According to Egyptian President Hosid Mubarak’s spokesperson Ambassador Soliman Awaad, Mubarak and President Barack Obama discussed the need for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“President Mubarak made it very clear to President Obama today that the peace process cannot afford another failure. The suffering and the plight of the Palestinians can not afford further delay,” Awaad said (0:17).
Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Brian Cowen brought some St. Patrick’s Day cheer today, as he met with President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on his visit to Washington D.C. The trio were greeted with the sound of bagpipes from the United States Air Force Reserve Pipe Band as they walked down the House of Representative steps. The Irish Prime Minister later discussed his visit with press outside the Cannon House Building.
Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, backed up President Obama’s statement today, in a conference cal,l that all U.S. combat troops will be out of Iraq by August 31, 2010 and that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by 2011. Gates said that if Iraqi forces asked for U.S. troops to remain, he believed people “should be prepared to have a very modest size presence” remaining in Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hosted a conference call where he discussed Obama’s strategy to end the war in Iraq. Following the President’s lead, Gates said, that all combat troops will be out of Iraq by August 31, 2010, but the non-combat troops left in Iraq “will have combat capability.”
Following President Barack Obama’s address at Camp Lejeune, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hosted a conference call where he discussed Obama’s strategy to end the war in Iraq.
In his opening comments Secretary Gates said: “The atmosphere here at Camp Lejeune for the speech was very warm, very enthusiastic and I would also say that the welcome has been pretty extraordinary.”
“On the substance I am obviously very supportive of the option the President has chosen and the decision he has made as is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Frankly, this is where both the Chairman and I thought this should come out and it was a very thorough and deliberative process where a lot of different options and a lot of different analysis were examined,” said Gates.
Asked about Obama’s statement that all troops would be out of Iraq by 2011, Secretary Gates said: “Under the terms of the status of forces agreement which is what we are operating under now all U.S. forces must be out by the end of 2011. It will require a new agreement, a new negotiation, almost certainly at Iraqi initiative to provide for some presence beyond the end of 2011. So in the absence of that agreement and the absence of that negotiation, for such an agreement, it is in keeping with the sofa to say definitively that we will be out by 2011.”
Asked what would happen if Iraqi forces asked for the U.S. military to remain in Iraq to assist with training and strengthening, Gates said: “It’s a hypothetical the Iraqis have not said anything about that at this point…My own view would be, that, we should be prepared to have some very modest size presence, for training and helping them with their new equipment and providing perhaps intelligence support, beyond that.”
In his address Obama said that all combat troops would be out of Iraq by August 31, 2010. Asked whether the remaining non-combat troops would have combat capability, Gates said: “Those that are left will have a combat capability…there will be target counter-terrorism organizations, there will be continued embeds with some of the Iraqi forces, training capacities…but the units will have gone and the mission will have changed, so the notion of being engaged in combat, in the way we have been up until now, will be completely different.”
By Christina Lovato – Talk Radio News Service/University of New Mexico and Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-Ca) gives his opinion on President Barack Obama’s Joint Congressional Address. He said: Obama did a masterful job of explaining very candidly and honestly the challenges we face.”
By Christina Lovato – Talk Radio News Service/University of New Mexico and Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service
Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) gives his opinion on President Barack Obama’s Joint Congressional Address. He said: “the nation needed to hear the realities of where we are and the potential of where we can go.”
By Christina Lovato – Talk Radio News Service/University of New Mexico and Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News
Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) gives his opinion on President Barack Obama’s Joint Congressional Address. He said: “Obama sent out a challenge to America…we are not going to be in despair, we are going to meet the challenge head on.”
By Christina Lovato – Talk Radio News/University of New Mexico and Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News
Congressman John Fleming (R-LA) gives his opinion on President Barack Obama’s Joint Congressional Address. He said, “there wasn’t much specific in it.”
Former Secretary of Defense, Rt. Hon Des Browne MP, talked about “Transatlantic Security Post-Bush,” at the Center for American Progress today. He talked specifically about troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and the popularity of President Barack Obama in Europe.
