mr. vargas. the chair recognizes mr.owe hoe for phi minutes. >> thank you -- five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. mcgurk, thank you for your testimony. i feel like you've been sitting there for a long time, you might need to get up and stretch. but i appreciate your endurance. what are our military assets and and -- in iraq, and are they purely advisory? if so, how many? can you divulge that? >> we have under our embassy, under the chief of mission and ambassador beacroft, the office of security cooperation which works closely with the iraqi military, the numbers ebb bo -- ebb and flow, but it's about a hundred personnel. a very small contingent of half a dozen or so of our special operators who train some of the higher-end special operators as a training component. but that's all done under the embassy chief of mission -- >> all right. so we have a very small footprint as far as americans there. >> yes. >> what can be learned from how we left iraq and apply to the drawdown in afghanistan so we don't make the sa

mr. vargas for five minutes. very much, mr. chair. i appreciate it.for most americans trying to it'sscore at home, becoming very difficult to understand the situation and i think a lot of the nations are becoming somewhat confused and complex between iran, iraq, syria. it's all running together in the issue of the sunni-shiite discord. what is very clear is the terrible price that americans have paid. as you know very well, thank you for your service, but the amount of sons and daughters it did not come home alive than the number of parents, fathers, and mothers did not, live in those who did brought the demons home with them that will on their lives. we paid a terrible price. today i heard from some of the other side that are saying, to hell with the. let them kill themselves. what should we be doing their? i don't hold that same feeling. the price we paid has to mean something and the sacrifice it has tole made, mean something at the end of the day. we should do as much as we can. personally, i'm very concerned about the christian community. they've

mr. vargas for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chair. i appreciate it.or most americans trying to keep score at home, it's becoming very difficult to understand the situation and i think a lot of the nations are becoming somewhat confused and complex between iran, iraq syria. it's all running together in the issue of the sunni-shiite discord. what is very clear is the terrible price that americans have paid. as you know very well, and again thank you for your service, but the amount of sons and daughters that did not come home alive and the number of parents, fathers, and mothers did not -- did not come home alive, and those who did brought the demons home with them that will on their lives. we paid a terrible price. today i heard from some of the other side that are saying, to hell with them. let them kill themselves. what should we be doing there? i don't hold that same feeling. the price we paid has to mean something and the sacrifice these people made, it has to mean something at the end of the day. we should do as much as we can. personally, i'm ver

mr. vargas for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chair. appreciate it.for most americans trying to keep score at home, it is becoming very difficult to understand the situation. a lot of the nations have become somewhat confused and complex in iraq and iran, syria is all kind of running together in the issue of the sunni shia discord and what is happening there. but what is very, very clear i think it's a terrible price that americans face, as you know, thank you for your service, the amount of sons and daughters they didn't come home alive in the number of parents, mothers and fathers they didn't come home alive and those that day brought the demons come with them that will haunt them and their families for the rest of their lives. i mean, we paid a terrible price. today i heard from some on the other side the with it, let them kill themselves. let them fight it out. what should we be doing? i don't hold that same feeling. the price we pay it has to mean something in the sacrifice these people may come our brothers, our sisters, our country. the price t