We do have treaty obligations with our NATO allies.

We do have an obligation to deter conflict and to prepare for it should it occur.

We became consumed with preparing to go on a deployment, going on the deployment, coming back, and getting ready to go again. We stopped sending young men and women to our professional military education when they should have gone. We stopped doing things like command climate surveys. We got sloppy with contracting oversight.

We do have treaty obligations with our NATO allies.

If there are threats to the United States, then I would of course go back to the president and make a recommendation that may include the use of U.S. military ground force.

I think what happened is, we have gotten a little careless maybe and sloppy over the last 10 years with the mechanisms that used to provide oversight, checks and balances, a safety net, if you will, for professionalism.

You know, we live here in America and sometimes don't understand the realities of geography and demographics in Eastern Europe.