[DSHambone]

US Congress, that retains the power to wage war

The Commander in Chief has this job..Congress has the power to declare war, which in this case it has been too chicken sh!t to do. As for the truth - these guys might have 40-50% of the picture ...

[uncbob]

The Commander in Chief has this job..Congress has the power to declare war, which in this case it has been too chicken sh!t to do. As for the truth - these guys might have 40-50% of the picture ...

Congress is also tasked with raising and maintaining the army

Officers get their commissions from congress

Probably should have testified to this in secret hearings

However the public does have a right to know whether the job of raising and maintaining an Army is being conducted properly.

I am sure Bush is trying to rejuvenate the Clinton PC ed services . I wish that the GOP controlled congress simce 94 would have made this a big issue but the stupid party got rolled by clinton

[fogarty]

Good point, the President wages war. The Congress does have the responsibility to raise and support Armies - of which part of their jurisdiction is to know the readiness of the forces at hand. The point I was trying to make is that these officers are before the duly elected representatives of the US Congress - are they supposed to lie about readiness levels? Would we not want Congress to know if our ammunition supplies were dangerously low?

As for the public/private issue, I sincerely wish Rummy had done this in private. Now the media will be ever more interested in covering this issue.