Senator Hagel On Iraq: “It Is Very Wrong…To Put American Troops In A Hopeless, Winless Situation”…

CBS News/Face The Nation August 6, 2006 at 11:22 PM
READ MORE: 2006, George W. Bush, CBS, Iraq

Excerpts From CBS News: Face The Nation
Moderator: BOB SCHIEFFER - CBS News

SCHIEFFER: Senator Hagel, you, of course, have broken with the White House
and with many in your own party on this, talking about it is time to start
thinking about getting American troops out of there. Where do you go from
here, senator, and what happens if we do pull troops out?...

Sen. HAGEL:

...What you do, I think, because we don't have many options--there's no good
options here, no good options. I--I would move toward a higher ground toward
right back to what you talked about, Bob, the regionalization. I would--I
would get the first President Bush, President Clinton involved and try to
impanel a--a regional security conference, a regional diplomatic conference.

The UN can be part of that. Unless you come at it that way, we're going to be
leaving Iraq, and it is not going to be the way we intended to leave Iraq.

Because that--that is the direction of where this is going. It is very wrong,
Bob, to put American troops in a hopeless, winless situation, just keep
feeding them in to--to what's going on. That's irresponsible and that is
wrong.

Read complete transcript here.