The 14th Dalai Lama says U.S. weapons are powerful but not as powerful as American principles. (0:26)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Debbie B. of West Virginia says she believes American troops should get out of Afghanistan because the U.S. is “not solving any problems.” (0:17)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Kayleigh Harvey and Celia Canon

At her weekly press conference today Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said: “There won’t be any more war supplementals. We have no expectation of that. My message to the members’ is the President has re-focused our efforts in Afghanistan, he has a path to ending the war in Iraq that will happen. So we have a plan for both places and this is the President’s request to fund that. I hope you can vote for it.”

 

 Standard Podcast [1:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

>
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) called congressional voting cards “the most dangerous credit card in the history of the world”, because then enable Congress and the president to engage in reckless spending. This was not Boehner’s first criticism of Obama, but his statement came on the 101st day of the Obama Administration, a time which Boehner has criticized as being pock marked with excessive borrowing, reckless spending and a massive growth in government.

Boehner said that Democrat’s “record on spending and debt is staggering, but our economy is growing weaker, and it’s not going to get any better by growing the size of the government here in Washington.”

Boehner believes that the Democratically controlled Congress has enabled and contributed to the recklessness, and thinks it is up to the Republicans to put a stop to it. Republicans must be “the party of better solutions” if they are going to stand up to the Democrats in Congress, Boehner said, adding that he hopes Democrats will be committed to a bipartisan policy approach..

Citing the elections of 2008, Boehner said “out brand has been tarnished”, but to help the party serve the American people, Republicans must stand up to the Obama Administration when disagreements arise, and to offer alternative solutions.

Leader Boehner applauded President Obama on his strategy towards Afghanistan and Iraq, but showed concern at Obama’s greater national security policy.

“The big question continues to be: what is the Administration’s overarching plan to fight terrorism? Judging from their recent decision to release 30 terrorist detainees with no plan on where to put them, it continues to beg the question,” referring to Obama’s closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention center without knowing where the detainees will be sent.

By Jonathan Bronstein, Talk Radio News

Since World War II, not once has Congress utilized its Constitutional right to declare an official act of war. Though this violates both the Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973, which restricted Presidential power in times of war, America still goes to war.

However, now America goes to war without the consent of the representative body of the people.

“Since the War Powers Resolution was enacted, several presidents have introduced troops into battle without obtaining prior approval of Congress,” said Senator Russell Feinfold (D-W.I.).

“The simple solution of this problem would be for the president to honor the Constitution and seek the prior approval of Congress in such scenarios,” he said

In an effort to make the president more accountable to the American people, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations heard the recommendations of the National War Powers Commission, created in February 2007, report: the War Powers Consultation Act. This commission was led by two former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher, and they sought to change what they believed to be the flawed War Powers Act of 1973.

The main issue with the War Powers Act of 1973, is that this debate will linger until a decision is made. “Only a Constitutional Amendment or a decisive Supreme Court opinion is likely to resolve the debate, and neither of these is likely to be forth coming anytime soon,” said Christopher.

Therefore, this commissions goal was not to reform the War Powers Act, but to create a completely knew draft.

One of the main recommendations of the committee was that the President must have an advisory body, which must be consulted before any soldiers are sent into battle.

Yet, such a move frightened Feingold because “If this bill had been in place before the war in Iraq, President Bush could have begun the war after consulting with a ‘gang’ of twelve members of Congress, thereby depriving most of the senators in this room of the ability to participate in these consultations.”

Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) voiced similar concern about the role of an advisory committee and the effect that it would have on Congressional influence, “I think in the process of giving the President one place to go (for information), I think that the other (Congressional) committees of jurisdiction end up becoming more irrelevant.

“The decision to go to war is the most profound ever made by the government,” said Feingold. “History teaches that we must have the support of the American people if we are to successfully prosecute our military operations.”

So while the current War Powers Act is flawed, Feingold worried that the new War Powers Consultation Act committed just as large of a sin–silencing the voice of the American people.

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

At a public hearing on current U.S. Military Aid to the Middle East, retired Ambassador Edward Peck said that the fighting in Gaza is not a war. He said, “That wasn’t a war. There are not two armies fighting there. There was a huge powerful army, armed, financed and equipped by us, kicking the crappe, that’s a French word, c-r-a-p-p-e, kicking the crappe out of a helpless, defenseless people, who had nothing to fight back with.”

 

 Standard Podcast [1:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Today a league of congressmen sent a letter to President Obama asking him to reconsider his military policy in Afghanistan before committing 17,000 new troops in a surge. The letter said, “As the goals of our seven year military involvement remain troublingly unclear, we urge you to reconsider such a military escalation”. This letter came from a bipartisan group of 14 members of Congress.

Congressman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said that he is “perplexed” by the president’s troop increase, considering that his administration has stated it is presently reviewing its strategy in Afghanistan. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said that America is getting deeper into a “war without end” and that we need an exit strategy in Afghanistan.

Both Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) expressed concern on waging an endless war in such a time of economic peril. Kucinich said what the country needs is a healthcare surge, a home ownership surge, and an employment surge.

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

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.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

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.”

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Kayleigh Harvey – Talk Radio News Service

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.”