Hagel sees new course developing for Iraq

WASHINGTON. Sen. Chuck Hagel said Friday that "the button has been pushed" on setting a new course for America's role in Iraq.

The Nebraska Republican said that with last week's elections and continuing strife in Iraq, a new direction in the war should begin to emerge early next year.

Hagel said he disagreed with President Bush's suggestion Friday that lessons from the Vietnam war for Iraq are that Americans might need to be patient because it can take time for freedom to be victorious. Bush made the suggestion while visiting Vietnam.

"To say that we're going to be there a long time -- I don't think is reality," Hagel said of Iraq.

Hagel, a Vietnam combat veteran, said he sees similarities between Iraq and the 11-year Vietnam War. Both show how easily a nation can "slide" into war, only to find how difficult it is to get out, he said.

He noted, though, that for last week's elections, Iraq was the dominant issue on voters' minds across the country.

And voters gave control of the House and Senate to Democrats, many of whom campaigned opposing the Bush administration's "stay the course" attitude on Iraq.

Hagel said the administration's Iraq policy cost Republicans three Senate seats and the Senate majority. He declined to name those races, but Democrats who often addressed the war won in Virginia, Montana and Missouri.

Come January, Bush will have to deal with a Democrat-run Congress armed with subpoena powers and control of the federal budget.

"I think that's good because we are going to require a bipartisan consensus . . . as to how we eventually unwind in Iraq," Hagel said.

Hagel said a new course shouldn't mean raising America's military presence beyond the 140,000 troops there now, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has recommended.

McCain, who is moving to launch a 2008 presidential campaign, has said more troops could help stabilize the country.

"The time for more American troops would've been at the beginning, not now," said Hagel, who also is weighing a bid for the GOP presidential nomination.