U.S. Senate hopeful and current Congressman Joe Hoeffel spoke at Huntsman Hall with students and community members on the war in Iraq and the larger war on terror yesterday evening.
The three-term congressman is looking to unseat incumbent Republican Arlen Specter on Nov. 2.
An audience of around 60 comprised mostly Penn students, along with several campaign workers and interested Philadelphia residents.
Not all attendees were present to show their support.
"I am interested in international relations," said College sophomore Margaret Foster, a registered Republican. "I haven't made up my mind about the candidates yet, and I'm curious about Hoeffel's approach to his candidacy."
Others, like Engineering sophomore Ben Weinberg, plan to vote for Hoeffel. "The little I know is very positive, but I wanted to find out more. I wanted to hear about Iraq in particular.
In his speech, Hoeffel focused on the events leading up to the war and laid out his ideas for future actions.
As a member of the House International Relations Committee, Hoeffel is well versed in the foreign diplomacy aspects of the administration and is an outspoken critic of the tactics used by the current administration.
"We are now facing Bush's doctrine of pre-emption," Hoeffel said. "If we are going to use pre-emption [as a policy], we have to know what we're doing. We have been distracted by [Bush's] desire to go into Iraq. Our greatest threat is still in Afghanistan."
Defending his vote to go to war, he commented that he voted because of the "horrible offenses of Saddam Hussein," among other reasons.
Hoeffel recounted a visit to the White House during October 2002, in which he spoke with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and then-Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet about reasons to go to war. He now claims that they "lied to us and did so knowingly" about the certainty of claims made about conditions in Iraq.
In addition to reviewing "how we got where we are," Hoeffel laid out his three-pronged approach to continuing the war on terror. He called for the White House to reassess policies, refocus on the threat from al Qaeda and redeploy forces to Afghanistan.
Hoeffel continually insisted upon the need to "internationalize and Iraq-atize," meaning transfer control back to Iraqis.
"We will need to use the totality of American power to do it. We are much more than a military power," he added.
While the majority of the session centered around the war in Iraq, Hoeffel noted that "Arlen Specter has been silent" on the issue of Iraq except when voicing confidence in President George W. Bush.
Erin Wilson, a College senior and current "Joe Hoeffel for Senate" intern, feels that "it is important for Democrats to stand up on this issue right now."
Hoeffel chose to address the group at Penn because of the good status and location. "This is important in the campaign. ... We were looking for a forum," he said.
College senior and president of the Penn Democrats Rich Eisenberg felt the response was great.
"Hoeffel is very outspoken and very much on the same page as John Kerry," he said. "Joe Hoeffel will be an asset to John Kerry in November."
