Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Jim Inhofe, Hearing on the nomination of General Paul LaCamera to serve as Commander, United States Forces Korea

Hearing

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), today delivered opening remarks at a SASC hearing to consider the nomination of General Paul LaCamera to serve as Commander, United States Forces Korea.

As Prepared for Delivery:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General LaCamera, thank you for your decades of service, and for your leadership in the Department of Defense's priority theater as the commander of U.S. Army Pacific. We thank your family for their years of support to you and service to the country as well.

Since its release, this Committee has used the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the bipartisan NDS Commission Report (this blue book) as the blueprint for our defense work since these documents were released.

I've been asking every senior defense official, both civilian and military, whether the 2018 NDS is still accurate and relevant to their important work.

Every one of them has confirmed that it provides a solid foundation and priorities to help them advance our national security interests.

They've told us it accurately reflects the strategic environment, and, if anything, the threats have gotten worse. General LaCamera, I'll be interested in your views.

One area we see things getting worse fast is in Afghanistan. Just last week, a girls' school in Kabul was bombed, and the lives of our Afghan translators, who helped protect our troops, will be in much greater danger after our troops leave.

This is in part because we abandoned the conditions-based approach that Congress has supported for the last decade.

Instead, unfortunately, the Biden administration has adopted a calendar-based approach that trades real security for politics.

I fear we are seeing only the beginning of an emerging humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.

General LaCamera, I understand from our discussion in my office, that in Korea we have another situation that can either be conditions-based or calendar-based -- that is the transfer of wartime operational control. I look forward to your views.

Admiral Aquilino, who is the new commander of INDOPACOM as of 30 April, told the committee that "The U.S.- Republic of Korea alliance is ironclad and serves as the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean peninsula." I totally agree.

And as I said last week on the floor of the Senate --"A strong military is the foundation of our alliances."

In fact, a strong military enables us to have strong alliances. We need both--one is not a substitute for the other.

That is why I am disappointed with a defense budget that doesn't even keep up with inflation when the bipartisan NDS Commission says we need 3-5 percent real growth to protect the country.

Since 2009, South Korea has increased its defense spending by 3-8 percent each year, reflecting an accurate assessment of the threat environment. I wish we were as wise as them.

A flat or declining defense budget sends the wrong signal to adversaries as well as allies like South Korea.

And it undermines critical efforts including top priorities such as nuclear modernization, which is much-delayed and much-needed. We can't wait any longer.

Eliminating a leg of the nuclear triad as China builds out its third leg undermines confidence and the trust that holds together our alliances with nations like South Korea.

Further delays to nuclear modernization would also undermine the confidence our South Korean allies have in the nuclear umbrella that helps protect them from an increasingly aggressive Kim Jong Un and his expanding nuclear arsenal.

General LaCamera, I look forward to your views on how we further cement our alliance with South Korea and how we deal with Kim Jong Un's growing nuclear threat.

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