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Hagel, Biden react to Bush's remarks
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an address to the nation Sunday night, President Bush tied American efforts in Iraq to the global war on terror and said he would request $87 billion from Congress for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Democrat Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware spoke to CNN anchor Paula Zahn after Bush's remarks. Both men are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ZAHN: You said at the top of the hour that we will not get out of Iraq successfully unless there is focused international involvement. Are you satisfied with what you heard from the president tonight along that front? HAGEL: Paula, I think he said three things that were very important tonight, that he focused on more than he has before. One, he connected our involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East. He's really not done that in the past. Second, he specifically focused on a new U.N. resolution, getting our allies involved, talking about that involvement. And third, he put a premium as well on the long-term nature once again. But here's where the questions, I think, will come. To your question, our U.N. involvement, our allies' involvement, what would be their responsibilities? How much economic, political responsibilities would they have in return for their troops, in return for their involvement? Second, he didn't talk about our rotating our troops out or when we might see some of that happen. And the point I made ... at the top of the hour was the fact that this is a long-term effort. This is complicated. It is dangerous and difficult and uncertain. And we are going to need the imprimatur of all nations of the world involved as soon as we can in order to move the Iraqis into a position where they can govern themselves. And that, I think, will precipitate a quicker exit of America and American troops from Iraq. ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about one thing noticeably absent from this speech, and that was a direct reference to any ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction. Were you disappointed by that? BIDEN: No, I'm not, because the truth of the matter is that we're almost beyond that. Whether we were right to go in or not on weapons of mass destruction, things are so out of kilter now that we have to internationalize this, we have to secure Iraq for our own safety's sake, and I think the president put the right emphasis in leveling with the American people. It's going to cost tens of billions of dollars and require well over 100,000 troops for some time. And the big thing he did, Paula, he finally rejected the advice of the neoconservatives, [Vice President Dick] Cheney and [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and others, and he's going to the United Nations, which was inevitable. I wish we had done it earlier, but I give him credit for doing it now. Now I hope our French and German and other allies step up to the ball and are as magnanimous in acknowledging what we have to do now as the president was. ZAHN: Senator Biden, do you think Congress is going to come up with the $87 billion the president's asking for? BIDEN: I think it absolutely has to come up with it. We have no choice. We may have to consider doing something -- now, look, I think the American people are ready to sacrifice to win, and I think if we went back to the American people and said, "Look, the very wealthiest among us, we're going to postpone your tax cut for a year or two to pay for this," I think they would embrace it. I think they would do it. I don't know whether that's the way we're going to do it. But we're either going to make the deficit close to $600 billion, or we're not going to spend this money, and we have no choice. We must -- we must -- keep this commitment in Iraq. It's going to be hard. I will support him, I will support spending that money, and I hope we decide that there's other ways to pay for it, as well as just adding to the deficit.
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