Posted on 12/15/2003 10:45:33 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- New York Senator Hillary Clinton said the U.S. should use the opportunity created by the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to increase the involvement of the United Nations and NATO in Iraq's reconstruction.
Clinton, a Democrat, called for the U.S. to form an Iraqi reconstruction and stabilization authority -- including the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- to oversee the planned changeover next July to a transitional government from U.S. control.
Clinton said the handoff, coupled with the rotation of U.S. troops in Iraq at that time, may increase attacks by insurgents loyal to Hussein.
``This moment cannot be just about congratulating ourselves,'' Clinton said in a 45-minute speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. ``It should be a moment where we step back and consider how to go forward. What is it we can do today to strengthen our hand?''
U.S. opponents of Republican President George W. Bush's Iraq policies, such as Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, said yesterday that Hussein's capture may be a catalyst for greater international cooperation in rebuilding the Middle Eastern country, as did Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Britain's Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the U.K. envoy to Iraq, said Friday in London that he favored NATO, the military alliance including U.S. and European nations, getting involved in security operations in Iraq, now being run by the U.S.-led coalition that includes the U.K. The UN, Greenstock said, probably would only get involved after nations with troops in Iraq can ensure security.
Major Speech
The Council on Foreign Relations, a policy analysis group, said the address was Clinton's first major foreign policy speech since the wife of former U.S. President Bill Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000.
While saying she was ``thrilled'' with the news of Hussein's capture, Clinton said the U.S. should consider maintaining or increasing current troop levels in Iraq, repair relations with countries such as France and Germany that opposed the war in Iraq and have been frozen out of reconstruction contracts, and use former members of Hussein's Baathist party to aid the reconstruction.
Criticism of Bush
Clinton, who has said she isn't running for president, is favored by more Democrats for the party's 2004 presidential nomination than any of the nine declared candidates, according to a poll taken in October. She would be the pick of 43 percent of 403 Democrats surveyed by Quinnipiac University.
Clinton has been increasingly critical of the Bush administration since returning from a trip last month to Afghanistan and Iraq.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle published Dec. 6, Clinton said Bush has pursued an ``extremist agenda'' since taking office and underestimated the commitment needed to rebuild Iraq with a politically motivated policy. She told the Chronicle Bush has been ``dismissive'' of international assistance in Iraq and should ``level'' with the American people about the cost and sacrifice needed to rebuild the country.
``We need to build a world with more friends and fewer terrorists by examining new ways to enhance and deepen relations around the world,'' Clinton said today. ``The more we throw our weight around the more we encourage other nations to join with each other as a counter weight.''
U.S. `Unprepared'
The U.S. was ``unprepared'' for the challenges of rebuilding Iraq after the war and ``would be further along, have more legitimacy and diminish the opposition and resentment that is fueling the insurgency had we been willing to internationalize our presence in Iraq,'' Clinton said.
She called for the UN to take the lead as soon as possible to oversee the process leading to elections in Iraq next year, and for NATO to send troops to the relatively calm, Kurdishcontrolled northern part of Iraq. That would allow the U.S. to shift forces to the Baghdad area, she said.
Clinton also called for the U.S. to do more to stabilize Afghanistan, including education and health programs, enhanced military forces along the border with Pakistan and support for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
Concerning the North Korean nuclear crisis, Clinton said she couldn't understand Bush administration's policy, and that the U.S. should return to an accord to trade aid for agreement not to develop a nuclear weapons program that her husband as president negotiated with the North Koreans in 1994.
But it's so damned much fun to throw them under the bus!!!!
Just exactly what should the wicked witch be cangratulating herself for? Talk about her ol take credit for everything self. W captured Saddamn and Hilary captured Elian! Must hurt to lose your biggest club, two clubs counting the obvious silence about WMDs???
Pray for W and Merry Christmas to Our Troops
&^)
National defense budget= 1980, 134; 1985, 253; 1990, 299; 1995 272;
There ws no reduction in the 80's while there was a very sharp reduction from 1995 to 1992.
Nothing could be more indicative that a huge victory for our side is looming than this incessant call to involve the UN, NATO, ANYONE to water down the success of the lately undefeated, ON A ROLL, George W. Bush-led United States.
Could it be that the most sacred tenets of the left are being exposed one by one as, let's be magnanimous here, INOPERATIVE? Or is it simply their fear of a victory for CAPITALISM?
Did anyone not know this?
And which were just a smashing success!
Also I think her line about "not just congratulating ourselves" is an attempt to oh-so-subtlely take some of the credit for Saddam's capture.
He's accountable, and for much, much longer than 3 years he will be remembered as one of our greatest presidents.
Saying Cheney advocated some cuts back then, and acting like that is the end of the story won't cut it here.
latimes.com: Cheney acknowledges defense cuts began on his watch
EXCERPTS:
Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential nominee, acknowledged Wednesday that military cutbacks began during the Bush administration but said further cuts under President Clinton had "gone too far."
-snip-
"We were victorious in the Cold War, and in the aftermath of that, we did in fact significantly reduce the overall size of the U.S. military," Cheney said. "But I think we've gone too far with it. I think we've shrunk the force now at the same time we've been adding commitments, and so we're stretched pretty thin."
So no, the cuts the original poster referred to indeed trace back to clinton, not Cheney.
I drove to Homer today for a haircut. It was a long drive (about 2 hours)and the roads were icy, but I listened to Rush on the way down. He reiterated the same thing that you and I have both said here that it was the Clinton administration that cut the military.
Although I have not had time to research this, (just got home) I'm convinced that a high profile radio commentator like Rush would not have made a statement like this if it were false.
Do you have a source?
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