Used unless the situation is in direct conflict with the u. S. Here is how you can reach out to us. For democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. Independents. For as we consider the question of foreign conflict and that there is a u. S. Role, if any, you can also post on our social media sites. A bit of the result of the poll from politico asking a couple of different questions. Ask, which of the following statements comes closest to your view . When it came to the question of u. S. Military actions should be directory threats to national security, 22 . 10 saying they were not sure. 1 declining to answer. Majority saying most military action should be limited to only direct threats to national security. Asking whether the west should do more to counter russian aggression in ukraine. 31 t said that the current policy is correct. There is more to this. We use this as a jump off point to talk about foreign conflict and if there is a u. S. Role, if any. The lines if you want to talk to us that way, 202 5853880 for democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. Independents. For if you want to send us a tweet, you can do that. Go to our Facebook Page to post. You can send us an email, too. Has a piece taking a look at congressional reaction to ukraine and what they would like to see the president do. Some say mr. Obama has already been too aggressive. On foreign conflict, if there is a u. S. Role. Your thoughts on that. The lines on your screen. First to lakewood, ohio. Democrats line. Jack, hello. Believei cannot even that we could even imagine trying to tell somebody how they should govern their country when our country is in total chaos. It is sad to see what direction our country has gone. I would suggest that every or aspiring politician read the bible before they even think about running for office. The foundation of scripture is theere close to where direction of where our country is going. All you have to do is watch like the pharisees. Host does the u. S. Have a role in foreign conflicts . Caller its not our responsibility. It is not a responsibility. All of this rhetoric being put out by these politicians as to our role in the world, come on. Host ohio. Independent. Independent line. Caller the u. S. Does have a role. Every country has a role. It would be wonderful if we could expect everybody to be peaceful and respectful of each other. Its just not the way it is. The way look at the United States toward russia, we have to know whats going on and we need to make some comments. Russia is out to recapture its old glory. Im not trying to jump ship too much air. Too much here. The threat coming from the herb world arab world is what we want to look out for. Russia being more european , if they ever do gain a stronghold reminiscent of the past in eastern europe, it could work to the benefit of the world. The arab threat is what we have to look out for. If they can secure our borders, we may within 50 years have to work with russia to not repeat history. Host bonnie from kansas. Republican line. Oath i agree with both people that just spoke. Its absolutely true. Mccain wanted to carry on with war that took 100 years. That is all he knows. He was a hero and injured. Who was injured, they wont find the hill to see whats on the other side. Now we have children coming into our country. Russia had children coming up to their tanks and he took them in. Then he headed for the pope to talk about catholicism in the southern america. Host you said you agree with both of our colors. You think its best for the west to determine if it should enter a foreign conflict or not . Caller weve already proven that we are not effective. Iraq and iran should prove to anyone that we are not going to stop cultures that have been fighting since before bc. To think that we can is foolish. Host the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom sending out a tweet saying this is a deciding moment for russia. The Financial Times lead editorial forcing prudent to think again. Putin to think again. Foreign conflicts when is the best time to get involved . The questions based on a pole that you will find in politico. Douglas from cambridge. Democrats line. Caller this is a very basic topic. Im a very strongly liberal democrat. What was onceelf known as a Scoop Jackson democrat. I consider myself a multilateralist hawk. Un. Upport the yo i would have been for the league of nations before the u. N. Whatever conflict the united feels the need to inject itself in needs to have as much cooperation and support from our friends and allies as possible. Very overarching question covering a lot of territory. You have the situation between palestinians and israelis and you have the war on terror which , imot go i have to say a strongly liberal democrat. I do not consider myself a krauthammer type. I was for the war in iraq at the time based on what we knew. I do take some personal offense when people cast dispersion quoteyour scripture. Sure the things like the holocaust and groups like al qaeda and hamas never again. When we and the u. N. Turned a this is not from a guns guns, guns, a citizen of the world. Host richard from massachusetts. Independent line. Caller i dont believe we business. In anybodys if they are no threat to us, we think we can push people around. To a pointple around that they attacked us. Thats why we are being attacked. We are in the middle east. America has killed more people than hitler would ever think of killing. Im tired of people saying that we have to go over there and take care of this and that. That is totally ridiculous. Im really upset over this. To call myself an american. Host canada condemns russia unacceptable military aggression. Another tweet this morning from Ruth Benjamin smith. Ryan from louisiana. Democrats line. Caller good morning. I dont think we should put boots on anymore soil. We should not risk our best for other people. We have a bigger problem with the rotten people of the south. Thats what we need to be worried about. Need toe the people we see whats wrong with them. They are the ones giving america a bad name. What is the u. S. Roles in foreign conflicts . For democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. Independents. For president obama talking about ukraine situation saying russia had a direct response ability to make sure those investigators got direct access. Russia faces more economic sanctions. [video clip] more broadly, as i have said throughout this crisis and the crisis in ukraine in general, directly to president putin and publicly, we need to find a diplomatic resolution within ukraine. I believe that can still happen. That is my preference today. And will continue to be my preference. If russia continues to violate ukraines sovereignty and back these separatists that are a risk to people and the International Community, russia will only further isolate itself from the International Community and the costs will increase. Host the headlines at usa today. Rebels give up lockboxes. Black boxes. A tweet from lindsey graham. Tougher sanctions are needed against russia. On the topic of foreign ,onflicts and the west role this is jim from manassas, virginia. Think the bottom line is, we have to hold people, groups, governments accountable for their actions. We are not doing that. This president has put his hands in his pockets and has turned a blind eye to many of these crises going on. Thats the problem with United States role. We do not have a president who has the backbone to stand up and take a stance against these extreme groups. Host as far as responding, whats the best way to respond . Sanctions. Tried to we tried the course. We are the last superpower. We have a lot of bright, intelligent experts. You would think we would come up with some kind of solution that would deter these groups from will. There will their called thein solution where people will try to think about some of these crazy things going on. Maybe there will be more peace in the world. The wall street journal looking at flight plans for airlines over war zones. Robert wall and others writing saying the same story has a map. Some of the zones in question. Somalia, ethiopia, libya, iraq, ukraine and north korea. Faa ass listed by the danger zones. Here is dylan on what the u. S. Role should be from south dakota. Republican line. Good morning, folks. Im a combat veteran from vietnam. It seems like we have not learned much from vietnam. War, are going to fight a why not fight it all the way. Host what do you mean by that . Caller why do we have to have a bunch of our men and women killed and then we walk away from the war. Insurgents go back in. Its just a joke and nobody is getting anywhere. Except our boys and girls are getting killed. Host in those areas, military presence should stay . Caller we should finish what we start. Nowhould go back into iraq and stop them from killing women and kids. We were accused of being baby killers when i got back. I flew into the air force base and i got urine thrown on me. I was over there for two years. I was infantry. I fought for this country. Ive got cancer. You think the v. A. Is helping me at all . Host john, are you there . We will move on. Here is barbara from new york. Independent line. Should i think the u. S. Stay out of other peoples business. Maybe we should follow the example of china. We took down Saddam Hussein and iraq and iraq fell apart. Gadhafi and libya fell apart. Responsibleld putin for the downing of the plane because he armed the rebels and we should hold obama responsible for the killing of the 500 palestinians because he helps the israelis. The best thing we can do is come home and take care of business at home. ,ost any foreign conflict should the west have a role at all . If we are attacked, we should defend ourselves. Host rick from ohio. Independent line. Caller i have called the show half a dozen times in the last year. It always comes back to rogue states. You keep talking about war. The state of texas has started the last 4 wars. The Largest Military base in the world is in texas. Not in flint, michigan. Not in gary, indiana. In oklahoma, the state is full of military bases. The state of georgia, the state is full of military bases. And military contractors. Go to the state of connecticut, its full of military contractors. You have to attach oil to war. We are going to war to steal peoples oil. The most amazing thing in this whole conversation about war is what the treasury does with inflated oil prices. They quadruple the price of oil put themthe funds and into the treasury and buy bonds to run Interest Rates to zero. How is the iraq war connected . Before we went into iraq, the dollar the will was leaving and other than american dollars. The conversation were having today is not wars with United States. To war with the south. Host steve. Democrats line. America needs to demonstrate its true democracy. Be a beacon to the rest of the world. Have all americans, republicans, democrats and everyone else get along with each other. Support each other. Compare the world today as it was 100 years ago. There are more democracies then there were back then. The world is slowly evolving to get along with each other more. Has directed a headon, doing the appropriate our nation from being involved with other nations in a military action when its not necessary. The secretarial wars and religious wars through history its going to continue. America itself needs to be a shining example of what other countries can be. We need to help ourselves at home first. Monty from twitter says that we should stop giving free arms to nations who misuse them. Blumenthal addressing whats going on in ukraine in a tweet. Denise from california. Independent line. Caller i would just like to say that i am so glad that we have president obama who thinks unlike the last administration that got us into so much trouble. I thank god for president obama. Thank you. Host what do you think about foreign conflicts . Caller i dont think we should have a role in them other than for us to just wait for them. We have enough problems here to take care of. Att cnn did a poll looking reactions to them really airliner. Pete king from twitter when it comes to the situation said severe economic sanctions and symbolic action such as canceling the moscow world cup must be taken versus russia. A poll in politico looking at foreign conflicts and asking people when the u. S. Should get involved in them. 67 e is a chart saying thos think u. S. Military shoul cliff from new york. Republican line. Caller through the 18th and 19th century, england and britain had many little brushfire wars. 100 people were lost in the battle. When they pulled in their grew tos, the powers the result of world war i where 10,000 people are dying in battles. , thee end of world war ii camee who ran the world together and said, never again. Americans,le to lose but when the major power retreats, that creates a vacuum. Vacuum. Ill enter that the next war will make world war i and world war ii look like a cake party. John kerry being photographed in the New York Times with the Foreign Affairs and minister fort Affairs MinisterForeign Affairs minister. President obama addressing the situation during his statement talking about the role the secretary of state will play. [video clip] secretary kerry will be with allies and partners. I have asked them to push for a return to the ceasefire agreement between israel and hamas. The work will not be easy. Enormous passions involved in this and very difficult or tedious issues involved. John to dod everything he can to help toilitate a cessation hostilities. From missouri. Republican line. Caller what he just said is boring bs. Putin is thet to that we got to khrushchev. Hen khrushchev left power in 1964, he also died in 1964. The way to get to putin is to bring enough economic sanctions against russia such that the rich and powerful of feel pain. When they feel the pain, putin will be gone. He does not care, nor do they, care about the proletariat. They care about their own billions. About thet care common man. They care about their own wealth. That their own fortune falls by 10 , putins liability as the leader will than theiraster currency. Anyonly reason he had viability is because of the gas. This whole idea that he has brought forward unification of the soviet union. Died. Lso died as he that will be behind us. This fluttering about the silly. Host quinton from twitter saying that i believe the west has a role in foreign conflicts. The u. S. Has a role in foreign conflicts. From pennsylvania, this is ray on her independent line. On our independent line. Caller we should have a strong, wellequipped military and a large system. We should stay out of all of these little conflicts. When the United States military they should not be used as a police force. When we use our military, we should give a warning. If you dont stop, we are going to crush you. Give them a second warning, this is a final warning and we should crush them and get out. Otherwise, we should let them do their own thing over there. After worldeurope war ii, the russians and europeans had no taste for war. Right now, the middle east wants to have a bloodbath. It. Are ready for maybe they need 20 years of a bloodbath. Themff all military aid to and let them get it over with. 20 years, they will be sick of it. The telegraph of georgia looking at the Senate Primary today between Jack Kingston and david purdue. The front page of the telegraph. For this anticipated race will take form tuesday. The winner will take on michelle nunn. A bid to prevent the gop from winning control of the chamber. Georgia. Democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I agree with the caller from pennsylvania. We have the greatest military fighting force in world history. We should only use our military are directly threatened. The military is not a police force. We should not be the worlds police. Host when you say directly friend, you mean directly attacked . Caller exactly. Like 9 11. I response in afghanistan was proper after 9 11. Or if our allies are directly threatened or attacked. We have to protect our allies as well. For rick perry calling the National Guardsmen to protect the border. The Houston Chronicle has a by numbers look at this looking at this. More can be found on the Houston Chronicle. Randy from louisiana. You are on. Eisenhower was right about the militaryindustrial complex. It has been here since they assassinated kennedy. We have a bunch of wars that weve never won. Its all orchestrated. Especially ever since the daddy Bush Administration. It will go on like that until people wake up and realize whats going on. Its all orchestrated. Europe, the middle east, its going to keep going on. And everythingil else you can think about. All run by the global he leads. Host jamestown, north carolina. Democrats line. Caller my comment would be this. I think we should exact very strong economic sanctions against russia over this horrific event. If you look at history and you look at what the Carter Administration did, we boycotted the electrics and refused to wheate to russia sell to russia. I think we need to do what president obama is hopefully going to do and exact very strong economic sanctions against russia. This will bring president putin to heal. Times. He washington a story coming out of it i venezuela. Calls for aor tougher line against venezuela after current president Nicolas Maduro crackdown on antigovernment protests. Arkansas. Good morning. Keepr i think we should take care of our borders and let them take care of theirs. Host sacramento, california. Democrats line. Caller i think the United States should limit its role in going around the world trying to be police. Vietnam. Eran from o towards over there tours over there. We are wasting resources we dont have. Them arein and all of beating their war drums. They have never experienced the effects of combat. Claimed to be a hero. He was a victim, not a hero. To settle our business. Massachusetts. Independent line. Thatr i would like to say this country, in 15 years, we will be out of oil. Everybody is fighting over ukraine because they produce one third of the worlds food. That is the problem with this country. The billionaires are running everything. Ryan from massachusetts. In andwant to call comment on the topic of foreign conflicts and that they have if the u. S. Has a role, if any. 202 5853880 for democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. 202 5853882 for independents. Us on twitter, facebook and email as well. That is today at 10 00 on cspan3 that00 on you can hear the confirmation hearing for president obamas nominee, robert mcdonald. He has tapped him to head the v. A. He will be answering questions from the senate at the hearing. 3 00 today on cspan3. Francisco now democrats line, this is kay. ,aller i want to know why bush cheney, powell and all of that have not been tried for war crimes. Is situation today in iraq the result of their horrible, horrible decisions they made. You mentioned venezuela. We are still interfering in other governments, trying to derail so many of these socalled democratic governments. Its absolutely disgusting. Thank you very much. Host if you go to the pages in the style section of the Washington Post, a story looking at those in washington who apply. Or hermits to protest the idea of the story is that those requests are dwindling. He includes a couple of statistics. Of one of the activists there in d. C. A couple of statistics for you to consider. 135 applications for demonstration at this point last year. Compare that with one await 108 this year. A drop of 20 . Brad from maryland. Excuse me, matthew from california. Independent line. Caller one reason we are out there is for the oil. Tell the truth about why we are out there. Its not about democracy. We want heat and ac in our houses. Is brad fromll maryland. Independent line. Engagement in the Foreign Affairs like iraq and its afghanistan necessary evil. When president Obama Took Office , people voted for him because he said we are getting out of iraq and afghanistan. Things got worse. , bad dont stay engaged things happen. U. S. Hastely, the emerged as a world leader. Rest in europe right now western europe is laying back waiting to see what we will do. Diplomatic challenges and Foreign Policy will be the topic of our next segment. Taking a look at ukraine. Writesst is matthew lee about diplomacy for the ap. Thad on, we talk with bingle. A story in the Washington Post highlighting a ceremony that took place at the white house. Ryan pitts receives a medal of honor for his heroic acts in afghanistan back in 2008. We had just arrived days before. They were still building this very small base. A handful of armored vehicles. Nd fighting positions concluded later significant vulnerabilities. Parts of the villages sat on higher ground. A either side, mountains sword thousands of feet into the sky. Heavy equipment was delayed. In the 100 degree heat, the soldiers ran low on water. The aerial surveillance was diverted away to other missions. , they spottedning several men up the mountains. Before ryan and his unit could take action, the entire valley erupted. Machinegun fire, mortar and rocket propelled grenades fell down from every direction. Those 200 insurgents were firing from the village and from trees. A vehicle exploded, scattering its missiles at our soldiers. A soldier described it as hell on earth. Ryan and his team were being pounded. Instantly, every one of them was wounded. Ryan was hit by shrapnel and the arm and both legs and was bleeding badly. Three american soldiers had. Allen and a fourth the insurgents moved in and ryan picked up a grenade and held it for a moment come off finally hurling so they cannot throw it back. Unable to stand, he pulled himself up on his knees and manned a machine gun. Made as from below daring run to join the defense. Now, the enemy was inside the post. So close, they were throwing rocks at the american spirit so close, they came up to the sandbags. Eight american soldiers had now fallen. Ryan was the only living soldier at that post. The enemy was so close, he could hear their voices. He whispered into the radio. He prepared to make a last stand. Bleeding and barely conscious,e threw his last grenades grabbed a grenade launcher and fired straight up so the grenade came back down on the enemy just yards away. Now on top ofwas the postfiring down until a team of americans showed up and drove him back. Had it not been for right pitts ryan pitts, it would have been overrun. Even with reinforcements, the battle was not over. Washington journal continues. Us now is madly from the associated press. Matthew lee from the associated press. What is the strategy for russia . Guest as the u. S. Makes its case and certain leaders in europe make their case that russia was ultimately culpable for the downing of this plane, they are going to be taking a hard to lobby in case two countries in europe that have been reluctant or resistant for a variety of reasons to increase the cost on prudent for his actions in ukraine on putin for his actions in ukraine. We sell the European UnionForeign Ministers are meeting saw the European UnionForeign Ministers are meeting. It rants will go ahead with the delivery of the warship to the russians. France will go ahead with the delivery of the warship to the russians. Host what about the u. K. . Guest u. K. Has its own interests. There is a lot of russian money in london and surrounding areas. This morningits have decided to reopen the case of this russian ex russian spy who is believed to have been killed by polonium poisoning. There is a lot going on all over the world. Also just within ukraine and ukraine conflict. There is a lot of behindthescenes diplomacy going on. We just dont know how its going to end. Was speakingameron to the house of commons yesterday about this situation. K about [video clip] defining moment for russia. The world is watching. Resident putin faces a clear choice and how he decides to respond to this tragedy. Path by ending a Russian Support for the separatists. If he does not change his approach to ukraine in this way, europe and the west must change our approach to russia. Those of us in europe should not be reminded of the consequences of turning a blind eye when they countries bully smaller countries. Ultimately keep the peace on our continent. To face up to the implications of what is happening in Eastern Ukraine. Its time to make our resources felt. Over the weekend, and agreed with chancellor merkel that we should push our partners and the European Union to consider a new range of hardhitting economic sanctions against russia. Host strong words in calling out his european allies as well. Guest you have a new foreign secretary in britain, too. Cameron talks tough and makes his case in parliament, its not at all clear that that message will resonate at eu headquarters. There are many countries in europe that are very fearful of what russia could do to them. ,utting off gas supplies economic retaliation for anything they might do. Its a very murky situation and a lot of countries are looking very warily at what a tougher stance will mean. Host does iraq overshadow decisions . St there is lee during lingering concern over the whole situation. Amongst the British Government which supported the iraq invasion. Amongst the British Public which was opposed to it. , as the Bush Administration called it. Left, it mightar be in the immediate aftermath. There is lingering suspicion and mistrust. Y looking ate the the u. S. To respond . Guest there is an enormous propaganda war going on between washington and moscow. Have until a solid evidence until a solid evidence is presented, you will see caution on the part of European Countries that are concerned about russian retaliation. A case withis certainty that can be backed up ,ith intelligence and evidence showing why the assessment is , it will be more difficult until that point is reached. When an investigation comes to a final conclusion. Host the headline from the New York Times this morning. One of the things i think is interesting, thus far, until yesterday when the Russian Defense ministry had this unusual press conference where they raised a bunch of questions about what actually happened to the plane, russian officialdom blamed ukraine and the government in kiev for fostering and creating this kind of environment that allowed this tragedy to happen. They have not actually denied and had not until yesterday saying all the u. S. Allegations and others joining in making the case against russia they had not denied these charges eared it looks as though they could be setting the stage for some kind of move to a knowledge to knowledge what actually happened. Acknowledge what actually happened. Moving parts of here. Until they all play out, we will educatedle to make an guess about what will happen in the future state of russia western relations. Host what are they telling you . Made the case they have is the case that Samantha Power made at the Un Security Council last week. The case that secretary kerry made on the sunday talk shows. Not much beyond that. That case is based upon a large body of circumstantial evidence involving intercepted phone calls which dont necessarily prove much of anything. Or youtube videos showing the rocket launcher. The americans claim they have of a missile being launched from this rebel held area in Eastern Ukraine. They say they have it, but they have not shared it yet. One not necessarily that should be automatically skeptical or think its false. Problem they are facing in the wake of the iraq is thatence failures one should not automatically pursue or believe that this is the 100 truth. Until that kind of evidence is and russiaskeptics are perfectly within their rights to raise questions. Host matthew lee with us to talk about diplomacy efforts on several fronts. 202 5853880 for democrats. 202 5853881 for republicans. 202 5853882 for independents alicia is up first from san jose, california. Democrats line. Caller good morning. I would just like to say a couple of things. The u. S. Is doing exactly what it needs to be doing. President obama is doing exactly what you need to be doing. He does not need to tell everybody and announced a strategy to everybody in the world so they know what he is doing. What our defenses are. He does not need to notify the media what his strategies are. They complain about him coming to california. Benghazi arrest. Same thing with osama bin laden. They said he was not doing his job. He captured bin laden when nobody else could do it. Everybody needs to chill out a minute. There are some neat things going on in this world. Look at putin. He was in cuba a few weeks ago. What was he doing there . Stirring something up for everybody else . President obama is doing what he needs to be doing. Guest the beginning of her statement that the president does not need to say what his strategy is, i would disagree with that. This is a Representative Democracy and the people should know what their president has in mind in terms of how he is going to address these policies. Putting out invasion plans or Something Like that, no, of course not. Sense of where the country, whether the administration wants to see american foreignpolicy headed would be most welcome. Im not saying that we dont have that, necessarily. There has been a lot of criticism of the administration for not presenting a coherent and broad overall strategy for how to deal with these multiple crises that keep popping up. Host have there been other phone calls a week know about . Guest not that we know about. To make awanted comment on the conflict. I am disturbed because there is so much suffering now. What gets to me is to revenge ,he death of four teenagers three jewish and one palestinian, we now have an additional over 600 people killed, both which of which 65 are civilians. They do not serve the people. The violence, the death, and the suffering that both sides have thatshed shows clearly they have no interest in serving their people, but rather listen and give into the dark side. Somebody got to stretch out the hand and make peace happen. Peace is hard. War is easy. We have tens of thousands of Homeless People in gaza. Something where i think israel could have taken the higher road by saying, the dome is working, lets wait until they run out of missiles. Some people may say theres going to be a constant stream of missiles, but if they would not answer with such violence, maybe the world not that the people in palestine would have said it is enough we want peace with these people. People need to step up and end the conflict. That is what is going on right now. Whether or not that succeeds, there is an open question. Secretary kerry is in cairo right now, meeting with the egyptian president , who has said that he is interested in getting a ceasefire done. The u. N. Secretary general in israel right now. He and a Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu our meeting as we speak. It is a question of neither side showing a sign of wanting to deescalate and back down. The callers are right. It is a horrible tragedy. The suffering in gaza, which is tightly compact it is population center, her run this. You can see it in the pictures. Hamas is firing rockets into israel. ,hose are attacks on civilians as well. Israel said it does not target civilians. They may target civilian structures that may become appropriate under the strict , but there are problems and issues on both sides of this in terms of the suffering of people. Host tony, texas, youre up next. What i plainly see is the corruption from the top of the president all the way down, including the media, all of these polls. They are so full of lies and controlled by the corrupted groups. Not understand why the American People cannot stand up and demand i am done asking government, to please do something. All of thist corruption stop. All of these wars have to stop. Money and thef bad decisions, you cannot keep opening up one jar of conflict after another to keep us focused in every other direction instead of what is going on in our own homeland. How long is this going to have to go on before the american side of theoff the earth because we are not being our president is not working for us. I do not know who he is president for, but he is not for us. Guest the corruption of the president s bosses the president s bosses are us. I do not know what corruption he is referring to. There are a lot of problems out there. It is impossible to come up with an instant solution to all of them. That is the way of the world. The frustration is understandable. Blaming all of this and saying u. S. All any administration or americas fall, it does not hold water. Host paul, st. Petersburg, florida. Go ahead. I agree with president obama 100 . Should call he putin and have a conversation. You can talk things over. Everybody makes mistakes. Utin did that through a mistake, i do not know if he did it or not. If he did, he ought to come forth and say i made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. I did wrong. Putin posturesr. By was printed up. No one should and no one has the right to use this tragedy to pursue their own the political goals. Rather than dividing us, tragedies of this sort should bring people together. People coming together, using this tragedy to come together would require some kind of whatwledgment happened. The presentation of a series of questions about air traffic seeing a ukrainian jet near the plane just before went down. Those questions should be answered, but just raising them raising the idea of a giant conspiracy is not the same as acknowledging the truth of what happened. Importantg to be very for a credible International Investigation to come out with its fine. Find. I saw some reports that said separatists in control of the have taken chainsaws to some of the wreckage. The wreckage does not resemble what it did before, when it first came down. I do not know if those are true, but the west is going to be highly suspicious of a largescale russian involvement in the investigation. Host read, washington, go ahead. I dont have a question, just a couple of quik comments. Quick comments. The walkie said she believes israel should wait until they run out of missiles. If you use that logic, hypothetically, there is a criminal firing bullets into her house, she should wait until the person runs out of bullets and taking no action. Israel has been more than tolerant, even though they are. T war with these people they have Nuclear Weapons. They could have wiped any of these people off the map without any retaliation. The comments that secretary of state kerry said off microphone criticizingbout israel about not having enough response, what was he referring to . Does come off firing missiles missiles is that pinpoint . To this conflict, they would do sure the house of a terrorist. The family knows they are a terrorist. They have a responsibility to stop them. If they do not, they deserve their house destroyed. Israel should do this. Instead of taking out these tiles, when i find tunnels and an area that missiles are fired 72 hoursy should spend the entire town should be destroyed with overhead bombing. Get out. Guest i think the last option is a little bit extreme. There are a lot of people who have the same opinion, who believe that israel has shown remarkable patience and restraint, not necessarily right now, but in the runup to this. Not aware of the context of what secretary kerry said in the off mike i do not know what preceded that. I am not able to make a judgment as to whether he was being critical or just making an observation. President obama, the state department, secretary ry, and even right now they have said israel should do more to live up to its own high standards of prosecuting this conflict. Without question, there are a in of civilian casualties gaza. Without question, i think israel regrets those casualties. The nature of this operation is meh that even if you take most extreme take the most extreme measures to avoid collateral damage, it is not always going to be successful. Ill go back to the point i made before about hamas rockets being if that isisrael not targeting civilians, i do not know what is. It is not like these rockets have good guidance systems. I cannot be fired with pinpoint accuracy. They are going up and trying to do as much damage as they can. It does not matter where they land, civilian target or not. There are issues on both sides need toand both sides address them. Toledo, ohio, don. Caller i dont know if callers realize that back in the 1990s, a treaty was signed with ukraine. If they got rid of their weapons, we would defend them if anyone attack them. Byy are being attacked we should have given them weapons. There is a good chance that if we would have given them weapons off the bat when this started terrorists i call them terrorists they would not be in Eastern Ukraine to shoot down the plane. Guest the caller is referring to the budapest memorandum, the agreement signed back in the 1990s when ukraine gave up after the breakup of the soviet gave up itsukraine Nuclear Weapons in exchange for a promise from both moscow and the west that it would not become this pawn in a new cold war, as one might call it. Ordid not bind the u. S. Nato to defend ukraine, but it made clear that ukraine and not beountries should come exactly what it appears to have become today. We can safely say it did not stand the test of time. A story about the missiles used in the diagram. Is this Missile System key to what we will learn . , if it isis the key correct that this is the system that brought down the plane. Possession, ownership who had were where they actually. All of these are going to be huge parts of the investigation. The other part is the black boxes. The planessay black boxes. Some people have discounted the information they might provide. I think what you can say is they could rule out whether or not this plane was being followed, a few tile its note if deep pilots noticedhe anything. Witness accounts, imagery, satellite imagery they had, it will all play a big part of this investigation. The key is to present enough of that evidence to convince the public that what is plausible is in fact true. Implausible is not. Photos. Me of the as you look at that our next call from matt. For matt. I dont see how, and i wonder if your guest can tell pathas there been any towards resolving me outraged resolving the outrage that we feel against the economic all the of not only parties concerned, but the whole world economy, to separate one part of that economy on moral grounds and say you are no longer going to be able to usticipate in trading with in the world system that we have now. It does not seem to be happening. All of our feelings are running up against our economic interest. Which one is going to triumph, which one is going to lead us towards resolution . These problems will keep occurring all over the world. For most of the time, since the breakup of the soviet union, the west has been trying to integrate russia into the world economy. Other types of economic and trade agreements. Ande are serious questions serious concerns among people who have spent the last 20 years trying to bring russia into the fold. A serious concerns about to we throw them out of the fold . The g7. As gone to the russians are effectively out of that for the time being. Whether or not the isolation grows, i think that will be dependent on the amount whether the outrage over this if it is prove the russians have a hand in it, whether the outrage can outweigh the economic interest that the west has been promoting. ,ost michael, new york independent line, go ahead. Bit andi heard the last it puzzles me, a statement that we are trying to bring russia into the fold, whatever that is. It seems that destabilizing the Ukrainian Government and actively working to put into see a neona beparty would not seem to promoting that kind of policy. What i was referring to is people trying to integrate russia into the west prior to the ukraine situation, maybe perhaps prior to the russian invasion of georgia. Those efforts are on hold right now, clearly. There has been a lot of rhetoric spewed about the new government and ukraine. Zie russians say they are nat thugs, they deny it. It is an open question as to what this governments policies are going to be, if and when the crisis ever ends. I think you will see i know the u. S. Administration and lookedin the west have to the president as a patient and calming voice. I refer to his calls for ceasefire, his willingness to allow autonomy to a great deal in the regions east of ukraine. ,hether or not that holds true when this crisis comes to an end, we will have to see. Host you are talking about russias economic influence. Can they withstand sanctions . Guest it is clear that president clinton has a high threshold for pain if that is it is clear that president putin has a high threshold for pain if that is the right word. To have hadappear any Significant Impact on russian policy. That is why people are looking at this plane incident, if it was in fact russia responsible or complicit in it, as something as a shock to the system. Something that will galvanize the americans in the west, but it will galvanize europe to increase the pressure. Also a shock to the kremlin itself, saying it is impossible to defend the downing of an airliner in which almost 300 civilians died. You cannot defend it. You can say it was an accident, you can say you can take some kind of responsibility or acknowledge mistakes were made, but the defendant is something else. Host the headline from this, saying ministers were threatening sanctions. Deliveryoing on with a of a warship to moscow. Hollande saysnt that the russians paid for this onore sanctions were everyones mind. So, it should not be subject to the current sanctions. The americans are very upset about this. How this sends a consistent message to russia, if on one hand you are saying bad and on the other hand you are delivering a warship that is supposed to go to the black see, sea,ieve into the black i believe, into their hands. Said thereollande are two ships involved. The delivery the second ship would depend on russian behavior. Bit of a rift a between the United States and france. From what Prime Minister cameron was saying yesterday, it looks like theres a rift there, too. Good morning. I have a question. I am curious do you believe that the ukrainians and the military or their military might are working in concert with one another . I think the American People are being really naive if they believe that they are not working in concert. I believe they are one and the same. Government andn the russian army . I think theyre working in concert with one another. That is an unusual assessment. The Ukrainian Army has been conducting counterterrorism offenses against prorussian separatist four weeks. Been bloody. You cannot make a case that the Russian Military and Ukrainian Military are working together. I think you can make the case that the Russian Military is supporting or advising, training and supplying the separatists in the east, but not the Ukrainian Army proper of the government of kiev. Those are two different things. Kahlil, tennessee. American Foreign Policy should be diplomatic and set of military. Theica has ignored continent of africa for decades and now i see an insurgence of islamic entities coming in and andning these jihads everything all her the country. That will be detrimental to america in the future. How should america proceed and deal with that . I have mixed thoughts. I think the suggestion that the u. S. Has completely ignored africa over the last two decades or so, i am not sure that is entirely correct. Pouredh administration tremendous amounts of money into africa and to health programs. Issues and strategic what you refer to as the rise of radical islam in africa, i think there has not been enough attention paid to that by United States. There has been strong criticism of the government of nigeria for not taking seriously enough the haram and theo threat and the spreading into the Central African republic. This is not a u. S. Problem. It is one the United States should and needs to be focused on. Threat, not just of the people in these countries. Extremism and violence jihad is him jiha dism is a problem for everyone. Caller why was the malaysian. Light over a nofly zone i think, technically, it was not over a nofly zone. The nofly zone had been imposed by u. S. Carriers was closer to crimea and not this area. Suppose i think it is a good question why was any plane flying over a conflict zone . When you are flying at that altitude, you are out of the range of the portable rockets, the shoretel the shoulder missile fired rockets. That had been the primary concern about terrorist their hands onng these and taking out planes lower than 10,000 feet or lower. If you are high enough, the only thing that will get you is one ss11s. Good question, why would any airline want to have its plane fly over an area of active it is not entirely unheard of. It happens all the time. If this was aion, missile attack and a missile did hit it, it was a very unfortunate wrong place, wrong time. Combined with a very active war zone. A couple of other issues why is egypt such an important player . Egypt has seen itself as the leader of the arab world when it comes to dealing with israel. Egypt has played a leading role managing therms of israelipalestinian conflict. One of the reasons they have leverage over hamas, even though , andare not good friends further apart than one president morsi was there, egypt controls the border. They are able to open and close almostrder and tunnels at will. They do have some influence with hamas, whether they like it or not. Host thank you for your time. We will look at the southern. Order with thad bingel he will tell us what it is like and thoughts on proposal for securing the border. Later on, the direction of the peace corps will join us to talk about the history of the organization. First, we will get an update on news. Mark halperin tweets about. He reaction to the violence in remarks on msnbc, ms. Albright says israel is losing it moral authority with a military operation. Another former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton is weighing in on the downing of the malaysian airliner, saying that the u. S. And europe should Work Together to develop tougher sanctions on russia. She had tougher sanctions would make clear that there is a price to pay for this kind of behavior. The British Government is opening an inquiry into the 2006 a poisoned ex russian spy. Investigators can look into whether russia played a role in his death erie it until now, the British Government refused to conduct an inquiry. This inquiry is coming at a time of rising tensions with russia. Those are some of the latest headlines. This weekend on book tv i thought it would be compelling to tell the story of a white family and a black family with the same name, who come from the same place, and follow them from slavery through the civil war, reconstruction, jim crow, the civil rights movement, up until today, and compare and contrast. How the legacy of slavery still affects american society. That is on saturday night at 10 00 eastern. For over 35 years, cspan brings Public Affairs of from washington to you, putting you in the room at hearings, white house event, briefings, and conferences and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. Washington journal closed quote continues. Host joining us now, thad bingel. He is a Founding Partner with the command consulting group. Tell us about your job at customs. What did you do . The personarted as in charge of the interactions with the senate and the house. After about two years, i became chief of staff. I reported directly to the commissioner. At a time of rapid growth. We were doubling the size of the Border Patrol. A lot of focus on border issues at the time. How do you look at what is going on and doesnt affect policy overall . And it does it affect policy overall . Guest there is a lot of attention on the border in the Border Patrol aspect of this is wrongly placed. It is a problem with the tension capacity and the problem of having enough Immigration Judges and hearings being able to problem ple and he and the problem of attending to unaccompanied minors. Not the same problems we were facing in the mid2000 or the late 1990s, when we had overwhelming numbers. Is not a case of people getting past us. It is a question of what to do with them once they are caught. Host how many get past it now . Guest is the hardest thing to count, the ones who got away, because you do not know. It is impossible to be 100 . That is a reality today and it was a reality back when i was there. Wise, we are still in a period of dramatically reduced numbers of people attempting to cross and of people successfully crossing. There are more resources deployed there today than ever before. With that said, we have challenges ahead of us. There need to be additional investments made to secure the border. We are in a better position across most of the border today. We are in a bad situation in south texas and we are playing catchup. Because . Guest we were dealing with 90 or more that were mexican migrants, so we set up Processing Centers that could turn those people around and put them back in mexico. The government of mexico would have to accept them back. We did not set up a system designed to longterm detained people from other countries when we have to work with the consulates and a Transportation Plan to get them home. Not ago one mexico will accept them if they are hung door and if they are not from if they are from honduras. We are not set up to close and children feed people for a period of time. Need to be detained and that is the part where struggling to catch up with right now. That longterm detention capability. Host part of the president s for billion dollar request includes about 433 million in order to pay for additional facilities. Is that enough . Guest a lot of it will go to overtime and to upgrade some of. He short term detention space that is probably what is needed. Most of the investment needs to go to other places. By investing in other resources, you can free up agents. The department of health and human services, immigrations Customs Enforcement, they are in charge of detaining adults and children. Fundss where a lot of the are going and the president s request. Ask if you want to questions, republicans, 202 5853881. Democrats, 202 5853880. Independents, 202 5853882. For those of you who live on border states, 202 5853883. Homas inhear from to texas. Caller do you have a high chart of illegal aliens by ethnic background . For illegale some aliens in Central America. Caller i just want to see a chart. Guest the predominant ethnicity and nationality of people here ,llegally, by what ever means visa overstays or people who came here illegally, it is primarily from Central America, including mexico. After that, you may be right, asia may be in line next. I do not have the stats for the rest of the world. There are a number of countries that have a lot of people here illegally. Some of them are asian. Stephen, good morning, independent line. Little humanity. They are kids. They are in desperate situations. Are preppingtates up to take these kids in. We have to reunite them with their families. This looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen kids being detained by the federal government. One of our senators was at the border of texas and arizona. We are preparing for these kids to come across the border. I am not sure how this is going to end up, but we have to focus on reuniting these kids with families. One thing the caller says is correct the detention capacity we have for children is spread across the country. Many kids are being sent to other parts of the country. The other thing that is going on is some kids, they have Family Members here and there is not a good place to hold them in a child detention facility, they are being reunited with Family Members temporarily and are being given a notice to appear for an immigration hearing. The other way they are being reunited, some of them are going to be sent home expeditiously when you can establish who the responsible Family Member is. That takes time, working with these consulates of the government of honduras, guatemala, el salvador, to make sure youre sending the child to the right person. That is a difficult challenge. Host one of the maps we have that shows the area of fencing along the southern border and it comes to el paso. Why is itrea concentrated here . In terms of the flow, it is the very south end of texas, down towards brownsville. Not a fenceheres there is because there is a river. There is some fencing along the river. It is a difficult geography. When we were building the fence you pointed to, over 700 miles we hadn the mid2000s, to make a choice about where the fence would make the most go od. You have a river. The International Boundary is the middle of the river. It sits in the middle of a floodplain to either side where there are levees involved. It regulates what you can build in that floodplain. In order to build sense, youre putting it on top of the levee, that may be 100 yards inland from the actual boundary. It is a difficult place there are some places where a fence makes sense and most of that has been built. There are other places where the thee, to keep people on mexican side, would have to be built in the middle of the river and that would be impractical and not allowed. Host stephen, go ahead. Talking. Was just host sorry about that. We will move on to dan. How come we dont hold mexico accountable for all of the costs of all of these people coming into our country . Guest part of what United States is doing should be doing, should be doing more is putting pressure on mexico, on the southern border, where most of these people are coming across the border between mexico and guatemala. Honduras and el salvador do not sure a border, so theyre coming through guatemala, too. The president is meeting with his counterparts this week. It is an attempt to put some of that pressure on them. Mexico should not be left out of that equation. If some of the Mexican Government were talking, they why should they be responsible for the care of people trying to get the United States . It does impact of them as well. You have seen pictures of the ridingl immigrants trains through mexico. Initiative when the was going on, we did put pressure on mexico about securing their southern border. That. Ht to return to there will be an expectation on parts on what will be in it for us. If we were not caring for these migrants when they arrive at our border, somewhere along the way, a mexican entity would be responsible for caring for them. A are feeling the pressure as well of the humanitarian aspects of this. They should not be left off the securing their own border so they can stop this flow closer to home and encourage people to return home. Al, pennsylvania, independent line. Caller the issue of the juveniles coming over is one thing, but as far as border spend a as a whole, we great deal of money on fences and Border Patrol personnel, but the main deterrent would be verifying if people cannot get a job in this country legally, it turner aig did big deter. As the speaker said, 40 of the illegal aliens in our country. Ame in on visas and overstayed they would not do that if they could not get jobs. Illegaloint is presence in the United States is a severe crime. A big deterrent. The caller makes excellent points. Magnets. One of the big everify is a great system that is very limited in its usage. That is a big part of the next challenge, to my mind, of dealing with immigration. It is part of the debate of comprehensive Immigration Reform. What is the workplace verification system and how mandatory should it be . I would love to see an expansion of everify. We have the same is that all of the people here illegally somehow snuck across the southwest border, got past 40 er control, when about to 50 came in under a legal status under a student visa, a tourist visa, and then overstayed. Some stayed for jobs, some stayed to get married. That is a big part of the illegal population here. Not people who snuck over the border illegally, but people who came here legally who we did not monitor and track and make sure that they exited or renewed their status. Host governor perry is going to send a thousand National Guard to the border how significant is this move . Guest any significant resources are helpful to some degree. The National Guard is not the resources, of the but they are the resources the governor has to send. He has deployed the texas rangers, the state department of public safety, local Law Enforcement tax forces. Mored the deployment of a aggressive deployment of the National Guard on the southwest border in the mid2000s when we were in the process of doubling the Border Patrol. It was a stopgap measure. The difference was, that was a coordinated federal led effort across all states. It was federally funded. We were able to maximize the use of National Guardsmen because it was coordinated and we could put them in duties that got badges back to the border. It freed up Border Patrol agent from administrative duties. Prior to that time, Border Patrol was welding there on fences. Getting engineering units and from the reserves made a big difference. The governors actions puts pressure on the federal government to coordinate with the state of texas and to use fashionds in a similar and take advantage of a similar resource. If the guardsmen were deployed in these functions of helping care and provide rations and water to people in detention centers, drive them to detention facilities in other states, or taken from the point of apprehension back to a detention facility, all of those jobs are being done by Border Patrol agent, who should be on the line, instead of spending time doing those functions. I hope this puts pressure on the federal government to responded to this gesture, to coordinate activities. The governor of texas should put pressure on the federal this,ment to fund some of whether by declaring a state of emergency or possibly even suing the federal government. This is a federal responsibility. His state is being inundated. The governor more than any other senior officeholder has the standing to do this. He was the one, back in april 2000 12, saying this is a crisis on our border, something needs to be done. Some degree, that fell on deaf ears. I can understand, as a governor in that state that is being most heavily impacted, why he is taking this stance. The perception of not enough federal action is leaving him to do everything he can at the state level to supplement that resource. Host gary, austin, texas. I have one question and two comments. Why doesnt the Mexican Government stopped the trains from coming up . Dont they see it weird to have people standing on top of the trains . Our local newspaper reported a guy was arrested for trafficking and he had 11 immigrants in his van. Everify that you talk about is not effective. Once they get a foot on our soil, they will not go anywhere. Why the government of mexico was not doing more to stop this through their territory i do not know. That is a good question for the government of mexico, hopefully one hour state department and administration is asking. Not necessarily the norm. This has not been how the government of mexico has responded in the past to some of these events. They have been a little more rigorous in the past about trying to stop some of the flow. Everify it is a system that has some limitations. I think the caller is wrong but it does not have impact, that once people are here, they will stay. And people are here and they cannot find employment or they are subject to legal action, it does cause them to return home. Verify would be one further step to make sure that anyone trying to gain employment is working in a legal status, whether they came here illegally or came here legally, having that system for any small, medium, or large business, able to verify that the person they are about to employee has the legal right to work in the United States is part of the immigration puzzle. There was a talk about issues going on in the southern border. Here is a little bit of the comment. [video clip] this has placed a lot of stress on the employees of cbp. The added personnel are going to transnationalrupt criminal organizations and also to help in the processing and attention efforts. The 100 15top of additional Border Patrol agents that have been deployed earlier. I have seen these employees. This is my third trip down here. I visited a number of other stations along the rtv. Them responded to these difficulties with professionalism and compassion. They have made heroic efforts to help these kids. They rescue kids, they care for them, and they are committed to taking care of them. It is a way that comes from their hearts. Cbp, that was video from not us. Last point, what happens when children is taken in, children that are part of a unaccompanied children is now part of this recent phenomenon and is now dramatically more. Unit aret of a family generally detained if detention space can be found, with their parent or guardian. Government, between immigrations Customs Enforcement and the department of health and human services, there are family detention facilities. Unaccompanied minors are in the care of once they are processed by Border Control they are put in the care of the department of health and human eithers, who looks for child shelters or looks to place a Family Member who is already here in the United States and can be verified. Areof these placements supposed to be temporary solutions while they are awaiting their immigration hearing. Part of the challenge is to those who areack released to a Family Member. Immigrationn enforcement agency. It is a Child Welfare agency. The monitoring piece of this is another gap that we are scrambling to fill. You want people to have to come back for their immigration hearing. Be in front of an immigration judge in that determination should be made. Many will knowshow that immigration hearing will noshow that immigration hearing and that is a big part of the challenge we are confronting. , virginia, go ahead. This is ridiculous. The problem seems to be on the side of the border, not on the other side of the border. If these people could not find what they were looking for when they got here, that is the people who hired them, they would not come. Why are we putting up these fences . The problem is on the side of the border. Governor romney had the solution figured out. They gave him heck. He lost the presidency because they cannot find work or shelter, they will not come. That an excellent point some other callers have made. A big part of this is demand. The same could be said for our counternarcotics challenge. You have to address the push in the poll the push and the pull. There is a push of Job Opportunities and a pull of the belief that if you get here, you will be allowed to stay in some legal or quasilegal status. There has not been enough talk and i hope there is more when the president meets with his counterparts. The impact with the u. S. Dollar spent on aid in Central America to improve economic and security conditions is probably more efficient then the same dollar i spent some time this spring in with a church organization. Went to some of the very poor communities, orphanages, and the level of destitution and some of is probably hard for most americans to comprehend. So it would be difficult to ever have a situation where there will not be people around the caring to come here for a shot at a better life, but a lot of them will stay home if they have a chance at a better life there. Some of that is just providing some hope that conditions will improve. It is certainly not an easy decision, i am sure, for any parent or guardian to send an unaccompanied minor north on a pretty dangerous journey through guatemala and mexico to show up here in hopes of a better opportunity. So for people to take those steps, certainly, part of the problem is the belief that if they just arrived here, there will be a legal status awaiting them come up a part of it is the conditions on the ground that force someone to take a step like that. I think we need to hear a little bit more about what has been the impact, or lack thereof, of u. S. Aid to Central America. Some of these countries have kind of been left behind. We had great investments under meredith and plan under colombia, andn aid to many Central American countries has largely dried up. As the caller said, there is the alsoside to address but the push side to address in the region. Host dan, independent line. Theer you have to stop problem now, ok . I am looking at a lot of these beks ok, yeah, we need to humane, but we need to be up into send them back real quick. Most americans are not willing to keep all of those kids are part of them. Those folks some flair are smart enough to know that if they send their kids up here, they know the catch 22 in the law they are not totally dumb, ok, and we have to close up the gap and change it to make it to him because back. That is my comment. The caller is right in this respect as long as there is this perception and those countries that i sending an unaccompanied child here, they thatgain legal status or they will not be returned or that the u. S. Policy on immigration has changed to allow that, whether it is infusion confusion of the 2008 law or confusion about the declaration on deferred tax against childhood arrivals. How that gets translated in the region where people are not necessarily reading the newspaper or watching cspan or have internet access, it is getting translated as get here now and you will have some legal status. So the caller is correct in saying that the only thing that will make a dramatic impact is a clear message and a clear visual that people are being returned home if they do not follow the Legal Process. Until that happens, this flow, to some degree, will continue, even with the deterrent effects were trying to put in place now. Ultimately, it will only be, as people are returned, after their immigration hearing, that we see the flow really stopped. Host mansfield, ohio, here is virginia on our republican line. Severali have questions. One, initially, these people are very poor coming from Central America. Where did these families get the initial money to bring the children up here . In theease leave ministers and priests to take care of these children. Next, i think we should help the National Guard in texas by giving money, since the federal government is not helping them. Plus, in the United States, children are adults at 18. When our Central American children considered adults . Thank you. , i will couple things try to take them in reverse order. It is 17 and under when they are not considered an adult, in terms of the u. S. Just like in the u. S. Know, the contributions of the texas National Guard, that is an interesting one. I think the governor of texas may be requesting that funding from the federal government. He is deploying forces to deal with what is really a federal responsibility. Another way that people care about the situation, another way to contribute, there are some great aid organizations in Central America that do a good job of providing some hope and opportunity there that keeps people at home and keeps them from making this dangerous journey. I encourage people to give to organizations like that to do some thing about that push side. That is something we often do. Host there is a story on june 30 in the washington journal that talks about executive actions the president could do to deal with this issue. What could he do . Guest he has requested funding. Congressional responsibility, and that needs to happen. Hat is an interesting question we have heard a lot about the 2008 law. On one hand, you could criticize the administration, saying they are trying to have it both ways. When they make a declaration on deferred action on child arrivals, they are essentially saying i know the law says to deport this group of people, but were going to use prosecutorial discretion and not do that. At the same time, when its as people who are potential sex trafficking victims, or this 2008 law, should not be treated the same way them if they are minors it seems like you would have the same discretion to apply that law and say, you know, if we can determine these are not sex trafficking victims but minors, then we could take executive action to more quickly move these folks through the normal immigration system. I think that is the type of executive action that should be looked at while we are awaiting an actual change to the law which i do think needs to be made. Host tabak, florida, maria on the democrat line. Caller good morning. I just want to say that 99 of this around the border is because the families in the United States are sending the money. Beuldnt these families prosecuted for being part of the trafficking . You deported af family together with the kids, no more money, no more kids. Thank you. Guest it is an interesting point. It is true that another caller asked, where is the money coming from for folks that undertake this journey and are smuggled from Central America to the u. S. Border . Many of them are having to pay these coyotes, humid smugglers. Many times that money does come from relatives or friends already here in the United States who send money home in order to enable this, but it is a very difficult problem of taking that to the next step where you would actually prosecute people for sending money home. First of all, many times this is the a cash transactions, difficult to establish any linkage from a Law Enforcement perspective of who paid a smuggling organization. Money hasometimes been sent home over a period of more from relatives in the United States, not necessarily with the intent at the time that it is used to smuggle somebody north. So a difficult legal proof challenge to undertake that. Host pennsylvania, this is guy. Hello. Caller hello there, yes. My big problem is this, we are a nation of immigrants, and it seems that every new successive wave of immigration is met by the same jenna for be a and the same hatred by the descendents of immigrants that came before. For everybody who wants to shut the door of the golden gate after they got there, and they talk about these people coming here in legally. Came justr ancestors as illegally, too. Without official papers is how many came through. Guest excellent point. There is a certainly that sentiment underlying some of these immigration states. However, i do not completely that you still cannot have a rational discussion about a legal and sustainable immigration policy. And i do think, you know, when people come here illegally in hopes of gaining benefits in the system and receive those and if its by, either in practice or in law, it does have the effect of causing others around the world who have followed the Legal Process and have waited in line to wonder what the point was. So i think there is great debate about comprehensive Immigration Reform and whether the levels of immigration them at different geographic regions, familybased immigration system versus more of a job skillsbased system is the right system, whether our visa quotas from certain regions of the world are way too low to meet the actual economic demands of this country. Those are all good baits to have, but i do think those are all good debates to have, but i do think there needs to be an actual rational legal system for welcoming people him as we have had throughout our history, where people come here illegally, gain a Clear Pathway to citizenship as people still do today and as they have done for hundreds of years here, and to some degree, that is undermined when others can gain the same benefit by not following the rules. Host talk about the fence. How much of it actually exists . 700 miles. S over if you started at san diego on the west coast, went along the california, arizona, new mexico, west texas border, most of that border is fenced until you get to the Rio Grande River. There are parts that are not fenced, and that is primarily where there are mountain ranges. Adding that on top of an 8000 Foot Mountain would not really be a deterrent. A fence is really most useful as an opportunity to buy time. None of it can not be circumvented. It can be dug under or gotten over if a person has time to do so. It is really designed to slow in muchnd vehicles cases. Much of this fence is a vehicle barrier where we had open desert. So you have time to get people if they are on foot, and we have a lot of assets, you know, airborne, fixed surveillance stations, on the ground that can detect them, and we have time to respond. Where we have very condensed urban areas on both sides of the border, san diego, tijuana, or brands bill, matamoros, el paso , and juarez, that is where you really need the fencing because you could quickly disappear once you get a cross into the other side. That is where our forces are right of there on the line, because they need that fans to buy some response time. Technology on top of the actual fence that is used . In many cases there are Surveillance Systems along that fence. Actually embedded in the fence itself, not so much. One of the challenges, you can spot what is going over the fence relatively easy, but we have a problem with detecting tunnels under that fence. That has been primarily a means that the cartels have used to move products under that fence, and we are still struggling with the means to detect tunnels. That is certainly not a phenomenon unique to the u. S. It is related to the conflict in gaza, and the Israeli Defense forces are trying to find tunnels there that are used by hamas. It is a difficult challenge. Host our drones part of the system . Guest they are not part of the fence system, but they are out there flying along that line. Drone overe predator that stretch of border between san diego and el paso. As you get down, again, into most of texas where you have the river, the river it self serves some of that same timebuying function, so people have to again, like the fence, people can cross that river. In some places it is little more than a creek, but you can see them and you have time to respond. Right now, a lot of the problems we are facing are not so much it is theng problem, releasing problem and not being able to detain nonmexicans because of our lack of capacity. Host kathy is from oregon on our republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my phone call. My comment is that you make america, the united, sound so that a fence cannot be built properly. We are the usa. Us. Ave borders that define i do not want illegal aliens coming into this country. Everybody sends a message throughout the whole world that illegaltake and accept anybody coming in. It is a horrible, horrible message to send to the world. Guest um, a couple points. The messaging part of this is important, and that has been part of what has caused this flow. Again, whether reality or more the perception of the u. S. Childrenift towards who arrive here, that has been a country bidding factor to this. As far as the fence, if i not properlys built, that is not true. It was held in difficult terrain conditions, but the reality of any fence as a mean towards border security, the fence alone is not a solution. It buys you response time, as i was speaking about before. In some cases, the investment to build a fence, particularly along the river, is not worth the Resource Investment because it would not make that much of an enforcement difference. If you have to build that fence 100 yards back from the actual International Boundary on top of a levy, in some cases that might make sense, but in some cases it would be millions of dollars that could be used for additional Surveillance Technology for Border Patrol agents. Those investments have largely been made where the determination in texas is in most of those places, if you already have the river to buy you response time, the investments are in the responders. Host you talk about everify. You are on twitter says employer sanctions would be better than a fence. Ofst it has to be a part comprehensive Immigration Reform. If we really want to solve this problem, again, we talked about ,he demand side, the pull side people who continue to not be here legally but find gainful employment, that is a big part of the challenge. Host new york, joseph, go ahead. Taking myank you for call. You know, i was just wondering, thenow, the fence deal people that complain about it the chinese had their walls built and it lasted thousands of years. We cannotca build a simple fence that can from comingminors across . I think there is a conspiracy between mexico and the United States, to have some of these legally juste here have ax the economy and better political, social, cultural, regional understanding, for the economy, to work with us. I can see that. I know these people need to be life,nd to have a safer like europeans did in the 1600s and 1700s. At the same time, as a vietnam veteran, gulf war veteran, bosnia, i see a lot of bad things. We have our veterans they need a lot of help. Help to their families. But we did not bring every person, every kid, with us that to useo use us as it us as a pedestal to help them. Alone, mentioning the chinese was interesting, because when we were building some of the border fence, that. As often used as an example the great wall of china do not actually, in the end, work entirely either. Invaded successfully and rolled over for a couple hundred years. Our border fence is not designed to be anything like the great wall of china. It is one tool in the arsenal. As far as keeping up minors from even setting foot on u. S. Soil, it is not a question of the fence. Many of the areas we are talking about are not necessarily where the fence is, that even if a fence was there, where do you put that if the International Boundary line is in the middle of the Rio Grande River . Onsoon as they are kneedeep the shore, they are already in u. S. Territory and you have to deal with them. Same is true for the gates along our border and the ports of entry. Many people are turning themselves in at the ports of entry. Again, there is no way to have a flow of traffic and have a completely sealed border where someone cannot come up and turn themselves in. And if that is what many of the people in south texas are doing. They are not running away from border to or sneaking past them. They are turning themselves in because the expectation is they will he allowed to stay temporarily until an immigration hearing. That is the part of the challenge we need to deal with. It is not a question of Border Patrol or fences. It is really a question of our capacity to process people in our immigration system through the ports and our ability to detain our monitor people that we apprehend. , thank you forel your time. Next, the director of the peace corps will talk about the organization and the future of it. That is carrie hesslerradelet joining us for that discussion. First, a news update from nancy calo as cspan radio. Thank you. The Labor Department says u. S. Consumer prices rose 0. 3 in june, reflecting the biggest jump in gasoline prices in a year. The rise was at a slightly slower pace than in may. Energy prices were up 1. 6 , nearly double the may gain. President obama releases a review of john job Training Programs today which recommends improvements. The report finds the government needs to better engage u. S. Employers, approved the use of data, and boost apprenticeship programs. Following his remarks, the president will sign bipartisan at improvingimed Business Engagement and accountability in federallyfunded programs. And this from mark noller of cbs news, he tweets that later today, the president leaves for a three have a day democratic fundraising trip that will take him to six events in seattle, san francisco, and los angeles. Leadership at the v. A. Is the focus of a Senate Hearing later today. The committee appears headed to an easy confirmation of robert mcdonald, according to the associated press. Robert mcdonald is to be the new secretary of the veterans affairs. He testifies at 3 00 p. M. Eastern time before the Senate Veterans affairs committee. Vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders is the chairman. You can watch the hearing live it heren3 or listen to on cspan radio. That is at 3 00 p. M. Eastern time. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. On booktvs and afterwards i thought it would be compelling to tell the story of a white family and a black , whoy with the same name come from the same place, and throughhem from slavery the civil war, reconstruction, jim crow, civil rights movement, up until today, and compare and contrast. On hiss tomlinson familys history and how the legacy of slavery still a sex american society. He talks with the brother of former nfl running back ladan about the family lineage as former slaves on the hill. Journal continues. Host joining us is carrie director of the peace corps. I think we all have a perception of what the piece for it but what is it . A wonderful opportunity to serve your country while helping others, volunteering and 66 countries around the world. We work in six sectors. Including agriculture, environment, education, youth development, and Community Economic development. Not only to amherst youth up in crash in amherst result in an altar, to develop relationships that will change your life, and make an and. It was started by president john f. Kennedy. I think he was concerned about some of the pressing issues that continue to concern our country. Hunger, poverty, disease, the threat of nuclear war, and the need for our nation to develop relationships with other countries, especially at the community level. Far as membership, how many people are out there in other countries representing the peace corps . 7000 we have just over volunteers right now they come from all walks of life, from 20 years old to our oldest volunteer is 80. Host how do the numbers compared to years past . Guest historically, it is about the same. Our highest number of violent tears was actually 1968, about 15,000 our highest number of volunteers was actually 1968. 2010 was our highest number in recent years. With the recession and budget cuts, we have had to go down to about 7000 right now. Host there are stories about changing the process of where someone goes in the peace corps. Guest it is the process for applying which we have made much more simple, easier, and are userfriendly. Host what brought the changes . To have aple want userfriendly experience, and there is the technology to make that possible. Also, this generation has a lot of choices, what they do after they graduate from college. Peoplewant choice, and have other choices. So we wanted to offer an application process that is easy to use but also offers applicants the opportunity to choose the countries in the sectors that they want to apply for, and that is a big change. That, we would place you where we needed you. Host does that change get more people attracted in the peace corps . Guest yeah, it started with a story when i was in jordan in 2010, i met a wonderful woman who had 20 Years Experience in hiv aids service delivery. She was in a special Education Program in jordan. She said, look, i love jordan and it is a wonderful country. That really was surprised you did not want to make use of my hiv aids skills. You have programs all around africa. So i was confused as to why you sent me to jordan to do special education. I thought about it and thought that actually does not make a lot of sense because she wanted to work in hiv aids. So that, combined with the desire to streamline our process, is what got the reform effort moving. Even before that, about four years ago we did a comprehensive assessment of our agency. We developed a framework for reform that is huge and reformve, the largest effort ever undertaken at peace corps. These changes to our application recruitment process are part of that planned strategic reform. Host our guest, carrie hesslerradelet of the peace corps, will be here until 10 00 to answer questions. 2025853881, republicans. 2025853880, democrats. 2025853882, independents. If you are a peace corps volunteer, 2025853883. How much is the peace corps budget . Guest right now, about 380 million. Our high point was 400 million in 20 10. We went down as low as 256 million with the sequester, but we are back up now. Host do the volunteers get a salary or stipend . Guest you give a living allowance while serving. You can be completely broke and take care of everything, transportation, health, safety, security, and a living allowance. Youevery month you serve, get a readjustment allowance. So if you serve the full two years as a volunteer, you will walk away with Something Like 7,500 in your pocket. Host it is a twoyear stint. Guest yes, and you can reup for a third year. Host as far as requirements, what are you looking for . Guest qualities that individuals have, a desire to serve, motivation to be of use to others, a real interest in other languages and alters. It helps if you have some skills to impart. We are primarily looking for people with college degrees, but if you have a lot of Life Experience as a farmer, a businessman or woman, we will also absolutely take that as well. Host how did you get involved initially . Guest i come from a four generation peace corps family. My aunt was the first person, she was actually the 10,000th peace corps person to volunteer, and she served in turkey. Might parents were volunteers after they retired. Host and there are some pictures. Guest there we go. My husband and i served in samoa, but my grandparents served in malaysia before me. My nephew was just in mozambique. It really is a family affair. I always wanted to be in the peace corps. Host were talking about the peace corps. Dan, ohio, republican line. Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Question one, if i want to go to macedonia as part of the peace farming skills, how much money would it cost me to join the peace corps . Moneywise, i am talking about time away from my family. Do you get to go home for vacation . Is it two years solid . Question. At thank you for that. If you want to be a volunteer in macedonia, go to our website and click on the europe, mediterranean, and asia but in, and then you could explore the opportunities in macedonia. You can see if you qualify for those programs. If you are a farmer or a businessman, i think you said skills you ever life offer, we would evaluate that and see whether or not you qualify. If you go to our website, you will see exactly what is needed for each country program. It is a 27month commitment for the regular twoyear peace corps program. It involves three months of training and then 24 months of service. Calleds another program these response, which is a program for higher skilled individuals and it is a shorter time span, anywhere from three months to one year. If you go to our website at see anrps. Gov, you will opportunity to learn more about that. There are many opportunities for Peace Corps Service. I would love to have you check it out. Host brooklyn, new york, independent line. Caller good morning. Im from the caribbean i am just calling it to sing the praises of the peace corps. It is one of the great things about america, the peace corps. I have been here almost 40 years, and peace corps came to , and they are great. [indiscernible] they break down a lot of issues. We came across evangelists and they are great, people, but the greatest thing in a lot of. Laces is the peace corps it is longlasting for america. Guest thank you very much. Host you mentioned the peace corps and the people. Are there opportunities for people all over the world . Is it just in america . Are many waysre for americans to go overseas. They can study, travel, and do research, and there are other opportunities for service. We needed to be more competitive. We want to attract the best and brightest of the American People. We also want to attract a diverse volunteer force, with the beautiful, rich, multicultural nation that we are. That is part of our recruitment strategy. We are very serious about diversity. Host we have a line for peace corps fallen tears, 2025853883. Republicans, 2025853881. 2025853880, democrats. 2025853882, independents. A couple questions from twitter guest countries still welcome the peace corps. There are some countries where not able to go into because of our budget. It is very common for countries to want more volunteers than we can provide. We have strong relationships with our host partners. And what country is most friendly . I really cannot answer that. Ands a volunteer in samoa, i loved my service there. Host what about areas of the world that are very dangerous . Guest we have to be able to guarantee that we will be able to keep our volunteers healthy and safe. Security and safety very seriously. There is a full assessment process that goes into the opening of a country program. And we have security staff in areCountry Offices that continually renewing reviewing Safety Information and data to keep our volunteers safe. Are there trackers in the United States that track their progress to make sure they are ok . Guest yes, we have a Security Apparatus and work closely with of the state department and others to make sure we are on top of all information. Keith from bethesda, independent line. And i three questions will take the answer off the air. First of all, have there been any deaths or injuries in recent history with all the terrorism scares question mark second question, do you take married couples . Their question, when you gave the budget, was that in real dollars . I am surprised it is not larger than in earlier times . Guest thank you. Excellent questions. There are ok shall and injuries. Very rarely. When youre supporting 7000 people overseas, they do happen, and it is unfortunate. Our highest priority is safety and health, and we do all we can. We have security folks in each of our Country Offices to oversee the health and welfare of our volunteers. Absolutely, you can serve as a married couple. I did, and it is a wonderful way to experience life in another country together. And that is in real dollars, and many people are surprised at how low our budget is. Host is that part of the issue when it comes to the budget . Are people calling for cuts or do people support it . Guest we get broad bipartisan support. Democrats and republicans alike support the peace corps. Host denver, colorado, independent line. Caller good morning. I wanted to give you a call and thank you for your efforts. I am a native of macedonia. I have Civil Engineering experience, and i want to spend a couple years in the peace corps in my native country. I just want to say thank you very much. Host what made you decide to go to peace corps . Caller i tried 10 years ago when i graduated from college, but at that time you could only go to the countries where the peace corps would send you. Of course, i wanted to help out my own country. Now that i saw this, i am signing up as a volunteer in the United States. Guest that is wonderful. We appreciate that very much. We find that a number of people who experienced peas cork while living and growing up in another country, when they graduate from college and become american citizens, they want to serve in the peace corps. We have some fabulous stories from people like yourself. Postfrom the washington guest yes, that is right. Theave 66 countries around world. That just shows our largest programs. Host once you announced these changes, have you noticed in uptick in interest . Absolutely. We had some of our biggest application days in history in the last few days. It has been very exciting. A lot of interest, both on the part of media and on the part of america. I think people are ready for this change. People love the peace corps. Many people feel it is the best face of america overseas. Host in the application process, what do you look for . Do you look for as far as if a person is a good candidate or not . Guest we look at their motivation for service. We look at whether or not they have done Community Service or if they have studied a language, communicate it and adjust in helping others. We want to see evidence that they are resilient and can work through tough problems, because Peace Corps Service can be tough. And then we look at whatever skills they bring. Bank . Hey served in a food just looking for evidence of that they would be successful as a volunteer. I would also say that we have an excellent training program, very strong, and even more rigorous because of the Reform Efforts that we have been undergoing over the last two years, in collaboration with partners like universities and other u. S. Government agencies. So we can train an english major to be a health volunteer. Degree at college is less important to us than your willingness to serve in your motivation and sort of the soft skills you bring. Host does a person have to be bilingual or multilingual . Guest no, it helps if you speak latin or french am a but we have Language Training in about 200 50 different languages. We really do emphasize languages because it is such an important part of an amid do it of an immigration process. You can come in and then become fluent in another language. Host a call from pennsylvania. Go ahead. Ok, this is charles. I wanted to let you know that i was a peaceful a peas cork from 1966in ecuador to 1968. My daughter was a volunteer in honduras. And my son was a volunteer in no maybe a. My wife and i, from 2006 to 2008, we joined the peace corps again, and we were in the dominican republic. Guest thank you. I think your family may be over taking my family as a these core family. Host what did you learn . Caller i learned a lot. First of all, a learned how to be sensitive to more people. I learned that from my training in ecuador. It certainly changed my whole life, my peace corps experience. Anyone that if they could possibly join the peace couple years of service, it will have a lifechanging effect on their life. Guest thank you for your service. Experience. Ut the it really is transformative, not only for the community where you work, but most especially for the volunteers themselves. Another volunteer, this one from maryland. Hello. [indiscernible] i was very much a street guy in jamaica, and the peace corps and i hung around them for a while. They treated me so well. The director, god bless him, he , but they taught me a lot of stuff and i was able to merge in ministry and go in the ministry. There is a lot i could tell you about the peace corps. We have about 260 follow tears that i am able to work along volunteers that i am able to work along with. And i wastaught me able to do a lot of stuff on my own. I was able to become a minister and learn different skills. Today i am living in the United States and have been here now for about 40 years. Own a real estate business i left to establish a ministry and work with a lot of american young people here. Host thank you. Guest your testimony really does prove what can come from the peace corps. Host do peace corps volunteers work with nongovernment agencies . Guest absolutely. We work with organizations that volunteers can work with with a counterpart. Every fall at your is paired with a counterpart. It is often a nonprofit organization, either a local ngo or international ngo. Hello, i have this image of the peace corps being at third world countries, digging wells or singing around the campfire. I am wondering, do you go places like germany or south korea . And if a peaceful country becomes a war zone, like ukraine, do you evacuate . For thatank you question. We have a number of criteria for selection of peace corps countries. One of which is certainly need, and we use the u. N. Human Development Index as our guide for that aspect. We also look at places where we need to build relationships between our country and another country. We have three goals that i will share. The first is to help the people of interested countries meet their needs for training men and women. That is a development goal. To promotegoal is better understanding of americans. Our third goal is to promote a better understanding of other countries on the part of americans. We also go to countries like ukraine and macedonia and wherend and panama perhaps there is an element index, meaning they are not quite as power, that there is a need for our nation to build new relationships with that nation. Host donna from texas, democrat line. Caller where is the biggest pain . What kind volunteers are you looking for . Guest in terms of sectors . Caller yeah, i used to be a paramedic a long time ago. Program islargest education. About 40 of our volunteers are associated with education. But health is right behind that. If you are a paramedic, you have wonderful skills to share. I would love for you to consider Peace Corps Service. Host is it 40 hours per week . Depends on the community. You are sort of a volunteer 24 seven. You are immersed in the community. It really does depend. If you are a teacher, you may start at 7 00 in the morning and go until 3 00 in the afternoon. If you are working with an ngo that reaches out to street children, you may start later in the afternoon and go into the evening. Volunteers also have secondary projects with other community havent oriented projects that with other communityoriented projects that they do. Our volunteers are committed. They do not usually work a 9 to5 job. Where is the biggest need . In what country . Probably oneow, would say africa has the greatest needs. There are needs anywhere, all over the world. Our largest request area is education, so i would say that would be an area where there is extensive need, especially girls education, but health is also very important. So your skills as a paramedic would be very useful. Besides a stipend, does a volunteer get Health Insurance . Of all oftake care your health needs while you are a volunteer. We actually directly pay for medical care. We have teams of doctors and nurses at each country post, and it is tacked up by an office in washington. We totally take care of the health care of volunteers. Int a recent Story National journal talked about abortion funding being provided. Can you talk about this . Guest sure, we are prohibited from paying for the cost of an abortion right now. We are one of the few federal employee not really employees, but other federal workers have an exception with allows the use of federal funds for Abortion Services in the and incensed. Right now the peace corps does not have that, so unfortunately, we are not able to cover Abortion Services right now. There is the peace corps equity act on the hill, and we will see what happens with that. We think our volunteers should have the same treatment as other federal workers, including the military. Does that happen, instances where abortion is needed . How does that happen . Guest there are occasional rapes and the peas core, just like there are here in washington, d. C. We have established a very Strong Program of safety and security. We have a Sexual Assault reduction response program. As a mother, volunteer, and Public Health professional, and as a Sexual Assault survivor myself, there is no issue that is more important to me than this. Over the last two years, we have worked with National Experts in this country and have developed a program we are very proud of. 30has created more than policy changes. We have totally revamped our training for volunteers and staff. Office ofeated a new victim advocacy for volunteers who are victims of any crime. Just a whole set of support systems to support volunteers when any bad thing happens. Not happen alles that often, but we want to be sure that we can fully support our volunteers. Host what is the status of the legislation . Guest it was passed in the house. It is waiting for the senate. It is hard to tell. We have been down this road before and it has not been passed. Host atlanta, michigan, good morning. Caller your speaker is very interesting. My husband and i are retired educators and applied for the peace corps many years ago and cannot get any place or assignment where we were together. So we failed to become part of the peace corps. My question is, do you have programs in this country where they are so badly needed as well as in other countries . Peace corps does not have programs in the United States, but of course there are wonderful opportunities for service here. Americorps has great opportunities for service in our country. We are very supportive of americorps service. Thenamericorps for tears go on to serve as peace corps volunteers. We have many openings for educators. About 10 of our volunteers are we are always delighted to see people who have aneducation background and interest in service to the peace corps. I hope you take another look at us. Host is there an age limit . Guest you are only limited by your health. Our oldest volunteer was 86. Host what country . Guest morocco. She was amazing. My grandparents were volunteers. Some of the most fabulous volunteers are older volunteers. Something people do not think about is the, roderick that develops in the is the, omeraderie in the peace corps. You develop relationships with people who are very different from you. The inner generational friendship is especially wonderful. Host a group trains together and then is put into Service Together . Guest their training takes place in their country of service. They fly together. There is a staging in this country first. They train for about 10 weeks together. During that 10 weeks, they become incredibly close. They become each others family and support system. Wonderful relationships develop, especially in her generational relationships. Host were talking to the director of the peace corps. She is carrie hesslerradelet. Were talking about recent changes. The website is peacecorps. Gov if you want more information. I read the initial application is eight pages long. 80 pages long i am sorry, it was 60 pages long and would take eight hours to complete. Now it is an online application that will take less than one hour to complete. Where youhe 60 pages, looking for essays or background checks . Guest we were looking for several essays, but now we just have one which is a motivation statement. We ask for information in different ways. Now we ask people to submit their resume, and we have technology that can scan it so they do not have to fill out pages and pages on a recent will think they have done. It is a much more userfriendly system. Host previously, how long would you have to wait to find out if you were accepted . Guest it could be a very long time. And lackededictable transparency. Now we have a system that is much more transparent. You know exactly where you are. One of the features of our new applytion is there is by, know by date. It is like applying to university. If you apply by august 15 to macedonia, you will know by november 15, and you will start by february 15 i am making up these numbers, but it becomes a transparent process that is similar to applying for a job or university. Host carrie hesslerradelet is our guest. How much infrastructure does peace corps have as far as staffing . Guest our Headquarters Office is here in washington. We have about 500 staff members. We have five regional recruiting offices around the country. Host covered by 379 million. Guest exactly. We are all dedicated to supporting our volunteers in the recruitment process, application process, or doctors and nurses that support from stateside for medical care. We have communications staff. Thatve country officers backstop each of our 66 countries. Everything we do is dedicated towards supporting our volunteers. Host does your organization have oversight on congress . Guest yes, we have an inspector general. We report regularly to congress. Host have you testified before congress in your new position or is that pending . Guest i have done a lot of testimony. I had my Senate Confirmation hearing. I meet regularly with members of congress. Members of congress are very supportive of the peace corps, in general. Host massachusetts, democrat line. Caller yes, i just wanted to reflect upon the late senator saunders, he was a great supporter of the peace corps. Also, i was wondering, if you are accepted into the program and you are injured on active duty and you could no longer perform, with the peace corps support you . Something akin to a serviceconnected disability or something . And thank you so much. Guest thank you. Paul saunders was a phenomenal american. Glad you brought him up. He was a fantastic spokesperson and an exemplary volunteer. Peace corps does provide for volunteers who are injured as part of their service and those who have longlasting consequences. We are part of the u. S. Government system, and people would go to the department of labor to the federal Employee Compensation act, and there is disability pay for people who are unable to work as a result of their Peace Corps Service, like other federal workers. One of the benefits is you are part of the u. S. Government safety net, so to speak. I also want to say that post support health care has been an issue that i care about deeply as a return volunteer and as a Public Health professional. We have been working on an improving the quality of our support to volunteers after they leave service, both those that are completely healthy and are looking for jobs, but also those who require continued medical service. What do you want to see as far as the future of the peace corps . Continuewould love to to see as thrive. I do believe it is the best face of the United States abroad, and i think you have heard testimony of that. I would love to see as in a few more countries where we are not currently able to serve. I would like to see an increase in the number of volunteers for stop increase in the number of volunteers. Host you heard from carrie hesslerradelet. That is it for our program today. Another program tomorrow. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] \ [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] Republican Voters in georgia will finally select their Senate Nominee today after a bruising 9week runoff. They will decide between tribesmen Jack Kingston and businessman a bit purdue. The winner will compete against democrat michelle nunn. 11th district, congressman former congressman bob barr this is off faces off with the state senator. The Un Security Council meets again this morning, discussing the palestinianisraeli conflict. More than 600 houston in 729 israeli more than 600 israelisans and 29 have been killed. The u. S. House devils in today at noon. Withwill start today general speeches and come back for legislative work. 14 bills are