representative gabbert? >> thank you, madam chair. thank you, gentlemen. it's been estimated by several sources and confirmed by general dunford publicly that there's approximately 20,000 to 30,000 al qaeda terrorists in a s and jihadist terrorists holed up and in yol control of the city of l in syria. we recently heard in the last several days threats from your administration of quote/unquote dire consequences for military offensive by syria, russia, iran, by the al qaeda terrorists in idlib. james jeffrey stated the u.s. will not tolerate, quote, an attack, period, and that any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation so considering the fact, mr. karem, you noted many times just in this hearing that our troops are in syria operating under the authorization to use military force that was passed after al qaeda attacked1 and we're supposed to be at war with al qaeda, my question is how is it in the national security interest of the united states, instead of going after al qaeda, the u.s. is making these threats and essentially acting as the