as long as bishara al-assad is in power, you will have an iranian puppet who serves not just as a conduit for someone who is actively facilitating anti- israeli anti- american terrorism in that region. the 2nd thing is an irritant. you will have in place someone that creates the conditions for the next to emerge. this is a fundamental and simplistic and dangerous misunderstanding the region. as long as they remain in power not only to have a proxy state but ultimately it will serve as an irritant that will allow the next radical sunni islam to rise up and replace. and so you need a president with the foresight to understand what it will turn into if you don't do something about it which is why i repeatedly warned about what is happening with the premature withdrawal of troops comeau what happened in the aftermath of the drawdown and repeatedly warned about what would happen in syria. i think what it shows is insight and foresight into what can happen when america fails to lead. [applause] >> we have got one minute left. a me ask you a quick question about the money that the palestinian au

of the cold war russia has intervened militarily in syria on behalf of the motorist regime of bishara al-assad. clearly russian behavior has only gotten worse. that is why a few weeks ago congress acted again and past the fiscal year 2016 national defense authorization act a. the nda authorized $300 million and security assistanceit and intelligence support for ukraine to resist russian aggression. at the same time the bill number of russian engines could be needed to maintain competition in the nationalm security space launch program and facilitate a smooth transition to rockets with us-made engines. therefore the legislation allowed you la to use a total of nine russian engines. limiting the use of russian rocket engineste debated for months. the committee on armed services had a vigorouste debate over this important issue command amendment was offered to maintain a restriction on the air force's useot of russian rocket engines and in a positive vote of the committee the amendment was adopted. we then considered hundreds of amendments to this bill in the senate floor over a period of two wee

that may be explicit on the issue of bishara al-assad. i hear and i read in the paper, obama no longer seem sure. is that true? do you believe he should simply be removed from power or is there a growing feeling that perhaps we ought to team up? >> i think command i don't want to speak for him but what secretary kerry is trying to engineer is the departure in no way that everyone can support which include the russians have a lot of influence. it isit is important to see if you can get them on the right side of history here and that accomplishes that and this is important quite apart from the atrocities that have been committed in no way that removes him while the structures of the syrian state are so relatively intact. a moment ago we do want and need there to be after a sod the government that is inclusive that involves the forces that have been fighting each other in governing the territory decently. that is exactly the transition that the secretary is working. >> much like we needed after the successful invasion. i understand what you