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Senator Hagel warns us with a lesson from the Vietnam War:
our government lied to us then and could lie us into a war with
Iran and Syria now.
Stop the 'War more...President' Now!
SENATOR HAGEL: ... but I would even begin with this evaluation;
that we owe the military and their families a policy, a policy worthy
of their sacrifices, and I don't believe, Dr. Rice,
we have that policy today.
I think what the president said last night -- and I listened carefully
and read through it again this morning -- is all about a broadened
American involvement, escalation in Iraq and the Middle East.
I do not agree with that escalation, and I would further note that
when you say, as you have here this morning, that we need to
address and help the Iraqis and pay attention to the fact that
Iraqis are being killed, Madame Secretary, Iraqis are killing Iraqis.
We are in a civil war. This is sectarian violence out of control –
Iraqi on Iraqi. Worse, it is inter-sectarian violence –
Shi'a killing Shi'a.
To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives,
to be put in the middle of a civil war is wrong.
It's, first of all, in my opinion, morally wrong. It's tactically,
strategically, militarily wrong. We will not win a war of attrition
in the Middle East.
And I further note that you talk about skepticism and pessimism
of the American people and some in Congress. That is not
some kind of a subjective analysis, that is because, Madame
Secretary, we've been there almost four years, and there's a
reason for that skepticism and pessimism, and that is based
on the facts on the ground, the reality of the dynamics.
And so I have been one, as you know, who have believed
that the appropriate focus is not to escalate, but to try to find
a broader incorporation of a framework. And it will have to
be, certainly, regional, as many of us have been saying for a
long time. That should not be new to anyone. But it has to be
more than regional, it is going to have to be internally sponsored,
and that's going to include Iran and Syria.
When you were engaging Chairman Biden on this issue, on the
specific question -- will our troops go into Iran or Syria in pursuit,
based on what the president said last night -- you cannot sit here
today -- not because you're dishonest or you don't understand,
but no one in our government can sit here today and tell Americans
that we won't engage the Iranians and the Syrians cross-border.
Some of us remember 1970, Madame Secretary, and that was
Cambodia, and when our government lied to the American people
and said we didn't cross the border going into Cambodia. In fact
we did. I happen to know something about that, as do some on
this committee.
So, Madame Secretary, when you set in motion the kind of policy
that the president is talking about here, it's very, very dangerous.
Matter of fact, I have to say, Madame Secretary, that I think this
speech given last night by this president represents the most
dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam,
if it's carried out. I will resist it… less
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