New York 2006 Senate Debate: on War & Peace

Hillary Clinton: Regrets Bush’s handling of war, but not her war vote

CLINTON: I regret the way the president used the authority that Congress gave him. I thought it made sense to get inspector back into Iraq, and backing it up with coercive diplomacy. I was worried that there were residual WMD, and that Saddam could have done something quite irrational. We know now that this administration never intended to let the inspectors do their job and contain Saddam. I take responsibility for my vote. I regret that we’ve had strategic blunders and misjudgments. But if we knew then what we know now, there never would have been a vote, and there never would have been a war. This president chose that war and unfortunately, was ill-prepared for what was needed to be done to be successful.

Q: Do you regret voting that way at the time?

CLINTON: I regret the way he used it. I don’t believe in do-overs in life. I made the best judgment at the time.

John Spencer: Congress should’ve known that war in Iraq would not go well

Q: Do you regret voting to authorize the Iraq war?

CLINTON: I regret the way the president used the authority that Congress gave him. But if we knew then what we know now, there never would have been a vote, and there never would have been a war. I don’t believe in do-overs in life. I made the best judgment at the time.

SPENCER: Maybe they don’t know in Congress what they’re voting for, when they send people to war. Maybe they should think about what a war is. Wars do not go well. Mrs. Clinton is playing the blame game. It’s all about blame-President-Bush. You can’t do that in a war. We are struggling, but we must prevail. We must win the war.

Q: Shouldn’t the government have focused more on Afghanistan instead of going to Iraq?

SPENCER: I think our government focused pretty well in Afghanistan. And did an outstanding job in Afghanistan. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. That’s counter-productive. We must move forward, and stop the blame game.

Hillary Clinton: Phased redeployment out of Iraq, beginning immediately

A: #1: We need to resolve the political problems in Iraq. They’ve been allowed to fester. How are you going to guarantee the reasonable Sunni majority a place in the government? How are you going to distribute the oil revenue, so people don’t feel that they’re being ripped off? These are key issues for political resolution of sectarian violence. #2: We’ve got to have the regional neighbors involved--with a high-level contact group, where we bring the regional powers together. #3: The President’s strategy has basically been, “Well, when the Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down.” Well, the Iraqis have been standing up, but they haven’t been fighting. That’s why we need a phased redeployment--moving our troops out so they have to stand and fight for themselves.

Q: Give us a timetable for that phasing out.

A: When we originally proposed it, we said that 2006 should be a year of transition. We’re running out of time in 2006. I think this needs to be done immediately.