I think, as I was hearing your testimony, you were indicating that China is pretty rapidly chewing away any dominance that we might have in the region.
I do not think a conflict or a crisis with China is inevitable. I do not think it is.
There was not any dialogue among the region or among the neighbors.
We should applaud the work of the 7th Fleet in assisting in trying to find the Air Malaysia flight.
The 11-carrier Navy is a statutory requirement.
I just ask these questions to suggest, I think, most would say China is our 'principal competitor' in the next century.
So the surprise was the timing rather than that they actually took this step.
There's a lot of deferred maintenance. I look at it as deferred maintenance issues, the kind you talk about.
But, separate from budgets, strategically, I gather there is no dispute within the DOD, the Navy family, the White House...
We didn't take an oath to the sequester.
It is my hope that working on the budget, working through the National Defense Authorization Act, that we'll be able to ...