During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) questioned Military officials about U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
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00:00Chair and I recognize the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. McCormick.
00:02Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good to see you again, General.
00:05It's been a couple years now that we've known each other and I've seen you around the world,
00:09several different places. I know you're going to miss dealing with crayon-eating Marines
00:13and better-looking uniforms, I might add, better commercials.
00:18But with that said, it's interesting. The first time I ever saw you at a hearing,
00:22I asked you a very specific question about can we win in Ukraine.
00:26You said you didn't even hesitate. You said absolutely. And I agree with you.
00:30And for those people who are doubters, I make the case, first of all,
00:34that we have, between us and Europe, we have a $50 trillion economy versus two.
00:39Versus two. We control sanctions. We control the economy.
00:45We control energy production. And we can undermine Russia in so many ways economically,
00:50not even to mention militarily. Germany has a $5 trillion economy versus two for Russia.
00:58Russia. There should be no competition here. But the problem is, when we went to command of staff,
01:04when we went to go to water college, when we do all our advanced training, we always learn how to
01:06execute a war. Full-throated. Not half-assed. Not going partial measures. And then drawing it out like
01:13we have every war since Korea, in my opinion.
01:18We did this with Iraq. We did it with Afghanistan. We continued to draw it out.
01:22We went half-measures. And it went way too long. And I feel like we're doing the same thing here.
01:27Instead of just saying, all in, end this thing. Within one year, it's over.
01:31That's Klausiewiczian warfare. Now, of course, we take nukes off the table. I understand the
01:35deterrence there. But do you think we still, a year after we had our first conversation,
01:41a couple years after we had our first conversation, do you still think that what I just said is viable
01:45and has application in this process to ending this war?
01:47I do, sir. The role of assistance to Ukraine, the pace of assistance to Ukraine, the magnitude of it,
01:57has an outsized impact in this war.
02:02So, Ms. Thompson, I just say, if I could give you feedback to the president.
02:07These are two military guys who've been in this business for a long time. And actually, there's a whole lot more than that.
02:12We can end this war in many ways. I love what the president's doing to put pressure on Russia to end this.
02:17But he's in the power seat. He's the most powerful man in the world.
02:21With sanctions, with energy production, the things that he's doing, also with the development of our businesses there,
02:27which Russia would have a hard time attacking if we're there.
02:30But also the fact that the president has been very strict in saying, hey, I got the bigger button.
02:35I have the bigger military. I have more economic power than anybody in the universe.
02:41We can end this. The president is the big man in the room.
02:45And I would love to see him put pressure on Putin because he has that leverage.
02:49Getting back more to tactics and away from strategy, we have new munitions.
02:53We have the glide bombs.
02:56We have wire-guided munitions now, very similar to what the tow is,
02:59but they have loitering capacity with the new drones.
03:04What are we doing to both develop that and also counter that in technologies?
03:08Obviously, you're not going to talk about anything classified.
03:10But do you feel like we're moving at pace for our newly developed weapons systems?
03:16Yeah, Congressman, a general never feels like we're moving at an adequate pace
03:20when it comes to development of new weapons systems, especially in conflict.
03:24We continue to help our Ukrainian partners in their development of this stuff.
03:31But they have really, you know, they've become the world experts in one-way drones,
03:36and they are very, very good at it.
03:38They're also very good at countering it and are doing that.
03:43Our ability to learn from them is an important thing.
03:48A few minutes ago, a member asked about lessons learned and how we're incorporating those.
03:53You know, one of the – if you can find a silver lining in this tragic dark cloud of this war,
04:01we are learning an awful lot about the future of warfare and about Russia's capabilities as well.
04:06I think that I have great applications to Taiwan and the Straits as well
04:10when we're talking about legacy systems versus the newer technologies that are going to impact the battlefield.
04:14I'm almost out of time, but I want to take this time as you're near in retirement
04:17just to say that no matter what happens, no matter how bad your uniform looks compared to the Marines
04:22or anything like that, you have one thing that you can always hang your hat on,
04:25and you have the coolest title ever, Supreme Allied Commander.
04:29Nobody can take that from you for the rest of your life.
04:31God bless you, Semper Fidelis.
04:33Good luck in your next career.
04:34Thank you, sir.