From syria. Your view on that. Smart move or damaging . We havent actually done a full pullout and we should go all the way like President Trump promised and pull all our troops out of syria. I think it was the right move to pull our troops off the border. We didnt have an interest in being the middle of a fight between an imperfect nato ally in turkey and our local partners who are connected to a state department designated terrorist organization in the kurdish ypg. It was a good move to start a larger pullout. I dont think its in our behindt to leave troops in eastern syria, the worse oilfields in the least. When do you think that what happened . I would hope as soon as possible. Setave accomplished what we out to do and we shouldnt leave our troops behind to try and engage in yet another nationbuilding exercise in the middle east. Weve been hearing from democrats and republicans that this is damaging to security. I think theres a lot of hysteria around what was happening in syria. To destroyo syria isis the territorial caliphate. We did that and i think the reaction you were seeing from a lot of folks in washington both republican and democrats was a reaction from in effect what is the Foreign Policy establishment that really has failed us over the last 30 years. Its been 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall. Pushing Foreign Policy that hasnt made us safer and cost us dearly. They are reacting to a president who is challenging the Foreign Policy status quo. Mcconnellwhat mitch said on the senate floor. We will get your reaction. The United States has taken the fight to syria and afghanistan because that is where our enemies are. Advancing u. S. Interests around the world does not make us an evil empire or the worlds policeman. A prudent and responsible world power who stands up for our own security and the freedom of others. The Coalition Partners that is what we must continue to do. We must continue to provide support to the local forces that carry the law enforcement. Senator Mitch Mcconnell of kentucky. To his point that the enemy is in syria, your response. Agree with senator Mitch Mcconnell on a number of issues. I think Foreign Policy is an issue where historically he has been wrong. He has generally supported the Foreign Policy weve had in the post cold war era. Ability to project power from afar. Whether its turkey, russia, the assad regime, the kurdish ypg. They learn their lesson by exhorting threat for too long and allowing it to emerge and it seeot in their interest to isis forma caliphate. In addition, i think a lot of our allies in the region and in europe have a more direct interest in what happens in syria than we do. The oilfields arent critical to our economy. The oil in the middle east isnt as critical to our economy as it was 20 or 30 years ago because we have increased mastic production so much to shale production and offshore drilling and things of that nature. We really shouldnt be as engaged and concerned about the middle east as we once were. Importanty not that to us. David shelton out with a new book titled it should not be this hard to serve your country. At yourking aim organization and you in particular saying that you want to privatize the v. A. System which was one of the reasons he was forced out by the president. The former v. A. Secretary bespoke is a great work of fiction. Have never advocated for privatizing the department of Veterans Affairs. Giving Veterans Health care choice and health care freedom. For Health Care Choice to work you need to have a strong v. A. And we believe veterans should have a choice between a good v. A. And a Good Community provider. The v. A. Shouldnt be their only choice and Community Providers shouldnt be the only choice. Thats what the secretary expressed on many occasions to us privately and in public. One of the secretaries problems is hes had a problem telling the truth did he would tell groups like us and people on capitol hill that he believes one thing and that he would go tell another group that he believes in another and he got caught. Thats the real reason he ultimately had to leave his position. Conspiracy of some to push him out. Since hes been gone the v. A. Has made Good Progress in advancing good reforms to the institution. At the cokeakes aim family. How much influence to they have in the policies the organization puts forth . Nobody has ever told us you shall do this or support this policy. We have come forward with ideas and fortunate to be funded by a large group of supporters and donors. Whos the largest . The standpart of together community and charles koch is the chairman. We have been very blessed to have the support of his family and other donors around the country. The secretary completely misrepresents our views. For the first year or so of his tenure were very positive towards him because when we talk to him we thought he was on board with what we wanted to do and it was really up until the issues with his travel overseas which the office of Inspector General found he had missed use. Overnment funds he said they were there for a conference. His chief of the staff at the time misled ethics officials as to the nature of the trip. Of the trip was for sightseeing and nonbusiness related issues. Vector of an Inspector General who said he engaged in unethical behavior was an obama appointed official. He was appointed by the Obama Administration and he was the one who found it. It wasnt a Trump Administration political appointee. This was somebody appointed under the last administration. Says v. A. Was thought to be the only part of the federal government that is above politics but the environment in washington had grown so toxic subversive d ultimately his own staff did him in. Response is that actually in many ways its good that the v. A. Is becoming more politicized and some people might find that statement shocking but for too long there is bipartisan consensus challenged in a substantial way. The fact that you have elected is the reason why weve seen reforms like the v. A. Mission act and accountability act. Its worth noting all those bills passed in a bipartisan basis that there was intense political pressure from groups like concerned veterans for america and others. You would have seen the status wherentinue at the v. A. They are dumping billions of dollars in the system without any real reform. Robert wilkie spoke to reporters friday at the white house. To veteransy spoke in florida, maryland, virginia. They say the wait times are still horrendous at the v. A. Hospitals and the claims have not actually taken place. Can you address the concerns of those members who say we havent made those steps forward . Will always be a hiccup in the system. One of the things the president has done by pushing mission is when those wait times are complicated and overly long we now give veterans the option of going into the private sector to make sure those wait times are not a burden on that veteran and just in the last few months weve sent well over a million veteran into the private sector when we havent met those wait times. Theres always going to be hiccups in an organization this large. I come from that world i think mission is the great step forward when it comes to addressing the kind of concerns that youve heard. Secretary wilkie spoke to reporters friday at the white house. Your response . Wilkie is doing a good job. I think secretary wilkie is a major step up in that regard. Still issues at the v. A. And their progress in terms of improving the culture at the v. A. And how it operates. Act was made in its inceptions in the 1920s and it is still being implemented but there are some good first steps particularly in expanding Health Care Choice for veterans to the new Veterans Community care program. Do an asseted to infrastructure review and look at where the facilities are and which ones need to be closed or scaled up. Rollout theeed to new Electronic Health care system. There are still some cultural issues across the v. A. This is the second largest Government Agency in terms of personnel after the department of defense. It is actually larger than the active duty navy. It takes longer to make changes to an organization that large optimistic about the progress thats been made especially under Current Administration and the current v. A. Secretary. Is dan caldwell. Our phone lines are open. If youre a veteran of the wars in iraq, 2027488000. For all others 2027488001. Caldwell is a marine veteran. His Service Began in 2005. Happy birthday to any of the marines out there and simplified. Us from is joining maryland. Theres a lot of bureaucracy in westslow process and virginia there were veterans who were killed. Insulin. Injected with i commend the president on killing baghdadi. I want to emphasize that the Western Church has had history with warfare. They are not going to end this thing with turkey. Turkey is a treacherous nation. We will get a response. I think turkey is a nato ally. I think that in the long term it is worth having a discussion whether or not they still belong in nato. In the present we have a defense treaty with them and a lot of people here in washington are calling the kurds ally. We dont have a treaty with the kurdish ypg. Work against and fight some of our other allies particularly kurds in iraq. So when we are talking about who our allies are and arent ally is a very specific term that usually refers to folks we have a treaty with. That is something we should be examined. The caller mentioned the death of albaghdadi. Could it be compared to the whack a mole where you might kill one isis leader and another pops up . There will definitely be more leaders of isis for a different Islamic Medical Group popping up. Was hiding in north west syria under the protection of al qaeda groups. Amorphous and how these groups evolve over time. Isis will bethat diminished because of baghdadi. Its also very likely they will more formally with other groups and they will remain a threat. Going back to my point earlier the governments in the region whether its turkey, syria, iran, russia. These are not perfect governments. Islamic groups do not gain significant territory or pose a larger threat to the region. So they can play a major role in managing those threats. Is dan caldwell. We also welcome our listeners on siriusxm. We welcome you with your calls and comments. Good morning. I have a couple questions getting back to the pullouts you say are happening in syria. I dont think we have pulled the soldier out of the mideast and all three years trump has been president. I think the answer is zero. If all these countries are fighting each other we dont want to be in the middle of that. Why are we getting in the middle of iran and saudi arabia . Why dont we pull all the troops out . We are the Biggest Oil Producer in the world. We dont need their oil. Why arent all the troops coming home . Second thing as far as the im sure you and the cokes would love to privatize the v. A. , social security, medicare. Thats a big gravy train to get involved. Im sure folks would love to get involved with all that money. Timeld tell from the first you spoke that you are a trumper and im sure everything donald trump does is ok with you but not with me. We will get a response. Starting off in the first part, i think in regards to an Foreign Policy policy in the middle east is actually right it is disappointing that we havent pulled more troops out of the middle east. I do think the president deserves some credit for questioning our overall involvement in a way that you havent seen in a postcold war era. Onsident obama ran criticizing the iraq war and was probably allete because of that. In some ways deepened our involvement in certain parts in the middle east. I dont like the fact that we have troops back in saudi arabia. Saudi arabia has the fourth largest Defense Budget in the world. They should be more than capable in defending themselves against iranian attacks or to turn them in the first place. Thatdisappointing that needs to happen. In regards to the v. A. We dont support privatizing the v. A. , we dont think it should be dismantled. We want to give veterans a choice and not one that doesnt exist. Larry joining us from tuscaloosa, alabama. Good morning. How are you doing . Ive gottastic three questions. My comment is that ive been with v. A. Since 1983. Sinceeen calling cspan 1984 and its the first time i have ever in my life seen the secretary of the v. A. Not show up on washington journal. The executive office of the president including the secretary of v. A. Have shown up on washington journal. My claim has been pending since 1991. How muchon with you is money is the coat others donating to your organization . Is what isquestion smc and what is the highest level of smc . Isthird question pertaining v. A. Ng with secretary of who has the power to administrate the backlog where it wont be such a backlog like in my case from 1991. Smc . You know what that refers to . I dont know what smc is. I know usmca is u. S. Marine corps. With the backlog unfortunately his issues are not unique. Veterans have been stuck in the v. A. s appeals or disability claims backlog for decades. There has been recent legislation passed designed to deal with it that hopefully will start clearing the backlog. One of the biggest issues has been some of the ways the v. A. Processed initial claims that they werent keeping up with a lot of technological advancements. They were still doing a lot of things via courier and sending stuff back and forth via mail instead of electronically sharing certain things and there were some rules implemented prior to the iraq and afghanistan wars that made processing claims more difficult. Since the first decade of the century you have a lot of issues about backlog claims. When i was working for a member of congress that was one of my jobs. Hopefully they are in a better place with that. The headline, the president s opposition to endless hours. Among the polling numbers among veterans 64 saying the war in iraq without fighting. During that served time, team agree or disagree . First of all i am found of my service in iraq. I think most veterans who served in iraq honorably who served without committing any war crimes or engaging in any type of dishonorable behavior would say the same thing. Airmen the marines and and coast guard men that served in these conflicts are on the ine level those that fought normandy. In myare the marines that gaze of the marine corps trained me and i look up to them and yet it always and they should be proud of what they accomplished. I dont think anybody can say with a straight face that the iraq war was a good thing for our Foreign Policy and national security. It has indisputably made us less led to the expansion of radicalism across the middle east. We are talking about celia in many ways. Whats going on in celia is directly linked to our decision to invade. Albaghdadi is a very conservative muslim and was radicalized by the iraq war. Powerddam still been in its very unlikely he would have emerge. Roup like isis not a lot of people around town still defend that decision. There are still some that are. That ande may look view the iraq war as our countrys worst Foreign Policy mistake. What senatort is Chuck Schumer warned on the senate floor last month. Lets watch. What we do know is that the situation has rapidly deteriorated compared to just a few weeks ago and what caused this deterioration, one thing. The president s abrupt decision to withdraw u. S. Troops from the region after a phone call with president erdogan. Degraded and been more than 10,000 detained fighters were under lock and key to undo that thats putting americas security at risk. Warrioralled tough backed off in a call with a much lesser power. Erdogan has done this before. We dont know how many of these 10,000 detained have escaped. We dont know where theyve gone. Nor is there any plan to get them back to these facilities. These are dangerous people. Dangerous terror homeland. Dangerous to new york and chicago and denver and los angeles. Arewe dont know where they or what theyre doing. All because of President Trumps precipitous actions. Get excited about this. Angrily excited. Sufferedy said he has terror 7000 miles away who did such damage. Reported after isis has been on the run, no analysts say that mr. Trumps pullout of u. S. Troops from Northern Syria has handed the Islamic State its biggest win in four years. Handed isisump has its biggest victory in his. How can any american support that . How can so many of our public and colleagues and republican supporters trump from their shoulders let me repeat. President trumps pullout has handed the Islamic States biggest win in more than four years and greatly improved its prospects. That speech from the senate floor by Chuck Schumer of new york. Dan caldwell of concern veterans for america. Your response. To be frank, i think that what senator schumer said was very hyperbolic and not based in reality of whats actually occurring in the history of the region. Had its interesting you had both schumer and mcconnell criticizing this decision and this just shows how interventionist premises neoconservative liberal interventionalists, whatever you want to call it, Foreign Policy is in washington. That you have had oath major parties support a more aggressive policy in the middle years thathe past 30 has not made us safer. I go back to what i just said about the iraq war. That had bipartisan support. You had democrats trippin