By Unknown
Congresswoman Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts's 3rd district joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to discuss military intervention in Syria, convincing the Pentagon to buy American-made shoes for soldiers, and her work combating sexual assault in the military.
Selections include:
-On the debate in Congress over military action in Syria: "We just simply have not had the opportunity to robustly debate the President's strategy. We were given the vote on a very narrow piece of it, and that whether or not to train and equip Syrian groups, moderate Syrian groups in the fight against ISIL. I did vote against it because I really did think it was a backdoor vote on a very narrow piece on a much broader strategy, and I just felt we needed to have a chance to debate the whole of the strategy and an opportunity to vote to authorize or not the President's planned approach."
-On what questions need to be debated next: "We haven't had a chance to debate the cost of it. We never had a conversation about how we will pay for it. It's never been clear what will be asked of our service members."
-On whether the President needs authorization for further military action: "He needs a Congressional vote, given the scale of this."
-On the prospect of having American "boots on the ground": "We've always said air strikes could not stabilize and stop ISIS. The near term was for us to lend our air support to hopefully stop some of the broad sweep with which they're moving forward. It's had some limited impact. Long term, there's been some understanding that boots on the ground were needed. But they should not be American boots. That's one of the questions: are regional players willing to lend their support and send their soldiers to achieve that goal? It's not yet clear."
-On progress she's made on preventing sexual assault in the military: "A commander can no longer overturn a jury verdict of guilty. It's astonishing that commanders can overturn a jury verdict in a felony of any kind. They can no longer do that. "