bucci. ♪ ♪ >> good morning. tuesday, september 9, 20 13.sident obama makes the case for expanding military action against islamic state militants operating in iraq and syria. the president will address the nation tomorrow evening will stop on today's "washington journal," what those operations could include and how congress is responding. 56 days until the 20 14 midterm elections. today is the last primary election day of the cycle, the polls open in four different states. as the nation focuses on the sprint tuesday, november 4 general election, we hear what your top issue is for the midterm election. tell us what is driving you to the polls. is if you do not think there a dominant issue, our phone lines are open. democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. if you are outside the u.s., (202) 585-5883. us onn also catch up with all your favorite social media pages. on twitter, facebook, or e-mail us at journal@c-span.org. good tuesday morning to you. congressionalon approval ratings. 56 days before t

bucci you want to talk about your work at the heritage foundation in your background?>> guest: i do. i have to tell you as a career soldier who fought and led special operations forces in combat i'm not a particular fan of war. i don't lightly recommend that we use military force and to be honest with you we have been very reticent to do that. in this case isis is a big enough threat to the homeland, to america that we do need to take some action. i would like to see it be a circumscribed as possible but no maam, i do not champion war in any way, shape or form unless it's absolutely necessary. unfortunately in the case of isis i think it's actually necessary. >> host: you talk about what is going to be necessary in terms of building international support for the defeat of isis. we showed a clip earlier of secretary kerry headed to the middle east to try to bring in other regional players here. who are the key nations that need to be convinced to join this effort? >> we need to have the nation's right around the area that isis now controls so the jordanians, the turks.

bucci, if you want to talk about it for the viewer, some of your background kmapders of the battalion led deployments in south asia and the persian gulf including operation desert thunder in 1998. served in response to saddam that hussein. as well as the fifth and seventh special forces. i will let you talk about your background if you want. >> i spent 28 years of active service as a military officer serving the country in a lot of places that were frankly unpleasant and difficult, doing the bidding of administrations of both parties. the military officer doesn't swear allegiance to one particular leader but to the constitution. i have lived my life that way. yes, i did serve under president bush. i served under secretary rumsfeld and gates. i spent a good deal of time not just doing the combat part but helping the american people with floods, wildfires, hurricanes. and that sort of thing. i accept that you don't necessarily think my time under president bush was credible. because you disagreed with the policies there. i have to tell you that we all tried to do what we thought was rig

. >> on the next "washington talksl," stephen bucci about military options against isis.en, brad sherman on president obama's upcoming speech on u.s. strategy against isis and threats posed by the group. "washington journal" is live every morning at 7:00 eastern. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. homeland security committee hearing on programs to equip state and local law enforcement with military gear. that is on c-span three. you can join that conversation on facebook and twitter. march the 20th anniversary of the violence against women act in a speech at the national archives. you can see that live today, at 2:00 p.m. eastern. >> with congress back in session, here is a message from congress from a c-span studentcam winner. up 75% of our body. take it away, humanity would perish within a week. it is the most vital substance to a human body, but because of us, nearly 50% of all streams, estuaries arend unsuitable for use due to pollution. we have learned to take water for granted. faucets, bottled water, and a flushed toilets reinforce the same idea

minutes left with steven bucci of the heritage foundation. for irector of the center foreign and national security policy taking your calls and comments. lake city, arizona. robert waiting on the line for morning, ns, good robert? caller: hello? host: hi, robert. aller: this sounds like a complicated problem with a simple answer. the dy who wears that in air, wears a facemask, blow it up. air, get it the done hard, fast, get it done now. wipe them off of the planet. is the option. the difficulty there, though, is there's a lot of innocent people in with them. so it becomes tough when the bad how to hide. isis for a while was operating doing what we almost nsider conventional mobile warfare. they started the air strikes. they started blending in back to and villages with the populace. so it's pretty tough. hear you. these are horrendously evil people that need to be addressed and probably need to be addressed with violence. us first tryto see using regional forces helped by ur guys rather than have our people do the whole thing. host: columbus

that is bucci. i am campaign director with environment and i am here from richmond virginia, speaking on behalf of myself and the 25,000 members and supporters across the common law that we represent. in virginia, the consequences of global warming are clear and present. the recent national climate assessment pointed to the impacts that we are already feeling for more extreme and severe storms, agricultural troubles to rising seas and storm surges that put our communities at risk. cantin road is the second-most vulnerable reach into sealevel rise in the entire country. that is something that city and regional planners in the area, the u.s. military and local residents can tell you. and increased temperatures also mean more unhealthy air days at risk for asthma attacks and respiratory disease. as a resident of richmond, an area named the asthma capital of the country for many years, that is very important to me. scientists are clear that unless we act now to reduce the pollution that is fueling globa

. >> on the next "washington journal," steven bucci, a military assistant for then defense secretaryumsfeld talks about military options against isis. then congressman brad sherman of california on president obama's upcoming speech on u.s. strategy against isis, and threats posed by the terrorist group. washington journal is live every morning at 7:00 eastern on c-span. and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >>> here are a few of the comments we recently received from our viewers. >> i'm so glad and thankful for c-span and the book reviews. and especially books that are, like, last night you had a book called lift up your heart by doug mick. please keep up the good work. i'm not crazy about the book discussion. and i'm also very grateful that you have a phone line that we can call, because not all of us senior citizens can work the computer. >> i watch this show on c-span. i don't know if it was c-span 1 or c-span2. but what i thought was very nice about the way they conducted the meeting was that when somebody got up to the microphone to ask a question, whoever t