Adam Smith

The decision before Congress is, is this adequate to meet that goal.

The goal of this is to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

I am really worried that if we in their minds abdicate the leadership that we have taken in this agreement...

What this agreement does clearly do for at least the next 15 years is significantly degrades Iran's ability to enrich uranium.

Explicitly in the agreement is Iran agreeing to never build a nuclear weapon.

It gives us a chance to be deliberative, to listen to experts, and to have a really robust debate about what exactly the agreement does.

This is an issue that Congress will have to vote on; one we cannot avoid.

I think some progress was made.

But, as I have said many times before, that cow has left the barn. Iraq is fractured. You can make a pretty powerful argument, in fact, that Iraq is no more.

Shouldn't we be shifting a lot of our focus to that and basically saying to Baghdad, time's up?

What can you do to encourage the tribes in Syria and in Iraq to turn on ISIS?

And just a quick thing on Iran. And, obviously, I mean, if we just had these extremist Sunni groups to fight, I mean, that would be enough to really challenge us.

He expressed disappointment, frankly, that the other Gulf states... did not seem to really be willing to provide much support.

What is the administration's strategy for dealing with Iranian influence other than the nuclear talks?

This has to be locally driven--locally driven by Sunnis in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere to eject ISIS.

We cannot contribute to that.

We could drop 200,000 U.S. troops in the middle of this; it wouldn't solve the problem.

I fear that strategy won't work.

It is not just a matter of defeating one group; it is a matter of defeating an ideology.

We need to find Sunnis who are willing and able to fight ISIS and build a better alternative.

What we have to do is tactically use the U.S. military to help the right people and move things in the right direction.

I will, however, disagree with the notion that a U.S. presence will solve the problem.

My view is that there is no substitute for American leadership in the Middle East or anywhere else.

I, too, support this en bloc package. I hope that the Members will vote for it. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

I claim the time in opposition, though I am not opposed to it. The Acting CHAIR. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for 10 minutes. There was no objection.