equipment that we have provided to put pressure on isil's main lines of communication between raqaa and mosel to provide a time line that the enemy on the ground gets a vote but does not have freedom of maneuver, they do not have tactical freedom of maneuver. >> my time is long ago expired, senator reid. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, we all come to the conclusion we need american forces on the ground. the question very generically. we send in specialized teams of u.s. personnel and air power and together with local forces are able to disrupt and defeat taliban. we are confronted with instability and that the constraining factor right now is the local indigenous forces on the ground. i am told there's about 100 new syrian fighters that are on the ground and potential, can you elaborate on those comments. >> that was a circumstances in 2001 and 2002 where we were actively head over the previous decade or so built up in order to fight the soviets and they succeeded from expelling the soviets from afghanistan. we could quickly link up with again and by providing them, enabl

if you look at these towns that the islamic state controls like model -- mosel and falluja and ramadiof the available evidence seems to indicate that the broad cross-section of the sunnis living in these towns, though they do not particularly like the islamic state, they nevertheless tolerate them, why? because they're worried about the alternative. the alternative is the shia militias were aided and abetted by those in tamron. there is no easy solution to this conflict. think that will necessarily resolve the problem. rishaad: tell me, we have talked about this before, you cannot bomb and ideology, even if you go and send in ground troops and get rid of the violent jihadists out of these towns, you are left with a sunni population, what then? tom: i think that is exactly right. this is not an isolated view. i think there is a consensus emerging among many military figures and political figures that the airstrikes, although they are well intended, they're obviously focused on sunni areas in syria and iraq, and if anything, it reaffirms that sunni arab narrative since the downfall of s