On Wednesday the USO, Cosmopolitan Magazine and Maybelline put together the first all female care-package to send to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“What’s the purpose in Afghanistan? Well, it’s not to defeat Al-Qaeda because they’re largely not there,” said retired General Wesley Clark Tuesday. “It seems to me that what we seek there is to prevent the emergence of a terrorist state that would physically harbor Al-Qaeda and use it’s diplomatic and legal authorities as weapons against the very international system of which it’s a member.” (0:33)

 

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By Laura Smith – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

A collection of Republican Representatives urged Congress Thursday to listen to soldiers who have served in Afghanistan.

“This is about Congress being informed about how our decisions affects those people out there fighting … this is not a partisan deal,” said Hunter during a press appearance with the organizations Vets For Freedom. “This is about winning in Afghanistan and then bringing our troops home victoriously. That’s what this is all about.”

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who joined Hunter, said the appearance was held to back up President Obama, and not in opposition, noting that when Obama was campaigning for President he offered support to the families of those overseas.

“As he was campaigning, he made it very clear that the best way to protect American families was to defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan,” Wilson said.

Pete Hegseth, Chairman and Executive Director of Vets for Freedom, said his organization had one non-partisan message, and that was to “support and listen to the commanders on the ground.”

“You’ve appointed General McCrystal. He’s the smartest guy we’ve got on Afghanistan. He’s lead the counter-terrorism fight for the last five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. If there’s anybody that who knows how to kill bad guys, it’s General Stan McCrystal,” said Hegseth.

“Our message today on the Hill is: ‘Let’s give that commander the assets and resources he needs to finish the job. It’s a very simple message. Give him what he needs to finish the job,” Hegseth added.

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) urges Congress to listen to soldiers who have serve in Afghanistan, noting that it is important to hear about what it is like there for the troops. (0:47)

 

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By Laura Smith – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated Tuesday during an address to a joint session of Congress that the international community should show no tolerance toward a nuclear armed Iran.

“Zero tolerance needs to be shown when there is a risk of weapons of mass destruction falling, for example, into the hands of Iran, infecting our security,” said Merkel.

“Iran needs to be aware of this. Iran knows our offer. But Iran also knows where we draw the line. A nuclear bomb in the hands of an Iranian President who denies the Holocaust, threatens Israel and denies Israel the right to exist, is unacceptable,” she added.

The Chancellor also urged support for Israel.

“Not just Israel is threatened, but the whole of the free world is threatened. Whoever threatens Israel, threatens us.”

She said Germany has shared former president George W. Bush’s view on terrorism after the attacks on September 11, 2001 and Germany felt they had to prevent Afghanistan from harboring a threat again. Germany has been on the ground in Afghanistan since 2002, and they hold the third largest troop contingent.

Merkel’s address to Congress comes just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

She is the second German Chancellor to address Congress, but the only to address a joint session. The first Chancellor to address Congress was Konrad Adenauer, who addressed separate sessions in 1957.

Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The Commission on War Time Contracts expressed concern on Monday over the military’s use of contract employees Afghanistan and Iraq.

The independent and bipartisan commission held a series of hearings today investigating how the neglect of defense contracts has led to fraud, waste and abuse by government contracted companies.

“We need to be clear about the role of contractors in supporting the Iraq drawdown, and be sure that numbers of contractor personnel are appropriately geared to the reduction of U.S. Military,” said Co-Chair of the Commission Michael Thibault.

With the deadline for a complete American troop withdrawal in Iraq scheduled for December 21, 2011, the commission is looking into ways to avoid waste while effectively managing supplies that are shipped, sold or donated to residents of the two nations.

“As units move out of bases, the absolute and comparative numbers of contractors may rise to prepare bases for handover or closure, but the general trend should be for declining numbers,” said Thibault.

Although the commission would like to see a drawdown of contractors coincide with a drawdown of troops in Iraq, Rear Admiral Tom Traaen testified that the opposite may occur instead.

“The ratio of contractors to military has been 1:1 for the past several years, but it is predicted this will increase to 1.5:1 by next August,” he said.

Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracts in Afghanistan and Iraq acknowledged Monday that there has been difficulty judging how many contractors are in the two nations, a scenario Co-Chair Michael J. Thibault warned could expose the U.S. to fraud.

“Eight years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and more than six years since the overthrow of the Baathist regime in Iraq, we still don’t know how many contract employees are in the region,” said Thibault during a hearing Monday. “The concern is not knowing exactly how many contractors there are, where they are, what they’re doing. That difficulty, in turn, permits and invites waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers money and undermines the achievement of U.S. mission objectives.”

A major concern for the panel is the lack of a single census system to account for contractors in both theaters. The effectiveness of the two accounting systems utilized, SPOT and CENTCOM, has been in question. The panel raised concerns that during a one-month span earlier this year the two systems produced a nearly 80,000 count gap.

Three witnesses that testified, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Gary Mostek, Deputy Director of CENTCOM Redding Hobby and John Hutton with the GAO, all expressed doubts that the SPOT program is an effective method of accounting. All three shared the feeling that a manual census at this point would be the most reliable means of keeping track of how many contractors are in the two countries.

By Ravi Bhatia – Talk Radio News Service

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., told Talk Radio News Service Monday that it would be a mistake for the United States to scale back its military efforts in Afghanistan after Hamid Karzai was declared President for another term by Afghanistan’s election commission.

“The whole election debacle was a setback for international efforts in Afghanistan,” Curtis said in a telephone interview. “That said, U.S stakes in the region are far too high to allow the imperfect election to cause us to think about scaling back the mission there.”

Karzai’s competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race Sunday, citing the risk of voter fraud.

General Stanley McChrystal has requested 44,000 more troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is expected to adopt a military strategy in the coming weeks.

Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., says that she learned from NATO commanders in Afghanistan that they do not have enough resources in Afghanistan to win the war, and that the war strategy has been successful in regions supplied with enough troops. (0:30)

 

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Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., says that the confirmation of controversial Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai’s re-election Monday leaves the United States with “no choice” but to deal with Karzai’s alleged corruption and help him “improve his record.” (0:19)

 

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