, it is a classic example of why this comprehensive approach is needed. fully validated i believe all of the departments should continue to be pushed very hard to integrate all of their efforts at all levels and getting that balance of civilian military, private and public, interagency is crucial to our security going forward. li y, private-public inner agency is crucial to our security going forward.
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>> senator, i clearly concur with what admiral stavridis indicateded. we know it's important to do. we have not broke the code on how to do it at echelon. we do it fairly well on ground. the country teams, in the countries where the department of state, usaid, other members of the inner agency were there, working with obviously the military component do fairly good job of harmonizing the activities that occur on the ground. how we plan those endeavors, we need to do better at it, and my command as we bring in members of the inner agency to help us with our planning, it's a two-way street, because tlir thru through their understanding of us, back to their parent organizations can help ensure a harmonization of the planning that occurs. at the secretary's pointed out we think the capacity of some of the interagency partners to do that, that needs to be more
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robust and so we support those efforts that would, in fact, robust their capacity to participate in the planning as well as in the execution of these programs that bring the comprehensive effects to stability that you address. so we recognize it's an issue. it works more better than not at the lower echelons. we need to expand that through echelons, but at the inception of our work, we have done a better job of combining what we call this approach, the issues of development and obviously a public-private partnership. issues of diplomacy including good governance and those that address the security aspects that need to be there so those other things can in fact work. >> well, what advice should i give to the head of usaid tomorrow? and has questions should i ask
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in our hearing tomorrow? k that would get around usaid? they go out and they contract with somebody to do this. let's say it's digging wells. but there's clearly need for education over here. let's take afghanistan. and a medical clinic. and training for jobs. how do we get a comprehensive approach? you've got each of these ngos and they want to do their thing. how do we get it all combined in an approach? >> two thoughts. one is, the cue ddr, which is what aid and state are working together now, this is happening
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in realtime. i think that's an opportunity to work on the integration, the alignment and partnering between a.i.d. and state and how that marrying up with the qdr, department of defense document, a place where you can get the three main actors in the security mix coordinating plans, as echelon, at the very highest level. if you click down one, i think kip has an exact, general ward has it exactly right. which is, it's the planning. it's the planning we watt to go after, because that's where our other agencies are off doing their plans and we're doing our plans and then we meet in afghanistan and the plans aren't particularly aligned. so i think bringing together a layer of planning below that strategically represented by the qdr and qddr, think in terms how we can encourage the agencies to do plans together to have
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transparency and planning, to show across the board what the big muscle movements are country by country and integrate those plans so there's not duplication. as general ward said, one level down, now we're at the tactical level, it's seamless. it proceeds from the strategic through the operational planning down to the tactical execution. that -- i'd focus in on that planning piece, sir. >> thank you, senator nelson. senator? >> thank you, mr. chairman. general, admiral, general, thank you very much for being here and thank you for your outstanding service to our country. general mattis, i wanted to get your views on the development of the air sea battle concept. as you know the new qdr directs the navy and air force to develop a joint air sea battle concept for defeating adversaries with sophisticated areas, which in turn will help guide the development of future
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capabilities needed for effective power projection operations. and my question is, could you provide your views on the development of this new air sea battle concept so far and where does joint forces command fit into the development evaluation and implementation of this concept? >> yes, senator. thank you. the air sea battle concept grew out of identification of a military problem. that problem is how do we work together jointly in order to main contain control of one of the commons, the sea links. the situation is changing. it's always changing securitiwise and adapting to that problem has brought these two services together. joint forces command is part of this effort. we're monitoring it right now. but we're monitoring it to make sure what we've done in past experiments and concept development guides this forward, and also that we harvest from them the lessons that they're learning as they come to grips with this problem broken down
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into bite-sized pieces. we're seeing more and more of this integration at every level of war. at one time we basically integrated at the strategic level shts and th, and that was. then you saw in "desert storm" oif-1 and down integrating at the tack nickel level. no longer can any service go into one primary domain, army on land, navy at sea, air force in the air, and not integrate with others. it's the nature of warfare today. it's the nature of a lot of things. you've got to integrate more than ever in this age. so it's going forward well. i think the identification of the problems is maturing well. i would say we're in very good shape on that. the solutions are not completely clarified yet, and we will also uncover additional problems as we go forward. ultimately, we will see an increased reliance on naval forces as we look towards the future security situation.
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it must be that way for matters of limited access in certain areas for political or military reasons, and to bring the air force and the navy together, i think there's a very healthy thing at this point. even though we have not completely got all the problems outlined. but we're getting there. >> in your. how will long range strike capabilities fit into this new air sea battle concept? >> sir, we look at these what in phases. these kinds of issues. certainly during phase zero, when we're engaging along the lines of what africom has been testifying to here today, we're trying to deter enmips at potential adversaries from ever doing something that we don't want them to do. that would be disadvantageous to international stability. when you put together a strong capability like this, you temper
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our potential adversaries design. should it go into a combat phase, the planning for this comes under something called campaign design. and's in that area, the strike capability that would be built would be fundamental to ensuring that we deter our enemies and reassure our friends we can get through to them and support them. >> do you see any, foresee any future budget requests changes based on this new concept? for example, equipment requests with regard to this new concept? >> sir, i'd like to take a pause on that one, because i think, first, we need to get the concept right before we come to you asking for money. certainly, the capabilities, strike capabilities will have to be maintained at the cutting edge, but i can't tell you. i can't really forecast until we
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get the concept right which is based on a very clear problem statement of what we're trying to solve, whether or not that will mean new programs. >> okay. admiral, add vathsed weapons systems design nor access in denial are proliferated throughout the world including in the europe area of command responsibility. russia's advanced surface air missile surface air missiles and fighter aircraft and hinting at plans for a long range bomber, the likely hood of conflict with russia is low, it seems likely we will be involved against adversaries who possess the weapons ises sold to them by the russians. what are your views on the activities by the russians to proliferate anti-access and denial systems some. >> senator, we continue to e
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vaguate the systems emerging and russia is developing sophisticateds and i would add submarine capabilities. we have to pace that. clearly we have to maintain our superiority at all levels as we go forward. that applies not solely to russia, but globally at the threats. it's a fundamental responsibility of the department. >> do you view russian development of the 5th fighter aircraft as a cause for concern? >> i'm sorry some. >> do you view russia's development of the fighter aircraft as a cause for concern? >> i do. >> how about their planned development of a long range bomber? >> yes. i would put that in the category of a wide variety of emerging global threats. those would be among them. >> one other question i want to
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ask. the russians are seeking to lay missile defense to follow on star treaty and negotiations as we understand have stalled over the russian demand for the option to withdraw unilaterally. if they threatened the nuclear missile force, to the best of your knowledge, is there effort to negotiate a side agreement with the rugs on this issue? >> i had no idea. that would be squarely in the view of the department of state. >> thank you, mr. chairman very much. >> thank you very much. we expect votes just about now. there four votes coming. let's try to have a second round for everybody. >> i'm trying to listen to the distinguished gentlemen. >> i have a few and then we can turn it over to the senator. if you have spoken about the new phase of adaptive approach for
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missile defense, one of the possibilities being considered is to ask russia to cooperate in the missile defense effort with the radar informations a way to enhance against shared missile threats. do you support that idea? >> i do, sir. >> what would it add? >> first of all -- >> if we were able to achieve it. >> first it would create a zone of cooperation with russia which is an important good as i look at the military and the military responsibilities i had in european-u.s. command. it could add to the early warning time because of the location of the system. thirdly it creates confidence-building measures between ourselves and the russians. >> does the polish government now support the missile defense approach?
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>> i think it's fair to say in general terms they do, yes, sir. i would not speak for their government. >> have they spoken out yet? >> they have not. that's my intuition. >> are there discussions or agreements relative to the deployment of a patriot training battery? >> yes, sir, there is. >> is that completed yet? >> i think we are literally signing the final mous this week and i anticipate that deployment going forward in the next 30 days. >> that's good. the manning issue is raised as to whether or not you have enough personnel and you indicated you would like more if you can get them. my question is this. you apparently, your service components are not >> both are

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