Sen. Clinton calls for new international agency to run Iraq
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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday called for a new international organization to replace the current Coalition Provisional Authority overseeing Iraq -- a concept that would push back the transfer of power to Iraqis until more stability could be achieved.
Clinton said the Bush administration must turn its focus to a smooth transition of power to the Iraqis, and bring in more international partners in that effort.
Although President Bush has set a target date of late June for the transfer of power, Clinton said that timeline should be flexible. She added that handing over power to a new Iraqi government in June could be a "recipe for disaster," because the United States will have rotated its most experienced troops out of the country around that same time.
"We should transfer leadership when we have maximized the conditions for stability and success," the New York Democrat said. "I think everyone agrees we must move as quickly as possible, it's just the devil is in the details about what is possible."
Creating a broader international agency to head the transition effort, she said, would help "buy ourselves some time" before making the transition of power. She said the new agency would "add both military and civilian resources, so that this was not just an American occupation."
In her speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan, Clinton praised the U.S. military, President Bush and intelligence agencies for the capture of Saddam Hussein. But, she warned, this moment "cannot just be about congratulating ourselves."
Clinton criticized the Bush administration's decision to bar countries that opposed the war from bidding on Iraq reconstruction contracts, but said she supported a "preference" to hire American companies.
"Publicly prohibiting other nations from competition is unnecessarily antagonistic and may hinder our ability to get support for such causes as debt relief (for Iraq)," she said.
Along with Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, Clinton traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan last month. She said while the Bush administration has poured resources into Iraq, the international effort to stabilize Afghanistan has suffered.
"We had more law enforcement personnel on duty in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Olympics than we have soldiers in all of Afghanistan today," she said.
