REP. BUCK McKEON (R-CA): There's one thing that I'm going to give you, give the president some advice through you. I think it's very important that he does follow the advice and counsel he receives, the professional advice of the military. They are the ones best suited to do that. I realize he's commander in chief, he has the final say and the final obligation and responsibility.



I would also request that he not take options off the table. I seems to me, every speech he gives, the first thing he says is no boots on the ground and then makes an announcement of sending more boots. I think that that's confusing to the American people, and I think it builds distrust rather than understanding of what he's really saying. I think no boots on the ground, I think people are thinking divisions and full bore thing we originally did in Iraq, shock and awe.



I understand that's not the strategy. But I think the American people get confused. And if we explain to them, look, boots on the ground means no combat forces. Or boots on the ground means we're not going to do shock and awe or whatever. But we are going to have our people there. And there are certain things that they have to do, and without them, we can't be successful in this battle. And I think they can accept that and they can -- they're smart enough to figure it out. And if they think they're not hearing the truth, the whole truth, I think then they get -- they kind of get their backs up.