Tom Daschle in Daschle-Thune Debate

On War & Peace: We can do much better fighting the war in Iraq

On War & Peace: Would still voted to authorize Bush to go to war

A: I stand by my vote. We can’t turn back the clock. We’ve got to go from here and look at how we can win this war. We’ve got to provide our troops more equipment. We’ve got to listen to our military commanders. We’ve got to have better intelligence. We’ve got to make sure we involve the international community in burden sharing a lot more than we are. We’re going to do better at this war in the future.

On War & Peace: The war in Iraq is being run the wrong way

A: It’s being run the wrong way. There’s a day doesn’t go by when I don’t think of those thousand who have died and those 7,000 who were wounded. The real issue is how can we do it better How can we make this work? The Bush administration has not provided any aid or any real appreciation for the international coalition that we have to create if we’re going to do this right. We’re not providing the equipment and the support for our troops It’s amazing we’re using sandbags and plywood in our Humvees and we’re doing bake sales for body armor. We’re not getting the military the equipment that they have to have to run this war. If you listen to the military commanders, if you had the international cooperation, if we really supported the troops with body armor and the equipment that they have to have, and if you did those kinds of things, we could be doing a lot better job than we are today.