look at the entire area of iraq, and you mentioned a couple of names of the cities or areas like kirkuk and mosul that we know about, kurdistan seems to be a fairly stable part of the country which makes it unique unto itself. >> we are the most stable part of the country by far. out of the 4800 casualties america has suffered in iraq, not one of those casualties has been in the kurdistan region. >> how is that so and why is that so? that's very interesting. the fighting never moved up into that area? >> the fighting never moved up into that area. we had a bit of a headstart on the rest of the country. we have been managing our own affairs since the mid nineties when the united states set up the no-fly zone to protect the kurdish skies from saddam hussein's regime. that allowed us to have our first elections in 1992 and put together our government and parliament and build our security services. >> you have your own army? >> we have our own regional defense force. we have very strong security services and a good working relationship with our society and i think that is the key. the infor

the things that i want to do to help you ultimately he was granted a meeting with the president of kirkuk and how to top it it will involve the employment of citizens of karate who will. assist in the in the monitoring of the refuse collection of your country and ultimately and won't be a state of the art incineration system. which will have a number of benefits so. the brutality of the tower or campaign would soon hit home when the american public began to see the pictures of the casualties and devastation in late december night in forty three the gruesome carnage was so disturbing that some mothers demanded nimitz's resignation. was more striking was not just the heavy casualties but the confusion regarding the burial of hundreds of marines who gave their lives ataru the natural number of total missing people from this from this battle was five hundred eleven basically it's a very nebulous number and there's a huge distance or there's eleven hundred six people asked at the end of the war when the army came back to dig these people up and take them back to the states only three hundred n

today we were in baghdad was the day that the occurrence happened at kirkuk and we met with the general whose staff were some of the victims. that is evidence of the ongoing threats to this country. with that being the case and everything we know at this point, how realistic is it for us to be able to come under the existing plan, to pull that many troops out and basically transition from department of defense to state tax is the state department up to that test? is there any precedent for anything on this scale? what you think the committee should know about that? >> to is our assessment that the iraqi security forces have pretty good capabilities in terms of internal defense. we have spent billions of dollars and many years building up a very capable counter insurgency force as well as a capable counter-terrorism force. we say a few gaps that are likely to exist beyond 2011. there will have challenges in intelligence and logistics. the bigger gap is the gap on an external defense. maritime will be in good shape. there will have significant challenges as it relates to air sovereign to.

there were three coordinated car bombs in kirkuk, and there were attacks in baghdad that left 14 dead and dozens wounded. iraq still faces dangerous and determined enemies, but it is important to recognize that they do not have the support of the iraqi people and that they do not spark the return to civil war. moreover, despite these recent attacks, the underlying security situation remains strong. penn -- iraqi security forces have assumed primary responsibility for security of the entire country, and are u.s. forces numbers have declined from one the obama administration came into office in january 2009 to roughly 47,000 today. since january 1, 2009, the iraqi forces have been in the lead, a world they have more capably embraced with each passing month. last year, we made the transition from operation iraqi freedom to opposition new dawn note -- operation new dawn. while the united states continues to provide vital support to the iraq security forces, including training, equipping, mentoring, and providing certain technical enablers, we need to be clear that the iraqis are very much

particularly in three areas, air defenses, intelligence capability, and security in the areas around kirkuk in iraq where there have been significant tensions, do you agree that would be wise thing for us to do? >> i believe the prime minister of maliki and the iraqi government request that we maintain a presence there that that should be to seriously considered by the president. >> do you think it would be in our interest to do that? >> there are 1000 al qaeda that are still in iraq. we saw the attack was made the other day. it, too, continues to be fragile situation. i believe we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we have made their. >> do you know of anyone authority or in the congress or the administration who believes we should send ground troops into libya? >> i have not met anybody at who supports that. >> i have not either. i think all of us -- would be a great mistake. do believe is the proper role congress to restrict the powers of the president of united states to act? we were around when there is a vote of cut off of funds. ri

particularly in three areas, air defenses, intelligence capability, and security in the areas around kirkuk in iraq where there have been significant tensions, do you agree that would be wise thing for us to do? >> i believe the prime minister of maliki and the iraqi government request that we maintain a presence there that that should be to seriously considered by the president. >> do you think it would be in our interest to do that? >> there are 1000 al qaeda that are still in iraq. we saw the attack was made the other day. it, too, continues to be fragile situation. i believe we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we have made their. >> do you know of anyone authority or in the congress or the administration who believes we should send ground troops into libya? >> i have not met anybody at who supports that. >> i have not either. i think all of us -- would be a great mistake. do believe is the proper role congress to restrict the powers of the president of united states to act? we were around when there is a vote of cut off of funds. ri

particularly in three areas, air defenses, intelligence capability, and security in the areas around kirkuk in iraq where there have been signifint tensions, do you agree that would be wise thing for us to do? >> i believe the prime minister of maliki and the iraqi government request that we maintain a presence there that that should be to seriously considered by the president. >> do you think it would be in our interest to do that? >> there are 1000 al qaeda that are still in iraq. we saw the attack was made the other day. it, too, continues to be fragile situation. i believe we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we have made their. >> do you know of anyone authority orn the congress or the administration who believes we should send ground troops into libya? >> i have not met anybody at who supports that. >> i have not either. i think all of us -- would be a great mistake. do believe is the proper role congress to restrict the powers of the president ofnited states to act? we were around when there is a vote of cut off of funds. right or

week to two weeks ago and the day we were in baghdad was the day that the occurrence happened out in kirkuk and we met with people who -- the general whose staff were some of the victims. and of course that evidence of the ongoing threats to this country. with that being the case and everything we know at that point, how realistic for us to be able to transition from department of defense to state -- is there any precedent for anything on this scale? and, you know, what do you think the committee should know about that? >> you know, it's our assessment that the iraqi security forces will be -- have pretty good compatibilities in terms of internal defense. we've sent billons of dollars and many years building up a very compatibility counterinsurgency force. and in terms of internal events we are likely to see a new caps. they'll have some chance on individuals. they'll have questions in logistics. the biggest thing is the gap on internal defense. maritime will add significant challenge as it relates to air defense. and they're also going to have some challenges as it relates to combined arms

particularly in three areas, air defenses, intelligence capability, and security in the areas around kirkuk in iraq where there have been significant tensions, do you agree that would be wise thing for us to do? >> i believe the prime minister of maliki and the iraqi government request that we maintain a presence there that that should be to seriously considered by the president. >> do you think it would be in our interest to do that? >> there are 1000 al qaeda that are still in iraq. we saw the attack was made the other day. it, too, continues to be fragile situation. i believe we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we have made their. >> do you know of anyone authority or in the congress or the administration who believes we should send ground troops into libya? >> i have not met anybody at who supports that. >> i have not either. i think all of us -- would be a great mistake. do believe is the proper role congress to restrict the powers of the president of united states to act? we were around when there is a vote of cut off of funds. ri

particularly in three areas, air defenses, intelligence capability and security in the areas around kirkukround that part of iraq, whether it's been significant tensions, would you agree that that would be a wise thing for us to do? >> i believe that if -- if prime minister maliki -- the iraqi government requests that we maintain a presence there, that ought to be seriously considered by the president. >> do you think it would be in our interest to do that given the situation -- >> senator, i have to tell you, there are 1,000 al-qaeda that are still in iraq. we saw the attack that was made just the other day. it, too, continues to be a fragile situation, and i believe that we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we've made there. >> do you know of anyone in authority there in the congress or in the administration who believes that we should send ground troops in to libya? >> i haven't met anybody yet who report that. >> i haven't either, nor do i. i think all of us believe it would be a great mistake. do you believe that it is a proper rol