Hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services: United States Central Command and United States Special Operations Command in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2009 and the Future Years Defense Program

Interview

Hearing of the Senate Committee on Armed Services: United States Central Command and United States Special Operations Command in Review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2009 and the Future Years Defense Program

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SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Admiral Fallon, many of us are so concerned about the strain that extended and repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on our troops. Last week, General Casey testified that we would be able to return to the 12-month deployment once the number of Army brigades was drawn down to 15. But in reviewing his testimony, it's not clear to me whether he's talking about 15 combat brigades in both Afghanistan and Iraq, or just in Iraq.

Could you clarify that issue for the committee?

ADM. FALLON: Senator, I can give you what I -- my opinion. But I'm not sure. I think you probably need to get General Casey to be sure.

My understanding is that it's 15 in Iraq. But I'd defer to General Casey, because he's the one that's doing the detailed look at his force structure.

SEN. COLLINS: We have had two recent reports, one from the Atlantic Council of the United States, the other from the Afghanistan Study Group, that both warned that we have insufficient military forces in Afghanistan to accomplish the goals, as well as an effort on the economic and diplomatic side that is not robust enough.

In effect, both of these reports warned that Afghanistan is on the brink, that we're at a tipping point. And both of them are an urgent call for action.

We are sending 3,200 additional Marines into Afghanistan to try to deal with this problem. My concern is that if NATO troops do not step up to the challenge that is outlined in this report, and if our NATO allies continue to operate under constraints that make them less effective in dealing with the resurgence of the Taliban that, in fact, we're going to end up with another enormous effort, imposing still more strain on our troops, and that it will be impossible for us to go back, to a normal deployment length of 12 months, and to stop repeatedly sending back the same troops after insufficient rest periods.

Based on your assessment, what do you see as the demands for additional American troops in Afghanistan?

ADM. FALLON: Senator, I'll start by saying that I'm not as pessimistic as some of these reports and studies seem to indicate the situation is in Afghanistan.

Regarding the use of U.S. forces, we've taken steps, and the president's approved the deployment of two Marine units, one to address the need for maneuver forces under the NATO command, under ISAF. There's been a long-standing request to have two more brigade- size forces for General McNeill.

Now, there's been another request to have more trainers working for General Cone, who works for me, to provide for the training of the Afghan security forces. We're sending units to address both of those issues, not in the full numbers that have been desired, but I think that they're going to be very helpful this year.

The challenges that General McNeill faces, in the ability to use the existing forces in Afghanistan, are well known. The caveats and conditions under which these forces are used, in my opinion, provide some significant tactical limitations. They are what they are. And as you know, there are many efforts being made to address that issue with the other countries of NATO, to try and get more responsiveness and more flexibility in the use of those troops.

I think that this year, this influx of troops ought to -- I expect to have some significant results. I don't think that the situation in Afghanistan is going to be, in the long term, solved by a huge influx of additional forces.

I think that we need to get people focused on executing the specific tasks in Afghanistan that are going to be helpful to return this country. It's different than Iraq, very different, in many, many ways. And our forces have been very successful, particularly in this past year, working in the eastern regions, where we have primacy and basically responsibility.

And what I see is the kinds of engagement with the local populations -- we learn a lot of lessons from Iraq in this regard -- that basically provide stability and security but encourage them, through the instruments like CERP, that you've made available, and through other means and the engagement with the international community to help build their futures -- schools, development, power, water management, all these things that are essential to daily life -- this combination of factors in a focused, flexible manner has been what's given us the results in the east. And we have every expectation we'll be able to build on that this year.

SEN. COLLINS: Thank you.

I want to turn briefly to Pakistan. Obviously, the recent violence in Pakistan, the increase in car bombings, the assassination of the former prime minister, combined with the election changes in which a strong ally of our country, President Musharraf, was -- his party was resoundingly rejected, call into question what the impact will be on cooperation with the United States in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and for Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, particularly in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

How do you see these recent events affecting the cooperation that the United States desperately needs from the Pakistan government?

ADM. FALLON (?): My first comment would be that it's -- I find it impossible to separate Afghanistan from Pakistan. There's a border out there between the countries, but the reality is that you have a significant Pashtun tribal ethnic reality that spreads into significant parts of both countries. The Pak leadership now understands that the -- I believe, the principal threat to their long- term security and stability are the same folks that are operating out of the FATA that are a problem for us in Afghanistan, and so we have a lot of common ground here.

Certainly a lot of swirl and change in Pakistan I think it remains to be seen how this is going to work out. The good news is, there's a process. There's a democratic process that has provided an election, and there is maneuvering going on, the political actions now to try to form a new government, which we certainly hope will be supportive of stability in that country, which will be helpful to us in the region in the long run, and also that they'll continue to support us in our endeavors to address the terror threat and the leadership of that -- those networks that we believe emanate in FATA.

We have had, I believe, significant engagement of a positive manner with the Pak military. General Kiyani, the new army chief, whom I've had the pleasure to meet, I think is very, very aware of the responsibilities he has to not only help as the army as a dominant institution in that country to provide internal security, but he's very -- well recognizes the threat that's posed by these extremists.

And the same kind of behaviors that we see in Afghanistan now spreading into other areas of Pakistan, they're going to have to deal with it, from my perspective. We want to stay engaged. We want to encourage them to work with us, as they have in the past, and to a greater extent so that we can leverage our relationship to help them help themselves and to help us in the process.

I think it remains to be seen. It's certainly a critical time for this country of Pakistan and certainly for us, for our part. It seems to me the priorities for us are to encourage them to work towards solutions that are going to be politically acceptable and that are going to give their people the best chance for security in the future.

SEN. COLLINS: Thank you.

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