By Brian Chappell, USMC Intern
February 12, 2007

During the luncheon January 24 Plenary Session of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, Senator Chuck Hagel (NE) spoke on a number of big challenges facing the United States.

Senator Hagel said that the most pressing matter right now is the issue of the war in Iraq. Senator Hagel discussed an Iraq resolution being brought to the Senate floor for debate that he co'sponsored with the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (DE).

According to Senator Hagel, each of the 21 Senators present in the five hour Iraq resolution markup in the Senate Committee meeting “believes strongly in our country. No one wants to be defeated. No one wants a weakened America. That’s not the debate. The debate is how we responsibly pursue our interest in the Middle East and Iraq.”

Senator Hagel supported the 2002 resolution to authorize military action in Iraq, but he has emerged as a strong critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war.

As elected officials, Senator Hagel said, “you have responsibilities and obligations to meet and it doesn’t matter a heck of a lot whether you are a democrat or a republican. You do what you need to do to get the job done.”

When speaking of what he thought about the mayors of our cities and towns, Hegel noted that “you mayors make a better world everyday. You shape, you mold, and you teach people.”

Senator Hagel talked about gaining trust from your constituents. “If you do not have the trust of the people, you can’t govern, you can’t accomplish anything. It is a precious, precious, commodity,” Senator Hagel said.

Senator Hagel said he does not agree that the American people should have to choose between having rights and having security. “The Government should never say, we’ll just let a few of your rights erode if you just give us, the government, a little more power and we’ll give you more protection, more security,” he noted.

According to Senator Hagel, with all the challenges that we have before us in our country, obviously Iraq is the centerpiece. “When men and women are dying in war, we need to pay attention. We better pay a lot of attention to that,” he added. `Senator Hagel said that Washington has no higher responsibility than to pay attention to Iraq. However, “We must also pay attention to the other issues that are so critical, the issues, which you as mayors deal with everyday, such as: urban areas, housing, crime, illegal drugs, immigration reform, energy, budget, The Community Development Block Grant Program, all of the things that are important at your levels. We cannot allow those issues to drift. And I don’t believe we, [the Senate] will allow that to happen.”