What hinders us from implementing this common sense solution to short and long term problems? Secretary Gates sees the problem in Congress.
"The Congress is structured in such a way that our committees of jurisdiction tend to look at things in stovepipes. So Hilary's committees look at foreign policy in terms of diplomacy and so on and AID. Ours look at it in terms of the military. The intelligence folks have their committees.
And -- and so, except maybe at the very top level of the Congress, I think there are not people who have the same integrated view of the challenges facing our country and the opportunities we have to deal with them that we do sitting in the Situation Room.
And the question is, how do you -- how do you build a constituency in the Congress over a period of time not only to grow the civilian national security part of our government, meaning the non-DOD part, but to provide the tools that are necessary and that take years to build, in terms of talent and -- and capacity, to be able to conduct America's relationships abroad? And I -- I think that's a challenge."
Secretary of Defense Bill Gates 10-7-09 George Washington University http://Americaabroad.org
People's Lobby's citizen-initiated American World Service Corps Congressional Proposals (AWSC) provides the solution that visionary leaders see as needed. As a reader, you should push your congressional reps to sponsor the AWSC congressional proposals, which make the world safer for your loved ones.
