During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) questioned Military officials about the U.S.'s commitment to NATO.
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00:00Chair, I'd recognize this gentlelady from New Hampshire, Ms. Goodlander.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to begin by joining my colleagues in expressing my
00:09heartbreak over the loss of our four fallen service members and my sincere condolences to
00:15their families. I also want to join in expressing my gratitude to you, General,
00:21for your long and faithful service to our country. You know, we don't agree always in Congress. We
00:28often disagree these days. But one thing I want to say at the outset is we've heard a lot of noise,
00:33but we've actually heard a lot of agreement in this hearing from across this dais. Agreement on basic
00:40principles and commitments that I think are worth reiterating because people from Warsaw to the
00:46Kremlin should hear it loud and clear. Does the United States of America have a national security
00:51interest, General, in the survival and the strength of the NATO alliance?
00:54I believe it does. And Ms. Thompson?
00:58Yes, ma'am. And what about the survival and strength of our European allies, including Ukraine?
01:07Yes. Yes.
01:09Thank you. I think it's important that we reiterate these basic principles. And, General, could you
01:16elaborate on what is the nature of that national security interest that we have in the NATO alliance
01:21and in the survival and strength of Ukraine?
01:25Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. So, a lot of the interests are, a lot of the benefits are rooted
01:37common interests, common values, common histories, things like that. I'm not going to go into those,
01:41just because that's subjective, debatable, and people have different opinions on it.
01:47As a military matter, some of the most advanced militaries in the world are in the NATO alliance.
01:56And some of the militaries in the world that we can be surest will work with us and are militarily
02:06interoperable with our forces are in the NATO alliance. It's surprising when you go outside of Europe,
02:15how much the absence of something like NATO, the structures, the interoperability, is noticed immediately.
02:22Thank you, General. This may be more for a closed setting, but you shared with us in your written
02:30testimony and several times today that Russia's war in Ukraine is the most visible sign of Moscow's
02:36great power ambitions. So, I want to give you an opportunity to tell us a little bit more about how
02:42you think about Vladimir Putin's ambitions. What would satisfy Vladimir Putin? Would taking the eastern half of
02:51Ukraine satisfy his ambitions or would it embolden him? Well, you know, I think if we go back and look
02:58at the history of his tenure as the president of Russia, you can follow his ambitions. They're pretty
03:04consistent, but they expand. Clearly, he's not yet been satisfied with the amount of Ukraine that he's
03:12taken over because he's continued to try to fight forward. How the conflict ends, you may disprove that.
03:20We don't know yet. But he certainly is interested in controlling the nations that are in his
03:31immediate neighborhood by whatever means necessary. And we've seen that demonstrated consistently over
03:38time. Could he stop tomorrow? We don't know. General, you testified to the importance of our
03:45intelligence cooperation with our European allies and with Ukraine. You said that our ability to
03:52gather intelligence is enabled by enduring relationships that cannot develop episodically
03:57and that must be sustained. As someone who comes from the intelligence world, thank you for recognizing
04:04the important role that our intelligence cooperation plays. Is pausing our intelligence cooperation with
04:10European allies a good thing for America's national security? No, we want continuous sharing of
04:20intelligence. We normally do it, as you know, ma'am, on a bilateral basis. We have very strong agreements
04:27with the nations in the alliance about bilateral intel sharing, and we're very, we're very grateful for it.
04:33Was the pause last month in our intelligence cooperation and sharing with Ukraine helpful or harmful to
04:40America's interests in your area of operation, in your region? That one I have to answer in closed session,
04:50ma'am, because I just have to answer that one in closed session. Thank you, General. With that,
04:55Mr. Chairman, I yield back.