I think the word you used is, it will be catastrophic if we cut off spare parts.

The inability for the Afghans to have the operational reach represented by the Mi-17 will seriously deteriorate their ability to take the fight to the enemy.

We tend to focus around here on problems. That's what we talk about. That's our job. But my sense is that Secretary Kerry and what happened last weekend was a big deal, and the avoidance of what could have been a disastrous situation.

I think it's so important for us to develop an effective relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This is one of the most important jobs in our country right now and we're taking a guy who really knows how to do it.

I believe you have an explicit or implicit contract. People have expectations and that's what's going to make this problem exceedingly difficult to deal with.

It's just unacceptable to take 20 years to develop a new weapon system.

Unfortunately, we now seem to be moving into an era where there is at least a possibility of non-state actors acquiring nuclear weapons who would not necessarily be concerned about their destruction.

If you want to prevent an invasion, wouldn't the provision of lethal aid to the Ukrainian military be a way to help to deter that invasion rather than wait until the invasion occurs and then try to fight a rearguard action?

It's going to require troops; is that not correct?

Some predictable funding level from year to year is an important part of your being able to meet this challenge?

It's somewhat out of the scope of this hearing, Mr. Chairman, but I woke up this morning suddenly thinking about what happened in West Virginia, which was an accident.

The best opportunity that we have to preclude China's expansionist tendencies in Asia is force presence.

I can't resist, in closing, pointing out the irony of if we were called upon to come to the aid of one of our allies in that region against an expansionist China, given our terrible financial condition, we would end up borrowing the money from China in order to arm our allies to fight China.

There may be no one singular piece of equipment, but a general reinforcement and strengthening of their capability, whether it's with military hardware, whatever the panoply of weapons that they've looked for, wouldn't that make the Russians think twice?

I take it you're suggesting that the campaign in Syria may be also years.

Force presence matters, and having forces... to be ready to respond immediately to our friends and allies, especially our allies there, matters.

I hope that you will take this as a very serious threat before it materializes.