Lloyd Austin

I think if you look at--and I know you have looked at--the President's interim national security strategy guidance, you will see that, you know, the fundamental elements in that guidance reflect the areas or the issues that the current…

We`re confident in the target that we went after. We know what we hit. And we`re confident that target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes.

It was my recommendation. As we said a number of times we will respond on our timeline.

We`re confident that that target was being used for the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes. We`re very deliberate about our approach, as you would expect us to be.

We're confident in the target that we went after we know what we did.

There is little about what the Department does to defend the American people that is not affected by climate change.

These tears at the fabric, very fabric of cohesion. And it's important for us to be able to trust the men and women on our left and right.

We will obey the Constitution.

We will need to work with our partners in the region to really counter the malign activity that we have seen Iran conduct over time.

I certainly would say, Senator, that Russia's support and Iran's support of Assad has really emboldened him and empowered him to a degree.

Is it fair to say that when Russia and Iran came in to assist Assad, that changed the balance of power on the ground militarily in his favor?

To answer your question as to whether or not there was intervention from a higher level of the White House in this particular incident, the answer is absolutely not.

I would say, clearly, the most dangerous near-term threat is ISIL or Daesh.

We clearly want to leverage all of the capabilities that exist in the entire system, Senator.

In Syria, the only way that the civil war will end--and in a way so that the Syrian people can unite against ISIL--is an inclusive political transition to a new government, without Bashar Assad--a government that serves all Syrians.

We are actively exploring mechanisms to de-conflict Coalition and Russian military operations in Syria.

I think the threat of ISIL in the region, Senator, is the most pressing threat that we're facing.

I do believe that getting the Sunni population involved is really, really important.

Clearly, AQAP [Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] is dominant in that country.

You can't do this with just airpower alone. It has to be a complement of fires and maneuver forces on the ground.

we are encouraged--we continue to encourage the leadership in Iraq to do--to be more accommodating to the Sunni population

None of them have volunteered to come forward and put boots on the ground in Iraq right now.

I know you are very, very well aware of this, but--the night that we flew into Syria for the first time, we had five Sunni Arab-led nations fly in that formation with us, which is really unprecedented.

In Yemen, that's really undetermined.

the government has to be accommodating to both the Sunni and the Kurd population, and we have to increasingly get the Sunnis involved.