Bush administration, lawmakers applaud U.N. resolution
Biden: Iraq is 'world's problem'
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U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell pretends to swing a bat Thursday, while talking to reporters outside the State Department.
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The U.N. Security Council votes unanimously to adopt a U.S.-backed resolution on Iraq. (October 16)
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SPECIAL REPORT
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration and lawmakers applauded Thursday the passage of a new U.N. resolution that calls for additional troops and resources to help stabilize Iraq.
The unanimous vote was a victory for the White House, which had lobbied hard for a show of support from the United Nations on the ongoing efforts to rebuild Iraq and a sign that more international help was warranted.
"I think the major disagreements of the early part of the year -- to go to war or not to go to war -- that's over," Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. "What we have been debating the last several weeks is how best to create the peace -- not whether to go to war or not -- and how best to create a new government in Iraq that will be representative of its people and live in peace with its neighbors. I think we are all now agreed to that."
During an appearance in San Bernadino, California with Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, President Bush expressed his appreciation for the U.N. vote.
"A democratic Iraq will stand as an example to all the Middle East. We believe, and the Iraqi people will show, that liberty is the hope and the right of every land," Bush said.
Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the vote "a very important step" toward bringing the world's focus back on Iraq.
"It acknowledges that the Security Council fully understands that this is the world's problem -- Iraq is the world's problem -- not just the United States problem, and that failure to secure the peace in Iraq would have significant consequences and ramifications for the region and the world," Biden said.
