Right on, Hagel!
Bu2
Posts: 1,693
This guy has been quietly impressing me. He's getting louder. Word has it he's hoping to run Independent on a ticket with Bloomberg:
Republican critic of Bush seeks UN mediator for Iraq 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), a fierce critic of President George W. Bush over Iraq, said Tuesday a United Nations mediator should be appointed to take the US "face" off the war.
Hagel, who has branded the Iraq conflict the worst US foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam war, warned the United States was making a cycle of violence and despair in Iraq worse.
"First we must take the American face off of Iraq," said Hagel, who is mulling a presidential bid and has expressed frustration with the outlook of his Republican party, sparking speculation he could run as an independent.
"Get America out of the middle of the Iraqi political process. We are exacerbating, we are complicating the problem ... because the people of Iraq, the people of the Middle East believe that we are still an occupying power."
"We have no options in Iraq today, there is chaos today in Iraq, we must change directions, strategy and policy," Hagel said in a speech on the Senate floor
"The time has come to consider an international mediator for Iraq probably under the auspices of the United Nations to begin a new process for achieving some form of political accommodation in Iraq."
"The Iraqis are obviously incapable of bringing that consensus, that accommodation together. Only a credible and trusted outside influence can bring this political reconciliation about in Iraq."
Hagel's hard-hitting speech came at a critical point of the standoff between the Democratic-led Congress and the White House over Iraq.
The Senate is due to vote Wednesday on two symbolic bills which call for funds for the war to be cut by March 31, 2008, and to punish Iraq's government for sluggish political progress.
Republican critic of Bush seeks UN mediator for Iraq 2 hours, 37 minutes ago
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), a fierce critic of President George W. Bush over Iraq, said Tuesday a United Nations mediator should be appointed to take the US "face" off the war.
Hagel, who has branded the Iraq conflict the worst US foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam war, warned the United States was making a cycle of violence and despair in Iraq worse.
"First we must take the American face off of Iraq," said Hagel, who is mulling a presidential bid and has expressed frustration with the outlook of his Republican party, sparking speculation he could run as an independent.
"Get America out of the middle of the Iraqi political process. We are exacerbating, we are complicating the problem ... because the people of Iraq, the people of the Middle East believe that we are still an occupying power."
"We have no options in Iraq today, there is chaos today in Iraq, we must change directions, strategy and policy," Hagel said in a speech on the Senate floor
"The time has come to consider an international mediator for Iraq probably under the auspices of the United Nations to begin a new process for achieving some form of political accommodation in Iraq."
"The Iraqis are obviously incapable of bringing that consensus, that accommodation together. Only a credible and trusted outside influence can bring this political reconciliation about in Iraq."
Hagel's hard-hitting speech came at a critical point of the standoff between the Democratic-led Congress and the White House over Iraq.
The Senate is due to vote Wednesday on two symbolic bills which call for funds for the war to be cut by March 31, 2008, and to punish Iraq's government for sluggish political progress.
Feels Good Inc.
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