WASHINGTON - Today, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, made the following opening statement, as prepared for delivery, at the hearing entitled, "Military Assessment of the Security Challenges in the Greater Middle East." For testimony and other information and to watch the hearing click here.
"Today we turn our attention to the Central Command Area of Operations, where much of our nation’s military power has been engaged since 1991.
While we are rightfully focusing attention on other threats, such as a resurgent Russia and newly assertive China, the threat of terrorism has not gone away. In fact, as we discussed at our hearing a few weeks ago, it is difficult to see how ISIS is totally eliminated from Syria, and Al Qaeda with its various branches has not gone away either.
And while terrorists have physically spread out to more locations, some of them have become quite adept at operating online as well, challenging our intelligence collection and our counterterrorism efforts.
Of course, Iran poses a significant threat to regional stability. And we will not forget about the essential fight to prevent Afghanistan returning to be a base for terrorism. So there is much to occupy our witness today, and I appreciate his being with us to answer our questions.
I also want to mention one additional issue that has been in the news lately. There have been a number of press reports about civilian casualties in Mosul related to U.S. aerial support of the Iraqi efforts to reclaim the city from ISIS. I would just suggest that everyone be cautious here.
In a dense urban environment, there may well be civilian casualties. And even the finest military in the world can make mistakes. But we also know for certain that ISIS uses innocent civilians as human shields and that they can arrange civilian deaths to further their misguided narratives. ISIS uses such narratives to try to advance their cause and to curtail the effectiveness of the military campaign against them. We should always give the benefit of the doubt to the professionals working to keep us all safe."