ms. wormuth, more than 100. hat is the number? ms. wormuth: senator mccaskill it's between 100 and 120 basically. senator mccaskill: so we're counting on our fingers and toes when we envisioned 5,400 by the end of the year. i'm just worried that this is one of those instances where the good news about our military is dominating. we can do this. we can do this. and the practical reality of this strategy aren't being fully embraced. general austin: thank you, senator. you know, i absolutely agree with you. we have the finest troops in the world. and they will figure out a way to get the job done one way or the other. and again, what our special operations forces have done in northern syria is they didn't ait for the new syrian force program or train and equip program to fully develop. at the very outset, they began to engage elements like the y.p.g. and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield. and there are tens of thousands of the y.p.g. out there. they're right now fighting isil. so because the syria

ms. wormuth, more than 100. what is the number? ms. wormuth: senator mccaskill it's between 100 and 120 basically. senator mccaskill: so we're counting on our fingers and toes when we envisioned 5,400 by the end of the year. i'm just worried that this is one of those instances where the good news about our military is dominating. we can do this. we can do this. and the practical reality of this strategy aren't being fully embraced. general austin: thank you, senator. you know, i absolutely agree with you. we have the finest troops in the world. and they will figure out a way to get the job done one way or the other. and again, what our special operations forces have done in northern syria is they didn't wait for the new syrian force program or train and equip program to fully develop. at the very outset, they began to engage elements like the y.p.g. and enable those elements, and they are making a difference on the battlefield. and there are tens of thousands of the y.p.g. out there. they're right now fighting isil. so because the syria

wormuth. ms. work muth is widely respected throughout the department of defense and we're most grateful to her for her continued and strong support of our efforts at centcom. i'll join christine in making a few brief opening comments and then we're prepared to answer your questions. before providing a brief update on a counter-isil campaign, i did want to quickly address an important issue. wormuth. ms. work muth is widely respected throughout the department of defense and we're as the chairman mentioned, there is an ongoing d.o.d. i.g. investigation looking into allegations of the concerning of the processing of information by centcom intelligence director. because they are currently under investigation, it would be premature and inappropriate for me to discuss this matter. what i will say is i welcome the d.o.d. i.g.'s oversight and once the investigation is complete, based upon the findings, you can be assured that i will take appropriate actions. again, i cannot speak to the specifics of the a

ms. wormuth. ms. wormuth: thank you, chairman mccain and ranking member reed as well as members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to be here today to give you an update on the military aspects of our counter-isil campaign. it's also a pleasure, as always, to be here with general austin. we work very closely together every day on a range of issues so it's nice to be with him today. as the chairman said it's been over a year since the united states and a coalition of nations began the military campaign against isil. when we began that campaign about a year ago, isil was pushing into kurdish territory in northern iraq and pushing towards baghdad. over the past 12 months, isil has lost territory in both yria and iraq, despite advances it's made in ramadi and pamira. progress has been slow but steady. there are definitely been setbacks in the past year. while not 10 feet tall, isil remains a thinking enemy that adopts to evolving conditions on the battlefield. our train and equip programs in i

ms. wormuth: certainly. we see them starting to now plan ahead in terms of which units are going into the training pipeline, which again i think indicates a greater sense of urgency on their part. and on the syrian side of the ledger i would say it is clearly harder to find partners on the ground on the syrian side of the ledger, but one of the things that we didn't envision a year ago was the partnership, if you will, that we have of our airpower with the syrian kurds and the syrian arab coalition that are operating with them. that group on its own won't be enough, but we are continuing to look for opportunities like that even as we review our own train and equip. senator king: i need to rethink a strategy about a safe zone, no-fly zone, some protection from assad's barrel bombs. this is -- i hate it when the chairman's right. he's been talking about this for two years, in retrospect i think he was right. we have allowed this to just -- atrocity to go on too long. it's impacting us. it's impacting the rest

ms. wormuth. ms. rmuth: thank you, chairman mccain and ranking member reed as well as members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to be here today to give you an update on the military aspects of our counter-isil campaign. it's also a pleasure, as always, to be here with general austin. we work very closely together every day on a range of issues so it's nice to be with him today. as the chairman said it's been over a year since the united states and a coalition of nations began the military campaign against isil. when we began that campaign about a year ago, isil was pushing into kurdish territory in northern iraq and pushing towards baghdad. over the past 12 months, isil has lost territory in both syria and iraq, despite advances it's made in ramadi and palmyra. progress has been slow but steady. there are definitely been setbacks in the past year. while not 10 feet tall, isil remains a thinking enemy that adopts to evolving conditions on the battlefield. our train and equip programs in i

ms. wormuth: we have a strategy to defeat isil in the middle east. largely in the middle east but obviously spreading to other areas. there are other dynamics in the middle east that are a part of this. of this. there's the broader conflict that has gone on for decades. the fact that many governments in that region are not very representative and have internal policies that don't give much freedom to their people so that is part of what is part of what is creating a problem. a big part of our strategy is working with these people. >> well set in one sense. does that mean we don't support the king of jordan? >> i'm asking rhetorically. we have to have a more realistic policy than that. i was just reading a book on order and last night hit the part about george and the containment strategy that maintained western unity, free world against the communist total talent terry them. it went on for almost 50 years. this is the way it was expressed. southern expansionism was real and in harwich, the conflict was inherent in the two ideologies. it is incompatib

ms. christine wormuth. miss warm-up is widely respected that the department of defense and we are grateful to her for her continued and strong support of our efforts at centcom. i will join christine and making a few brief comments and we are prepared to answer questions. before providing a brief update on the counter as the campaign i did want to quickly address an important issue. as the chairman mentioned there is an ongoing dod ig investigation looking into allegations concerning the processing of intelligence information by centcom's intelligence director. because the allegations are currently under investigation it would be premature and inappropriate for me to discuss this matter. what i will say is i welcome the dod ig oversight and once the investigation is complete based upon the findings you can be assured that i will take appropriate actions. again i cannot speak to the specifics of the allegations however would like to take this opportunity to provide clarity with respect to how we use intellig

ms. christine wormuth. miss warm-up is widely respected that the department of defense and we are grateful to her for her continued and strong support of our efforts at centcom. i will join christine and making a few brief comments and we are prepared to answer questions. before providing a brief update on the counter as the campaign i did want to quickly address an important issue. as the chairman mentioned there is an ongoing dod ig investigation looking into allegations concerning the processing of intelligence information by centcom's intelligence director. because the allegations are currently under investigation it would be premature and inappropriate for me to discuss this matter. what i will say is i welcome the dod ig oversight and once the investigation is complete based upon the findings you can be assured that i will take appropriate actions. again i cannot speak to the specifics of the allegations wever would like to take this opportunity to provide clarity with respect to how we use intelligen