Remarks By Acting Secretary Shanahan In A Media Availability

ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PATRICK SHANAHAN:  Sorry -- sorry I was late.  I was -- I was on the phone.  It's been a -- been a 20 -- busy 24 hours, as you can imagine.  And I just have to say, Secretary Pompeo and Ambassador Bolton have been very, very helpful.

But I think as you can tell, we have an international situation there in the Middle East; it's not a U.S. situation.  And the focus for myself and Ambassador Bolton and Secretary Pompeo is to build international consensus to this international problem.

And as all of you are very aware, the Department of Defense, one of our roles is to set the conditions for diplomacy.  And what I would share with you -- and this is, in part, from a lot of the conversations that we all have had about transparency and getting intelligence out -- you'll see we had the big push in the last 24 hours to continue to get information out, continue to share intelligence.  And you'll continue to see us work to do that as part of building the international consensus.

I'd also say that the chairman, and then in close coordination with General McKenzie, we're making sure that General McKenzie and the Central Command has the resources and the support that they need to conduct their missions.  

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