study 10 years ago entitled beyond goldwater nichols has always struck a chord. they said congress is the place where ideas become national policies and commitments. having messy, frustrating debate in congress changes the clinton policy for this, or the bush policy for that, into the nation's policy. congress is the indispensable link to the american people, they wrote, the connective tissue between the national leaders and policy. to be that connective tissue we have to do our job in congress. a big part is building the military capability to deal with the threats that we can see, and also for the volatile unpredictable world we live in. that requires the united states to have a military that is strong and agile. i think we've got a lot of work to do on both fronts. last thursday at the republican retreat, british prime minister tony blair was there and he repeated the advice he is given the united states for a couple of years now which was just be strong. don't worry about how people around the world love you. he said. what the world needs is for america to be

of congress for its decisions, and i admit that the deliberations that lead up to a bill like goldwater nicholssometimes be pretty messy. but as the thecomplexity of our security challenges grows so does the necessity of congress fully living up to our responsibilities under the constitution. and playing our part to defend the country. who in our constitutional duty also helps connect our people with national policies. a csi a study more than ten years ago titled beyond gold water nichols has always struck a cord with me because they said that congress is the place where ideas become national policies and commitments. having that messy frustrating debate in congress changes the clinton policy for this or the bush policy for that into the nation's policies. the connective tissue between our national leaders and policies. and a big part of the job is building the military capability to deal with the threats we see. but also for the volatile and unpredictable world that we all live in. and that requires the united states to have a military that is both strong and agile. and i think we have a lot o