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American Morning

Interview with Senator Chuck Hagel

Aired September 24, 2003 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the address from the U.N. from yesterday. France, Russia and Germany still critical of the president of the United States after the address to the U.N.
Today, on the day after, Senator Chuck Hagel sits on the Foreign Relations Committee.

He's with us to talk more about it live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, good to see you again and good morning.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R-NB), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Thank you.

Good morning.

HEMMER: You are one senator who always insists that relationships, friendships, partnerships are what's needed to make sure that huge projects like the one in Iraq can go forward.

Were any of those partnerships created this week in New York City?

HAGEL: Well, I don't believe we are where we need to be yet. What's very important here is the United States start to develop a plan that we can present to our allies to give them a role in the reconstruction of Iraq. That means decision making authority, sharing responsibility, sharing, it's in the interests of all our friends and allies around the world that we stabilize Iraq, we stabilize the Middle East.

We didn't do that yesterday. We need to do that. Jerry Bremer is going to be before the Foreign Relations Committee in about an hour and a half. We're going to ask him some of those questions.

HEMMER: We want to talk more about Jerry Bremer in a moment here. But first I want to show our viewers, this $20 billion price tag in Iraq for reconstruction, described as a small percentage of GDP. But here's what you get, basically -- $697 million for sewer repairs; $1.2 billion for oil production; $240 million for roads and bridge; $100 million for housing; $400 million for two prisons.

When you go back to Nebraska, how do you explain this price tag to your voters and supporters?

HAGEL: That's a big universe of questioning that we are going to be undertaking this week with Ambassador Bremer here on Capitol Hill. Those are relevant questions. They're real questions. $87 billion on top of $70 billion that we appropriated earlier this year for almost all of it Iraq, some for Afghanistan, as to where we go from here with that money, how much more money, how many more years are we going to be there, what kind of help are we going to get from the international community.

The fact is, the American people understand and I think most of us here on Capitol Hill understand we cannot sustain this effort alone. We need many partners and the fact is America should not have to carry this heavy burden alone.

The stabilization of Iraq is in the interests of all nations and stability and peace in the Middle East certainly is in the interests of all nations. So America needs to open this process up.

HEMMER: But, Senator, do you think there's any possibility that the White House loses this vote? You'll support it, correct?

HAGEL: Well, I will support it, yes. But not without asking some tough questions. We owe that to our constituents. We owe that to those we represent. We are going to be running an over a half a trillion dollar national deficit next year, this year probably over $400 billion. Where is that money going? How long are we going to be there?

We don't expect precise, definite answers. You can't do that. This is an imperfect business. But some kind of universe of framing this thing as to how are we going to win there and then that road map, essentially, that blueprint needs to be laid out to the American people in order to answer their questions.

HEMMER: Paul Bremer has said, earlier this week in Washington, that things are dramatically better in Iraq than they were four months ago.

Do you believe him?

HAGEL: Well, I was in Iraq. That doesn't mean I know a lot about it. I was in Iraq for 14 hours. Senators Biden, Lugar and I were the first senators in there in late June. So there's an awful lot we did not see.

I think overall Iraq is making some progress. I think there are very significant achievements that we have made. But at the same time, this is still a war zone. The fact is, as General Abizaid said, our Central Comm commander, we are engaged in guerilla war. So this is a long way from being secure or stable. We have a long way to go, not just putting together an economic infrastructure and a constitution and a governing Iraqi council that can move on to elections, but just to stabilize and secure Iraq is another objective that we're working toward, but we're a long way from accomplishing.

HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.

Chuck Hagel from Capitol Hill.

HAGEL: Thank you. HEMMER: Good to see you again.

HAGEL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 24, 2003 - 07:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the address from the U.N. from yesterday. France, Russia and Germany still critical of the president of the United States after the address to the U.N.
Today, on the day after, Senator Chuck Hagel sits on the Foreign Relations Committee.

He's with us to talk more about it live from Capitol Hill.

Senator, good to see you again and good morning.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R-NB), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Thank you.

Good morning.

HEMMER: You are one senator who always insists that relationships, friendships, partnerships are what's needed to make sure that huge projects like the one in Iraq can go forward.

Were any of those partnerships created this week in New York City?

HAGEL: Well, I don't believe we are where we need to be yet. What's very important here is the United States start to develop a plan that we can present to our allies to give them a role in the reconstruction of Iraq. That means decision making authority, sharing responsibility, sharing, it's in the interests of all our friends and allies around the world that we stabilize Iraq, we stabilize the Middle East.

We didn't do that yesterday. We need to do that. Jerry Bremer is going to be before the Foreign Relations Committee in about an hour and a half. We're going to ask him some of those questions.

HEMMER: We want to talk more about Jerry Bremer in a moment here. But first I want to show our viewers, this $20 billion price tag in Iraq for reconstruction, described as a small percentage of GDP. But here's what you get, basically -- $697 million for sewer repairs; $1.2 billion for oil production; $240 million for roads and bridge; $100 million for housing; $400 million for two prisons.

When you go back to Nebraska, how do you explain this price tag to your voters and supporters?

HAGEL: That's a big universe of questioning that we are going to be undertaking this week with Ambassador Bremer here on Capitol Hill. Those are relevant questions. They're real questions. $87 billion on top of $70 billion that we appropriated earlier this year for almost all of it Iraq, some for Afghanistan, as to where we go from here with that money, how much more money, how many more years are we going to be there, what kind of help are we going to get from the international community.

The fact is, the American people understand and I think most of us here on Capitol Hill understand we cannot sustain this effort alone. We need many partners and the fact is America should not have to carry this heavy burden alone.

The stabilization of Iraq is in the interests of all nations and stability and peace in the Middle East certainly is in the interests of all nations. So America needs to open this process up.

HEMMER: But, Senator, do you think there's any possibility that the White House loses this vote? You'll support it, correct?

HAGEL: Well, I will support it, yes. But not without asking some tough questions. We owe that to our constituents. We owe that to those we represent. We are going to be running an over a half a trillion dollar national deficit next year, this year probably over $400 billion. Where is that money going? How long are we going to be there?

We don't expect precise, definite answers. You can't do that. This is an imperfect business. But some kind of universe of framing this thing as to how are we going to win there and then that road map, essentially, that blueprint needs to be laid out to the American people in order to answer their questions.

HEMMER: Paul Bremer has said, earlier this week in Washington, that things are dramatically better in Iraq than they were four months ago.

Do you believe him?

HAGEL: Well, I was in Iraq. That doesn't mean I know a lot about it. I was in Iraq for 14 hours. Senators Biden, Lugar and I were the first senators in there in late June. So there's an awful lot we did not see.

I think overall Iraq is making some progress. I think there are very significant achievements that we have made. But at the same time, this is still a war zone. The fact is, as General Abizaid said, our Central Comm commander, we are engaged in guerilla war. So this is a long way from being secure or stable. We have a long way to go, not just putting together an economic infrastructure and a constitution and a governing Iraqi council that can move on to elections, but just to stabilize and secure Iraq is another objective that we're working toward, but we're a long way from accomplishing.

HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.

Chuck Hagel from Capitol Hill.

HAGEL: Thank you. HEMMER: Good to see you again.

HAGEL: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com