00:00Thank you very much Chairman Mike Rogers for your visionary leadership and indeed each witness thank you for your service to America and in particular Mr. Secretary your service is so appreciated and I'm especially grateful as the son of a flying tiger who helped liberate China as the father of four sons who have served in Iraq, Egypt, Italy and Afghanistan as a 31 year army veteran myself.
00:24Your leadership for peace through strength it is crucial and I believe we're in a cold war we did not choose of dictators with rule of gun invading democracies with rule of law.
00:35It began with war criminal Putin invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and then Iranian puppets invading Israel on October 7, 2023 with the Chinese Communist Party threatening Taiwan.
00:47President Trump tried to deter war criminal Putin in his first term with javelin missiles to Ukraine, American troops in Poland and stopping Nord Stream 2 but Putin ignored Trump and defying Biden has continued his efforts upon election of Trump there were hopes for peace but Putin insulted Trump with the murderous attacks at Christmas and New Year's.
01:13Every time President Trump tries to reduce the conflict, every time President Trump tries to reduce the conflict, war criminal Putin increases mass murder of drones and missile attacks on the people and civilians of Ukraine including hospitals this week.
01:26War criminal Putin is clearly fixated to resurrect the failed Soviet Union with troops still in Transnistria of Moldova, rigging elections in Belarus, invading the Republic of Georgia and rigging elections against the legitimate President Salomis Yusufili of Georgia.
01:44Additionally, there have been new threats this week against the Baltic Republic, our NATO allies.
01:50Every outreach by Trump has been mocked by Putin.
01:55With that in mind, an incredible achievement of President Trump is to awaken our NATO allies, now including Sweden and Finland, with Germany pledging now 5% remarkably.
02:07And 17 of our allies now provide a larger GDP support for the people of Ukraine than the United States because of President Trump's encouragement.
02:16What is the latest status on encouraging our NATO allies of providing for peace through strength?
02:25Thank you for the question, sir.
02:29The one thing I would take issue with is the characterization that Vladimir Putin ignored President Trump.
02:35I think Vladimir Putin paid a lot of attention to President Trump in his first term, and that's why the invasion did not happen under President Trump's watch.
02:41Instead, under the weakness and perceived weakness of Joe Biden.
02:45Ignored and proceeded to insult Biden.
02:49He paid attention to President Trump, and then when Joe Biden was in the office.
02:52But it really set the stage, sadly, that if he had really appreciated what President Trump was trying to do, he wouldn't have invaded again, whether Biden's president or not.
03:04But to your question about Europe, President Trump has invigorated a truly historic investment amongst NATO allies to shoulder the burden of the defense of the continent of Europe.
03:20Vladimir Putin saw what he believed to be weakness, and I believe President Trump has stood up to that by reminding our allies that they need to spend on their own defense and ensure that they're able to shoulder the burden to defend the continent.
03:33That's been a good development.
03:35And indeed, I was grateful last February, coming back from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and meeting with the President, and I told him how exciting it was to see our allies understand that indeed he supports Ukraine, he supports NATO, and peace through strength.
03:54And General Cain, I particularly appreciate your VMI credentials and professionalism.
04:01And with that in mind, we understand that even today, the International Atomic Energy Agency has declared Iran in breach of nonproliferation agreements, and what are we doing to deter the aggression coming from Iran?
04:17Well, sir, first, I noticed in your bio that you went to that other school in Lexington, which is always hard for me to get my head around, sir.
04:30Hey, I grew up in the Holy City of Charleston.
04:33When I saw VMI's, I thought they were Citadel cadets.
04:35Yes, sir.
04:37I'm now a joint guy, so I'll keep all those comments to myself, sir.
04:41You know, sir, you know, the IAEA report is certainly troubling.
04:48The international community seems to be thinking about what they're going to do about it, and as are we watching the situation develop and carefully, carefully monitoring the report.
