These guys just need a date!

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recounts his visits to troops returning from the theater of war. He says that a primary concern is more time in the U.S. between deployments so service members can meet someone to date or spend more time with a spouse and children. (0:32)
Listen

Mullen's vision for success in Iraq

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that success in Iraq is, "Getting to a point where the Iraqi government can provide for it's people, where the economy is healthy, where Iraqi security forces can provide for their own security and can be a strong neighbor for that part of the world." (0:36)
Listen

Mullen: Afghanistan and Pakistan secruity linked

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that there can't be discssion on the security of Afghanistan withou talking about Pakistan. He calls for a plan and strategy to deal with Pakistan. (0:33)
Listen

Commander in Iraq: U.S. forces in Iraq doing more with less

Gen. Lloyd Austin, Commander of Multinational Corps Iraq and second in command of U.S. forces there says that the coalition has been trying to fight currently battles while reducing the size of the force there as surge brigades leave. (0:46)

Listen

2nd in command in Iraq: Iraqi forces are not there yet

Gen. Lloyd Austin, Commander of Multinational Corps Iraq and second in command of U.S. forces says that the Iraqi security forces are not there yet. He says that they are still lacking the ability to perform logisitical and resupply operations. (0:50)
Listen

KBR former employee Langford: Keep on working despite ongoing symptoms

Danny Langford, a former employee of Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), talks about the exposure to Sodium Dichromate he experienced working in Iraq and KBR’s lack of effort to protect its workers. (1:12)
Listen

Sen. Dorgan: “It’s almost unbelievable”

Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) says that he can’t believe what happened at the Qarmat Ali plant in Iraq. He talks about the symptoms that workers there began to experience while they were being told that the plant is perfectly safe and that they are in good hands. (1:19)
Listen

Obama’s policies could lead to chaos, genocide

Noting the reduction of Iranian influence and the growth of democracy, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain says that the United States is on its way to victory in Iraq and that the consequences of Obama’s positions would lead to chaos and genocide. (0:46)
Listen

“I just feel frightened”

As Patrick Cockburn discusses his new book “ Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq,” he talks about the few mixed areas left in Iraq. Fear is an overwhelming presence in the country and Cockburn says Iraq “just isn’t safe.” Cockburn also says that most Iraqis wish they didn’t feel frightened, but unfortunately, it is something they cannot escape. (1:13)
Listen

Even Hussein had trouble ruling Iraq

Patrick Cockburn, the author of “Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq”, talks about the role of holding power in Iraq. He says that even Sudam Hussein had trouble keeping control of Iraq, so it is no surprise that Muqtada and the United States are both having difficulties gaining and maintaining control of the country. (1:15)
Listen

More coalition deaths in Afghanistan than Iraq

During the press conference while traveling at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that in May there were more coalition deaths in Afghanistan than Iraq. (0:40)
Listen

Brzezinski cautions against chaos

Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter, says that provoking Iran militarily would cause the United States to be “bogged down” from Pakistan to Iraq, diminish the influence of the United States, elevate the influence of other countries, and place the world in a more chaotic phase in world affairs. (0:55)
Listen

Bush says freedom will again prevail in Iraq

President George W. Bush speaks at the groundbreaking of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters today. Bush speaks about the ideological struggle against violent extremism, which the USIP is playing an important role. USIP is working in Iraq to improve the government and promoting peaceful engagement. (0:43)
Listen

Peace is a nonpartisan issue

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks at the groundbreaking of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters today. Reid said that the building will life forever as a symbol of hope that the United States will continue to build monuments to peace not to war. USIP has served America well in its work in Iraq, Iran, Korea, Columbia, Pakistan and other places around the world. (1:00)


Listen

Securing peace is just as important as winning wars

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks at the groundbreaking of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters today. Reid said that there is no military power like the United States, but winning the peace is much more difficult and it can’t be done by the military alone. He said that was called America’s smart power - that securing peace is just as important as winning wars. (0:52)


Listen

Governor says Obama is unprepared to run the country

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty spoke today about Senator Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign stop in St. Paul. Pawlenty said that Obama continues to show a lack of judgement in security and international affairs that would be dangerous for the United States if he was voted President.

Pawlenty went on to discuss the negative parts of Obama’s campaign, citing a recent report that Obama is the most liberal senator in the whole senate. He said Obama doesn’t have on the ground, real time, up-to-date information on Iraq, has liberal views on the economy and plans to raise taxes and that Obama lacks understanding of American traditions and values. Overall, Pawlenty said Obama would not make a good president, citing the necessity of experience, which leads to better insight. John McCain has that experience and would be ready to come from day one, Pawlenty said. (13:55)
Listen

Rice: Exploit Iran

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that Iran is increasingly on the wrong side of Iraqi nationalism and that the United States and the international community must work to exploit Iran’s vulnerabilities more. (0:44)
Listen

McCain blasts Obama's foreign policy plans

At an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says that America's progress in Iraq is a "direct result" of the new military strategies that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) "vehemently opposed" and that he predicted would fail. McCain says that Obama's plan to withdraw one or two brigades per month until they are all removed, "regardless of the conditions in Iraq, regardless of the consequences for our national security, regardless of the Israel security, and in disregard of the best advice from our commanders on the ground" will "surely result in catastrophe." McCain says that if U.S. troops are forced to retreat, the Middle East will be subject to "all-out civil war, genocide, and a failed state." (0:55)
Listen

Despite McCain’s comments, Obama does support terrorist labeling

In response to Sen. John McCain’s address to The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Obama campaign held a conference call where Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Denis McDonough says that Sen. Barack Obama was a co-sponsor of the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which included a provision designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, and that his support for the bill continues today. He says that Obama did not support amendments of the bill that would have added a mission of countering Iranian influence inside of Iraq. He says that this would have given President Bush, and presumably McCain, additional rationale to keep the troops in Iraq. (0:54)

Listen

Key to transforming the Middle East: “be in the game every single day”

Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) says that if the United States wants to see a transformed Middle East with Iraq and Lebanon as “pillars of that transformed Middle East” then the U.S. must be “in the game every single day.” He said the U.S. has had a policy of giving pronouncements which are rarely followed by action, but that Iran is “in the game every single day.” (1:49)

Listen