 So, now on to our event. It is truly my honor and privilege to introduce Representative Tulsi Gabbard. From founding a non-profit focused on children and the environment, to becoming Hawaii's youngest ever legislator, when at the age of 21 she joined the state's House of Representatives, from joining the Army National Guard and serving two tours of duty in the Middle East, to serving as a legislative aide to Senator Daniela Kaka, from leading the Honolulu City Council on Health and Economic Issues to winning a hotly contested U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2012. As one of the first female combat veterans and the first Hindu to ever serve in Congress, Representative Gabbard has consistently and successfully demonstrated what it means to live a life of public service to both the state of Hawaii and to our nation. Currently, she sits on three critical national security committees, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security. Given her firsthand experience on the battlefield and her strong voice on important national security issues today, I'm excited to hear her perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing U.S. foreign policy. Please join me in warmly welcoming Representative Tulsi Gabbard. Good morning and aloha. Start the day with a smile. Stephanie, thank you very much for your kind introduction and I really appreciate CSIS for asking me to come here and share a few thoughts with you today and to all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come and hear what I have to say. I'm really looking forward to our discussion. I'd like to start with a little bit of an introduction about myself and to talk a little bit about really what brought me to Congress in the first place. It's probably the question that I get asked most often, especially these days as people look at the gridlock and the lack of action in Congress. And really, I go back to my upbringing in Hawaii, my upbringing in this culture of aloha and being instilled from a young age with the principles of service and servant leadership and understanding that first and foremost in our lives, if we wish to be truly successful and truly happy, we can only find that through dedicating our lives and our actions in the service of others. I get the chance to meet with and talk with a lot of young leaders who are coming up who have incredible potential and are learning a lot about politics. My upbringing was completely different. I had no ambition and no interest in politics whatsoever growing up in Hawaii. I was very content as a shy surfer kid and spending as much time outdoors as possible. But my love for my home and surfing and hiking and everything that we love about Hawaii turned into a desire to question actually that I asked myself and had to answer was as I saw environmental issues come up that I was experiencing, my community was experiencing, I knew that I had to do something about it. That when I saw this problem, I had to figure out a way to take action. And ultimately, that's what got me interested in forming a nonprofit and also running for office at 21 years old. It was during my service in the state legislature that like so many others around the country after 9-11, I enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard because I wanted to do something. I wanted to take action to fight against those who had declared war against us on that fateful day. So it was after my first legislative session was complete that I shipped off to basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. It was the summer. It was the first time for me in my life it was, you know, 5.30 in the morning Army physical fitness training out on the field and I had seen steam rising from people's bodies. It was an incredible thing to behold in that heat in the summer. I was assigned to a medical unit where I was working as a medical administrative officer. And in 2004 was campaigning for re-election when our brigade was activated for duty in Iraq. It was an 18 month long deployment and the first deployment for our National Guard unit since Vietnam. So it was a brand new situation for people of many ranks within our unit. But I was one of a handful of people who was not on that deployment roster. So I had a choice to make. I knew that there was no way that I could stay back in beautiful Hawaii and watch close to 3,000 of my brothers and sisters in uniform get deployed to the other side of the world. So I withdrew from my campaign and I volunteered to deploy, was trained in a different job and was activated with the Charlie Medical Company with the 29th Brigade Combat Team in August of 2004. I later went through OCS and volunteered for a second deployment as a military police platoon leader. And when I returned, actually it was throughout my experiences during those deployments as well as when I returned that I reflected on the experiences that I had of understanding firsthand and seeing firsthand the incredible cost of war, the loss of friends who never made it home with us, and appreciated personally the great sacrifices that our service members and their families make. Stephanie knows this all too well. The sacrifices not only occur while a service member is deployed but also when they come home for years. And I questioned during my deployments and after I came home how many people in Congress actually understand this? How many people actually know what this is like? I was fortunate to work for Senator Akaka, a veteran himself, and when I worked for him he was the chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and I was able to take some of these experiences from my first deployment and share them with him and his work, where oftentimes as you know here in Washington you can get these high level briefings but by the time it trickles down into the lower enlisted level and soldiers and service members who are coming back from deployments and going through transition, what was a great idea here at the top level in application can sometimes become a check the block PowerPoint briefing and you can say hey good job mission accomplished when the impact and the objective really has not yet been achieved. So as I came back and I saw that fewer and fewer veterans were serving in Congress than ever before I began to question how this diminishing number of veterans serving affects Congress's ability to make decisions. Overall Congress's ability to be able to put the mission first to be able to work together to be able to overcome differences and have substantive dialogue but also specifically on issues related to national security related to our military and related to our veterans. How was this lack of individuals who had ever worn the uniform affecting these decisions? So coming back from both of these deployments this was what motivated me to run for Congress in what was a very difficult campaign but being here I am constantly reminded of why I'm here, why I ran in the first place and the great responsibility that this job carries. I serve on both the armed services and foreign affairs committees where now in my third year in this relatively short period of time we've taken on a number of very challenging issues in particular related to the Middle East. Obviously the issue at hand at the moment is the deal before Congress on Iran. This is something we had a hearing yesterday in the foreign affairs committee with secretaries Kerry, Moniz and Lou later today right after this I'll be going to an armed services hearing on the same topic and as I discussed this issue with many of my colleagues it is good to see that many members are treating this decision with the seriousness that it deserves. Spending a lot of time really studying the issue understanding that the devil is in the details and examining those details and asking thoughtful questions. I think the worst thing that we could do with this deal is allow people to resort to partisan politics and stake out positions as happens unfortunately too often on many other issues when we have a situation before us that will have such long-standing implications. So I'm taking a cautious and critical approach as I go through my own due diligence. Yesterday in our committee hearing of course the administration and these three secretaries made very strong and compelling arguments for why they feel this is the best possible deal that could have been reached and why they feel that a yes vote or Congress not voting to disapprove is the only viable option. However as we go through some of the top line talking points which can be easy to run through I think it's important that we dig down into the details. There are a variety of issues that are of concern I think the one that is I hear most most often talked about is the need for a strong verifiable inspections regime that without this then you really cannot have an enforceable deal. While Congress has been assured that this is the case there are still many questions at issue some of which are the issue of timing the 24 days whether or not evidence activity or materials can be cleaned up or hidden during this period the answer seems to vary depending on who you talk to and what the consequences will be if after this 24 day period Iran continues to resist access. Sanctions relief must be tightly tied to Iran's compliance with the deal and understanding how the snapback sanctions really work and and how these enforcement mechanisms are in place is essential without any grandfather clauses that would allow Iran to rush into an economic agreement or a contract with a company that would have long-standing impact with the perception that they the contract would be protected or allowed to continue if snapback sanctions were to occur. The other issue that that still remains an area of concern is the issue of lifting the UN imposed arms embargo where conventional and missile development or transfers not only present a threat to the region to our allies and partners but in the case of ICBMs could potentially pose a direct threat to us. So as we examine this deal one of the the angles that I am looking at this from comes from the situation we're in with Hawaii the situation we're in in being in the middle of the Pacific and dealing with a nuclear armed North Korea studying how that deal was put into place studying how the negotiations for this Iran deal were put into place and ultimately making sure that we remain focused on the objective that Iran not be allowed to develop or acquire a bomb. While North Korea continues to develop its nuclear weapon capability its delivery mechanism capability its intercontinental ballistic missile capability I can tell you my constituents in Hawaii get very nervous every time North Korea starts beating its drum as we hear their long-range missiles put Hawaii the west coast clearly within their crosshairs. A similar thorough analysis must be given to understanding what possible scenarios play out if Congress disapproves the deal and overrides a presidential veto. Some say war is a certain outcome others will say that the deal will go on without the United States that we lose a seat at the table others will say that the status quo will continue and that there will be time to chart a new course with Iran to cut off its pathway to the bomb and force a change in behavior as the world's leading state sponsor of terror. Each of these scenarios from my view has not been fully fleshed out and there remain many questions and concerns about how these alternatives will go forward if that scenario occurs. A couple of weeks ago I returned from an official visit a codel to the Middle East with a couple of senators and a few of my colleagues in the house and it's very apparent obviously there that the threat of ISIS and Islamic extremism continues to be the issue really that's at the forefront of people's minds. It was interesting as you were there obviously this was before the Iran deal was announced but it was the issue of ISIS that people talked about not about an impending deal with Iran. For me it was the first time I had been back to Iraq since being there as a soldier and it was interesting to see the country and what's happened since then. I think one of the most important things for us to recognize with what's happening there is that it is it is as much an ideological war as it is a military war and that we've got to understand the ideology in order to defeat it. This issue of ideology was brought up by almost every single group of people who we met with whether it was in Baghdad or with the Kurds in Erbil. Our first stop on this trip was in Kuwait city and and we actually arrived the day after the suicide bomber attack at the mosque there in Kuwait. So this was not something that had been planned but as soon as we got off the plane we asked for and got the opportunity to go and visit with the family members of the 27 people who were killed in that attack as they received people who were coming through and offering their condolences. It was incredibly it was a very emotional visit where you know seeing and experiencing the grief of these people who had been with their family members literally just a day before and yet through that grief still expressed their their deep and sincere gratitude for us being there and for the United States taking a stand against this threat of Islamic extremism. What I found through this visit both in Baghdad and Erbil that what I had suspected and had known and been advocating for here was affirmed in person that we need to continue to strengthen our partnership with the troops on the ground there primarily the Kurdish Peshmerga who've proven their effectiveness in this fight against ISIS and continue to support them with the heavy weapons that they need in order to be able to maintain their defeat and their progress. We met with the Kurdish leadership as well as some of the Peshmerga on the ground there and they talked to us about how ISIS's latest weapon of choice are these vehicle born IEDs that are far worse than what we've ever seen before. These five ton trucks that are protected by armor and filled with explosives being driven by suicide bombers into villages and military camps were the only thing the only thing that will stop these vehicles are these heavy weapons like AT-4s which the Kurdish Peshmerga still don't have nearly enough of. As we look at who has been effective in this fight it is the Kurds who have held ground and taken ground back key locations from ISIS in both Iraq and Syria and especially in Erbil what they're doing to provide sanctuary and critical humanitarian support to more than two million ethnic and religious minorities including Yazidis and Christians without much support coming from Baghdad and support from the UN quickly running out is is astounding. The following day we met Prime Minister Abadi and other government officials in Baghdad as well as Sunni tribal leaders and it was interesting to hear from Prime Minister Abadi directly while he would downplay this with us and other American audiences he continues to ask Iran for more support ensuring that Iran's influence in Baghdad is secured and it was clear and evident that the Shia militia have the run of show throughout Baghdad without reporting to anyone within that government. As we heard from many of the Sunni tribal leaders that even though the names have changed Prime Minister Maliki's policies of persecuting the Sunni tribes persist and this is the problem that must be solved with regards to ISIS in Iraq that this oxygen created by this policy is what allows ISIS to thrive and remain in Iraq. Virtually everyone we heard from during our visit outside of the Baghdad government told us that practically speaking on the ground Iraq has already split into Shia Sunni and Kurdish areas and that the idea of a single unified government in Iraq is purely a fantasy. The continued propping up of this particular Shia led government in Baghdad I believe is directly linked to the continued presence and strength of ISIS in that country that the very reason they've been so successful in gaining consolidating and administering in Sunni territories of Iraq is because of the oppression and persecution that the Sunni tribes continue to face from this government in Baghdad. And the Shia militias the Sunni tribes can only be motivated to rise up against ISIS with the promise of self-governance and the ability to secure their communities and their territories. Here a few months ago in the armed services committee I called for this I called for the Sunnis to be given the promise of governance and the ability to secure themselves before the offensive action took place in Tikrit. No action no such action occurred and as soon as ISIS was driven from Tikrit the Shia militia went through raising homes and looting stores. I told Prime Minister Abadi personally how critical it was to ensure Sunni governance and security before offensive action takes place in Ramadi to make sure that this military action can actually be sustained. We may win some battles but the defeat of ISIS cannot be sustained unless and until this occurs. The bottom line is that this is not a war that can be won on a single front. In order to truly defeat these extremist terrorists we must have a three-pronged strategy. First take decisive strategic military action using our air support working with regional partners as our ground troops. Massive deployments of U.S. ground troops that some people are advocating for would actually be counterproductive to our objective of defeating ISIS as it would be something that is unsustainable and would only play into ISIS recruiting rhetoric strengthening their influence in the region and increasing their ability to attract foreign fighters. Second take a country by country region by region approach to supporting political solutions that will take away the oxygen that has allowed groups like ISIS to thrive. In Iraq I've called for support for some form of a three-state solution that would ultimately have to be decided by the stakeholders on the ground that would empower each of the major groups taking away the oxygen for groups like ISIS to exist. And third take actions to counter the radical Islamic ideology that is fueling this terror which is being inculcated into a new generation of terrorists and being used to recruit foreign fighters from around the world. I'd like to move now to talk a little bit about our military strength and capabilities. The current budget driven versus strategy driven decisions being made due to the Budget Control Act and sequester combined with Congress's inability to pass a budget and appropriations pose a serious national security threat. As we hear again the threats of impending government shutdown or yet another continuing resolution we've got to realize how detrimental these actions are to our military's ability to plan and how directly it impacts the readiness of our troops, training and maintenance of equipment that we as a nation rely on to stand at the ready should the need arise. Earlier this month as the U.S. Army announced its reduction of end strength by 40,000 soldiers over the next two years to 450,000 it was clear the concerns that exist about their ability to take action where necessary. This action and the threat of another 30,000 soldiers being cut if the Budget Control Act continues to stand increases the strain on our existing force and their families who will be asked to do more with less. My home state of Hawaii which hosts the headquarters of Pacific Command and bases from every branch of the military we've obviously scrutinized the effects of these cuts very carefully. We worked hard to communicate to Washington as well as the Pentagon how damaging and these cuts would be where they were projecting 16,000 soldiers would be cut. Thankfully we were able to get that number down to 1400 but our cognizant of the fact that future downsizing continues to threaten the mission that we have at stake. Really these arbitrary across-the-board cuts will continue to cripple our military if nothing is done. The reach is far and wide. I met with some members of the Japanese diet some time ago and the very first question that they asked of me was what is Congress doing to get rid of sequester? That was the number one question on their minds. A few months ago I spoke at West Point's 100th night celebration and part of the senior class's performance skit was dedicated to sequestration and how it had affected their training. Those who sit on the armed services committees in the House and Senate understand the seriousness of this issue in a bipartisan way. The rest of Congress especially the leadership however does not understand the urgency of this. This is the biggest hurdle that all stakeholders must be concerned with impressing upon the leaders in Congress the action that must be taken to get rid of sequester. Before I close I'll just mention the last topic which is near and dear to my heart as we continue to try to ensure that our veterans our returning service members are taken care of as they come home from these long deployments and as they transition into civilian life. Along with seeing that current veterans will have access to the services and opportunities that they've earned and that they've promised. We also need to take into consideration the relationship between going into war and what that means for the people who volunteer to serve our country and who are sent in to fight those wars. I recently formed the post 9-11 Veterans Caucus with Republican Scott Perry from Pennsylvania who is also an Army veteran because we're in the unique position and have the unique responsibility both as policymakers and veterans to be a voice for this new generation of millions of veterans. Our experiences have given us unique perspective about the decision to commit to new military operations because when policymakers consider the decision to go to war far too often the questions of the second third and fourth order of effects and consequences are left unasked and unanswered. With an increasing number of veterans returning home and transitioning out of the military the demand for veteran services continues to increase. Just the other day a medic who I was deployed with to Iraq posted on Facebook about how he had a foot injury that he got while he was deployed and that it took the VA over a year to get him the custom orthotics he needed. An Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who worked in my office who was a wounded warrior waited for over a year for an appointment to see a doctor for the first time in the VA. More tragic are the examples of those requiring urgent care to deal with the visible and invisible wounds that they have incurred and who are either turned away or as they call for help there's no one at the other end of the phone to answer. There are countless examples of where the VA needs to improve services, the ballooning overhead costs, the antiquated IT systems and an outdated and bureaucratic procurement system that must be reformed for us to ensure our veterans have a first class experience getting the benefits and care that they've earned. There are many other issues around the world that we could spend all day talking about but the most important thing as we examine our U.S. foreign policy and the threats that are posed to the American people and our national security is what action lies within our best interest. Far too many military and foreign policy decisions have been made in recent history that have overextended our U.S. resources, sacrificed American lives and resources through the conducting of regime change and nation building in other countries which have exacted a deep toll here at home. While it's easy to put people into boxes like hawk or dove, isolationist or interventionist, we know that nothing is that simple. Each situation is different and each demands thoughtful analysis and consideration. So as we make these decisions carefully we must understand the far-reaching impact and consequences and always act within the prism of what is in the best interest of the American people and our country. Thank you for listening this morning. Aloha. We can take this as a short break if any of you along the back would like to grab a seat. There are some up here to my left. Before you can just stay where you are. That's fine too. Well ma'am thank you so much for your thoughtful remarks. I know we are pressed for time. Unfortunately the congresswoman has to leave a little bit earlier than expected so I will turn to the audience for questions shortly but I do have one question for you. I am having served in Iraq myself as a civilian, having met my husband there. So yay, something good came out of Iraq. I am very concerned. Congress recently approved an Iraq train and equip fund that the Pentagon is administering with support from the State Department in excess of $1 billion and you describe very eloquently the issue that we have in that the Kurdish Peshmerga are solid fighters, they are willing to fight and they are capable of fighting and turning back ISIS as the enemy. We are working a little bit with Sunni tribal leaders in order to get them armed, trained and equipped but the issue really seems to be getting things through Baghdad with the Shia majority government and things not flowing to the Peshmerga or to the Sunnis. Can you talk a little bit about from a congressional perspective is there anything we can do? I know some legislators have proposed having a separate fund specifically for the Peshmerga and that obviously is not very popular with our Iraqi counterparts in Baghdad. So can you talk a little bit about what short of having a final federalist discussion, how can we help the Peshmerga? How can we help the Sunnis in Iraq? Yeah, thank you. It's a great question and one that was at the forefront of my visit there to try to determine exactly what's wrong with the way things have been going that continue to stop these necessary supplies, arms, equipment, etc., from getting to the people who need them the most. It's frustrating and heartbreaking to hear and read these stories about people who are fighting to defend a town against ISIS literally running out of ammunition, fighting till there are no more bullets left. Before going on this trip through the Armed Services Committee NDAA markup, I cosponsored an amendment to our House NDAA which was successfully passed that would have authorized direct arms to go to the Kurdish Peshmerga as well as to vetted non-ISIS Sunni tribes. This was something that I've just seen over the last year as we recognize the reality of what's happening on the ground has grown in support through both House Republicans and Democrats. Unfortunately in the Senate they're not quite there yet. I know Senator Joni Ernst offered an amendment which failed that would just deal with directly arming the Kurdish Peshmerga and I know this is one of the issues that's still of contention within conference. So it's something that we're going to continue to try to press for as we look at this and as we see how woefully inadequate recruiting is going with the Iraqi security forces. As we talk to folks and hear from folks on the ground there there's a reason for that that you've got the Sunni tribal leaders who have people literally banging down the door who want to stand and fight because they know that if they do they can fight for their home. They have something to fight for. The Kurdish Peshmerga have something to fight for. But when you look at how deeply below their required amounts in recruiting the ISF has in Baghdad I think it's it's evident. Right next to that when you look at the Shia militia and all the different factions that make up this umbrella over the Shia militia organizations who they answer to who they take orders from who they don't you know who they ignore within the Baghdad government I think it's obvious you can see exactly what the problem is there and why relying on this Baghdad government solely to get these supplies to the fighters that they need to reach our objective which is to deal with this threat of ISIS to me it requires action and that's what we've got to keep pushing for. I appreciate that one thing that the audience may not be aware of is that you know you have legislators calling for up to 10,000 additional US military members to go is training and advise and to help the Iraqi security forces but we are barely at training half of the number that we are authorized to train it's getting people into training and people willing to fight which is an issue and I think you just hit the now on the head so thank you for that. Thank you I'll just make one last comment on that because I have some colleagues who disagree and who are calling for US troops to go in and these large numbers saying that they can train the backbone into these Iraqi security force fighters so that they don't just drop their weapons and vehicles and cut and run when the fighting gets hot you know that's not how it works you know being a soldier myself having gone through training myself having served over there you've got to have something to fight for you've got to have a motivation and that's the issue of what's at stake here is that there is not a belief in this so-called country of Iraq and this government in Baghdad and that's where you're seeing the lack of motivation for people to put their lives on the line. Exactly. I'd like to turn it over to the audience for questions right now since we have about 10 minutes left of the congressman's time she has to get back to a hearing. I see several hands up what I'm going to do is ask for three individuals to ask questions the way we handle this at CSI is as you wait for a microphone well you wait for me to identify you you get a microphone you introduce yourself in your affiliation if you have one and then I'm going to be a stickler about this ask a question and so I'd like these two gentlemen up front um followed by that gentleman over there um so this gentleman in the second row Alloha. I'm Dave Ramoswamy with Africa Agribusiness Magazine if you look at hot spots like Iraq, Syria, Libya and emerging hot spots northern Mali, northern Nigeria where Islamist terror is pushing into new regions one of the serious commonalities in all these regions besides lack of Alloha spirit is the environmental degradation you know you have falling water tables loss of forest cover and so the depth and increasing desertification how do you see US policy evolving to meet these natural resource security threats so how do you position natural resource security as an integral part of national security thank you so that's question number one question number two Congresswoman George Nicholson special operations consultant thank you for your service a question right now is you talk about troops on the ground but in terms of needing JTAX and special forces to to provide targeting one of the big problems we've got right now with our air power is going in there and not being able to specifically identify the targets we're going what's your position on maybe not putting regular ground troops in but putting JTAX in on the ground and putting more special forces on our ground question number two and I can read these back to you after the three of them but that third one there please thank you my name is Richard Spooner just a concerned citizen I would like to say I think we're very fortunate to have someone with your knowledge and experience playing an important role in the decisions that are being made in this area of the world seems that one of the most recent developments is an agreement between the United States and Turkey that gives the United States the ability to use bases in Turkey that can help in a real way to fight against ISIS but at the same time it seems the quid pro quo is to give Turkey the right to attack Kurds who are armed and who are fighting ISIS I wonder if you might comment on that okay so those three questions are environmental security as part of national security special forces in Iraq and then this last one on Turkey yeah great thank you very much for your questions you know I think that the United States and I and I I can't begin to tell you the different programs that are in place to be able to help countries who are facing as you put it this environmental degradation I know that there are efforts in place that will that that seek to help address these issues and to help empower local communities obviously through the government but also through other NGOs who are working towards those same efforts and that works in parallel to the efforts to empower these local ground forces local militaries to be able to fight against the in some places emerging threats in other places the already existing threats of ISIS and and other extremist groups taking a stronghold in those areas you know there there's no cookie cutter approach to addressing this threat around the world because each of the issues in these different countries in these different regions are very unique and have to be addressed strategically accordingly with regard to the air targeting and the JTACs you know I think that you know our special forces can and do have a role to play you know as we were there we were able to literally sit in the room as some of as some of these air strikes were conducted and the the Kurds in particular have a 100 effective rate in the air strikes that they work with our U.S. air forces in conducting they have had zero civilian casualties zero mistaken targets and have been very effective in doing what they've been able to do so I think that there's a few things I mean I think that one of the things they're working towards now is training the Kurds for example to to be able to provide very precise targets and have been quite effective in being able to do that others in the Iraqi security forces for example have not and don't have as much experience as the Kurdish Peshmerga have so I think we can look at this on a on a case by case basis but I also think that some of the numbers that are thrown out oftentimes on the news are inflated saying that you know only what is it only 15 or 20 percent of the planes that go out actually end up dropping ordnance I talked with a Marine Corps pilot who deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and he said that their numbers working with you know air controllers on the ground during combat were even less than that in percentage wise in the average of how many times they actually dropped ordinance and there's so many different variables that come into play here one of them is your ability to specifically identify a target another is obviously civilian considerations and collateral damage and others are just the ever moving dynamic of what's happening on the ground where they're prepared to make their mission but sometimes that's not always what ends up getting carried out so I think you know this like most other issues is not a black and white situation where you know putting more of our JTACs on the ground will solve the problem I think we've got to look again and see how we best utilize the assets that we already have on the ground and see how we can best utilize our special forces to be able to enhance our combined efforts you know the the agreement with with us in Turkey is deeply troubling to me and something that I'm digging around to find more information about and exactly what was in that agreement I think the fact that the United States has been eerily silent on Turkey's actions against the Kurdish fighters in Syria who again who have gained incredible ground and key terrain back from ISIS right along the border right along major supply routes is you know to say it's unacceptable is it doesn't seem like a strong enough word you know myself along with many others question why it would have taken so long for Turkey to agree to let us use their air bases considering they are supposed NATO allies to fight against this threat that is not you know this threat against Turkey this threat against Syria this threat against Iraq this threat against our European allies and partners something that we supposedly are all on the same team on so I have very serious problems with what we've seen occurring over the last couple of days and I'm digging deeper into find out exactly what was agreed on exactly what was what was exchanged and think that you know this cannot be something that's allowed to continue I think we have time for one more question and I wanted to serve this side of the room so that lady in the back please and this will be the last question if you could wait for a microphone thanks and that's for the benefit of those watching online so hi my name is Jennifer Lee over Horia I'm with the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative at Northwestern University and my question is steering back to Iran so at a relatively recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing the relatives of various Americans who are being held in Iran including the brother of Jason Rezion had had a pretty deep discussion of how they viewed the nuclear deal at the time the pending nuclear deal as being very much entrenched in the deliberations for the return of their family members and getting towards the idea that once the deal was struck Iran would have nothing that they could really get from us and there would be no motivation to return them so I was just wondering if there were any developments in those negotiations if there's anything that you could tell us about those talks to bring those people home yeah thanks for bringing that up it's something that you know comes up every single time we have a conversation about Iran and rightly so like you I also had the chance to meet with some of those family members when they came before our committee and it's unimaginable to think about what they continue to go through I don't know how much I can say other than I think every every day there continues to be pressure and talks with Iran to bring them home and you know we're all hopeful that that will that will happen I want to be sensitive to those conversations and to to what's happening to and not overstep my own boundaries but I I know that these talks are not because this deal is done and agreed to by the p5 plus one the pressure has not let up on making sure that we do everything that we can as the United States to bring them home you know too often we we hear complaints about Congress in the media about how it it doesn't know what it's talking about how members don't know how to get anything done and I think today's session has proved how knowledgeable a member of Congress truly can be about issues that are in the forefront of everyone's mind from you know Iran which is the top above the fold headline if anyone still gets paper newspapers above the fold headline to what's going on with ISIS and Turkey so please join me in thanking Representative Gabbard for a great discussion thank you so much