on iraq, obviously any time there is a bombing in iraq, we are concerned. anytime there is loss of innocent life or the loss of military personnel, we grieve for their families. it makes us pay attention. i will tell you that if you look at the overall trend, despite some of these high-profile bombings, iraq pose a security situation has continued to dramatically improve. when i speak to general cody are now or our ambassador in a rock, -- when i speak to the general or our ambassador in iraq, i think there is still some work to do. the government is not only going to have to continue to strengthen its security forces, it is also of have to engage in the kind of political give-and- take leading up to the national elections that we have been talking about for quite some time. i have not seen as much political progress as i would like to see. there are always going to be -- let me not say always. there are going to continue to be incidents inside iraq for some time. they are at a much lower level than they were in the past. i think the biggest challenge right

we were bombing iraq in 1998. saddam hussein was gassing the hurt -- guessing occurred in 1988. there is a context of history and i hope the inquiry will the context of history and not just art event on 9/11. >> i do agree there is a whole series of events in the lead up to and the conflict broke out in 2003. it must -- the inquiry must focus itself on the immediate run-up to the conflict, the conflict itself, and the reconstruction efforts. i have to remind the house we have had four separate inquiries into some of the events surrounding iraq. we've had the affairs of inquiry, the intelligence inquiry and it to others. it's not as if the issues have not been addressed, they have been. it is important to look at this in the round because what we want to do is learn the lessons so they can be applied for the future. >> we all welcome the demise of the saddam hussein regime, but the question is could it have been -- could it have been done differently and could saddam hussein have been indicted and could more iraqis not have lost lives. we all grief the soldiers that have lost the

we were bombing iraq in 1998, saddam hussein was gassing kurds in 1998 and there is a context in the history and i hope the inquiry will look at the context in the history and not just art events in 9/11. >> i do agree there is a series of events leading up to what happens when the conflict broke out in 2003. and no doubt the inquiry will be free to take some into consideration but must focus itself on a time which is an immediate run into the conflict, the conflict itself and reconstruction after words. i have to remind that we've had four separate inquiries already into some of the events surrounding iraq, the foreign affairs committee and intelligence security inquiry, the gitmo inquiry and if this is not as if the issues have not been addressed. they have been but it is important to look at this on the ground because we want to do it and sometimes we forget this is what we want to do is learn the lessons of they can be applied for the future. >> mr. speaker, we all well, this but the important issue is put differently and iraqis could not have lost their lives and we agree in mou

on iraq, any time there is a bombing in iraq, we are concerned. anytime there's a loss of innocent life or the loss of military personnel, we grieve for their families and it makes us pay attention. if you look at the overall trend, despite the high-profile bombings, the security situation has continued to dramatically improve. when i speak to the general and the ambassador in iraq, they continued to be positive overall about the trend lines in iraq. there is still some work to do. i think family government -- i think the maliki government will have to strengthen its forces and engage in the political give and take leading up to the elections that we have been talking about for some time. i have not seen as much political process -- progress there as i would like to see. there are always going to be -- let me not say always. there will continue to the incidents of violence inside iraq for some time. they are at a much lower level than they were in the past. i think the biggest challenge right now will be less of those attacks by the remnants and i

one of the people who was transferred detonated a car bomb in iraq. another is now a leading al qaeda operative in yemen. and, as i said before, these were supposedly the safe ones. so what would happen if those currently at gitmo returned to the battlefield? mr. president, this document and the actions of those detained at guantanamo bay illustrate what some in this congress seem to have forgotten, we, as a nation, are still at war. they are trying to gil americans an destroy -- to kill americans an destroy our very way of life. the prisoners at gitmo realize this, our troops realize this, it is time that we here in washington, d.c., wake up and realize it as well. the facilities in gitmo are state of the art and are some of the most impressive that i've ever seen. and after touring the facilities down there, i believe that it would be next to, if not impossible, to recreate those facilities here in the united states. partially because of the fiscal location of the facility itself. guantanamo bay is also the appropriate place to conduct military comm

iraq. and i said to them, you guys now have to wait. because i'm not going to leave until after the bombsave stopped falling in iraq. the reason, whether it was hubris, or reality at least in my mind, i felt no one knew that target set as well as i did. and i was going to take the necessary care to ensure that our pilots did not fly against targets that were unnecessary, that civilians would be taken care of and that we did the best job that we could. and in the end that we got the targets when the job was necessary. and so i went in and worked, you know, did the long shifts, 18 hours everyday during the war. my compatriots at cia, et cetera. and we dropped the bombs. now, in my specific strikes -- i worked on many hundreds of air strikes, but on the target set in which we were trying to kill saddam hussein it was a very limited target set. we had 50 missions in which we actually dropped munitions on either saddam or another member of them. in the 50 air strikes we had a total sum of zero successes. we didn't get saddam or his sons or the brothers or any of the people on the deck of cards

iraq. i told them they would have to wait. i would not leave until after the bombs had stopped falling in iraq. whether it was heber's or reality, in my mind, i felt no one knew that targets that as well as i did. i was going to take the necessary care to ensure that our pilots did not fly against targets that were unnecessary, that civilians would be taken care of, and that we did the best job we could, and got the targets when the job was necessary. i went in and work. i did a long shifts, 18 hours every day during the war. my compatriots at the cia, etc, and we dropped the bombs. i worked on many hundreds of air strikes. on the target sets where we were trying to kill saddam hussein, it was a limited target set. we have 50 missions -- we had 50 missions where we dropped emissions. in those 50 airstrikes, we had a grand total of zero successes. not only did we not get saddam hussein, we did not get any of the people on the deck of cards. as we went through the war, it was failure after failure. i would estimate about 250 civilians were killed in the air strikes th

the reason that ahmadinejad won in a landslide, you know that iraq had no bombs or anything? we preemptively attack of them and killed millions of their people. he is popular among his people because he is standing up, otherwise we will do the same thing to him. let's do what obama says and let them have nuclear power. thank you. host: baltimore, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to ask the public a question. if a foreign power invaded canada and mexico, two of our bordering countries, what with the united states do? iran is in the same situation. we invaded iraq and afghanistan , but both border iran. what is the iranian government to do? they have to have some method from deterring the united states from invading them. that could be a very popular point of view. so, you cannot really blame iran for attempting to have some kind of a power against the united states. host: if we go with your notion that this is a defensive posture, how do we go about assuring them that we are not going to attack them and that they do not necessarily need this defensive mechanism? call

in 2006, and oman and a list told us that the greatest threat from iraq nuclear ambitions was not necessarily the bomb itself but rather what he called saudi arabia's overreaction to the threat. close observers of the gulf will argue that this friction is nothing new. they have always march to a different tune. but even if we look farther west to the so-called block a moderate sunni arab states, cairo and riyadh that are supposedly leading the charge against iran we find significant disagreement about the nature of that threat and about arab leadership and hierarchy. much of this cooperation i'm going to argue should be seen as tactical and instrumental. in early 2008, a former egyptian diplomat told us that cairo was worried about the new saudi activism. he said the saudi's are everywhere with initiatives against iran, and this worries us. the saving grace for us is that these initiatives never amount to anything. we consider them an annoying fact of life. added to this tension between states about what to do about iran, their diversions between public and official thinking. we service all this in th

there are still a lot of problems in iraq, corruption, assassinations going on, yesterday or the day before there was a huge car bombinghat killed like 100 people. but there also out from under saddam hussein, who bloodily repress them. host: you are seeking a fifth term next year? guest: yes. host: next is bonnie from middletown, new jersey. caller: good morning, senator mccain. earlier we had talked about the deficit spending, there is a difference between deficit spending and what you would do with private insurance. during reagan's time, we became -- we went from being the biggest lender nation to the biggest debtor nation. now we are trying to invest in our people. my main issue is your view on health care. 90% of bank of this -- of bankruptcy is are due to catastrophic illnesses and with the unemployment rate creeping towards 10%, that is only going to become more so. you are offering a $5,000 tax credit for health care. my insurance costs $20,000. collectively, between my employer and myself. how is $5,000 going to help? and the cost of the private health care is due to the private insurance -- interests. the in

iraq for the next three years to help them continue to build upon that momentum. we view that obligation seriously and we intend to honor it. >> one other thing, in light of these major bombings in the last few months, nobody's taken responsibility and the military says it's al qaeda but do you know why the al qaeda hasn't taken responsibility is any intelligence work being done to shut down their communications? >> i wouldn't start to guess as to why al qaeda does what it does. and without acknowledging what we have done in specific cases, clearly our efforts to target al qaeda have not been exclusive to capture and kill operations. we have also been very interested in trying to shut down their ability to produce propaganda and recruit people via the intent. so have we worked in that area, yes, we have have we had success in that area? yes, we have. don't know why that's not the reason we are having claims of this. >> could you give us a status update in the flag ship you have been following and explain what procedures you might enact? this secretary and the chairman last week outlined a quail and prayer procedure. has it been done? will it be done? >>i know there's great fa

iraq is in a different -- iran is in a different situation from korea. the iranian said we do not want a nuclear bomb. we do not have a nuclear bomb. we do not have facilities for that. it is against our religion. they may be lying, but that is a situation for us to go in, supervise. mousavi said i am willing to see an iranian enrichment operation in iran in a joint venture. multinational companies. the russians, the japanese. i think that is about the best we can do. they want to have at least 10 nuclear-powered plants. they want to invest $1 billion or $2 billion per plant. they want electricity. they are not going to rely on someone outside to get them uranium. that is done. it does not matter who comes to power. the issue of sanctions -- i think the sanctions hurt the iranian public. there is no question about that. i do not think it has any effect on the iranian regime. i honestly believe it has backfired. we discussed the possibility of sanctions on the importation of gasoline. they used that excuse to ration it and put coupons on. if we put sanctions on gasoline, the administration in iran is

iraq did to me. president obama has said that a campaign against extremism will not succeed with bullets and bombs alone. he is absolutely correct about that. but the money in the supplemental is overwhelmingly devoted to military operations. it includes very little for the economic development, humanitarian aid and diplomatic efforts that we really need to stop extremists in afghanistan and in pakistan. the ratio is 90 to 10. 90% to department of defense, 10% to the smart alternatives. i believe the supplemental also violates the spirit of president obama's historic speech in cairo. he offered the muslim world the hand of friendship.

would be, if there was like a mangor bombing, that there would be a huge renewed sectarian round of violence. >> i think if you look at overall levels of violence in iraq, you will see an overall trending downward. and this trending downward includes some of the events that took place in recent weeks. i must say, as someone who is new there and when i see a couple of rockets at the green zone, those are a couple too many for my taste. but people who have had the benefit of more time there always tell me it's nothing compared to last year. so when you see the aggregate numbers put together by the u.s. military, you see there is an overall trending down. now, the real question is whether some of these attacks in one case an attack on iranian tourists, actually, whether these attacks on obvious shee united states populations are ones that -- shee its are going to be reciprocated. whether it's concerted or not it's obviously in our view an attempt to stimulate tensions. and we're pleased to say that it has not had the desired effect. the overall level of violence continues to be low. we don't see any recreation of militia groups. there are still militia gr

bomb with ramifications far beyond what we can conceive today. it is imperative that the mistakes of the previous administration with regards to iraq are not made again. . i'm pleased the united states has recently committed $200 million on top of a previous commitment of $110 million. but we must not think this is the end of our responsibility. the united states must seize this opportunity and implement a comprehensive plan to address this growing humanitarian crisis. mr. speaker, this is a good rule that paves the way to consideration essential legislation to put our foreign policy on the right path towards improving our relations around the world. i urge the adoption of the rule and passage of the underlying legislation. i thank you, mr. speaker. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida reserves the balance of his time. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: mr. speaker, a message from the senate. the secretary: mr. speaker. i have been directed by the senate to inform the house that the senate has agreed to h.j.res. 40, to honor the achievements and contributions of native americans to the un

so there's a lot of problems in iraq, there's still corruption, there's still assassinations going on, there was yesterday or the day before there was a huge car bombing that killed, like, 100 people, so they're a long way from there, but they're also a long way from saddam hussein who bloodily repressed anybody who ever put their head up, so we're pleased with the progress we've made there. >> host: we're talking to senator mccain in his fourth term, and you're seeking a fifth next year? >> guest: yes. >> host: next is bonnie from middletown, new jersey. good morning. >> caller: good morning, and good morning, senator mccain. to start off you spoke about deficit spending? well, deficit spending, there's a difference between investing in the nation and what you referred to as private interests. and during reagan's time we went from being the biggest lender nation in the world to the biggest debtor nation in the world. now we're trying to invest in our people. but my main issue is your view on health care. 90 percent of bankruptcies are due to catastrophic illnesses, and with unemployment rate creeping towards 10 percent, that's only going to become mo

as i was landing back into iraq in february of 2011, f-16's were attacking targets on negative street by the embassy. the embassy was getting bombed five-to-10 times a day. people were getting blown up at their desks in the embassy. and that was just the americans. the people that worked there across the district were terrified to leave. the environment was just so incredibly dangerous and all of the trend lines for pointing south. to turn that around we realized we needed to first break the cycle of violence and reduce the amount of death and fear. we realized people wouldn't be willing to put down a weapon and engage in any kind of political process on till we've sort of lifted the foot of terror off of their neck and made them feel that they could be safe enough to work with each other and so our first order of business was to stop the killing of iraqi civilians both by us and also by the enemy. to do that we had to get out on the ground and get in close contact with the population and create a genuine relationship of trust and local alliance with the population. quite often in the early phases of the war we would turn up in a

news i called my family in iraq countless times but couldn't get through it frantically called allah in detroit but got no answer. i was sure our family had been hit by the bomb and as it turned out, allah was celebrating saddam execution and our family was fine although a piece of car landed on my brother's house back and kufah. i had to go on with my life but i stumbled through the days increasingly guilt written and ambivalent about my pleasure and successes and more and more irritated and discussed by the seeming callousness about iraq and the war that i encountered in my fellow americans everyday. my friend, give me a gift certificate for professional massage for my birthday but i was tense and sorel's i was from all the stress i couldn't bring myself to redeem it. i couldn't a imagine myself being pampered while my family plus suffering and struggling. in early 2007, i saw an interview with a young female american soldier whose job was to drop bombs remotely on iraqi targets from a computer council in colorado and is a reporter asked if she had any doubt or remorse about what she was doing and she answered she trust the information she got from her supe