Sen. Foreign Relations Comm hearing, Generals testify on surge

[TayTay]

Securing America’s Interests in Iraq:
The Remaining Options.

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Military and Security Strategy
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HEARING
before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

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Thursday, January 18, 2007

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Time: 9:30 AM
Place: 216 Hart Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Biden

Witnesses:
General Joseph P. Hoar, USMC (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, US Central Command
Del Mar, CA

General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret.)
President, BR McCaffrey Associates LLC
Adjunct Professor of International Affairs
United States Military Academy
Arlington, VA

Lt. General William E. Odom, USA (Ret.)
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Former Director of the National Security Agency
Washington, DC

Additional Witnesses May Be Added…

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As with all Senate hearings, you can pick up the broadcast at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee website: http://foreign.senate.gov/index.html

(Each Senate hearing has a webcast set up for the room in which they hold the hearing. To pick up judiciary comm hearings, just go to the Senate Judiciary Comm and get the webcast. Same for other Committees, except for Small Business, which has very spotty webcast coverage because their hearing room is the worst in the Senate and the equipment is not there sometimes.)

Audio feeds can also be picked up at: http://www.capitolhearings.org/
Just click on the name of the committee to pick up the hearing broadcast.

[pberq]

1. Thanks for the heads up!

[TayTay]

3. No problem.

I can't do the running commentary on this right now because of a business meeting at work. (Sigh!)

I was hoping to catch up with what is said by watching a thread here on DU.

[mod mom]

2. Ohio residents please contact Sen Voinovich's office to urge support of Hagel, Biden + Dodd

Heres my letter to him and to local paper:

Dear Sen Voinovich,

I am writing to urge you to follow Sen Hagel's lead in attempting to stop the Bush Administration's "surge" in troops in the Iraq War. This so called surge are not pawns, but instead American LIVING military personal-the children, spouses, parents that can never be replaced. How many more lives must be lost in the midst of a sectarian civil war?

There were never any WMD. This war by the Bush Administration is perhaps the largest military blunder in the history of our nation. It was based on lies and cherry picked intel. The execution was abysmal with no contingency plan or proper body armor for our troops. Over 3,000 American lives have been lost and countless others have been maimed for life. The cost of this war has put a serious financial burden on our country-one that future generations will have to pay. It has left our military who have had repeated tours of duty, weakened and ill supplied. The Iraq Study Group, top military advisors, former Secretaries of State and others have all advised against sending more troops.

Enough is enough, Sen Voinovich. It is time to acknowledge our mistakes and move forward to correct them and not "escalate them. This is not a party issue but a nation security issue. I hope you will take the bi-partisan action necessary to place pressure on the Bush Administration by support your colleagues: Senators Biden, Hagel and Dodd in saying no consent to the escalation!

Sincerely,

[INdemo]

5. Democrats cant stop the surge

While Bush was giving his speech the troops were already in route..So they say "We'll cut funding for the surge"..The Republicans come back and say "Are you gonna deny our troops ammunition or gasoline for their vehicles..Oh what a circus...The funding for the current ground troops is in the till..The funding appropriations for the surge would have no effect on our current ground troops..But the Republicans (probably Rove) keep talking that if funding is cut our current ground troops will be n danger..Its BS..And they,(the media)have convinced the public that this is a fact ....Gotta hand it to the Repukes their propaganda machine is effective thanks to the corporate media.
So I would guess that in a couple weeks or so the surge is complete and the Democratic Majority as hard as they try won't be able to do a damn thing about it .......

[TayTay]

7. Yet, they must oppose.

It matters now and it matters going into '08.

[Pirate Smile]

4. Judiciary reaming Gonzo; Foreign Relations on the surge.

So many options, not enough ears. :)

[TayTay]

6. Not to worry

Most the committees archive these hearings. If you listen to the Judiciary committee hearing this morning, you can watch/skim the archived webcast on the SFRC site later on. Just go to the SFRC website, click on hearings, get the one you want, click on it, then click on the title of the hearings. Then you can see it.