Daschle: America Focused on Iraq, Could Have ‘Avoided’ Georgia Violence
EmailABC News’ Ayana Harry Reports: Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., represented the Obama campaign, discussing the Russia-Georgia conflict on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."
In a debate with Republican Mitt Romney, Daschle maintained, "If we would have preemptively worked with Russia, with Georgia, making sure that NATO had the kind of ability and the presence and the engagement, we could have perhaps avoided this.
"We need to engage around the world. What we’ve done is focused so much on Iraq that a lot of these other issues have slipped. They’ve not had the priority they deserve. They’ve not had the kind of attention that an Obama administration would provide."
Speaking on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., Daschle was firm about the need for Russia to end its occupation in Georgia. He said, "They’ve got to withdraw their troops. They’ve got to show that they can be responsible citizens again."
(Click here to see video from "This Week" of Daschle debating Republican Mitt Romney.)
When Stephanopoulos pointed out McCain’s repeated warnings about Russian aggression and his calls for removing Russia from the G8, Daschle pushed back, saying, "We need to work with them on climate and on energy. So, simply to exclude them and completely eliminate them from any real engagement with us is a process that I think we have to be very concerned about."
Daschle also spoke about the vice presidential sweepstakes, calling Obama’s decision a "question of experience versus judgment," saying Obama "wants somebody with good judgment."
When asked if Obama has called to offer him the VP spot, Daschle quickly answered, "He hasn’t. No." And when asked if Obama will offer him the slot this week, Dashcle told George, "Well, he won’t."
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True to Bush fashion, the present crisis with Russia is yet another crisis that could have and should have been prevented by solid, competent leadership. Russia’s responses have been entirely predictable based on what has been occurring over the last couple of years. Bush’s Iraq misadventure and his other wasteful, misguided priorities allowed a window of opportunity for new wind to be breathed into the Cold War. A capable president would have dealt with this issue long before it became a crisis or big news.
See Bill Clinton.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | August 17, 2008, 12:39 pm 12:39 pm
Was Georgia acting “responsible” when it attacked So. Ossetia?
Posted by: JR | August 17, 2008, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
The headline is a stretch. The words Daschle used were “perhaps avoided”, adding “We don’t know”.
His point was pretty clear: America’s resources and attention have been diverted from real security threats around the world into (a largely made up threat in) Iraq.
I agree. Real threats being Putin’s reshaping of the Russian empire as well as the real war on terror in Afghanistan and around the world.
Posted by: El_Pajaro | August 17, 2008, 1:09 pm 1:09 pm
People have lost their minds. You are now blaming what happened in Georgia on our preoccupation with Iraq??? huh???
According to this line of thinking, if ONLY we hadn’t attacked Iraq we would have been free to solve all the problems of the world. Please.
Daschle is a true know-nothing. How about you study the situation a little. RUSSIA WANTS TO REFORM THE SOVIET UNION, ONLY WITHOUT THE NAME. This has to do with the European Union, NATO, etc. THEY DO NOT LIKE WESTERN EUROPE AND DO NOT WANT THEIR SATELLITES ASSIMILATED. NOTHING TO DO WITH IRAQ
Posted by: JA | August 17, 2008, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm
What a mess the USA is in! Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, now Georgia w/Russia. It’s going to take more money from the taxpayers to pay for the mess. Don’t you think? What about the gas prices at the pump, economy, jobs, etc? Can John McCain truly handle these problems? The current administration is republican, why haven’t they come up with solutions? Is that an indication of inexperience and bad judgement? I believe Senator Obama can fix the problems. He may not have the experience that McCain has in the area of foreign policy, but Obama will have people in his administration that have more experience than McCain does and also have better judgement. McCain is like a war monger. And that’s scary.
Posted by: janet taylor | August 17, 2008, 1:42 pm 1:42 pm
Hard words beget harder words leading to separation and isolation; wars are no-win scenarios for everyone involved. How does a country win an “occupation”? By what criteria? It would be good for people to do deeper thinking then simply react to media sound bites. Evidence exists Georgia attacked based on believing the U.S. had its back covered. The military industrial once again stands to profit while everything else equals a loss.
Posted by: Lou R | August 17, 2008, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
If Obama had bothered to hold a SINGLE meeting of the Europe/NATO committee that he chairs, maybe this COULD have been avoided.
If Obama was too busy campaigning to hold meetings of this committee, he should have ceded the chairmanship to someone with enough time to hold meetings.
If Iraq is a diversion, I am sure glad that McCain’s strategy is winning the Iraq war. Obama’s retreat in defeat strategy would have destabilized the entire middle east and emboldened challengers such as Russia. I wonder how distracted we would have been then, while sitting licking the wounds of our failure as Iraq descended into civil war and Iran consolidated their control over the region. Obama is wrong on so many issues it is pitiful.
Posted by: HawkTheSlayer | August 17, 2008, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
So, we are supposed to care what Tom Daschle says?
The man couldn’t even get re-elected by the people of South Dakota when he was Senate Majority Leader.
Daschle and his opinions are a joke…
Posted by: Jayhawk | August 17, 2008, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
If anyone wants to get a real look at what a Democrat majority can do, take a look at what has happened to gas prices since the Democrats gained a majority in the House and Senate in 2006.
Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dean…
The blind leading the blind…
Posted by: Jayhawk | August 17, 2008, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
@Peter: Huck’s army has gone “rouge”? Maybe they should just spend a little more time out in the sun.
Posted by: Rob | August 17, 2008, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
Who wants to listen to that idiot Tom Daschle. He is becoming a little Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: Ralph Woods | August 17, 2008, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
Russia can be expected to blow
the missile shield to bits if
it ever gets installed in
eastern Europe.
Posted by: anon | August 17, 2008, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
Another day, another opportunity for some dummy to blame Bush for something he has no control over. Tomorrow, maybe we can look forward to Bush creating hurricane Fay.
Posted by: Brad | August 17, 2008, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
Janet Taylor
Barack Obama would be hard -pressed to point to Georgia on a world map. Why do you think he would, all of a sudden, have an answer to a a tricky diplomatic problem like this? Is it a messiah thing? Just what is going on with you people? Are we dealing with a cult? Just a few years ago BHO was a ‘community organizer’, (having failed as a law academic). What in the world- this is a serious question- makes you think that he has the judgement and experience to deal with a crisis like this? After all, in the Rezko affair,just 2 or 3 years ago, he showed extremely poor judgement, didn’t he?
Posted by: Marty | August 17, 2008, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
Yes Russia would blow the missle shield to bit’s Anon. But it’s not there to protect agains Russian. Never was intended too.
Posted by: Ron` | August 17, 2008, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
Tom Daschle reputation as one of the biggest morons in Washington is intact.
Posted by: Brian Levine | August 17, 2008, 7:18 pm 7:18 pm
Democrats are still living in a fantasy world.
Posted by: Neo Politicus | August 18, 2008, 8:19 am 8:19 am
Wow, it really bugs the Dems that the US Military is succeeding in Iraq. That is the last thing the Dems wanted to see. Dems = The Party of Defeat. Pathetic!
Posted by: Ed Stanowicz | August 18, 2008, 9:12 am 9:12 am
The Georgia cluster#$%^ has been brewing for a couple of years. The Georgia government has been propped up by the pentagon. So why should we be surprised when Georgia abuses their power and attacks a neighboring country. And why are we surprised that Russia would come to Osettia’s aid? There are a lot of if’s but it’s not a stretch to believe that Iraq is consuming attention that could have prevented this.
Posted by: rgreen | August 18, 2008, 11:42 am 11:42 am
okay people seriously wake up, I know a lot of you like to blame the Iraq war on EVERYTHING, but this, are you serious? I mean seriously there is nothing that could be done to prevent. Nothing the USA would do and nothing that Europe would do. NATO wouldn’t have done anything. Do we really want to go to war with Russia, no. Putin would walk all over Obama if he was elected. Do you even know what Putin’s state run media is telling the people? He is saying that the Georgians attacked Russia so that America would elect McCain over Obama. Putin would love to have Obama elected.
Posted by: john | August 18, 2008, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
john, it’s the people that are awake that realize why this happened the way that it did. It’s not an isolated incident that came from out of nowhere. The US built up the Georgians and they got power-drunk. Most would argue that that Georgia used us. We gave them the arms and advice and when we aren’t looking the go and attack Ossetia. So it does stand to argue that if more American resources were dedicated to Georgia that they would not have attacked Ossetia.
Posted by: rgreen | August 18, 2008, 12:33 pm 12:33 pm
So where was the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on European Affairs on this predictable situation? Oops, on the campaign trail. Nevermind. It’s Bush’s fault. Yep, that’s it.
Posted by: Candice | August 18, 2008, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
The Truth hurts – Daschle did good to point out that the Bush Admin screwed up again.
McCain and Rove screwed up advising the Georgians to provoke Russian. Dumb move.
Sorry, we are not all Georgians, and John McCain does not speak for America.
Bottomline: US can not afford the billions McCain is lobbying for Georgia.
Posted by: Paul | August 18, 2008, 11:50 pm 11:50 pm