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Obama Talks Foreign Policy At West Point

Aired May 28, 2014 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We have live reports from London to Washington to Ukraine and elsewhere. Let's go to London first. Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour is there as well as Jim Sciutto, our chief national security correspondent.

Christiane, the president has a very significant agenda on his plate this morning. He's not only speaking to the people here in the United States, he's speaking to the entire world.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right. To that point, many of his allies both until Europe and around the world in the Middle East and elsewhere do express private frustration with what they see as a lack of U.S. leadership on perhaps the most critical issue they point to is Syria.

What the president is going to do in Syria any different than what the U.S. has done until now, we're not sure and we'll wait to hear. After all these years of this intervention that's defeated al Qaeda as you know, the Syria conflict has allowed al Qaeda to rear its head again and be effective again and to threaten that whole region.

I think what people around the world see about the United States is this incredible pendulum effect that seems to happen. During eight years of the Bush administration, there was what many saw as too much intervention.

And now in the nearly eight years of the Obama administration, people see a pendulum shift to the other way and to the other direction too little intervention. It doesn't necessarily mean war or military intervention that could stabilize difficult places like Syria.

BLITZER: Jim Sciutto, you are in London now, but you've spent the last couple days in Ukraine. What's the image of the United States specifically President Obama in Ukraine?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: There is similar frustration there. I spoke to a lot of Ukrainians that have seen words from President Obama, but they haven't seen actions they expected. Senior government officials saying publicly that they are ready now for harder economic sanctions against Russia because although the election over the weekend was largely successful, the whole eastern part of the country really not allowed to vote.

Disenfranchised because Russia-backed militants operate in many areas with impunity. You hear that frustration there in the principle challenge of the president's second term and a place that no one expected, who expected a major foreign policy focus to be in Europe in the year 2014. So I think that this is something as well that administration officials are aware of.

That comment he made on his Asia trip a couple weeks ago about hitting singles and doubles in his foreign policy, that's not what Ukrainians or Syrians or Asians expect from America. They expect a bigger picture mission statement in effect and this speech today is a response to some of that skepticism out there.

An attempt by the president to tie it all together and to provide the connective tissue to these various foreign policy challenges and the way the president is responding to them. It comes of course at a crucial time because this is defining President Obama's legacy with a little over 2-1/2 years to go to his presidency and when foreign policies are critical issues.

Where is the pivot today when the U.S. is dragged back into the Middle East even to Europe? This is what there is really hunger, real appetite out there for the president to define, what is the way forward, what does it mean for American leadership? What is the mission statement? That's the question he has to answer today.

BLITZER: He certainly does, Jim. Christiane, standby. I want to bring in the former undersecretary of state, Nicholas Burns. He is joining us from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Let's not forget, Nick, the president is going to address graduating cadets from west point. This is the first graduation class in a while, most of whom who will not immediately be deployed to a war zone with the U.S. basically almost completely out of Iraq.

A few troops around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Not very many. Most U.S. troops now will be out of Afghanistan by the end of this year although the president yesterday announced 9,800 will remain next year. What's the single most important message he has to give this small audience of West Point cadets?

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: This is a big opportunity for the president to say he does have successes to point to. The policy in Iran. The choice for a negotiated settlement with Iranians rather than war. It seems to me that was a very good decision by the president. Secondly, he has given -- these cadets will want to hear this -- some definition to this so-called pivot to Asia.

The president has focused on China and Japan and building up our alliance system in Asia and climate change. The first American president to take it seriously and do something about it with upcoming EPA decision on coal. There's no question, Wolf, there's a perception around the world that America has stepped back and pulled back on throttle of leadership.

The reason for that is the Syria decision backing away from confronting President Assad last September and the weakened European response on Ukraine, but this is an opportunity for the president to give his direction for the way forward. He has 31 months left. That's a very long time. BLITZER: Standby, Nick. Michelle Kosinski is our White House correspondent. How specific do we know the resident will be when it comes to a new strategy of directly arming moderate Syrian rebels who are fighting the Bashar Al Assad regime?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It looks like we're not paying attention to you. We got prepared remarks from the president. We've seen his address in terms of Syria. It figures in heavily. When you look at the situation of President Obama's foreign policy and how it's perceived at home and in the world, where is he taking most of the vocal criticism lately?

Syria. That red line that he drew against the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons which they then did. That's come up recently. In regard to the situation in Ukraine, people are asking questions asking will there be another red line? Should we draw one and then how do you draw one and not acting?

From reading these remarks just now, the president said he would betray his duty to the country that we love if he worried about the critics who feel that the only way for America to not look weak is to use military intervention. He did say no American boots on the ground in Syria. We now know there's not going to be an announcement in that sense.

He's now saying and as we heard Secretary of State Kerry say earlier, his own administration, that there is going to be this expanded support for that moderate Syrian opposition fighting the Assad regime. What exact shape that's going to take we're not sure just yet. He's making another announcement he wants this counterterrorism partnership fund. It would be up to $5 billion.

It would need to be approved by Congress. It would involve the U.S. in partnership with other nations to do this intervention in certain countries where there is an expanded terrorist threat or a growing one. What this speech is about is moving those resources out of Iraq and Afghanistan and really what comes next?

What should focus be? We've heard over the past few days that there are these other splinter groups that are causing real problems in other areas and how do we get on the leading edge of that instead of on the reactive side as President Obama's critics have hammered him about in the last year or so.

BLITZER: All right, Michelle, standby. Looking at live pictures from West Point. The president getting ready to deliver a major foreign policy speech outlining the U.S. strategy for the Obama administration over the next couple of years and beyond. Our special coverage will continue in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures from West Point. The West Point Academy in upstate New York. The cadets have stood. That means the president of the United States is about to walk in for this commencement ceremony. The president of the United States will deliver a major foreign policy address. Here comes the president. Let's just listen and watch for a second.

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the 21st secretary of the Army, the honorable, John McHugh, the 38th chief of staff of the United States Army, General Ray Odierno, and the 59th superintendent of the United States Military Academy, Lt. General Robert L. Caslen.

BLITZER: All right, so there they are. They will be welcoming the president of the United States who will deliver a major foreign policy address before these graduating West Point cadets. We want to welcome once again our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We have all of our reporters standing by in Washington and around the world for special coverage of what the White House has described as a major foreign policy address.

An address that directly impacts these graduates of the West Point Academy. We'll have live coverage of what the president has to say. I want to go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who has been monitoring the reaction yesterday on the eve of this address, the president outlined a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

There are about 35,000 or so still there right now. He says next year there will be 9,800 and year after half of that. What's been the reaction at the Pentagon?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we await the president in the next couple seconds -- I think we're going to the president now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: There the president. The program is about to begin. There will be various speakers. The president will address his major foreign address. As we await the president and his address before these West Point cadets, let's bring back Barbara Starr.

What has the reaction been at the Pentagon to his announcement yesterday that 9,800 troops will remain in Afghanistan next year and about half that the following year before a full withdraw except for some U.S. forces in the hundreds will remain at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

STARR: I think the Pentagon had expected this. It's what they were working on. This was the option. Beginning of the end of that 9/11 chapter of military service. As you look at this audience, you see these cadets and you have to remember that these young men and women were perhaps 10-year-old children on the morning of 9/11 so the country certainly turning the page, but why does all of this matter to an American family?

What have we seen that is beyond these grand words and this international diplomatic strategy? What the president is also doing is talking to those military families and families across the country about what lies ahead in the coming years for those who join the military. For young people in this country that decide to choose military service. They may not be going to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

They may not be headed into major ground combat wars, but where they may be headed is still into conflicts that we can't really foresee, places like Yemen, Nigeria, Libya, Syria, these are the places we talk about counterterrorism. These are the places where al Qaeda is on the rise, where U.S. intelligence officials believe al Qaeda extremist elements still to this day are plotting attacks against U.S. targets overseas and against the U.S. homeland.

You know, the military always says it has to be smart all the time. Al Qaeda just has to be lucky once. And that is the risk at hand here for these men and women serving in the U.S. Military. You know, on September 10th, 2001, no one could have foreseen what would happen the next day and that is still the case today.

Military commanders will tell you all the strategy in the world is good, but the enemy still gets a vote and the president can lay out this strategy but the military, the U.S. Intelligence community still very much on station. Very much on alert around the world to see where those next threats may be coming from -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara stand by. Nick Paton Walsh is joining us as well. He is in Ukraine right now, but he spent a lot of time in Syria covering that civil war. Nick, what's your sense over there as you hear the president announce that -- we expect that perhaps he might go a bit further today and announce some additional U.S. military training for what you describe as moderate Syrian rebels opposed to the Bashar al Assad regime. There is concern that some of that support could wind up in the hands of al Qaeda, which has built up a significant presence fighting Bashar Al-Assad itself.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, Wolf, there are no good choices when it comes to Syria. That time for potentially successful, easy, fast U.S. intervention resolution has passed. We deal with an opposition that wants to look like they're doing enough to exist so they let civilians in the north go unpunished. They don't want to change the nature of the battle on the ground.

The Syrian opposition allied with al Qaeda, a potential training ground for terrorists and a concern about them coming back to the United States. It's complex in Syria to say the least. The other issue is while the U.S. and the Middle East tries to seek a negotiated statement with Iran, it's not compatible to oust their main ally in the region.

Some say the U.S. has taken a broader strategic look at the Middle East and decided that trying to negotiate Iran from having a nuclear weapon is the best way forward and then perhaps the consequence or sacrifice of that is not moving full speed to remove President Bashar Al Assad. On the ground the regime has in many ways the upper hand and the concern is if you say ramp up the aid too fast to Syrian rebels, perhaps it goes to the wrong people.

There have been small programs, training rebels here and there and in Jordan and more equipment, lethal and nonlethal, finding its way slowly to them, but purposely not enough to change the balance on the ground because that seems to be going in the regime's failure. We talk about Syria being a legacy issue for Obama. They will debate whether he made the right choice. He that option for a stark intervention when chemical weapons were used.

Backed away from it whether he chose to put Congress in there as a buffer to allow him to back away. No one will know at this point. The key issue certainly is his legacy will be judged as he said yesterday on how when he came to power there were 180,000 U.S. troops in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, there could be as little as 9,800.

The real issue is there is no money in the coffers for further military action. The Obama administration had to clean that mess up in many ways. That was done in Iraq partially but Afghanistan will see U.S. troops begin to withdraw. Did he have the option for further military action and put troops on the ground in Syria. He didn't.

BLITZER: Momentarily the president of the United States will deliver his major foreign policy address before these West Point graduating cadets. The world will be watching to hear what the president has to say. He'll go through a lot of major foreign policy issues. One important issue right now is the state of U.S./Russian relations. That state not very good.

Let's go to Moscow. Phil Black has been monitoring this relationship. How much has it deteriorated from the Russian perspective? You're there in Moscow, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Enormously, Wolf, both in the Russian perspective and the U.S. perspective particularly over the last two years. It rolls back to the time that Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency of this country. In the first term there was a reset policy. It was optimistic and to some degree constructive. Critics say it was naive. The administration argued they got real things done.

BLITZER: Phil, hold on. Hold on. The superintendent of West Point just introduced the commander in chief, the president of the United States.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, General Caslen, for that introduction. To General Trainor, General Clark, the faculty and staff at West Point, you have been outstanding stewards of this proud institution and outstanding mentors for the newest officers in the United States Army.

I would like to acknowledge the army's leadership. General McHugh, Secretary McHugh, General Odierno as well as Senator Jack Reid who is here and a proud graduate of West Point himself. To the class of 2014, I congratulate you on taking your place on the long, great line. Among you is the first all-female command team. You have a road scholar and Josh Herbeck proves that West Point accuracy extends beyond the three-point line. To the entire class, let me reassure you in these final hours at West Point, as commander in chief, I hereby absolve all cadets on restriction for minor conduct offenses. Let me just add that nobody ever did that for me when I was in school. I know you join me in extending a word of thanks to your families.

Joe, whose son, James, is graduating, spoke for a whole lot of parents when he wrote me a letter about the sacrifices you've made. Deep inside, he wrote, we want to explode with pride at what they are committing to do in the service of our country. Like several graduates, James is a combat veteran.

I would ask all of us here today to stand and pay tribute not only to the veterans among us, but to the more than 2.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their families. This is a particularly useful time for America to reflect on those who sacrificed so much for our freedom a few days after Memorial Day.

You are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. When I first spoke at West Point in 2009, we still had more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. We were preparing to surge in Afghanistan. Our counterterrorism efforts were focused on al Qaeda's core leadership. Those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Our nation was just beginning a long climb out of the worst economic crisis since the great depression. Four and a half years later as you graduate, the landscape has changed. We have removed our troops from Iraq. We are winding down our war in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda's leadership on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been decimated and Osama Bin Laden is no more.

Through it all we refocused our investments in what has always been a key source of American strength. A growing economy that can provide opportunity for everybody who is willing to work hard and take responsibility here at home. In fact, by most measures, America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world.

Those who argue otherwise, who suggest that America is in decline or has seen its global leadership slip away, are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics, think about it, our military has no pier. The odds of a direct threat against us by any nation are low and do not come close to the dangers we faced during the cold war.

Our economy remains the most dynamic on earth. Our businesses the most innovative. Each year we grow more energy independent. From Europe to Asia, we are the hub of alliances unrivalled in the history of nations. America continues to attract striving immigrants. The values of our founding inspire leaders in parliaments and new movements in squares around the globe.

And when a typhoon hits the Philippines or school girls are kidnapped in Nigeria or masked men occupy a building in Ukraine, it is America that the world looks to for help, the United States is and remains the one indispensable nation. It has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the century to come. The world is changing with accelerated speed.

This presents opportunity but also new dangers. We know all too well after 9/11 just how technology and globalization has put power once reserved for states in the hands of individuals raising the capacity of terrorists to do harm.