Pelosi: Iraq War A Big Ethical Issue

Jan. 5 - KGO (KGO) -- Nancy Pelosi sits down with Bay Area reporters and talks about the biggest challenges that the Democrats face. The speaker of the House has outlined a half dozen goals she wants passed in the first 100 hours, but the biggest issue isn't on that list.

In her first full day in office, Speaker Pelosi walked us through the Capitol, showed off her offices, sat down and talked for some time about her goals and about her plans in Washington, but mostly, about the war in Iraq.

As she welcomed us to her new offices, Nancy Pelosi confessed it's a thrill to be speaker.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: "It's quite exciting I have to admit, the history of it all, the excitement of the first woman speaker."

Walking us through the Capitol, she promised that Republicans will find her door open. And should they enter in the next 100 working hours, she will no doubt remind them of her immediate legislative goals.

Nancy Pelosi: "Raising the minimum wage, making college more affordable, having lower prices for prescription drugs..."

She's reeled them off in nearly every speech this week, but when asked about her biggest challenge, she doesn't name one of them.

Nancy Pelosi: "I believe the biggest ethical issue in this country is the war in Iraq. How we went there, how we put our troops out there without the equipment they need, without the operational intelligence to be able to deal with the enemy."

Pelosi says the election of a Democratic majority in the House and Senate will clearly make a difference in Iraq, but just how is still a little fuzzy. Congress controls the hundreds of billions being spent in Iraq, but Pelosi has promised Democrats won't cut the funding and endanger the troops. So what can they do?

Nancy Pelosi: "Well you can set some standards and make sure that something is happening there."

Her plan is for Congress to oversee how the money is being spent and to make the president justify his war budget.

Nancy Pelosi: "To find out what really is happening there so that the public can see that too."

Pelosi says if the administration is forced to admit the truth, what support for the war still exists will evaporate.

Nancy Pelosi: "And you cannot sustain a war of this kind with the division that we have in our country and the lack of support for this war."

But there are indications the president will try and force Pelosi's hand by refusing to say how the war funds will be spent.

The incoming chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee is John Murtha. He will soon be receiving the administration's request for more money, and so far, Pelosi says the White House hasn't supplied any information.

Nancy Pelosi: "Because they know that the standards that we have set may not be met."

The president has scheduled his speech for a new strategy in Iraq for next Wednesday. He is considering, we are told, a build-up of troops in Iraq to try and secure Baghdad.

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