'This Week' Transcript 10-22-23: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin

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Well, Jonathan, as you know, recently we've seen rocket and UAV attacks against bases housing our troops in Iraq and Syria. We're concerned about potential escalation. In fact, what we're seeing is a -- is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region. And because of that, we're going to do what's necessary to make sure that our troops are in the right -- in a good position, and they're protected, and that we have the ability to respond.

Now, this additional deployment sends another message to those who would -- who would seek to widen this conflict. As President Biden said earlier and as you've heard me say, if any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is don't. We maintain the right to defend ourselves, and we won't hesitate to take the appropriate action.

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Jonathan, when you have cruise missiles heading towards one of our DDGs, one of our destroyers, that vessel is going to do what it needs to do to protect itself. The same applies for the UAVs.
And I applaud the work of the crew of the Carney. They demonstrated what the -- what our very capable United States Navy can do and will do if challenged.

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They have the inherent right for self-protection there, Jon. Yeah.

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Jon, what we're focused on currently is making sure that we're providing the security assistance that Israel needs to defend itself. That's been our focus from the very beginning, and I will tell you that I am in contact with Minister Gallant nearly every day.

I spoke to him on October 7th, the same day that the attack occurred. He identified to me what his needs were at that point in time, and we immediately started flowing security assistance to them.

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Well, the first thing that everyone should know and I think everybody does know that urban combat is extremely difficult. It's -- it goes at a slow pace.

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Yes.

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Yes.

This may be a bit more difficult because of the underground network of tunnels that the -- that Hamas has constructed over time, and the fact that they have had a long time to prepare for a fight. So I think you'll see a fight that's characterized by a lot of IEDs, a lot of booby traps, and just a really grinding activity going forward.

Now, one of the things we've learned is how to account for civilians in the battle space, and they are a part of the battle space, and we, in accordance of the law of war, we've got to do what's necessary to protect those civilians.

And as I've talked to Minister Gallant and others, I've encouraged them to conduct their operations in accordance with the law of war.

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We encourage them at every opportunity, Jon, to make sure that, you know, we're accounting for those civilians that are in the battle space that were providing corridors for them to leave the battle space if necessary, and that -- and that they're allowing humanitarian assistance to get into that space as well.

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Certainly you have to evaluate the target, the value of the target, who's on that -- who's on that -- who's at that location. And we always have -- we always get legal advice from our -- our -- our lawyers who are with us on the battlefield. But, to your point, each target, Jon, needs to be assessed, carefully assessed, and we need to do everything we can to make sure that civilians are not -- are not injured or threatened.

So, the right thing to do is to make sure that we account for civilians in our planning, that we provide corridors for -- for their movement out of the battle space, that we are not -- not destroying protected properties in the -- where possible. And I think the Israelis have been doing this for some time. Again, they are a professional force, and we will encourage -- continue to encourage them to make sure that they're doing things in accordance with the law of war.

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Well, it's got -- it's -- it has to transition to something else, Jon. And I think -- you know, Hamas is a terrorist organization. And this is not the Palestinian people. Hamas, at the end of the day, Israel wants Hamas to be gone from -- from Gaza. What does it transition to? Left to be defined, but I think that's an issue for the region and for the world to -- to work together on.
Hamas is not only just an organization. It's an ideology.

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And so it's a -- it's an idea. It's a bad idea. And the way you defeat a bad idea, Jon, is with a better idea. And I do think, going forward, the community needs to work together to address the underlying causes of instability here. And until we do that, then I think we're going to have -- continue to have challenges. But I think the Israelis understand that. They know that. And I think that's the direction that we all hope that we'll move in the future.

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As you know, Jon, that's been -- that's been our position all along, a two-state solution is something that we think is -- is very, very supportable.

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Thanks, Jon.

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