WEBVTT

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and also the Iraqi government

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part of this transition to Iraqi

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control continue to see the great

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strides that are happening

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more of our business ?

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A little bit about the status of forces ?

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How many times have you

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been to Iraq and how long

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has lasted anyone ? Anticipating

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transition in august 12 months

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Alright , what we have

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consistently throughout the marine

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course , areas of operations are

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marines who have deployed for seven

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months at the time and that is the vast

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majority of them because that's the

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battalion size units and lower the

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regimental headquarters is going to

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deploy here for 13 months . And that

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allows us to do the consistent command

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and control . And more importantly , it

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helps us develop those personal

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relationships , those habitual

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relationships with the Iraqis that

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continues to win this insurgency . Uh I

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haven't heard anything about one year

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tours for marines , I know that are pre

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deployment training plan and the

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schedule that I see for the regiment

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battalions that are in my regiment

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continues to be for seven month

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deployments at the battalion level and

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below And for the regimental level and

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above headquarters . There are 13

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months tours .

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I was playing to ask something that

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you've hardly already answered . When

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you talk about how much clearing , how

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much holding and how much building it

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sounds like the most of the most of

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your you are is in the hold and build

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phase . Can you again , trying to

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quantify the percentages for clear hold

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and build and as you move more towards

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this world , as you say , you're

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already playing to a large degree the

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Overwatch role . Uh when does that

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translate into an ability for that area

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to function without so many U . S .

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Marines there ?

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But we're already well into

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three months . We've gone from five

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battalions to three battalions . We've

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we've taken a 40% cut in our combat

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power and a 30% reduction of personnel

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in my area of operations . And we're

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doing quite well with that because

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we're thickening the Iraqi security

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forces . The E . P . R . T . Is

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helping fight this counterinsurgency

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along all the lines of operations . And

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what we're seeing is tremendous

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response and positive atmosphere ,

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atmospherics from the locals . I

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recently did a patrol in Baghdad E and

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I asked the people , hey , have you

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seen any ? Very , so we haven't seen

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them here in 18 months and if they ever

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come back we'll kill them and lay them

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in the street for you . Um So as you

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can see , we were pulling back , I

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haven't had marines up that area in

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months and months and months and it is ,

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it is still very peaceful , very

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prosperous and people are very

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comfortable with the fact that the

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Iraqi security forces and their

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governing bodies are giving them what

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they need to get on with their lives in

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the 21st century

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because the security provided by the

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Iraqi security forces ,

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security ,

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how many marines do you have in your

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area of operations now And in

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terms of when you could be the next

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step down in your numbers ,

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that will be happy to comment on that ,

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You know , one of the first things that

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you do when you come in here is you try

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to envision what you're leaving for the

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unit that is going to take over for you

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and you build a great deal of your , of

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your plan around that . So

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what I , what I have now on hand is

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about 4300 marines that work for the

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regimental combat team . And that

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number is going to significantly

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decrease here as we move into the

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summer , as I mentioned before . 40%

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cut . Uh what do I

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envision next ? Um what I see is the

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Iraqi security forces building up and

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thickening to the point where we are

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going to be able to move into

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operational over watch . Uh

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as soon as our higher headquarters says ,

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hey , now is the time to do this and I

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know they're working on it constantly .

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Have you already taken , this

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is something that is , it's going to

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happen . It's happening as we

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speak .

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How many and you

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will end up with how many and where do

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they go ? They go ?

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We had five battalion task force out

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here and we're transitioning to three

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as we speak . Where did they go ? They

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went home ?

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They finished their deployments and

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they're rotating home as scheduled

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question , you're saying that a couple

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of years ago , you had a lot of foreign

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fires right around in Western Iraq ,

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There are where they come from , where

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they are from Syria . They coming over

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the border from Syria , where they come

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from . And how do you account for the

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reduction in the border ?

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Uh , this was two years ago , I was

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in Fallujah . What I understood is a

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good many of them were coming across

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the Syrian border and they came from

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all over the world . And why are they

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not here now ? Well , quite

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frankly , I think we killed a lot of

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them . I think that the enemy is having

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a more difficult time recruiting to the

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numbers that they had in the past

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and no , they're not coming across

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uh ,

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before I bring it to a close . So let's

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uh ,

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uh ,

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uh , what I would like to do is

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just tell you that you would be

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incredibly proud of the service that

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the american fighting men and women are

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doing here . The service members are

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doing a great job . I mean , it's a

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humbling bended knee , You watch him go

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about fighting this counterinsurgency

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and you'd be very proud of them . If

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there's anything I would ask you to

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communicate to the american public is

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that they should be very , very proud

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of their military services and uh , you

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know , there are national asset , their

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national treasure there , the next

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great generation and they are winning

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here . I have no doubt about it . What

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I've seen in the last uh , since I was

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here in 2000 and four . It's mind

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boggling the changes that have taken

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place here . I mean , we're past clear ,

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we're past hold and we're so far in to

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build . I mean , it's a civil society

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that we're building here . For example ,

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before there was no government , there

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was no city council and then we built

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one , but they couldn't drive around ,

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they had to fly them anywhere before

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they could start to function . Now they

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get in their cars and they drive all

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over the place , they visit the

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governor . It will places from Al Qaeda

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group to just get the car drive down

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the road and they're taking care of

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business . So tremendous change . And

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if you're looking for a reason is

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because we've got some great service

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men and women following orders and

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getting the job done out here . That

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also emphasized the partnership between

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the Department of State and other

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people out here that are making

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tremendous successful

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partnership and also the partnership of

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Iraqis as far along

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this

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way .

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Gentlemen . Again , thank you for

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taking some time , uh , to get a

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perspective from the region that you're

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operating and we hope that we'll be

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able to talk to you again sometime soon .

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Come on out . We'd like to talk to you

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out here . Got plenty to show you .

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Thank you