Armed Services Committee, Witnesses RB Meyers and PD Wolfowitz, R Schlicher

Senator J Reed of Rhode Island asks P Wolfowitz whether the cost of the troops will be in the budget.  Wolfowitz claims it will be in a supplemental.
• The Senator then asks Meyers how long troops are trained.
• Meyers says 12 weeks for the regular army, 8 weeks for national guard(?), 17 weeks for the next level, 30 weeks for the "Special Forces."
• The Senator brings up the 5,000 American embeds within the Iraqi army. 
• The Senator asks Meyers about the Luck report, which the Senate has not been allowed to see.  Wolfowitz claims that the Generals can get something from it "first," during its embargo.  It's not clear to me that a report will be less effective if given to more people.
• Wolfowitz claims the embeds will work through translators, because Arabic is a "high" capability.

Senator Warner says the the Luck mission, highly publicized, has had a long time already, and tells Wolfowitz the Luck report should be made available soon.

Senator S Collins of Maine asks about shortage of supplies, based on e-mails she receives.
• One soldier speaks about how he has been asked to use Iraqi weapons, weapons he hasn't been trained in.  Apparently, he is short of ammo, too.
• Another soldier says they can't keep oil or water drivers or translators, also mentions ammo shortages.
• The third soldier says they don't have radios, so they use Yahoo mail.
• Meyers says the radio he knows about the radio issue, claims he isn't aware of shortage, but they have to aggresively pursue more radios.
• The Senator claims she is troubled that it took her intervention to fix some of these problems.
• Another e-mail explains how the Iraqi rolls are being padded, the Iraqi officers are taking a cut, that Iraqis are given one week's leave out of every four weeks, and don't return on time.  Asks Wolfowitz if it is a pattern or an isolated incident.
• Meyers answers and says the US Chain of Command over there is aware of this issue.  Meyers blames Saddam for having broken the spirit of the Iraqis.  Claims the election will change things.  Claims US soldiers are role models for democracy.  I'm mortified.  Claims the practice of returning late was common during the last few decades.
• Wolfowitz discusses heros and pride.

Senator J Sessions of Alabama takes over for Senator J Warner of Virginia as Chair

Senator E Bayh of Indiana begins by discussing the death benefit.  Calls the pay cut for military the "Patriot Penalty."
• Wolfowitz seems concerned that special benefits might extend to non-combat zones troops, and claims they wouldn't be affordable unless so restricted.
• The Senator claims the Syrians aren't doing enough to stop insurgents from entering Iraq.  Claims Iran has "infiltrated" the Shia community in Iraq, and are "waiting."
• "We're not looking to end this behavior with another war."  Claims that Syria and Iran want Iraq to fail because a succesful Iraq will weaken both.  Not our position to destabilize Syria.  "They better stop interfering with their neighbors."
• The Senator is concerned that a lack of economic success might lessen Iraqis support for their new government.  Wants to show democracy's tangible benefits besides political freedom.
• Wolfowitz claims the post-election euphoria might lead to excessive expectations. 

Senator J Sessions of Alabama asks about Fallujah and who is responsible for water and electricity.
• Wolfowitz claims DoD and State are working very well together, and cites the transfer of a billion dollars from infrastructure to security as a sign of that.
• The Senator praises the working relationship between J Negroponte and GW Casey.
• The Senator praises Rumsfeld who saw the big picture most clearly.  Praises Wolfowitz.  Claims that the pictures Wolfowitz has would bring a tear to anyone's eye who has a "sense of the historic moment."  Praises the results of Afghanistan.  Makes it sound like Palestine has never had an election before, and still claims "We aren't there yet.  Cites AQ Khan "network" (which amounted to a Malaysian company selling things to Libya).
• Wolfowitz thinks its laughable that he'd have to tell the President or the Sec Def what to think.  Wants to add to the list that many plots have been foiled, and says the torture caused "controversy."  Wants to give credit to the President.  Claims we haven't been attacked "here" since Septemeber 11th.

Senator R Byrd of West Virgina makes extensive points on the difference between the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.  Afghanistan attacked us, Iraq did not.  Claims it was a blotch on the escutcheon of the Senate that it gave the President authority to declare war, and calls the pre-emptive doctrine pernicious.  Repeats the distinction between the two wars.  Promises to fully fund both wars, because it wasn't the soldiers fault.  Claims both wars have cost 150,000,000,000 dollars and the President has not presented any timetable for withdrawing the troops.  Claims that the Senate would have produced such a timetable if they had been in charge.  Talks about phone calls from Bush to foreign leaders concerning the Iraqi elections, claims they don't pay the bills.  Asks how long the President expects the US taxpayer to foot the bill, and shed 90% of the blood of the occupation forces.
• Wolfowitz claims they were the same war.  That Zarqawi was aligned with al-Qaeda.  This, of course, ignores that Zarqawi was not on friendly terms with the Iraqi state.  Wolfowitz also claims that U bin-Laden has attached his prestige to this war.  Claims we aren't 90% of the casualties (ignoring Byrd's qualifier "of the occupation troops.").  Wolfowtiz claims the whole world should be paying, not just the US.
• The Senator asks for a little extra time to follow up.  Claims he has waited a long time, claims Wolfowitz's credibility is at stake.  Claims Wolfowitz did not answer the question of "How long will the US shoulder the burden?" and asks what the Bush administration is doing to get outside funding.
• [Wolfowitz]. Schlicher notes that the number of foreign troops, even though the number of nations has decreased.  Notes the US is training a Bosnian unit.  Notes that Romania and Georgia are expected to increase their troop strengths by 500 and 100 respectively.
• Meyers claims the troops understand and that the terrorists want to do away with our way of life.  Quotes Abizaid "You can fight them here, or you can fight them there."

Senator J Thune of South Dakota claims that Iraq is part of the war on terror, notes he has long known that Saddam would have to be taken care of, and that the Iraqi elections were perhaps a sign of a change for the region.  Talks about the transformation of the Middle East.
•

I'm switching to just posting highpoints, lowblows and curveballs.