Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Hearing on US Foreign Policy

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Hearing on U.S. Foreign Policy

HAGEL:

Mr. Chairman, thank you.

And again, Mr. Secretary, welcome.

We all add to the recognition that has been appropriately given to you today and your team for your presentation yesterday.

What struck me as much as anything yesterday about what you said and how you said it was that I believe the world saw a very wise, thoughtful and cautious America. And if we are to continue to enhance our relationships around the world, work with our allies and through our coalitions of common interest to focus on this great curse of mankind, terrorism, that it is going to require the kind of relationships and presentations that you showed very completely yesterday to the world.

So I compliment you and your team, Mr. Secretary, for what you did for our future, as well as our present.

You said something in your statement, as did the president in his State of the Union message the other night, in fact, if I recall, he ended with something like these great opportunities that abound today in the world. Probably never in the history of man have we seen such possibilities as we see today for good. Now, we understand the uncertainties and great dangers and complications of the kind of world we live in today.

And my question is this. Iraq is a problem. It is a concern. It is a threat. It is a challenge. That has never been, I don't believe, the question, or you've never had to make that point.

There are other urgent threats to our security around the world, North Korea, I would list the Middle East. I'm concerned about what's not happening in Israel with a peace plan. We have allowed that to drift. We have deferred that. We've got problems south of our border, big problems. You've mentioned some of these. We have great challenges still in Afghanistan.

The India-Pakistan issue is, I think, of great urgency.

You did not make these problems, but you and the president and your team must deal with them. And I would appreciate, Mr. Secretary, you assuring this committee that if we go to war in Iraq, then the leadership and the resource capacity of this country and the focus will not be turned completely on just Iraq, and we allow North Korea, the Israeli-Palestinian problem and all these other urgent issues that won't get better to drift until we get back to them.

And I would be interested in your thoughts about that. You've surely thought that through. The president has surely thought this through, has talked to his senior advisers like you, again going back to, at least, in my opinion, a common denominator why our allies are so critical, because we can't do it all alone.

Thank you.