Iraq Challenge

KWAME HOLMAN:

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and joint chiefs of staff chairman Richard Myers received a cordial welcome this morning from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. But within minutes they were on the defensive, responding to pointed questions and some criticism over decisions made by the Bush administration within the last week marking important shifts in U.S. policy toward postwar Iraq.

There was last week's announcement that the United States now would go to the United Nations Security Council to request formation of an international security force in Iraq. On Sunday night, the president said he would ask Congress for an additional $87 billion to continue military and rebuilding operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And then this morning's report that tours of army reservists and national guard units on the ground in Iraq would be extended to a year. General Myers said there was one simple reality that underlies all of those decisions.

GEN. RICHARD MYERS:

I think we need to take a moment and pause and just think about what this is all about. We are a nation at war. We've been a nation at war for almost two years. The stakes could not be higher. The stakes could not be higher. Certainly in my 38 years of service, the stakes have never been higher. You may have to go back to the Civil War to find a time when the values that we hold dear have been threatened like they have been threatened today.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Myers said it would take patience and commitment to get the job done. But the committee's top Democrat, Michigan's Carl Levin, a leading critic of the administration's postwar policy, chastised the pentagon for poor planning, beginning with the cost.

SEN. CARL LEVIN:

And Mr. Wolfowitz, you told Congress in March that "we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." Talk about rosy scenarios. Before this committee, when senior military leaders tried to give us realistic estimates that Iraq will require substantial numbers of U.S. troops for the foreseeable future, they were contradicted and at times ridiculed by the civilian leadership of the Defense Department.

It has been clear from the beginning that the United States cannot do all of this alone. The administration only belatedly and begrudgingly now has gone back to the United Nations for an explicit mandate– a mandate that many countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey, and India, have said for months that they needed if they were going to send troops to Iraq. The administration's task is now more difficult because it delayed so long. Their go-it-alone chickens are coming home to roost.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Wolfowitz responded, crediting the U.S. Military commander in Iraq, General John Abizaid, for requesting an international force be sent to Iraq, rather than more U.S. troops.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

General Abizaid and his commanders have said repeatedly that they not only don't need more troops, they don't want more American troops. What they do want are more international troops to share the burden of providing stability forces. But most of all, what they want are more Iraqi troops, because it is their country that we have liberated, and it is they who need to take over the main security tasks.

The future is not in the military, but in getting control back in the hands of the Iraqi people. And we are making rapid progress in that area. We've gone from no Iraqis fighting with us when Baghdad fell, to currently more than 55,000, 55,000, Mr. Chairman, serving with us and providing security for their country. And that makes Iraqis the single largest member of the coalition after the United States.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Most of the committee questions, however, centered on the president's decision to request help from the United Nations. Committee chairman John Warner of Virginia:

SEN. JOHN WARNER:

The resolution could give various nations the basis on which to bring troops, and I hope contribute financially, to this. Do you have a supplementary comment?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

Absolutely. All three things of those things: Help on the troops front, help on the political front, and help on the economic front. We have no desire to own this problem or to control. Our only desire is what will get things fixed most rapidly. And you have to look at these pragmatically case by case. More resources are great. Too many hands on the steering wheel, especially in the military area, is not great. But I think we've reached a very good understanding with the secretary-general.

SEN. JOHN WARNER:

You are prepared to make a sharing of the responsibility and the authority in the direction on that side? Is that… do I understand that?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

It's completely pragmatic, and whatever works best, we will do.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Senator Levin followed.

SEN. CARL LEVIN:

What specific commitments have we asked of other nations for the reconstruction effort financially?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

You know, the more other countries are prepared to contribute, the more they are absolutely entitled to share in control over how resources are used. When countries are giving money, they're certainly entitled to saying how that money is spent.

KWAME HOLMAN:

But Arizona Republican John McCain, who has argued for a stronger U.S. Military presence in Iraq, challenged Wolfowitz to explain what role a U.N.-Sponsored force would play.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN:

It's been mentioned a couple of times, Secretary Wolfowitz, that there may be more casualties if we send in additional American troops. The General just referred to supply convoys that would be open to attack. Is that an accurate depiction of what you said?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

Depending on what you send them for, I think that's right, senator.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN:

So we're going to send in… we're going to ask for international troops to come in, in all due respect, general, who will also need supply convoys, and we'll tell them they'll take the casualties, Americans won't take the casualties? I don't get the logic there.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

Senator, the kind of thing, if I may…

SEN. JOHN McCAIN:

Go ahead, please.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

The kind of thing I meant… as a vivid example, we had three Americans killed and one very badly wounded when someone threw a bomb or a hand grenade out of the top floor of a hospital they were guarding. We're training Iraqis to guard hospitals. We're not talking about bringing in international troops to do that either. I mean, there are a lot of dangerous…

SEN. JOHN McCAIN:

What are we asking the international troops to do?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

Well, the truth is, on the whole with, I'd say, the exception of the British in Basra, the international troops are going into areas that are relatively stable.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Texas Republican John Cornyn expressed his frustration that most of the news about postwar Iraq is focused only on the negative.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN:

The American people are seeing the drip, drip, drip of criticism from the armchair generals and the pundits who want to criticize everything that happens that does not happen in a perfect or desirable way. And I really worry that we are not doing everything we might do to get the positive message out to the Iraqi people.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ:

And I think it's very important, as I said earlier, that we be open to criticism, that we learn the lessons we need to learn, but not to send out a message to our enemies that we're weak or that we're lacking in resolve, or that we don't recognize what we've accomplished or how strong we are, because believe me, they do know we're strong. We need to show that we believe it.

KWAME HOLMAN:

As for the president's $87 billion request to continue operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, West Virginia's Robert Byrd, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said he won't rubber stamp it.

SEN. ROBERT BYRD:

Congress is not an ATM. We have to be able to explain this new, enormous bill to the American people.

KWAME HOLMAN:

However, there seemed to be general agreement among members that the money would be approved in the coming weeks, but only after administration officials answer more questions about how that money will be spent.